A rural Tennessee region was rocked this week after thousands of homes received mailers encouraging them to join the local Young Republicans chapter with a campaign platform including “No wars for Jews.”
Tennessee
6 Players to Watch in Seattle Seahawks Preseason Tilt at Tennessee Titans
Looking to finish off a productive week of joint practices in Nashville with second straight exhibition road victory, the Seattle Seahawks will continue their preseason slate by dueling with the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night.
Unlike a week ago where Seattle played quite a few starters on both sides of the football, after two grueling padded practices testing their wits against Tennessee earlier this week, coach Mike Macdonald made it clear few starters were expected to suit up this week. While fans in attendance won’t get to see Geno Smith, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and other notable starters play, however, their absence presents yet another prime opportunity for players on the bubble to stake a claim to a roster spot with cut down day less than two weeks away.
Which players should fans be watching closely in Saturday’s contest at Nissan Stadium? Six players to watch in Week 2 of the preseason:
In the heat of a tight battle for the third down role against undrafted rookie George Holani, McIntosh stepped up to the plate as a runner in Seattle’s preseason opener with a team-high 40 rushing yards. Showing more punch than expected in the physicality department, per Pro Football Focus, he forced five missed tackles and averaged north of four yards per carry after contact. Replicating that production in Tennessee would certainly help his chances of making the 53-man roster, but he’s going to have to be much more effective in the passing game in general. He only caught two passes for two yards last week and on his lone pass blocking rep, he got blown up by a blitzer and allowed a sack, not demonstrating any progress in that department. If he can’t perform at a much higher level in those two aspects of his game, Holani will have this competition close to wrapped up.
As he did last preseason, Winston rose to the occasion for the Seahawks with limited chances last week and made the most of his targets, catching a pair of passes from PJ Walker for 31 yards on only seven pass play snaps. He also pitched in a 10-yard punt return on special teams, which remains his potential ticket to a roster spot. With Smith-Njigba and possibly Laviska Shenault not playing on Saturday night and Dee Eskridge battling another injury that puts his spot on the team even more in peril, the former Washington State standout should see extensive work on offense out of the slot against the Titans and likely will be the primary return option on kickoff and punt teams as well. With another strong outing, he could push himself onto the right side of the roster bubble due to his special teams upside.
Being a fourth-round pick with expectations to at least contribute on special teams immediately, Barner would have been a player worth monitoring closely in Saturday’s preseason game before teammate Pharaoh Brown went down with a foot injury in Thursday’s joint practice. Now, depending on the severity of Brown’s injury, the rookie from Michigan could be positioned to play a far more impactful role on offense as the primary Y-tight end, but he will have to earn those snaps. He didn’t record a single catch in his NFL debut last week, with his lone target being negated by a penalty, while Brady Russell scored a touchdown with three receptions. The second preseason game will give him another crack at showing he can be more than an inline blocker and improve his standing within the tight end room heading towards the regular season.
With Leonard Williams and Jarran Reed checking out of action quickly, Morris played as much as any Seahawk defender in the preseason opener, tallying 34 snaps with one tackle, one run stop, one quarterback pressure, and yes, a beautiful pass breakup in coverage, not something expected from a 6-5, 300-pound defensive lineman. Fully healthy after missing most of his rookie year with a shoulder injury, his roster spot likely isn’t in jeopardy regardless of what happens on Saturday night, but if the ex-Michigan standout wants to earn a substantial rotational role on a deep, crowded defensive line, he will have to demonstrate a bit more consistency at the line of scrimmage while logging snaps as a 3-tech, big defensive end, and off tackle two-point rusher.
Squarely on the bubble after a solid offseason program and training camp, O’Connell helped his cause vying for a roster spot with a stellar exhibition debut last weekend, registering four tackles, a run stop, and a pass breakup while receiving an elite 88.2 grade from PFF on 22 defensive snaps. In a similar situation to Winston, the ex-Montana star should be in line for even more playing time on Saturday night with both Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker not expected to play and Jon Rhattigan sidelined by a heel issue. It’s possible he could start alongside Tyrice Knight with a chance to show off his versatility playing some snaps at middle linebacker, which would put another feather in his cap as he tries to snag one of the final roster spots as a reserve defender and core special teamer.
Battling in the deepest position group on Seattle’s roster, James had an up-and-down NFL debut against the Chargers, only allowing one catch for five yards on two targets in coverage but also missing his only tackle attempt. Seeing close to a 50/50 split between boundary corner and slot corner last weekend, he could get the start inside on Saturday night alongside fellow rookie and ex-Auburn teammate Nehemiah Pritchett, providing a quality audition opportunity for both players as they try to prove themselves against stiff competition. The sixth-round pick will have to be more willing to come up and make plays against the run and after struggling a bit in joint practices this week, he’ll be in need of a rebound in coverage as well to put him back on the right side of the bubble.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WSMV) – Traffic on Interstate 24 will be impacted Sunday as Middle Tennessee Electric crews conduct electrical line work.
MTE said crews will be performing electrical line work across I-24 near Exit 76 in Murfreesboro Sunday, June 28.
“The project will require one full interstate traffic stoppage and multiple rolling roadblocks beginning at sunrise,” MTE said. “The work is expected to take approximately five to six hours to complete.”
MTE said Guardian Traffic Control will assist with traffic management.
The work could be rescheduled in the event of inclement weather.
Copyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (WCYB) — Kids in Bristol got the chance to climb in some of their favorite trucks on Saturday.
Bristol Parks and Recreation hosted “Big Truck Day” at Bristol Tennessee City Hall.
The event included some of the kids’ favorite big trucks, a Bristol Motor Speedway pace car, face paint, and free popsicles.
Organizers say it’s great for kids to be able to see who’s behind those big trucks.
Parks and recreation officials say you can keep updated with their events on their Facebook page by clicking here.
The flyers led to a dramatic showdown at a local GOP meeting, including a state lawmaker’s cry of “I am a Jew!” and a rejoinder from Austin Lee, the young man behind the flyers: “We will not fight wars for you.” Cops escorted the provocateur out.
“Let’s face it, we read about antisemitism and anti-Black or white nationalism, right?” the lawmaker, State Rep. Scott Cepicky, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We hear about this stuff, and people are like, ‘Well, you know, that’s over there, or that’s in another state, that’s not here.’ Let me tell you something. It came to Maury County.”
The mailers, which encouraged recipients to “support” Lee, also said “Stop the Great Replacement” (a reference to the antisemitic Great Replacement Theory), “Ban Islam and Hinduism” and “Men in charge.”
“Nonwhite foreigners have invaded our country and are replacing White Americans,” read the flyers, viewed by JTA and reportedly sent to around 2,000 households with young white men. “Efforts at mass deportations have failed. No one is coming to save us; we must solve this problem ourselves.”
The flyers were mailed mainly in Maury County, 50 miles south of Nashville, as well as some surrounding counties. In addition to Lee’s name and an invitation to join the Maury County Young Republicans, they contained the prominent logo of the Tennessee Young Republicans – invoking broader concerns that a younger generation of Republicans are trending toward antisemitic and white nationalist ideas.
Mailers reportedly sent out without permission
However, local Republican leaders told JTA the mailers were sent out without permission; that Lee holds no formal leadership role in the county GOP; and that the county’s Young Republicans chapter is currently inactive.
The county GOP chair strongly denounced the content of the mailers to JTA.
“It’s appalling that somebody would send this out,” Jason Gilliam told JTA about his reaction to the flyers. “This kind of thing really disgusts me. I mean, I have an Israeli flag on my bumper – not that that means anything.”
Gilliam said he first became aware of the flyers on Sunday, after households had begun receiving them. At a local GOP meeting the next day, Cepicky condemned the flyers by invoking his own Jewish ancestry.
“I’m a Jew, I’m an Ashkenazi Jew,” Cepicky told the crowd at the GOP meeting in a video taken and later posted by Lee himself. “My family left Israel, moved to Central Europe. In the 30s, you know what happened in Central Europe with Jews. My family immigrated to the United States.”
After Cepicky threatened to “pursue the law on these individuals” who distributed the mailer, Lee, who was also in attendance at the meeting, identified himself.
Cepicky accused Lee of spreading rhetoric “espoused in Europe” in the 1930s. Lee responded, “It was right then, and it is right now. We will not fight wars for you.” Lee was later escorted from the event by law enforcement. Lee has on social media cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “war for Jews.”
Cepicky told JTA he felt compelled to denounce Lee’s antisemitism in part because he was standing in front of a replica of the preamble to the US Constitution at the meeting.
“It was behind me, and it spurred me to say, ‘That doesn’t say, “We the Christians,” or, “We the Jews,” or, “We the Islamics,” or, “We the men, we the women.” It doesn’t say that,’” he said. “It says, ‘We the people.’”
Cepicky told JTA that he is a practicing Christian who discovered his Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on 23andMe. He said his family arrived sometime after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He made his first trip to Israel in 2024, to visit the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and helped found the Tennessee Israel Caucus in the state legislature shortly thereafter.
Gilliam and Cepicky both described Lee to JTA as an infrequent attendee at county GOP meetings who holds no leadership role with the party, and said the county Young Republicans chapter was inactive. They added that they would be pushing for an investigation into what they said was his unauthorized use of the county and state Young Republicans’ name on his mailers.
In social media posts and other interviews following the meeting, Lee continued to assert that he was the president of Maury County Young Republicans. He also referred to Cepicky multiple times as “Jewish Representative Scott Cepicky.”
“I took over that chapter,” Lee said in an interview on Wednesday with a local radio station, claiming he had used a “process” to reactivate the local Young Republicans group. He declined to answer questions about who funded his mailers.
In a statement to media, the statewide Tennessee Young Republicans said the use of their logo “was not authorized” and said the group “did not, and does not, authorize, endorse, or support the recent communications published by the Maury County Young Republicans.”
Young Republicans chapters across US plagued with antisemitism
As of press time, the Tennessee Young Republicans list Maury County as an active chapter on their website. Efforts by JTA to contact the group’s statewide director were unsuccessful. In recent months, official Young Republicans chapters across the country have become embroiled in antisemitism controversies.
Whether Lee has any more solid connections with local GOP officials was a matter of dispute. Gilliam claimed he had first been introduced to Lee by Aaron Miller, a local elected GOP county commissioner with whom Gilliam has since had a falling-out over unrelated matters. Asked about his relationship to Miller on the radio, Lee declined to comment.
Reached by JTA on Friday, Miller denied he had any connection to Lee beyond that “we had beers a couple of times.”
“I don’t agree with his politics. I don’t agree with his approach,” Miller told JTA. “I got a mailer and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is interesting.’”
Lee did not respond to a JTA request for comment.
Miller did say that young men, feeling unrepresented by the current Republican Party, are seeking out “alternatives to liberal democracy.” He has advocated for the county GOP to reach out more to the population, he said.
“Anything where you’re going to approach an entire group of people with a blanket mindset, I think that’s wicked,” he said. “We’re all made in God’s image.”
Gilliam and Cepicky told JTA that, in addition to the antisemitism, they strongly objected to the mailers’ anti-immigrant rhetoric and misogyny. At a time of Republican-led immigration crackdowns on the national level, and as national figures including Vice President JD Vance have downplayed the rise of antisemitism within the party, these local GOP leaders loudly insisted such forces should be stamped out.
“This kind of stuff is absolutely not going to be allowed. I will not stand for it,” Gilliam said. “If you don’t cut the head off the snake, it’s going to come back, right? It’s not going to stop. It’s only going to fester. It’s going to grow. And this kind of thing, the roots need to be yanked out of the ground.”
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