Author

Adam Friedman

Adam Friedman

Adam Friedman is a reporter with the Tennessee Lookout. He has a particular love for data and using numbers to explain all kinds of topics. If you have a story idea, he'd love to hear it. Email him at [email protected] or call him at 615-249-8509.

Historic Metro Nashville Courthouse. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Black clergy group, council members and others file suit against state for Metro Council cut

By: - March 28, 2023

Metro Nashville Council’s minority caucus members, the leader of a Black clergy group and several other prominent Nashvillians filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Republican-led law to reduce the size of the city’s council from 40 to 20. The suit — filed in Davidson County Chancery Court — is similar to another filed by the […]

Nashvilles Lower Broadway's entertainment district. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Hume-Fogg HS parent organization asks GOP lawmakers to kill Tootsie’s-backed beer board bill

By: - March 27, 2023

Hume-Fogg’s parent-teacher organization called on top state Republican lawmakers to pull legislation exempting Lower Broadway bars from oversight by the Metro Nashville government.  Bob Bernstein, on behalf of the Hume-Fogg PTO, sent a letter the Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, on Friday, asking the Republican leaders to help […]

What is going on at Metro Nashville’s homeless division?

By: - March 27, 2023

Over the last year, Nashville has sharply changed its direction in dealing with the city’s unhoused population, leading to pushback and concerns from several local homeless services providers previously at the forefront of tackling the problem.  The new approach of Metro Homeless Impact Division, or MHID, is to close longtime encampments, like those at the […]

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, far right, with House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison to his left. (Photo: John Partipilo)

House Speaker’s proposal to block TennCare contracts over trans health stopped in the Senate

By: - March 23, 2023

Legislation seeking to block Tennessee’s Medicaid program from contracting with any insurance company that covers gender transition health care in another state has stalled in the Senate.  House Bill 1215, sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, would eliminate all of TennCare’s contracts with managed care organizations covering gender affirming care in other […]

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, photographed in February 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Lieutenant governor captures vote of confidence amid Instagram scandal

By: and - March 20, 2023

Barely two weeks after revelations that he posted comments next to risque photos on young gay men’s Instagram sites, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally won a vote of confidence from his peers. The Senate Republican Caucus, in a vote that took hours to cast Monday, supported the veteran lawmaker instead of handing him a vote of […]

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, faces a vote of no confidence from the Senate Republican Caucus. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Senate Republicans to hold a vote of no confidence in Lt. Gov. McNally today

By: and - March 20, 2023

The Senate Republican Caucus will hold a vote of no confidence in Lt. Gov. Randy McNally Monday, nearly two weeks after revelations that he frequently commented on racy photos on young gay men’s Instagram sites.  McNally, the Republican-appointed speaker of the Senate from Oak Ridge, has weathered the criticism of these comments by stating he […]

Tennessee House of Representatives (Photo: John Partipilo)

House committee moves forward a bill to allow narrow exceptions to Tennessee’s abortion law

By: and - March 15, 2023

A bill to allow very specific exceptions to Tennessee’s abortion ban passed a key House committee Wednesday. The legislation would allow doctors to perform an abortion in the case of an ectopic and molar pregnancies — a rare, noncancerous tumor that develops as the result of a non-viable pregnancy — or when a doctor determines […]

Tennessee State Capitol (Photo: John Partipilo)

Bill to allow public access to lethal injection records on the rocks after state lobbies against it

By: - March 15, 2023

Legislation to allow the public to understand how Tennessee buys lethal injection drugs is floundering as the state correction department lobbies against it behind the scenes.  The legislation — House Bill 870 — would remove an exemption in Tennessee public record law, which allows the state to hide how it procures drugs for lethal injection. The […]

A restaurant on Lower Broadway in mid-April. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Tootsie’s Honky Tonk owner pushes bill to exempt Lower Broadway bars from Nashville oversight

By: - March 14, 2023

Tootsie’s Entertainment LLC, the company behind several honky tonks on Lower Broadway, is pushing legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly to remove all bars from oversight by Nashville’s beer board.   The legislation, filed last week, would block Metro Nashville’s authority to regulate all bars in the downtown tourism development zone and instead give oversight to […]

Metro Nashville Courthouse. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Nashville files lawsuit over state’s law to cut the council’s size in half

By: - March 13, 2023

Metro Nashville has filed a lawsuit to stop the state from implementing a law to cut the size of its council from 40 to 20. Last week, lawmakers passed and Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation that capped all city and metro council sizes at 20. The bill effectively targeted Nashville, the only city or metro […]

Members of the Tennessee House of Representatives greeting each other on opening day of session. Jan. 9, 2023.(Photo: John Partipilo)

After slashing the council, lawmakers will have to decide if they want to run Nashville

By: - March 13, 2023

State Republicans cut the size of the Metro Nashville Council in half last week, kicking off a process that should reveal how serious lawmakers are about taking over various aspects of the city’s government.  GOP state lawmakers passed, and Gov. Bill Lee signed, the legislation into law Thursday, with metro officials expected to file a […]

A drag performer entertains a full house in a Nashville club. (Photo: John Partipilo)

The origins of Tennessee’s drag show restriction: From rural West Tennesse to the state capital

By: - March 9, 2023

In fall of 2022, nearly a dozen political and religious leaders met with Pride festival organizers in a back room of Jackson City Hall in West Tennessee. The shared goal? Hash out a deal over a drag show. Jackson’s third annual LGBTQ Pride festival was scheduled for the following month, and unlike the previous years, […]