(The Center Square) – At least five people have died and that number is expected to increase after severe storms hit the western and middle portions of Tennessee. 

“There has been a great deal of storm activity and damage,” Gov. Bill Lee said in a Friday news conference with emergency leaders. “And yet there’s more to come.” 

Lee issued an emergency declaration ahead of storms that moved through the state on Thursday. A tornado was confirmed in the McNairy County town of Selmer, where at least one person died, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

There were two deaths in Fayette County, and one each in Carroll and Obion counties, the agency said. 

More storms are expected this weekend especially west of I-65, according to the National Weather Service.  

“Do not be surprised by a severe storm or tornado watch soon,” the agency said Friday afternoon on social media. “We are still watching Saturday afternoon and night for peak storms and flash flooding.’

Some areas could see up to 8 inches of rain this weekend, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. 

“Life safety missions are currently ongoing and is the top priority in our rescue and response operations,” agency officials said in a report. “Once life safety missions are complete and the storm system moves through the state, TEMA alongside our local and federal partners will begin damage assessments.”

Lee was on the ground with first responders touring damage Thursday and Friday. 

“Middle and West Tennesseans face a long road to recovery after severe weather, and there is great hope in seeing how communities are coming together to serve their neighbors in this time of need,” Lee said said Gov. Lee. “We will continue to look for every opportunity to support local recovery efforts.”

(The Center Square) – Two of three judges on a North Carolina appellate decision say Republican Jefferson Griffin’s appeal has merit and ordered the State Board of Elections to recalculate the nation’s only unresolved election from Nov. 5.

On the 151st day since Election Day, the North Carolina Supreme Court Seat 6 race – an eight-year term seat – has yet to be decided. Friday’s announced decision, from oral arguments two weeks ago, gives 15 business days after notice for missing data in registration records of voters to be filled in, and overseas voters not providing photo identification as required by law to do so.

The voters who never lived in North Carolina are to be dropped from the totals.

Those instructions – Justices John Tyson and Fred Gore supported the ruling, Tobias Hampson dissented – could be appealed. And, it doesn’t give a clear indication if Griffin or Judge Allison Riggs will be the winner.

Riggs, the Democrat and incumbent on the bench after appointment by then-Gov. Roy Cooper, has been poised for a 734-vote triumph as the litigation saga plays out in multiple lawsuits and in both state and federal courtrooms. Griffin, a state appellate judge, has appealed every decision against him.

On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of 5,540,090 cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 votes.

The majority opinion read in part, regarding equal terms and fundamental rights in free elections, “This right is violated when ‘votes are not accurately counted (because) (unlawful) () ballots are included in the election results’ The inclusion of even one unlawful ballot in a vote total dilutes the lawful votes and ‘effectively ‘disenfranchises’’ lawful voters.”

The majority opinion is covered in the first 36 pages of the ruling; Hampson’s dissent is in the final 30 pages.

Anderson Clayton, chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, has called the win “decisive.” Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina GOP, said earlier votes in question are “blatant violations of state law.”

In response to Friday’s announcement, Clayton said the court put party affiliation above the rights of North Carolina voters.” Simmons said, “Today’s decision confirms the facts were on Judge Griffin’s side. This a victory for the rule of law and election integrity.”

The state elections board, majority 3-2 Democrats, and Riggs have been aligned in the litigations.

The Supreme Court bench has historically been nonpartisan and partisan, and since going back to the latter, was 6-1 Democrats in 2019. It is 5-2 Republicans today.

The state Supreme Court calendar has already begun, with Riggs still in place until the election is decided. She has been recused from any proceedings involving the election. Similarly, Griffin has not been involved in any at the appellate level.

Griffin protested about 65,000 ballots on multiple counts, and the state board rejected all of them. Most were by 3-2 party-line votes.

The protests the state board denied included registration records of voters, such as lack of providing either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. State law for that has been in place two decades, dating to 2004.

Other ballots protested and denied by the state board included voters overseas who have never lived in the United States, and for lack of photo identification provided with military and overseas voters.

(The Center Square) – An advocacy group sued the U.S. Department of Education seeking records related to the Biden administration’s response to anti-Israel riots held on Columbia University’s campus after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.

Under the Biden administration, antisemitism flourished on U.S. college campuses as pro-Hamas rioters took over U.S. college campuses, including Columbia University, attacking Jewish students, harassing and threatening public officials, The Center Square reported.

For more than a year, antisemitism and violence escalated  by nearly 400% against Jews in America and Jewish students said they didn’t feel safe on U.S. college campuses, including at Columbia University, The Center Square reported.

Last June, the Center to Advance Security in America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the safety and security of Americans and to government transparency, submitted two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. Department of Education to find out how it handled “the rampant antisemitic discrimination that erupted in American educational institutions following Hamas’s terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.”

“Large demonstrations and encampments at Columbia University have been left unaddressed, resulting in calls for the university president to resign,” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick wrote in one letter to the agency. “Allowing university students to effectively control the campus grounds while creating a hostile environment for Jewish students sets a dangerous precedent for higher education while also impacting diplomatic efforts in support of Israel. Therefore, increased transparency on addressing campus protests is necessary to mitigate heightened antisemitism and violence.”

The FOIA requested communications to, from or received from DOE officials that contained phrases or words related to the riots, as well as records of meeting requests, meeting invitations, call logs and chats related to Columbia University encampments and riots. CASA also requested calendar entries of DOE officials and communications they had with members of the media, including Politico, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times and others.

The DOE acknowledged receipt of the requests but then “failed to provide further communications, responsive records, or a time estimate for its response,” according to the complaint. Since then, CASA has never received the requested information.

On Friday, CASA sued the DOE in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting the court to compel the DOE to provide the requested information in accordance with the law.

“Given the many public statements by former Biden Administration Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and his leadership team, there are undoubtedly government communications that were exchanged regarding the pro-Hamas, antisemitic demonstrations at Columbia University in the Spring of 2024,” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick told The Center Square. “The American public deserves to see how Biden administration Education Department officials were internally discussing these protests to gain insight into why no action was taken to address the threat to Jewish students.”

Even after President Donald Trump was sworn into office and began reversing Biden administration policies, CASA argues releasing the requested information “is in the public interest because it will help the public understand the nature of DOE’s response to mass disturbances, violence, and other serious civil rights issues at Columbia University.” It says its goal is to “inform the public so it can be engaged with its leaders and ensure their decisions are consistent with America’s best interests.”

Trump policies have prioritized cracking down on antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. One executive order he issued required higher education institutions to eliminate what he described as discriminatory policies under the guise of “diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Another directed the targeting and deporting of pro-Hamas and Palestinian rioters who are either in the U.S. illegally or admitted through visas to rescind their visa and remove them from the country, The Center Square reported.

Last month, the Trump administration announced it was cancelling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia, arguing it failed to crack down on antisemitism on campus. The move resulted in Columbia announcing it would overhaul its student disciplinary process, ban protesters from wearing masks on campus, ban demonstrations in academic buildings, adopt a new definition of antisemitism among other changes, The Center Square reported.

CASA’s lawsuit was filed by Dhillon Law Group, whose founder, Harmeet Dhillon, was nominated by Trump to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination on Thursday.

Last month, CASA first sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for failing to release records related to Secret Service staff possibly colluding with some congressional Democrats to strip then presidential candidate Trump of his Secret Service detail after a failed assassination attempt was made against him, The Center Square reported.