In the News

Minnie Miñoso belongs in Baseball's Hall of Fame. The first Afro-Latin player and one of the first Black players to enter the Major Leagues, Minnie started his big-league career in 1948, and played in what had just been a segregated sport in a mostly segregated country. We met when I was a child with polio, and he embodied a kindness and generosity that I've tried to carry with me for the rest of my life. He was my hero, he was my friend, and he was what baseball is all about.

NEW MARKET, Tenn. — U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is asking for a federal investigation of a fire that destroyed the main office at a Tennessee center that played a prominent role in the civil rights movement.

Leaders of the Highlander Research and Education Center have said they found a "white power" symbol spray-painted near the scene of the March 29 fire. Local investigators have not said whether arson is suspected.

As the presidential campaign heats up, so too has the movement to abolish or otherwise neutralize the electoral college.

Some advocates argue that the electoral college was originally established to help less-populated states retain power, or to have every part of the country heard from in electing a chief executive. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) claims the system was designed to help the slave states.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has asked for a congressional hearing on the impacts of coal-burning energy plants and coal ash dumps on health, groundwater, and aquatic life.

Cohen wants the matter heard before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, putting the request in a Monday letter to its ranking members and to members of the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

Washington, DC – Representatives Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Stop Underrides Act to help prevent deadly truck underride crashes with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - A Tennessee lawmaker has introduced a bill that would change the way law enforcement across the country reports DUI arrests.

The DUI Reporting Act would harmonize law enforcement reporting of DUI arrests, allowing police officers anywhere immediate access to the latest data, including pending cases, during traffic stops.

"Repeat offenders are the problems, and repeat offenders need to be known and charged that way," said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee. "They need to get some guaranteed jail time and guaranteed treatment to protect the driving public."

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Federal and state lawmakers are calling on the Tennessee Valley Authority to expedite its efforts to clean-up the toxic coal ash in Memphis.

TVA said there are nearly three million cubic yards of coal ash still sitting at the site on President's Island.

State Senator Brian Kelsey introduced a resolution on Wednesday urging TVA to do more to make ensure the city's drinking water is protected since there are some toxins near the site that threaten the water supply.

On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos went before a House appropriations subcommittee and, as she has in every previous year of the Trump presidency, requested a series of huge cuts to the Department of Education—$7 billion in total this time around, which is roughly 10 percent of the department's budget. Among the proposals that DeVos made to that end was eliminating the entirety of the $17.6 million in federal spending dedicated to the Special Olympics.