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Wilson County judicial commissioner sues county
A former Wilson County judicial commissioner has filed suit against the county and the county’s director of judicial commissioners alleging she was ordered not to speak to county officials about work-related concerns — which include sexual harassment and secret cameras installed in her offices — before being forced out of her job in July. Patricia […]
Lawsuits pile up against former funeral director
Lawsuits continue to pile up against four funeral homes and an ex-funeral director accused of failing to send the remains of deceased immigrants back to their families overseas for burial. On Monday, the family of Ramon Lara Castillo — a 63-year-old Nashville house painter who succumbed to liver cancer in October 2020 — filed a […]
Legislature passes late night COVID omnibus bill
The Legislature backpedaled on COVID-19 bills just enough early Saturday to pass a comprehensive measure and still placate companies such as Ford, which is to receive a $900 million incentive package to build an electric truck and battery plant in West Tennessee. After going through a conference committee to iron out differences, the Legislature approved […]
Legislature takes discretion from district attorneys general
The House and Senate both voted Friday for legislation enabling the state attorney general to request courts appoint district attorney pro tems for any district attorney general who makes a blanket statement against prosecuting certain classes of illegal activity. The Senate passed its version of the bill on a 25-6 vote. The measure passed the […]
Senate to reconvene for consideration of omnibus package
The Tennessee Senate plans to reconvene this afternoon to consider an omnibus package of bills severely restricting workplace COVID regulations, which have drawn sharp opposition from business and other interests across the state. Among the most influential voices to weigh in against a portion of the package barring companies from issuing mask mandates is the […]
Ford Motor Company officials weigh in as legislature plans to limit business mask mandates
An official with the Ford Motor Company has sent Tennessee Senators a text thanking them for the nearly $900 million incentive package approved last week, but has let them know the company is concerned about an effort to prohibit Tennessee companies from enforcing mask mandates for their employees. A top Ford official sent senators a […]
Fines for school board members, limits on the governor: Thursday’s special session bills
A slew of far-reaching measures designed to curb local dissent over state COVID policies, and to check the governor’s emergency powers, sailed easily through Republican-dominated committee hearings during Thursday’s specially called legislative session. They include harsh new penalties for locally elected school board members who defy executive orders and a mechanism for the Attorney General […]
Feds approve using COVID relief funds to expand home services for Tennesseans with disabilities
The federal government has approved a plan to use COVID relief funds to enroll up to 2,000 Tennesseans with disabilities — who are currently on a waiting list — into a state program that provides home and community-based services. The expansion of the program — known as Employment and Community First CHOICES, or ECF-CHOICES — […]
Lawmakers weigh in to oppose TWRA clearcutting
Elected officials who occupy positions on hunting-oriented caucuses are weighing in on a controversial plan to clear hardwood trees in order to create a grassy habitat for quail — a game bird — on popular wilderness area in White County. U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, and state Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville — members, respectively, of […]
COVID death toll among Tennessee public school employees rises
School counselors were on-hand at Walter Hill Elementary in Rutherford County as students and staff learned Thursday of the latest COVID death to impact the school system: a 49-year-old custodian, who had worked at other schools in the district before starting a new job at the elementary school in September. The employee, Angela Dawn Crook, […]
Congressional sportsmen’s group endorses clearcutting plan
A controversial plan by state wildlife officials to raze portions of a popular recreational area in White County got a surprising stamp of approval from the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to support the hunting and fishing policy objectives advanced by federal and state lawmakers The endorsement came as a surprise because […]
Shakeup at Department of Education includes demotion of state’s top special education official
As Gov. Bill Lee battles lawsuits from parents of kids with disabilities — along with a federal civil rights investigation into whether his ban on universal masking in schools discriminates against kids at high risk for serious illness from COVID — the state’s top special education official has been demoted. Theresa Nicholls served as Assistant […]