Tag: tennessee

Famed sheriff Buford Pusser who inspired Hollywood’s ‘Walking Tall’ actually murdered his wife, investigators now say

A late Tennessee sheriff who inspired a Hollywood movie about a law enforcement officer who took on organized crime killed his wife in 1967 and led people to believe she was murdered by his enemies, authorities in Tennessee said Friday.

The finding will likely shock many who grew up as Buford Pusser fans and watched the 1973 “Walking Tall” movie that immortalized him as a tough but fair sheriff with zero tolerance for crime, authorities said.

There is enough evidence that if then-McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser were alive today, prosecutors would present an indictment to the grand jury for the murder of Pauline Mullins Pusser, said Mark Davidson, the district attorney for Tennessee’s 25th judicial district.

Investigators also uncovered signs she suffered from domestic violence.

Prosecutors worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which began reexamining decades-old files on Pauline’s death in 2022 as part of its regular review of cold cases, agency director David Rausch said.

Agents found inconsistencies between Buford Pusser’s version of events and the physical evidence, received a tip about a potential murder weapon and exhumed Pauline’s body for an autopsy.

Authorities acknowledged the news may shock many who grew up as Buford Pusser’s fans and watched the 1973 “Walking Tall” movie he inspired or the 2004 remake.

Many officers joined law enforcement because of his story, Davidson said.

The sheriff died in a car crash seven years after his wife’s death.

“This case is not about tearing down a legend. It is about giving dignity and closure to Pauline and her family and ensuring that the truth is not buried with time,” Davidson said at a news conference streamed on Facebook.

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‘No rational reason’: Court strikes government restriction on customers who want to visit home-based businesses

The Court of Appeals of Tennessee, located in Nashville, has struck down a municipal ordinance that limited the number of customers who could visit a home-based business.

It is invalid because it discriminated based on the type business it was.

According to a report from the Institute for Justice, which fought on behalf of record producer Lij Shaw and hairstylist Pat Raynor, Nashville’s rule allowed the two only six client visits a day at their businesses.

And then the city came up with “invasive and burdensome requirements.”

However, other businesses based in homes, such as short-term rentals, home daycares, historic homes and more, were allowed to have 12 or more clients daily, “free from additional requirements.”

“This kind of arbitrary favoritism has no place under the Tennessee Constitution,” explained Paul Avelar, a lawyer for the IJ. “Lij and Pat have a constitutional right to use their homes to earn an honest living. But Nashville treats their home-based businesses worse than other, privileged, home-based businesses for no real reason.”

The lawsuit stems from the city’s 2017 attacks on the two businesses, in which it shut them down.

Then came COVD, and the city allowed them to have six client visits daily.

Now a unanimous ruling from Judges Frank Clement, Andy Bennett, and Jeffrey Usman agreed with the claims that the city had not offered good reasons for favoring some home business over others.

The ruling said, “Metro has offered no rational reason for the difference in treatment that is relevant to the purpose of the law.”

The case already has been to the state Supreme Court, which rejected a lower court’s dismissal and reinstated it for further opinions at the lower court level.

At first, the lower court claimed the limits were “constitutional because they were rationally related to the city’s interests in preserving the residential nature of neighborhoods.”

The appeals ruling noted that the city changed its code during the time period that the lawsuit was pending. But throughout the proceedings the city exempted short-term rentals, home-based daycares, historic buildings and such.

The case ended up addressing the city’s irrational decision to distinguish between different types of home-related businesses.

“Plaintiffs argued that there was no rational reason that was relevant to the purpose of the law for distinguishing between their businesses and the Exempt Businesses. In support, Plaintiffs produced evidence that their businesses had no more of an impact on the residential character of neighborhoods than the Exempt Businesses,” the ruling said.

The opinion noted the city didn’t even try to dispute that.

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“Belmont Bombshells” – The University’s Vast Extent Of Subversive Actions

Last week, The Tennessee Conservative reported on the breaking story of a Belmont University official caught on camera admitting to harboring illegal alien students and deliberately pushing DEI policies through crafty rebranding.

Now, while calling for a federal investigation into the school, Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles has released reports showing Belmont’s deception is deeper rooted than initially suspected.

In the undercover footage, Belmont’s Assistant Director of “Student Success and Flourishing” Jozef Lukey revealed the school knows they have “undocumented students” on campus and deliberately hides their information to better operate “in the shadows”. 

Lukey also admits that the absorption of the school’s DEI department into their Hope, Unity, and Belonging (HUB) Office in 2022 was simply a way to continue DEI practices without being “under the microscope.”

Congressman Andy Ogles was one of the first Tennessee officials to jump into action, announcing he had sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon demanding an investigation and a revocation of all federal funds if necessary. 

But the Congressman hasn’t stopped there, releasing several “Belmont Bombshells” containing leaked emails and documents showing how “aggressively Belmont University’s administration is pushing DEI indoctrination behind the scenes”.

“Belmont Bombshell” #1 features an email from April asking university faculty to vote for a nominee to serve on the “Faculty Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Committee” for the next college academic year which will start in the fall of this year.

“Belmont claims to be a Christian university. DEI is a radically un-Christian, anti-truth ideology. This has no place in Tennessee. Stay tuned,” Ogles said.

“Belmont Bombshell #2” shows an official curriculum proposal form requiring faculty to write a “Diversity Impact Statement” to justify how any course proposals or revisions will, “include perspectives from diverse and/or historically underrepresented populations.” This means that any new or revised classes must be tailored to include DEI ideology or risk being rejected by the Belmont Provost.

While the form was dated for use in 2023, Ogles wrote that, “Belmont is allegedly still forcing professors to comply with this form,” and it is unlikely the school has greatly altered the document as more is revealed about the school’s determination to continue pressing DEI initiatives.

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HERE WE GO: Work on Site Halted, Police Launch Investigation After Noose Found at Construction Site of Tennessee Titans’ New Football Stadium

Here we go.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department is investigating after a noose was reportedly found at the construction site of a new football stadium for the Tennessee Titans.

New construction on the Nissan Stadium began last February.

Work on the construction site was halted last week after the Tennessee Builders Alliance discovered the noose.

“This week, a racist and hateful symbol was discovered on our site. There is no place for hate or racism in our workplace,” the Tennessee Builders Alliance said in a statement. “We reported the incident to law enforcement, suspended work, and launched an investigation.”

Sheriff Clarke wasn’t buying the story.

NBC News reported:

Police are investigating after a noose was found at the construction site of the Tennessee Titans’ new football stadium this week, a spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department said.

The Tennessee Builders Alliance reported finding the noose at the site of what is to be the new Nissan Stadium, police said. The police spokesperson could not say when the report was filed, just that it happened “this week.”

The Tennessee Builders Alliance and the Titans did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said that he appreciated the NFL team bringing the incident to his attention immediately, and said his office has taken steps “both in local policy and state policy to try to prevent hate incidents like this.”

The Nissan Stadium is scheduled to open in 2027.

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Belmont University Rebrands DEI Program, Defies Trump Executive Orders

Belmont University is in the spotlight after videos surfaced showing top administrative officials discussing how they are defying President Trump’s Executive Orders ending official discrimination based on race and sex.

Townhall reports that it has obtained leaked video of officials at the Nashville, Tennessee-based university bragging that they’ve simply rebranded their Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI) program as the office of Hope, Unity and Belonging (HUB).

According to Jozef Lukey, Assistant Director of Student Success and Flourishing at Belmont, the secret to not getting caught skirting Trump’s executive orders is to keep everything as quiet as possible while working “to create as an inclusive space as possible.”

Lukey states in one of the videos that Belmont officials try to adapt to what’s happening around them but emphasized that this doesn’t mean that their efforts to promote DEI completely stop.

“No, we’re not going to be out in the news doing all these things, ‘this is how we stand and this is what we stand by.’ No, we’re not going to make any outward statements,” Lukey explained, tacitly admitting that Belmont is working from the shadows to violate the executive order.

However, the university’s name-changing ruse has caught the attention of Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional district, which includes Belmont.

Ogles has penned a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, calling for a full investigation into the the school’s DEI sleight-of-hand as well as urging investigations into other schools that risk potential defunding over their defiance of the president’s orders reining in DEI.

In that letter, Ogles calls for an immediate compliance review, clarified guidance that mere name changes constitute non-compliance and could result in a loss of federal funding and asks the Department of Education to report to Congress on the prevalence of this type of rebranding.

Ogles tells McMahon that, “Belmont University, like all universities, must understand that if they persist in promoting racist DEI programs in violation of their students’ rights, they will be defunded.”

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Tennessee Enacts Law Making It a Felony to House Illegal Immigrants for Rent

Tennessee has enacted a groundbreaking law that makes harboring illegal immigrants a punishable crime.

Signed into effect by Governor Bill Lee in May 2025, Senate Bill 392, which took effect July 1, sends a clear message: Tennessee will not be a safe haven for those who flout federal immigration laws.

The new law targets landlords, business owners, and “sanctuary sympathizers” who knowingly harbor illegal aliens in exchange for rent or services — a Class E felony punishable by up to six years in prison and fines up to $3,000.

For cases involving children under 13, the penalty escalates to a Class A felony, with potential sentences of up to 60 years.

A coalition including the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, TIRRC, ICAP, and the American Immigration Council has sued in federal court to block the law, citing First Amendment and Supremacy Clause violations.

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FBI Settles Lawsuit Over Biden Era Cover-Up Of Trans Killer Manifesto

More than two years after facing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for playing politics with a trans killer’s manifesto, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has agreed to a settlement. 

The agreement is a victory for transparency and open government, but it’s personal for this reporter. 

‘Did Not Want the Public to Know’

I was a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit demanding that the FBI release the manifesto of Audrey Hale, the biological woman identifying as a man who in March 2023 burst into a Nashville Christian school and murdered three third-graders and three staff members before being fatally shot by responding police. 

At the time, I was National Political Editor for the Star News Network, which has done some of the best investigative work in bringing to light the dark mind of a mentally deranged mass murderer despite law enforcement efforts to keep the killer’s motives shrouded in secrecy. President Joe Biden’s FBI, which pulled the levers behind the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s (MNPD) handling of the politically charged case, denied my FOIA request for Hale’s manifesto. The file includes hundreds of pages of the 28-year-old woman’s journals and other writings. 

In May 2023, Star News CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and I filed a lawsuit seeking the documents. Star News also sued the Nashville Police Department, joining the Tennessean newspaper and other groups in what became a combined complaint. 

We were represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), a nonprofit conservative law firm based in Milwaukee. On Wednesday, WILL announced the settlement, in which the FBI has agreed to turn over 120 pages of the shooter’s manifesto and to pay the law firm more than $86,000 in legal fees. 

The lawsuit would likely still be tied up in federal court had the FBI, under new management, not agreed to end the Biden FBI’s prolonged fight to keep the public in the dark. FBI Director Kash Patel ultimately ended an empty “investigation” into a trans school shooter who died at the scene and had no accomplices. 

“This was a case in which the Biden administration did not want the public to know what motivated this transgender shooter to shoot up the school and kill six people,” Dan Lennington, WILL’s deputy counsel, told me Wednesday on the Dan O’Donnell Show. 

The trans-centric Biden administration wanted to protect the trans agenda, and, as the Star News Network reported, the FBI advised against releasing information that it believed could put males pretending to be females and females identifying as males at risk. As The Federalist reported, four days after the shooting at the Christian elementary school, Biden issued a statement insisting that “Transgender Americans shape our Nation’s soul.” New York Post columnist Miranda Devine at the time noted that the far-left president railed against “MAGA extremists [who] are advancing hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families. … These attacks are un-American and must end.” He said nothing about a twisted trans Nashville area resident indoctrinated in hate. 

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Waste Of The Day: Unused COVID Quarantine Pods

Topline: Nashville spent $1.2 million to buy 108 quarantine housing pods in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the shelters were never used. Now the city plans to give 25 of them away to local nonprofits to be used as homeless shelters while covering the cost of renovating them.

Key facts: The combined municipality of Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County bought the pods using federal funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Part of the $1.2 million price tag was for certified nursing assistants and 24-hour security at the pods — which was obviously unnecessary because the pods were never used, Nashville Scene reported.

Nashville started installing 25 of the quarantine pods in 2021 but could not use them until the Tennessee Fire Marshall’s Office gave its approval. The fire marshal told Nashville Scene they required a letter signed by an engineer declaring the pods were safe, but Nashville did not send the letter for almost a year.

The remaining 86 pods have been in storage in an unknown location. The Nashville Scene could not even confirm whether the pods are still in Tennessee.

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Tennessee Funeral Directors Association Confirms White Fibrous Clots Are Real and Prevalent

Former USAF Major Tom Haviland joins me to discuss his presentation at the 2025 Tennessee Funeral Directors Association (TFDA) Convention—marking the first time a U.S. state funeral directors association has publicly acknowledged that white fibrous clots are real, prevalent, and ongoing.

Invited by TFDA President Taylor Moore, Haviland conducted an in-person survey with 28 embalmers and funeral directors during the convention in Franklin, TN:

  • 64% reported seeing white fibrous clots in corpses during the first half of 2025
  • The white clots appeared in an average of 17% of all corpses
  • 70% reported signs of micro-clotting (“coffee grounds” or “dirty blood”)
  • 39% of embalmers observed an increase in infant deaths, with an average 14% rise over pre-2020 levels

These results were not only documented on paper but confirmed on video, as multiple embalmers raised their hands during Haviland’s presentation to verify that they had personally observed the white fibrous clots. Many stated they had never seen such clots before the COVID-19 era.

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Former KPD officer gets 25-year prison sentence in pay-for-porn child materials case

Noting what he did was “appalling,” a federal judge Thursday sentenced a former Knoxville police officer to 25 years in prison for conspiring to get and receiving more than 40 sexually explicit images of a child starting when she was 6 years old.

Dan Roark, 48, will be 73 when he gets out of prison. After that, he faces the rest of his life on supervised released.

U.S. District Court Judge Katherine A. Crytzer accepted a specific sentencing agreement reached by defense attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman that called for a punishment range of 262 months to 300 months.

Crytzer chose the top of the range, which amounts to 25 years. Roark cried quietly at one point during the sentencing hearing and declined a chance to speak on his own behalf.

He is represented by Gregory P. Isaacs and Ashlee Mathis of the Isaacs Law Firm.

Roark is seeking imprisonment at a federal facility in Kentucky.

Starting in 2019, Roark received explicit images of the Virginia child from her mother. Roark paid for images, the investigation showed.

Crytzer noted the investigation showed he got at least 41 pornographic images.

Roark, a KPD officer 16 years, disguised his identity to the mother, altering his name and claiming falsely that he was a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer, Kolman said.

To the child, he was “Daddy Dan,” Kolman said. He also listed a fake address in Knoxville from which he sent money to the mother in Virginia.

KPD fired Roark in 2023 after learning of the accusations against him.

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