Future Timeline

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Abortion is already illegal in Tennessee, but a lawmaker wants to take that a step further.

"As a Christ follower, my number one issue is life. It always has been, it always will be," said Rep. Jason Zachary, a Republican from Knox County.

He has a new bill that would make it a crime for an adult to assist a minor to go out of state to get an abortion, unless that adult is the mother's parent or guardian. Rep. Zachary says he wrote the bill after he was contacted by legal guardians of a pregnant child who ran into this exact issue.

"Their minor child that they were in guardianship of, had been taken by an adult to West Tennessee to facilitate an abortion. The minor called them from West Tennessee to let them know what’s going on," he explained. "So I’m literally on the phone with crying parents, crying guardians saying, what can we do, what can we do?"

Officers working for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat, according to an email from a Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”

The July 3 account, reviewed by Hearst Newspapers, discloses several previously unreported incidents the trooper witnessed in Eagle Pass, where the state of Texas has strung miles of razor wire and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande.

According to the email, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found late last month caught in the wire, doubled over in pain. A four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through it and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers. A teenager broke his leg trying to navigate the water around the wire and had to be carried by his father.

CARLISLE, Pa. — Checking our cell phones is a regular occurrence for many people, but school leaders are telling lawmakers it’s becoming a distraction for students.

“They’re playing solitaire on it, they’re playing games on it, and they’re using social media," said Rep. Barbara Gleim (R-Cumberland County) "But they’re not actually using it for school.”


That's why State Representative Barbara Gleim is looking to cut down on cell phone distractions by introducing a bill that would ban them from the classroom. She believes the bill will help improve student’s mental health and academic performance.

“We got to get back to the basics where kids are coming in and getting down to business learning math, science, and reading without being distracted by a cell phone," said Rep. Gleim.

The bill would mandate students put their cell phones in a safe location, such as their locker, for the duration of the school day, except for their lunch period. The bill also gives exemptions to ESL and special needs students.

A startling 39 percent of Americans, including 74 percent of Republicans, think it’s a decent idea for Donald Trump to act as a dictator for a day to begin his prospective second term, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst survey released Wednesday.

In a series of comments, beginning last December, Trump has said he plans to be a dictator, but only on “day one” of a second term. The point of seeking authoritarian power, he’s said, is to “build the wall” and “drill, drill, drill.”

The UMass Amherst poll posed the following questions to 1,064 respondents: “Donald Trump recently said that if elected, he would be a dictator only on the first day of his second term.” It then asked, “Do you think that this is a good or bad idea for the country?”

Only 44 percent of adults completely rebelled at the notion of giving the former president — who is currently facing 91 felony charges — dictatorial authority, calling it “definitely bad” for America. Another 16 percent judged that it was “probably bad.” Those most opposed include women (67 percent), African Americans (82 percent), and 2020 Biden supporters (91 percent).