Episode
Teachers Fired for Social Media Posts, Now Taxpayers Have to Pay Settlements | The States
- Podcast
- The States
- Published
- Jul 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2683
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Summary
Free speech settlements, population shifts, unemployment trends, and AI safety legislation. The Center Square's Kim Jarrett joins to discuss the University of Tennessee's board voting in June to pay $1.9 million to settle with a professor fired last September over a personal social media post about Charlie Kirk's death; the board cited cost savings and didn't address the free speech questions raised. A former Oglethorpe County, Georgia teacher reportedly received $300,000 and an Austin Peay University professor got $500,000 while keeping his job, both over Kirk-related posts. A Perry County, Tennessee man spent a month in jail over a Facebook meme before receiving an $830,000 settlement with FIRE's help. Also in this episode: Texas, Florida and North Carolina lead the nation in gains of prime working-age residents (18-54), while New York, California and Illinois posted the largest losses over the past five years. Analysts project New York could lose 2 congressional seats and California up to 4 after the 2030 census, while Texas and Florida are projected to gain roughly 4 seats each. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.3%, but leisure and hospitality lost 61,000 jobs — the sharpest monthly drop since the pandemic — tempering optimism about the headline number. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed what he calls the nation's first and most protective AI safety law, requiring risk mitigation frameworks, mandatory annual third-party audits, and 24-72 hour incident reporting. An AI industry group source says Illinois' law closely mirrors California's SB-53 except for the added third-party audit requirement, which he warns could disrupt the national standard other states were converging on. North Carolina's $34.4 billion budget includes $1 billion for Medicaid and $208.5 mi…