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.

A Nashville landfill, not operated by BFI. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Appeals court rules against Waste Management, Inc. in Nashville landfill expansion

By: - September 1, 2023

A publicly-traded company’s bid to expand its landfill in a historically Black Nashville neighborhood has suffered another — and perhaps fatal — legal setback. The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s decision to deny the proposed expansion of the Southern Service Landfill in the Bordeaux neighborhood.  The landfill’s corporate owner is […]

rom left, Parker Polidor, Allison Polidor, Erica Bowton and Maryam Abolfazli outside a Davidson County courtroom at an Aug. 28 hearing over whether signs are allowed in the Tennessee Legislature. Allison Polidor, Bowton and Abolfazli were plaintiffs In a lawsuit challenging a legislative rule banning signs.(Photo: John Partipilo)

State of Tennessee seeks to dismiss challenge to suit over the banning of protest signs

By: - August 30, 2023

State lawyers are seeking to dismiss a legal challenge to a Tennessee House of Representatives rule banning protest signs at the Legislature, arguing that since the rules applied only to a special session that has now ended the case is moot. “The special session has now adjourned,” the motion, filed Wednesday in Davidson County Chancery […]

Bridal House, built in 1819 by the son of a Revolutionary War veteran, is at the center of a controversy in which private citizens want to take control of the property from the county. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee board ruling on Sumner County historic property bodes well for Bridal House

By: - August 30, 2023

A bid by the Sumner County Commission to transfer ownership of a historic log cabin into private hands must first gain state approval, the Tennessee Historical Commission concluded last week. Located on five acres of public lands, the 19th-century cabin known as the Bridal House became an unlikely flashpoint in local politics after the 2022 […]

Maryam Abolfazli, left, with Allison Polidor. right, plaintiffs in a suit filed on their behalf by the ACLU Tennessee over the right to hold signs in Tennessee House of Representatives. (Photo: John Partipilo)

House Republicans lose decision on sign bans

By: - August 28, 2023

(Editor’s note: This story has been updated.) Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Anne Martin has ruled that the holding of small signs in House of Representatives’ galleries and committee meeting rooms is likely protected by the First Amendment, keeping in place a temporary restraining order allowing members of the public to carry signs. “Although the […]

Emergency hearing over House sign ban set for Monday

By: - August 25, 2023

A Davidson County Chancery Court judge has set an expedited hearing for Monday in a legal dispute over a decision by the Tennessee House of Representatives to ban protest signs during a specially called session on public safety. In the order issued Friday, Chancellor Anne Martin said a temporary restraining order will remain in place, […]

Southern Services Landfill in Nashville's Bordeaux community. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Dispute over Murfreesboro’s Middle Point Landfill goes to court

By: - August 25, 2023

A years-long dispute over the future of Middle Point Landfill landed in a Nashville courtroom on Thursday, where lawyers for the Murfreesboro mega-dump are appealing a regional board’s decision to deny its expansion plans. The fate of the landfill has implications far beyond Rutherford County. The 207-acre site currently accepts trash from one-third of all […]

House Speaker Cameron Sexton was surrounded by chanting protesters as he left the Tennessee House Chambers on Aug. 24, 2023 during a special legislative session. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee House Speaker Sexton challenges free speech ruling on signs

By: - August 24, 2023

House Speaker Cameron Sexton is seeking a hearing within 24 hours to challenge a court’s temporary order allowing members of the public to display signs of protest in the Tennessee House of Representatives during the special legislative session on public safety this week. Lawyers for Sexton and other defendants argue the court overstepped its authority […]

Jennifer Watson holds up a sign of the type that was banned during an Aug. 2021 special legislative session. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Judge issues injunction against Tennessee House, barring enforcement of sign ban

By: - August 23, 2023

Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Anne Martin issued a restraining order on Wednesday, barring the Tennessee House of Representatives from enforcing a rule banning signs during the special session on public safety. A temporary injunction hearing has been set to hear the ACLU lawsuit on Sept. 5. The ACLU of Tennessee, representing three women ejected […]

Inside the Tennessee Senate chambers. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee youth advocates concerned about bill to criminalize threats of mass violence

By: - August 21, 2023

Among the bills Tennessee lawmakers will consider this week during a special session on public safety is one that would create a new felony offense for making a threat of mass violence.   “We’re looking for someone serious about blowing up Second Avenue. We’re talking about a patient making threats to kill a physician. We’re talking […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

Gallatin’s Bledsoe Academy reported by New Hampshire officials for alleged abuse

By: - August 16, 2023

New Hampshire child advocates grew alarmed last month during a visit to Tennessee, where they toured a privately-run facility to check on the well-being of two boys in state custody who had been sent for residential treatment. What they saw and heard inside the Bledsoe Youth Academy in Gallatin were instances of alleged abuse and […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

Tennessee on the hook for legal fees from 2021 COVID masking suit

By: - August 15, 2023

An executive order issued by Gov. Bill Lee during the height of the COVID pandemic will now cost Tennessee taxpayers at least $129,000, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision appears to bring to a close a case that began with Lee signing an executive order in August […]

A day after a mass shooting at The Covenant School, a woman is overcome with emotion in front of an impromptu memorial. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Report: Firearms are leading cause of death in Tennessee kids

By: - August 14, 2023

Children are dying at higher rates from gun violence in Tennessee than the rest of the nation, an ongoing geographic disparity that has only widened in recent years and one that most gravely impacts the state’s Black families, whose children and teens are being killed by firearms at twice the rate as white kids. The […]