Former Tennessee education leader promises feds she will cut conflicts
By: Sam Stockard - May 29, 2025 5:00 am
Seeking a deputy secretary post in the Trump administration, former Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn is promising to eliminate financial conflicts of interest to get the job, including minimizing ties to a Tennessee lobbying firm.
Schwinn, who left the state job in 2023 and served for a short time as Vice President for PK-12 and Pre-Bachelors Programs at the University of Florida, was selected for the U.S. Department of Education position nearly as soon as President Donald Trump won election this year but still hasn’t received Senate confirmation to take the appointment.
In a May 5 letter to an Education Department ethics official, the former Tennessee education leader for Gov. Bill Lee described steps she would take to avoid any “actual or apparent” conflict of interest, including personal participation in any matter in which she would have a financial interest.
If confirmed for the job, Schwinn said she will resign from an unpaid position with Nashville-based 38 Ventures LLC and become a non-managing member, though she will receive passive investment income from the entity. Blake Harris, former chief of staff for Lee, is the registered agent for the company located at 611 Commerce St.
In addition, Schwinn said she would resign her post with BHA Strategy, a lobbying company founded by Harris, Lee’s former communication director Laine Arnold, and Brent Easley, the governor’s former legislative director. Schwinn wrote, though, that she would receive a set referral fee of 30% for a contract she brought to BHA.
Schwinn said two companies she controls, Bexley Group, LLC, and PLSchwinn LLC, which are set up to receive business income, would stop conducting business and representing clients. Bexley Group’s listed address also is 611 Commerce St. in Nashville.
After being confirmed, she also would resign from a post with Soliant Health LLC through which she holds vested and unvested incentives with TVG-Soliant Holdings, LP. She would receive a cash payout for her vested incentives before taking the deputy secretary post, according to the letter.
In addition, Schwinn said she would resign from posts with TVG-MGT, Edmuntum Inc. and Really Great Reading and would divest interests in Odyssey and Amira Learning.
U.S. border czar: Nashville mayor, a critic of immigration sweeps, now faces investigation
White House official Tom Homan said Tuesday that federal immigration enforcement will ‘flood the zone’ in Nashville as a result of the mayor’s public stance
By: Anita Wadhwani - May 29, 2025 5:01 am
U.S. “border czar” Tom Homan said Tuesday on Fox News that Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is under investigation by a Congressional committee over his condemnation of immigration sweeps that led to the detention of nearly 200 people earlier this month.
As a result of O’Connell’s public stance, Homan warned that Nashville could soon see even larger federal multi-agency immigration crackdowns: “We’ll flood the zone,” Homan said repeatedly.
“We’ll flood the zone in the neighborhoods to find the bad guy. We’ll flood the zone at work sites to find the bad guy, but we’re going to do it, and he’s (O’Connell) not going to stop us,” said Homan, the White House executive director of enforcement and removal operations.
A spokesperson for the Congressional House Homeland Security Committee referenced by Homan did not respond to questions about a potential investigation. The committee is chaired by Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark Green.
Homan’s remarks came days after Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles held a press conference to denounce O’Connell, a Democrat, for “aiding and abetting illegal immigration.” Ogles, without offering evidence, accused the Nashville mayor of obstructing the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. An Ogles spokesman did not respond to questions about his assertions this week.
Ogles instead used his Memorial Day press conference to reference O’Connell’s public remarks condemning a joint effort by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE agents during the first two weeks of May, when state troopers making traffic stops led to the ICE detention of 196 individuals in one of Nashville’s most heavily immigrant neighborhoods. The majority of those detained had no criminal records.
The Metro Council is not exactly putting out fires, either. After the mayor and administration spent the first half of the week not engaging with Ogles, the council’s Immigrant Caucus trained its fire on David Benton, the District 28 councilmember who opted to join Ogles on the dais Monday.
“The only person being investigated by the FBI in that photo-op was the man standing next to you,” the caucus wrote in a release. “And you chose him over the people you were elected to serve. You are no longer fit to represent our community. Resign.”
(Lest we forget, Benton chose to stand with Ogles, who is still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee and the FBI for what appears to be a fabricated $320,000 campaign contribution. The FBI seized his cell phone last fall.
Reporter Details Potential Legal Violations Behind Metro Nashville’s ‘Belonging Fund’
May 28, 2025 Kaitlin Housler
Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, is warning of potential legal violations tied to Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s recently announced “Belonging Fund” aimed to “support immigrants in Nashville during moments of crisis” amid federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Pappert, citing his exclusive interview with Metro Councilman David Benton, said the “Belonging Fund” may be illegally using federal relief dollars to support illegal aliens in violation of federal immigration law — specifically 18 U.S. Code § 1324, which prohibits harboring and encouraging unlawful entry and residence of illegal aliens.
“Councilman Benton wants state and federal audits of all of these nonprofits that are receiving federal money from Metro Nashville, specifically Biden’s pandemic stimulus money, and then turning around and helping to seed this Belonging Fund…David Benton says this is a big issue, and it’s bigger than Freddie O’Connell wants to admit. He says there are potential violations of 18 U.S. Code § 1324,” Pappert explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Councilman Benton, according to Pappert, believes Metro Nashville’s actions under the mayor’s orders may amount to harboring and encouraging illegal residence, both felony violations under federal law. Pappert also pointed out how Benton raised the possibility of money laundering and even federal racketeering (RICO) violations if it is found that Metro Nashville is using nonprofits as intermediaries to circumvent legal restrictions on aiding illegal aliens.
Noting how the “Belonging Fund” is being administered through a network of local nonprofits, Pappert stressed how it is funded in part by money Nashville received through the Biden administration’s 2021 American Rescue Plan.
“Where it gets interesting is this sort of transferring of money. First, it starts out with Congress, where Biden passes the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021…Nashville gets a cut of that – I think it was something like $140 million was the total amount they got – and of this, they’ve given about $3 million just to one of these nonprofits, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition,” Pappert said
California girls' field championship gets more big rule changes amid trans athlete outrage, Trump's pressure
Decision comes as DOJ investigates state's transgender athlete policies following national outcry
By Jackson Thompson Fox News
Published May 28, 2025 6:52pm EDT
California's high school sports league made a major rule change to its upcoming girls' track and field state championship for the second day in a row.
The changes come as the state faces increasing pressure, both internally from its own residents and from President Donald Trump's administration, due to a growing controversy involving a trans athlete.
On Wednesday, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) announced that Saturday's state title meet will now expand its pool of competitors and even medal recipients to accommodate any female athletes that are displaced by a biological male competitor.
The CIF is specifically making this rule change for the long jump, high jump and triple jump events.
"On Friday, May, 30, if necessary, in the high jump, triple jump and long jump qualifying events at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, a biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark will also be advanced to the finals," the CIF announcement read.
"Additionally, if necessary, in the high jump, triple jump and long jump events at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, a biological female student-athlete who would have earned a specific placement on the podium will also be awarded the medal for that place and the results will be reflected in the recording of the event."
The CIF's track and field postseason has been rocked by a national controversy involving trans athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School competing in those events, and regularly dominating female competition. The athlete took first place in long jump and triple jump at a sectional final and state qualifying round in the last two weeks.
The CIF's latest change comes just a day after the federation expanded the size of its competitor pool.
"Any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section's automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships," the CIF said Tuesday.
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