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Governor’s order of protection plan faces tough road in special session
The governor’s proposal enabling law enforcement to confiscate weapons from unstable people is likely to go down in flames during a special session. Tennessee’s House and Senate speakers forecast a harsh reception for Gov. Bill Lee’s plan Wednesday in an interview with reporters. House Speaker Cameron Sexton termed the governor’s idea floated at the end […]
State set to extend CoreCivic contract despite prison deaths
Tennessee plans to extend a private prison company’s contract with an $8 million raise annually to run a state penitentiary in spite of lawsuits alleging it caused inmate deaths. The pay increase also could come in spite of $17.74 million in state fines levied against CoreCivic since September 2020 for operation shortcomings. The State Building […]
Cade Cothren claims he helped Cameron Sexton win TN speaker’s race before indictment
A former House speaker’s chief of staff — under federal indictment on bribery and kickback charges — claims he helped Cameron Sexton win the speakership in 2019 before being paid tens of thousands of dollars through a shadowy campaign vendor. Cade Cothren, who left his post early that year amid a racist and sexist texting […]
Stockard on the Stump: Critics call $2M TSU audit an attack on President Glover
Tennessee State University officials narrowly escaped the wrath of the Legislature this year after a rough comptroller’s audit. But lawmakers peeved at President Glenda Glover managed to put $2 million in the budget for yet another audit, this one a forensic investigation that could be used to file criminal charges. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, Senate […]
Tennessee committee extends and increases Pearson testing contract by $40 million
Amid uproar over third-grade reading scores and the prospect of thousands of failing students, Tennessee lawmakers extended the testing vendor’s contract and bumped up the total payout by nearly $40 million. The Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Review Committee voted Wednesday to tack on another year for British-based NCS Pearson to administer TNReady and increase the total […]
State committee approves extra housing for TSU and UT-Knoxville
State lawmakers blasted Tennessee State University for last-minute moves to house student overflow during the past year, but the University of Tennessee-Knoxville also put students in hotel rooms and needed approval Monday for a bigger apartment lease. The State Building Commission’s Executive Committee approved a $6.78 million lease deal for more than 500 apartments at […]
Stockard on the Stump: Pearson projects student protests despite special session timing
A chorus of boos is following Gov. Bill Lee’s plan to call a special session Aug. 21 — after public school students return to class — to “do something” in response to the March 27 Covenant School mass shooting. But Rep. Justin J. Pearson, fresh off a House expulsion and reinstatement after leading a floor […]
Lawmakers push updated psychiatric bed registry to cut emergency room burden
Amid the debate over mental health care versus gun control, two Rutherford County lawmakers are hoping to improve the flow of mentally unstable patients to psychiatric hospitals from emergency rooms. House Bill 827 sponsored by Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna, and Sen. Shane Reeves, R-Murfreesboro, would require psychiatric hospitals to make daily updates to the state’s […]
House speaker indicates staff, subcommittee spent money in harassment case
House Speaker Cameron Sexton is pointing at the Office of Legislative Administration and a House ethics subcommittee in the expense of nearly $9,000 in the case of a 19-year-old intern harassed by former Rep. Scotty Campbell. Yet an anonymous member of the bipartisan panel wasn’t aware the subcommittee had the authority to spend money or […]
Gov. Lee sets special session for late August in response to school shooting
Five months after a shooter killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville, Gov. Bill Lee will bring lawmakers back to Nashville to cobble together a solution to the mass murder. Lee announced Monday he will call the General Assembly into a special session on Aug. 21 to bolster public safety and “preserve” constitutional […]
Stockard on the Stump: House duo urges governor hold special session ASAP
Four days before The Covenant School mass shooting, Reps. Sam Whitson and Darren Jernigan wrote a letter asking Gov. Bill Lee to form an extreme risk task force to “temporarily separate” high-risk people from their guns. They’d started working on a plan in late 2022 for an extreme risk protection order bill and debated the […]
Attorney General beefs up office to take on feds, cities
Facing a spate of legal battles with Tennessee cities and the federal government, the Attorney General’s Office enters this year with a new “strategic litigation unit” and heftier budget. As part of a $56.2 billion budget for fiscal 2023-24, the Legislature approved 10 more positions at a cost of $2.25 million for Attorney General Jonathan […]