Tennessee

(AP) --- As the Republican presidential primary intensifies this summer, most White House hopefuls are devoting their time to events in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that kick off the nomination process early next year. Not Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump.

The Florida governor will address more than 1,500 faithful Republicans on Saturday at Nashville’s Music City Center. A few weeks later, the former president will swing through Alabama to headline the state GOP’s biggest event of the summer.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kentucky officials say they won’t start paying out $21 million in economic incentives for a proposed electric vehicle battery facility until the company further explains why the U.S. Department of Energy abruptly rejected a $200 million loan for the project after some congressional Republicans argued the firm has improper ties to China.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge has ruled that a group of parents can have their say in a lawsuit over the writings of a shooter who killed six people at their children’s school.

The judge ruled Wednesday night that the Covenant School parents have a right to intervene against other groups that want the shooter’s writings — along with some other documents in the police investigation — released according to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — Shortly after being sworn in last fall, the new majority of the Sumner County Commission in Tennessee acted to update one of its official documents. The new version said county operations would not only be orderly and efficient, but “most importantly reflective of the Judeo-Christian values inherent in the nation’s founding.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature finished its annual session Friday without taking action on a gun control plan offered by the GOP governor in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Christian school in Nashville.

Hours later Gov. Bill Lee announced that he would call lawmakers back for a special session to work “to protect Tennessee communities and preserve constitutional rights.” Lee’s office promised more details soon, including timing and and the session’s parameters.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will follow his colleague in a return to work at the Capitol on Thursday, a week after their banishments for a gun control protest on the House floor that propelled them into the national spotlight.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Commissioners in Memphis are scheduled to decide Wednesday whether to return a Black Democrat to the Republican-led Tennessee House after he and a Black colleague were kicked out of the Legislature following their support of gun control protesters.

The Shelby County Board of Commissioners set a vote to determine whether Justin Pearson will be sent back to the Legislature in Nashville.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One of the two Black Democrats who were expelled last week from the GOP-led Tennessee House was reinstated Monday after Nashville’s governing council voted to send him straight back to the Legislature.

The unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council took only a few minutes to restore Rep. Justin Jones to office just four days after Republicans stripped him of his seat.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) —

Nashville officials are poised to vote Monday to reinstate one of the two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican colleagues for their gun control protest on the Tennessee House floor after a deadly school shooting — essentially, sending him back after a long weekend.

NASHVILLE, April 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Nashville on Friday in a show of support for Tennessee state lawmakers expelled for staging a rule-breaking demonstration for gun control on the statehouse floor after a recent school shooting.

Republicans who control the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday expelled two young Black lawmakers who last week led protesters into the well of the House floor, while a resolution to remove a white representative came up one vote short.