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.

Main entrance to Aquinas College in Nashville. (Photo: Aquinas College)

Diocese of Nashville settles with victim who alleges 2017 sexual assault by campus priest

By: - July 21, 2020

A former female student at Aquinas College in Nashville entered into a confidential settlement for $65,000 with the Catholic Diocese of Nashville in May over allegations a priest sexually assaulted her in his off-campus rectory in 2017. The settlement was first reported Saturday by the Catholic Herald, a London-based publication. The woman, who was not […]

(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Metro Health board agrees to create technology to share COVID-19 data with first responders in ‘limited way’

By: - July 10, 2020

The Nashville Board of Health agreed on Thursday to contract with the Motorola telecommunications corporation to develop technology to share COVID-19 patient data with first responders when they are transporting potentially positive individuals to jails, hospitals or mental health facilities. The technology capable of sharing data on a limited basis will likely take months to […]

Nashville Rescue Mission (Photo from website)

Despite offers of hotel rooms for homeless, city does not take action

By: - July 7, 2020

In April, the director of sales and marketing for the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel read a story about the critical need for shelter for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.  She thought the historic hotel near Metro Center could play a role.  “We are here and would love to help,” Christina Jones wrote in an […]

COVID-19 is spreading across Nashville. Here’s a zip code breakdown

By: - July 7, 2020

Nashville Public Health officials on Tuesday released the latest heat map showing the concentration of COVID-19 cases by neighborhood with a warning from Mayor John Cooper. The virus, he said, has “now spread to other parts of the county, including our downtown core.” Southeast Nashville, including the zip codes 37013, 37221, continues to have the […]

Image courtesy of Getty Images.

COVID-19 continues to increase at DCS

By: - July 7, 2020

The Department of Children’s Services has produced new details about youth and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 in county-run detention centers, residential treatment facilities operated by DCS contractors and in Wilder Youth Development Center, DCS’ sole secure lockup for delinquent youth. In total, 185 youth and 106 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 […]

A construction worker walks past a sign advising employees to wash hands. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Nashville lays out plan to reach Latino residents

By: - July 2, 2020

Immigrants and refugees comprised 67% of Nashville’s total COVID-19 positive cases in a one-month period ending in late June — the latest data point highlighting the disproportionate impact of the virus on Nashville’s Latino residents. After repeated complaints by alarmed councilmembers and immigrant advocates, city health officials have begun the rollout of a community education, […]

From the Tennessee Department of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities' Facebook page.

Disabled individuals in state care die of COVID

By: - July 1, 2020

Five adults living in facilities that are under the oversight of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities have died from COVID-19.  Two of the individuals lived in the same home, where a total of four persons who lived there and five staff tested positive for the virus. Two others lived in facilities that also […]

Tennessee Department of Children's Services logo

COVID-19 cases spike in Department of Children’s Services facilities

By: - June 29, 2020

At least 164 children living in facilities operated or licensed by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services have tested positive for COVID-19 — the biggest outbreak in the nation linked to a single child welfare agency. The children, both boys and girls, tested positive inside county juvenile detention centers licensed by DCS, in 49 residential […]

Nashville General Hospital at Meharry

Finance director accuses Hospital Authority of hiding $9.4M in federal funding

By: and - June 25, 2020

The Hospital Authority failed to disclose $9.4 million in federal CARES Act funding to Mayor John Cooper’s administration in fear that its operating subsidy could be reduced, according to documents obtained by the Tennessee Lookout. Finance Director Kevin Crumbo, one of Cooper’s top aides, blasted the Hospital Authority for not keeping the administration in the […]

Planned Parenthood logo.

Ruling on ‘heartbeat bill’ will come after Lee signs

By: - June 25, 2020

A federal judge in Nashville on Wednesday said he will wait to rule on a request by Tennessee’s abortion providers to temporarily halt a new ‘heartbeat’ abortion measure until it is signed by Gov. Bill Lee. The measure, approved by state lawmakers last week, bans most abortions after the point a fetal heartbeat is detected, […]

Mladen Sladojevic/Getty Images

Latino-serving organizations to Lee: We need a robust plan

By: - June 25, 2020

A coalition of Latino-serving organizations from across Tennessee is urging Gov. Bill Lee and local government leaders to take specific and immediate steps to address the increasing spread of COVID-19 among the state’s Hispanic residents.  In an open letter to Gov. Lee, 18 groups, among them the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville,  Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee […]

Planned Parenthood clinic

Abortion clinics file for restraining order in federal court

By: - June 23, 2020

In new filings in federal court on Monday, eight Tennessee abortion clinics challenging a heartbeat abortion ban outlined the consequences on patients and asked for an immediate temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to prevent the measure from ever taking effect. The measure, one of the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation, was approved […]