Author

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. She is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism. Wadhwani lives in Nashville with her partner and two children.
Bridgestone factories back online 10 days after cyberattack of unspecified origin
By: Anita Wadhwani - March 10, 2022
All plants operated by Bridgestone Americas had resumed normal operations by Wednesday — ten days after a cyberattack derailed work at factories operated by the world’s largest tire manufacturer in South and North American, including Tennessee, a company spokeswoman said. The company, headquartered in Nashville, first learned of the disruption in the early hours of […]
Murfreesboro lawmaker questions landfill contracts
By: Anita Wadhwani - March 7, 2022
Republican Rep. Bryan Terry has formally requested that the mayors of Rutherford County and the city of Murfreesboro investigate whether its contracts with Middle Point Landfill operators are potentially voided by state law limiting public service contracts to no more than 25 years. Both Murfreesboro and Rutherford County entered into contracts with operators of the […]
Cyberattack strikes Bridgestone plants in Tennessee — and all of North and South America
By: Anita Wadhwani - March 3, 2022
UPDATE: Bridgestone Americas officials said Thursday they have restored key internal systems at all their manufacturing plans over the last 24 hours in order to resume production, but “it will take some additional partial production days to securely ramp up full production.” Meanwhile the company has “launched a comprehensive investigation to quickly gather facts while […]
Bills to limit wildlife agency’s authority to earn money from timber, seize property advance
By: Anita Wadhwani - March 3, 2022
A pair of bills that seek to place checks on the authority of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency advanced in the legislature on Wednesday, with bipartisan support from the same slate of lawmakers who publicly expressed anger over the agency’s plans to clearcut public lands earlier this year. One measure by Republicans Rep. Paul Sherrell […]
Future of Southern Services debris landfill in Bordeaux neighborhood now in hands of judge
By: Anita Wadhwani - March 2, 2022
The fate of a controversial construction debris landfill located in the historically Black Bordeaux community of Nashville is now in the hands of a judge after a brief trial Tuesday in Davidson County Chancery Court. In March, Nashville’s Solid Waste Regional Board rejected a proposal to expand the Southern Services landfill, a 77-acre site in Bordeaux […]
State wildlife agency sued over secret surveillance on private land
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 28, 2022
CAMDEN, Tenn. – Hunter Hollingsworth, at first, didn’t grasp it was a surveillance camera giving off the glint in the sun from a high tree branch about a mile past the no-trespassing sign that marks his family’s remote property in west Tennessee. But something about the shine made him stop his truck. By the time […]
Second suit filed against Wilson County director of judicial commissioners
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 24, 2022
A second Wilson County judicial commissioner has filed suit against the county and its director of judicial commissioners, claiming he was ordered not to speak to state or county officials about work-related concerns, which include sexual harassment and secret cameras in his office building. Christopher Miller, whose term as judicial commissioner expires in March, also […]
Corps cancels plans to lease 300 acres on Percy Priest Lake to private vendor
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 18, 2022
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has backed down from plans to privatize hundreds of acres of wilderness area, beaches, hiking trails and boat access along J. Percy Priest Lake in Nashville after a sustained campaign by local residents seeking to keep the area public. The Corps’ original plan called for vendors to submit proposals […]
Lawmakers prod wildlife agency for better communication
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 17, 2022
The Republican chairman of the Tennessee Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday asked state wildlife officials to consult with the legislature before embarking on any portion of a controversial plan to clearcut hardwood forests in a White County wilderness area. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency planned to clearcut about 2,000 acres of […]
Corps of Engineers seeks to develop Nashville lake recreation area
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 14, 2022
On a sunny winter day — light glinting off the water, an optimistic angler casting off a wooden fishing pier, a couple sitting shoulder to shoulder on the shoreline — Frances Clark headed through the wilderness area at Cook Recreational Area on a path she has hiked for nearly 27 years and pointed to all […]
Odors ‘like feces’ and runny eyes: Complaints grow for Middle Point Landfill
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 11, 2022
More than 1,600 complaints about the Middle Point Landfill have poured into a Murfreesboro “odor reporting portal” since December, describing smells emanating from the 207-acre site as “like feces,” “a rotting, gaseous smell,” “like methane and musky shoes” and driving some residents indoors with runny eyes, scratchy throats and headaches. On Tuesday, an attorney for […]
State ends no-bid contract with contact tracing firm, $65 million poorer
By: Anita Wadhwani - February 7, 2022
The state of Tennessee has wound down its contact tracing contract with Xtend Healthcare, a for profit medical billing firm hired in June 2020 through a no-bid contract in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic as state resources quickly became overwhelmed. Over the course of 19 months, the contract with the Hendersonville-based company — […]