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Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee House speaker wants “strike force” to hit Memphis gangs • Tennessee Lookout [1]
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Date: 2025-09-12
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said Thursday he favors sending a federal-state combo “strike force” into Memphis to cut down on gang activity there.
In the latest episode of “To deploy or not to deploy,” Sexton told reporters he and other state officials are talking to the Trump administration about sending National Guard troops to the West Tennessee city. The Crossville Republican said he supports more federal resources in Memphis with limited use of Guard personnel, possibly at night to maintain law and order.
In addition to a role for the National Guard there, Sexton said the state needs to activate an “anti-gang unit” or “strike force.”
“There’s over a hundred gangs in Memphis right now that are doing most of the crime damage and shootings and everything,” Sexton said.
The speaker said newly-appointed U.S. Attorney Mike Dunavant could help with prosecutions, bypassing Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who is considered soft on crime by Republican lawmakers.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order two weeks ago directing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to set up quick strike forces that could be deployed in the nation’s largest cities.
Gov. Bill Lee, who sent Tennessee Guard troops to Washington, D.C., said last week anything is possible with deployment, changing his tune a bit after saying the previous week that sending troops to Memphis wasn’t under consideration. Initially, he defended his stance by pointing toward a 15% decrease in Memphis crime over the past year.
Democratic state Rep. Jesse Chism of Memphis last week responded to calls for an audit of the Memphis Police crime report by saying the efforts of the agency shouldn’t be doubted, nor should the National Guard occupy Memphis.
“The barometer’s going in the right direction,” Chism told the Lookout Thursday, referring to the same crime report as Lee. “I’m afraid that if you bring in troops that know nothing about the city or people in it, the unintended consequences would be people being harassed or detained for no reason other than misinformation.”
Trump ordered the California National Guard to Los Angeles this summer in response to protests over his immigration deportation policies, then sent in Marines. Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Trump, and one court ruled the president broke the law.
I’m afraid that if you bring in troops that know nothing about the city or people in it, the unintended consequences would be people being harassed or detained for no reason other than misinformation. – Rep. Jesse Chism, D-Memphis
In Tennessee’s case, Republican leaders are more willing to side with the president.
Sexton didn’t appear quite as enthused about putting troops on the streets of Nashville, which he said isn’t in the White House conversation for deployment.
Still, because of Trump’s concerns about cracking down on crime, he cautioned local government leaders to focus on law enforcement to protect residents and tourists.
Gee whiz, every time I’ve ever been on Lower Broad, police are everywhere. What would soldiers do that’s not being done now? Escort bachelorette parties?
Who’s really to blame
Silicon Ranch’s Matt Beasley was sitting on the front row at an Aug. 18 Future Farmers of America breakfast when he got the bad news: The solar industry is destroying Tennessee’s farmland.
Those weren’t the specific words he heard from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, but they’re close. Rollins told a crowd of hundreds at the Wilson County Fairgrounds that the federal government, in a “misguided ideological vision,” became an “abettor of farmland destruction.”
“That’s exactly what is happening with the removal of farmland from production so that thousands of fields of solar panels can be built upon them,” Rollins said.
Beasley said he immediately started receiving text messages that morning from lawmakers and Farm Bureau people.
“All these groups were saying, ‘Are you here?’ Nobody expected it, and I certainly didn’t,” Beasley told the Lookout.
As part of her missive, Rollins introduced a Trump administration policy rolling back part of the Biden New Green Deal, ending all USDA subsidies for solar operations that take prime farmland out of production. Rollins justified the policy with the claim that Tennessee lost 1.2 million acres in the last 30 years and that by 2027 some 2 million acres of Tennessee farmland will be lost. She failed to mention, though, that solar panels account for only a minute part of that.
“It’s a complete red herring,” Beasley said of her statements.
In fact, an independent state study found that solar facilities are not the primary contributor to farmland loss. Residential and business development are the main culprits.
Additionally, the Tennessee Valley Authority set a goal of obtaining 10,000 megawatts annually from solar energy by 2035. If all of that power source came from Tennessee, one of seven TVA states, it would still take less than 1% of the state’s farmland, Beasley said.
Granted, solar panels aren’t exactly the most beautiful sight. People would much rather see a field of grazing cattle.
Those same people who moved into a new neighborhood built on the land of a deceased farmer don’t want anyone else building across the road, either.
But since former Gov. Phil Bredesen, his sidekick Matt Kisber and Reagan Farr founded Silicon Ranch in 2011, they’ve taken a new turn toward ag production.
Using what is called agrivoltaics, the company raises sheep on some of its solar ranches. The animals don’t bother the panels, and they keep the grass down and fertilize the land.
It’s a complete red herring. – Matt Beasley, Silicon Ranch, of Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins' claim the solar industry is destroying farmland
“If you deploy agrivoltaics, you’re still generating agricultural production on that land. It’s not being taken away, it’s being added to,” Beasley said.
The Trump administration’s dislike for solar energy is bound to hurt the diversification of power, but solar-related companies are moving ahead regardless.
Highland Materials, which makes polysilicon materials for solar panels, is set to build a plant in Hawkins County after receiving funds under the Inflation Reduction Act. It expects to produce 20,000 metric tons of the material at peak operation.
The Solar Energy Industries Association reports the industry installed nearly 18 gigawatts of new capacity in the first half of 2025, accounting for 82% of all new power, despite Trump’s policies. Yet the industry is in danger of losing 44 gigawatts of solar deployment by 2030, an 18% decline.
Oddly enough, the group’s report found that 77% of solar capacity installed this year took place in states won by Trump, Republican strongholds such as Texas, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas. (That’s almost the Southeastern Conference)
That statistic could show that people support a stronger power grid but remain likely to accept political rhetoric that has little basis in fact.
Is this grounds for …
The federal judge handling the corruption trial of former House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff, Cade Cothren, made a bit of a faux pas during a phone hearing this week.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson repeatedly referred Cynthia Sherwood, the attorney for Cothren, as “Ms. Cothren.” It’s not clear how many other people besides a Lookout reporter caught the mistake.
But after a short break in the proceedings, Sherwood raised the matter with the judge and added that she knew he knew her name.
Richardson apologized and said he was so focused on Cothren’s issues that he misspoke. “It matters a lot to him and the government as well,” Richardson said.
The question remains, though: With attorneys for Casada and Cothren pulling out all the stops, could this be grounds for a mistrial?
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