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.

Nashville Rescue Mission (Photo from website)

Nashville women’s shelter under quarantine amid COVID outbreak

By: - October 8, 2020

About 150 residents of the Nashville Rescue Mission’s women’s campus are now under quarantine after an outbreak of COVID-19, according to the Metro health department. “The Metro Public Health Department has been working with Nashville Rescue Mission officials on a cluster (fewer than 20) of cases,” an email from spokesman Brian Todd said. “We have […]

Demonstrators hold banners in an abortion rights rally outside of the Supreme Court as the justices hear oral arguments in the June Medical Services v. Russo case on March 4, 2020 in Washington, DC. The Louisiana abortion case is the first major abortion case to make it to the Supreme Court since Donald Trump became President.(Photo: Sarah Silbiger, Getty Images)

Two legal defeats in one week for Tennessee attorneys seeking to uphold restrictive abortion laws

By: - October 5, 2020

A federal judge has shot down efforts by state attorneys to kickstart one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws while a legal challenge that will likely take months or years is underway. Tennessee’s so-called “heartbeat” abortion law, enacted by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Bill Lee in May,  bans abortions once a fetal […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

Report ranks Tennessee one of top five for kids in state custody with COVID-19

By: - October 1, 2020

More than 1,800 children and teens involved in juvenile justice systems across the nation and in Puerto Rico have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, a report released Wednesday by The Sentencing Project has found. Tennessee is one of five states with the highest number of positive cases among kids in custody: 146 […]

Tennessee State Capitol (Getty Images)

Federal judge temporary halts Tennessee’s so-called “abortion reversal” law, set to go into effect Oct. 1

By: - September 30, 2020

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Tennessee law requiring abortion providers to tell women a medication abortion can be reversed — a claim that providers have called “scientifically unsupported and misleading information.” The law, enacted earlier this year by Tennessee lawmakers, was set to go into effect October 1. It makes it a […]

Screenshot of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development homepage.

Taxpayer funded corporate incentives fail to produce promised jobs

By: - September 29, 2020

When Canadian entrepreneurs touting a healthy new snack product scouted Kingsport, Tenn. as their new headquarters in 2015, local economic development officials like Clay Walker were enthusiastic. They sampled the gluten-free, non-GMO fruit and vegetable bars and worked to seal a deal that would bring 273 jobs to the northeast Tennessee town of 54,000 in […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

Nashville’s COVID hotspots include facilities for kids in DCS custody

By: - September 23, 2020

Among the Nashville COVID-19 hotspots disclosed by the city’s health department on Monday are three facilities in or near downtown where the majority of positive cases have been found not among honky tonk patrons or nursing home residents but in children in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services. At Hermitage Hall, an Eighth […]

Screenshot of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development homepage.

Audit critical of Tennesee’s economic incentive program after companies failed to create promised jobs

By: - September 18, 2020

Nine companies lured to do business in Tennessee with generous economic incentive packages have been referred to the Tennessee Attorney General for possible legal action after failing to live up to their end of the bargain, Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe told lawmakers this week in response to a critical audit of the […]

Red Robin's Academy in Memphis was cited by the Tennessee Comptroller's office in an audit showing the non-profit took funds for meals it didn't provide to children. (Source: Tennessee Comptroller)

Comptroller: Two Memphis nonprofits who received thousands in federal dollars lied about feeding low-income kids

By: - September 17, 2020

In 2018, suspicion had grown about a Memphis child care organization that was supposed to be distributing food to low-income children who were out of school for the summer — food paid for by taxpayer funds in a program overseen in Tennessee by the state’s Department of Human Services. Red Robin’s Academy of Learning had […]

Tennessee State Capitol (Getty Images)

As Tennessee prepares to distribute $61M in broadband grants, an audit questions fairness of the grant application process

By: - September 16, 2020

Over three years, state officials have awarded more than $45 million in grants to municipalities and private companies to expand broadband internet access in rural Tennessee.   An audit released Tuesday by the Tennessee Comptroller is now raising questions about how the Department of Economic and Community Development selected who was awarded the highly competitive grants.  […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

State senator proposes court for “harassing” open records requests

By: - September 9, 2020

A proposal by Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, would allow state and local authorities to take individuals seeking public records to court if their repeated requests for government information is found to constitute “harassment.” Haile sought input on his proposed legislation Wednesday from the the Advisory Committee on Open Government, which works with the Tennessee Office of […]

Gov. Bill Lee gives his bi-weekly media briefing Aug. 18. (Photo: Tn.gov)

Gov. Bill Lee administration defends emergency powers used to combat COVID-19

By: - September 4, 2020

Members of the administration of Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday provided testimony justifying the sweeping emergency powers adopted by the governor in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since the onset of the pandemic in Tennessee, Lee has drawn on the state’s 20-year-old Emergency Powers Act to issue 44 executive orders that have had direct impact […]

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 05: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) holds a mask to her face as she arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Oversight of the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation" on Capitol Hill on August 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Crossfire Hurricane was an FBI counterintelligence investigation relating to contacts between Russian officials and associates of Donald Trump. (Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

Nashville attorney makes cameo appearance in Senate Russian interference report

By: - August 31, 2020

Deep within the 966-page Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian interference in the U.S. political process, released August 18, a Nashville lawyer who formerly served as attorney to the campaign of U.S. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn makes several cameo appearances.  Kline Preston, IV is a long-time Nashville attorney —  a graduate of the Nashville School of […]