Randy McNally, 82 Year old and Lieutenant Governor will not seek re-election to his Senate seat. McNally compares today's political divide as Democrat vs. Republican while early 80's were mostly rural vs. urban. He believes bridging the gap requires reaching across the aisle. "One of the most important things I learned early in my political career was when I was in the house and running... I went door to door and found people were more interested in what they had to say to me than what I had to say to them...so to be able to listen to different people and a lot of times you found common ground in doing that. Also treat people with respect and when you can, help them. Just because they have a "D" or an "R" after their name or urban or rural or whatever, it doesn't matter, if you can help them with an issue, try to help them. "

McNally also recounted his role in "Operation Rocky Top" an FBI covert corruption and bribery investigation involving lobbyists and elected officials.

NewsChannel 5+ can be seen on Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 250, Spectrum/Charter Ch. 182 and over the air on Ch. 5.2. Inside Politics also streams live Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 3pm on our website: https://www.newschannel5.com/live3 as well as the NewsChannel 5 Now app on Connected TVs through Roku, AppleTV, AndroidTV, etc.

The episode will air throughout the weekend on NewsChannel 5+ Sat. at 5:30am, 3pm, Sun. at 1am, 9am, 7pm, Mon. at 2:30pm and Tues., 3pm unless pre-empted.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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Tennessee State Representative Aftyn Behn has gathered interviews and signatures from 400 families who allege that the Tennessee Department of Child Services (DCS) is systematically negligent and failures of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when caring for children in state custody. She has now filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Behn argues that DCS needs a complete overhaul. "I want to give a lot of credit to the legislators who have perennially filed legislation to hold them accountable for their negligence. But we are at a tipping point. Because I ran for Congress, I became a person that a lot of Tennesseans decided to reach out to because perhaps they looked at me as a fighter. Throughout the past few months, we collected dozens of testimonials from families alleging systematic negligence, and structural displacement of kids with disabilities, which we know is a federal issue. And these families felt like they have not been heard — not been heard by their state legislators or by their local leaders, so I decided as an organizer to move forward with the process of filing this complaint with the Department of Justice."

Behn is also looking ahead politically — she plans to run again for State Representative in District 51. During this legislative session, she continues to champion her “Pot for Potholes” proposal and promote “Homes Not Hedge Funds,” following recent policy shifts: President Trump signed executive orders downgrading marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III and imposing stricter limits on private equity firms, barring them from owning more than 100 single-family homes.

NewsChannel 5+ can be seen of Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 250, Spectrum/Charter Ch. 182 and over the air on Ch. 5.2. Inside Politics also streams live Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 3pm on our website: https://www.newschannel5.com/live3 as well as the NewsChannel 5 Now app on Connected TVs through Roku, AppleTV, AndroidTV, etc.

The episode will air throughout the weekend on NewsChannel 5+ Sat. at 5:30am, 3pm, Sun. at 1am, 9am, 7pm, Mon. at 2:30pm and Tues., 3pm unless pre-empted. See the video on our website at: https://www.newschannel5.com/plus/inside-politics

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not move forward with a detention center in Lebanon, Wilson County.

Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto lays out the timeline, beginning with a call from a reporter.
"Maybe this is a thing that we can try to figure out more about," he said.

Hutto, along with other county officials and concerned citizens, began their search for answers. Hutto and Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell met with the senior counsel for the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS confirmed they were looking at a facility in Wilson County, primarily in Lebanon.

Hutto was concerned about the footprint of the facility so close to schools, churches and daycares.
"The safety factor was very much a problem. Then the workforce, the 16,000 people that would be detained there. They would need 4,000+ employees to be able to manage it. I'm the second lowest unemployment county in the state of Tennessee so I don't have the workforce," he said.

Hutto said he was satisfied with the result.
"We saw no advantage to have this in the city. State, local and federal leaders listened. Even the people at DHS. They listened to what we said our community wanted."

NewsChannel 5+ can be seen of Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 250, Spectrum/Charter Ch. 182 and over the air on Ch. 5.2. Inside Politics also streams live Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 3pm on our website: https://www.newschannel5.com/live3 as well as the NewsChannel 5 Now app on Connected TVs through Roku, AppleTV, AndroidTV, etc.

The episode will air throughout the weekend on NewsChannel 5+ Sat. at 5:30am, 3pm, Sun. at 1am, 9am, 7pm, Mon. at 2:30pm and Tues., 3pm unless pre-empted.

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During a spring rainstorm in May of 2025, The Tennessee Highway Patrol teamed up with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to what was supposed to be a targeted effort to capture the worst of the worst illegal immigrant criminals. But what NewsChannel 5 Investigates reporter Levi Ismail found from going through 50 hours of law enforcement video may surprise you.

"People were driving 18 miles, 20 miles over the speed limit (on city streets) were given warnings, to just move on with their day. Meanwhile someone who got pulled over for having their high beams on was taken away in handcuffs even though they presented documentation for their asylum documents. There was definitely a discrepancy there and the only difference we could make out was the fact that there was a racial component there." Ismail showed several instances of THP officers grilling minority drivers and passengers about where they were born, their social security number, and asking if they were in this country legally? ICE agents would step in if the driver or passengers were a minority or spoke Broken English.

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After snow and ice melted and power was restored to most of Nashville-Davidson County, Metro Council Members Emily Benedict (D–District 7) and Courtney Johnston (R–District 26) filed a resolution calling for the Electric Power Board of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County to terminate Nashville Electric Service (NES) CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin.

Both council members represent districts that endured multiple days without power. They say the city’s preparation for the winter storm, as well as the handling of restoration efforts, was poorly managed — and that NES leadership must be held accountable.

Benedict pointed to reduced tree trimming earlier this year as one of several contributing factors. "It's a complete failure of leadership for some time from vegetation management. There's a lot of things in the resolution that speak to the problems that led to the problem that we have."

Johnston echoed the call for change. "People were affected in a very serious way and people want to see that we are listening to them and they want action taken now. The trust in the person leading this organization that is supposed to be providing reliable power to them has eroded."

NewsChannel 5+ can be seen of Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 250, Spectrum/Charter Ch. 182 and over the air on Ch. 5.2. Inside Politics also streams live Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 3pm on our website: https://www.newschannel5.com/live3 as well as the NewsChannel 5 Now app on Connected TVs through Roku, AppleTV, AndroidTV, etc.

The episode will air throughout the weekend on NewsChannel 5+ Sat. at 5:30am, 3pm, Sun. at 1am, 9am, 7pm, Mon. at 2:30pm and Tues., 3pm unless pre-empted.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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Tennessee State Senate Democratic Leader Raumesh Akbari gives her response to the State of the State address on February 2nd. Governor Lee says our economy is thriving, but Akbari says the cost of electricity, housing and groceries are higher than it's ever been. "About 50% of those who live in the state are really struggling to even pay their regular bills." She hopes that our state can keep up with our 8 surrounding states when it comes to legislation that helps the average Tennessean.

Topics discussed: to greatly reduced or eliminate the grocery tax to offset higher prices of food, additional funding for our public schools, helping our farmers after devastating tariffs halted or slowed selling their crops abroad, immigration laws, and waiting for data on public vs. private school metrics before doubling the Education Freedom Scholarships to 40,000 instead of 20,000 at $7295 per student going directly to private schools.

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Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton lays out the priorities of the Republican Super Majority. Main bills will address the budget, infrastructure, 3-strike legislation to the criminal code for career criminals, expedited specialized teaching degrees for K-6 grades as well as tougher immigration laws. "We need more data, more transparency about how many illegals we have in the state. There's a whole host of bills dealing with that." Sexton continues, "What costs are associated? ...Hospitals? Prisons? Education? How do we determine that?"

Sexton has met with Stephen Miller, US Homeland Security Advisor at the White House for several meetings. Sexton remarks, "They see Tennessee as a leader. They talk to other elected officials, they talk to the governors, and they talk to other speakers and say "well TN is doing this..." and so I think they feel very happy about how TN is moving."

This program was recorded Jan. 22, 2026.

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In October 2025, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett sent out a letter to all 181 public libraries calling for an immediate age appropriateness review of all materials in their juvenile/children's sections. While some libraries complied, others had questions about censorship and first amendment issues. In the wake of some school districts banning classic literature and and books about gender identity, some public libraries were looking for futher guidance.

"The goal of the letter, Secretary Hargett stated, "was to make sure our book collections were curated properly according to their own community standards and be able to provide a report back that they did do that." The deadline stated in the letter is January 19, 2026. With about half the libraries sending in their lists, Secretary Hargett updates what are some of the books on those lists and what libraries are going to do with them. Secretary Hargett also answers questions about the 2026 election year.

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