Author

Anita Wadhwani

Anita Wadhwani

Anita Wadhwani is a senior reporter for the Tennessee Lookout. The Tennessee AP Broadcasters and Media (TAPME) named her Journalist of the Year in 2019 as well as giving her the Malcolm Law Award for Investigative Journalism. Wadhwani is formerly an investigative reporter with The Tennessean who focused on the impact of public policies on the people and places across Tennessee.

‘Deeply concerned and disturbed;’ Tennessee NAACP demands release of kids taken after traffic stop

By: - March 25, 2023

MANCHESTER, Tenn. — Leaders of the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP on Friday issued a public demand for the release of five Black children taken from their parents after a misdemeanor traffic stop in rural Tennessee last month, saying they were “deeply concerned and disturbed” by the events. The civil rights organization, joined by […]

Mason, Tenn. City Hall. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Former Mason, Tenn. officials indicted on theft and misconduct charges

By: - March 23, 2023

Two former employees of the Town of Mason have been indicted on theft and official misconduct charges, an investigative report released Wednesday by the Tennessee Comptroller revealed. The Comptroller’s investigation also determined that former Mason Mayor Gwendolyn Kilpatrick, who left office in 2018, misappropriated more than $8,000 in town funds for unauthorized purchases and on […]

A locked gate keeps trespassers out of the former Monsanto plant property in Maury County, which Trinity Business Group proposes developing for a regional waste center. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Measure to protect Duck River from industrial development in Maury County advances

By: - March 22, 2023

A bill to protect a stretch of the Duck River in Maury County from industrial development, including the looming prospect of regional landfills, advanced in the Legislature Wednesday after a tense and occasionally rowdy House hearing.  The bill, by Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, and Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Howenwald, would designate a portion of the Duck […]

Attorney Courtney Teasley, at left, with Bianca Clayborne and one of Clayborne's children outside the Coffee County Justice Center on March 20, 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Kids taken from Black family remain in state custody

By: - March 20, 2023

MANCHESTER, Tenn. — Five children taken from a Black family after a traffic stop in Coffee County will remain in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services following a hearing in juvenile court on Monday. Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams were pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for tinted car windows and driving […]

Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams were on the way to Chicago for a family funeral when they were pulled over in Coffee County. Williams was arrested and their young children taken from them. (Screengrab from Zoom)

DCS seeks prosecution of Black parents, lawyers for speaking about kids’ removal after traffic stop

By: - March 17, 2023

The Department of Children’s Services has filed a motion for prosecution and sanctions against the Black parents of five young children taken into DCS custody on February 17, according to Courtney Teasley, an attorney for the family. DCS accuses the parents, and their attorneys, of breaking juvenile court confidentiality rules, Teasley said. The motion for […]

Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, called for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Service to release five children in state custody to their parents. House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons of Nashville is at left. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee Democrats demand release of children removed from Black family after traffic stop

By: - March 16, 2023

The Tennessee Democratic Caucus on Thursday demanded that the Department of Children’s Service release five young children taken from their parents, who are Black, after a traffic stop in Manchester last month. The children — ages 7, 5, 3, 2 and a four-month-old infant who was still nursing — were removed from their parents Feb. […]

Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams were on the way to Chicago for a family funeral when they were pulled over in Coffee County. Williams was arrested and their young children taken from them. (Screengrab from Zoom)

A Black family fights to get their kids back from Tennessee Department of Children’s Services

By: - March 16, 2023

A Black family from Georgia is fighting for the return of their five young children from the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services after a traffic stop in Manchester, Tenn. last month.  Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams were on Interstate 24 heading to a family funeral in Chicago — kids asleep in the […]

Dr. Michelle Fiscus (Photo: John Partipilo)

Judge: former Tennessee vaccine chief suit must go to trial

By: - March 10, 2023

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought by the state’s ex-vaccine chief against two of Tennessee’s top health officials will go to trial on May 8. The ruling on Friday clears the way for a jury to consider whether the reputation of Dr. Michelle Fiscus – former medical director of the state’s Vaccine-Preventable […]

A locked gate keeps trespassers out of the former Monsanto plant property in Maury County, which Trinity Business Group proposes developing for a regional waste center. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Louisiana landfill company pushes back on Duck River protections

By: - March 9, 2023

The owner of a Louisiana company with plans to develop a controversial regional waste complex on 1,300 acres in Maury County pushed back Wednesday against a bill that would provide protections to a stretch of the Duck River, suggesting it was a thinly veiled effort to tank his business plans.  Trinity Business Group plans to […]

Gov. Bill Lee, Jan. 21, 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Ads to target Gov. Bill Lee’s anti-LGBTQ legislation at SEC tournament

By: - March 7, 2023

A full page ad in Tuesday’s Tennessean newspaper features a high school yearbook photo of Gov. Bill Lee dressed in drag with a call to action by the Human Rights Campaign against Lee’s anti-LGBTQ legislation. The ad appears a week after Tennessee became the first state to enact a measure that could criminalize public drag […]

(Photo: Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency)

Trotline safety bill stalls out in Tennessee legislature

By: - March 6, 2023

An effort to regulate trotlines — unmanned fishing lines studded with hooks that are strung across some Tennessee waterways — has stalled in the Legislature, frustrating paddler groups who say they pose a safety hazard on the state’s increasing crowded rivers and streams. Rep. Paul Sherrell and Sen. Paul Bailey, both Sparta Republicans, earlier this […]

A portion of the Duck River in Coffee County. The Tennessee Legislature is considering a measure to protect the Duck, one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the U.S. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Effort to protect Duck River advances in Tennessee legislature

By: - March 1, 2023

A bill to designate a stretch of the Duck River in Maury County a “scenic waterway” advanced in the Tennessee Legislature on Tuesday — a measure that may come into play with local efforts to fight a for-profit mega trash complex along its banks. The measure by Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka and Sen. Joey Hensley, […]