Politics

Gov. Lee interested in bringing GOP convention to Nashville

BY: - June 2, 2020

Gov. Bill Lee is interested in rerouting the Republican Nashville Convention from Charlotte, where the event has faced questions from Democratic political leaders, to Nashville this summer, a source confirmed to Tennessee Lookout. Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp President and CEO Butch Spyridon said he has not had any discussions with the GOP about moving […]

(Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

Nashville budget chair says lack of body cameras result of poor planning by former mayors

BY: - June 1, 2020

Nashville’s last two mayors hold responsibility for the city’s failure to purchase body cameras for police, a Nashville councilmember said over the weekend. Councilmember at Large Bob Mendes, chair of the Metro Council of Nashville and Davidson County’s budget committee, made the remarks in a Facebook live conversation about the city’s $2.45 billion budget with […]

The other Team Joe, Joe Romano, in East Nashville. (Photo: Kevin Teets)

Team Joe skateboards towards the White House

BY: - May 28, 2020

Use of the Internet has probably changed thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic (Zoom, anyone?)  but most Americans probably have not experienced anything nearly as profound as what Nashvillian Joseph Romano, 31, discovered recently while using social media.  That’s because Joseph, who goes by Joe, learned while checking his Instagram account that voters across the country […]

TVA Norris Dam in Anderson County (Photo: TVA website)

Trump’s TVA nominees pressed on climate views, IG firings

BY: - May 20, 2020

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats grilled President Donald Trump’s nominees for the Tennessee Valley Authority on Tuesday about climate change and the administration’s recent firings of top agency watchdogs.  Trump nominated former Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell and East Tennessee State University President Brian Noland to fill out TVA’s board of directors. The president also […]

COMMENTARY
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Is Voting a Right or a Risk?

BY: - May 14, 2020

On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Lee said he will not allow expanded mail-in ballots. “What we want to do in this state is remove a reason to have fear about going to the polling booths,” Lee said. While planning to reopen the state is a complex undertaking, removing any fear of in-person polling is simple: Expanding […]

Update: DNC Member Owen: “I didn’t give money to McConnell”

BY: - May 11, 2020

On Wednesday, the Tennessee Lookout reported Bill Owen, a former state senator from Knoxville and one of four Tennessee members on the Democratic National Committee, survived a challenge from party officials that would have removed him from the DNC. Among the charges levied against him were his numerous contributions to Republican elected officials. Owen has […]

Screen shot of a Bill Hagerty campaign ad

GOP Senate hopeful serves with his donors on White House panel

BY: - May 8, 2020

WASHINGTON — Tennessee Senate candidate Bill Hagerty is serving on a White House economic advisory panel alongside several of his highest-profile campaign donors.  Hagerty — who served as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Japan until last July — was named by the president in April as a “thought leader” on the panel aimed at reopening […]

Voters wearing masks wait in line to vote in Milwaukee's April 7 primary. Only staff five polling sites out of 180 were staffed because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/ Wisconsin Examiner)

The Equity Alliance leaders make case for mail-in voting amid pandemic

BY: - May 8, 2020

Tennessee is one of 16 states that requires an excuse in order to vote by mail, a policy stance under increased scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. The nonprofit and nonpartisan Nashville-based Equity Alliance filed a lawsuit last week seeking to expand vote-by-mail because of the pandemic. Tennessee allows for mail-in voting if someone is ill, […]

A heat map of COVID-19 cases by Nashville zip code. (Courtesy of Metro Nashville Department of Health.)

COVID-19 spike in heavily immigrant communities tied to fear of ‘Public Charge’

BY: - May 7, 2020

A “heat map” released by Metro Nashville officials shows concentrations of COVID-19 cases in two Davidson County zip codes — 37211 and 37013 — that are home to many of the area’s immigrants.  Some local advocates for the immigrant community say fear of the federal policy known as “Public Charge” is one reason for the […]

From hospital, Justice Ginsburg slams Trump birth control rules

BY: - May 6, 2020

WASHINGTON — Hospitalization for a gallbladder condition didn’t stop U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from assailing Trump administration’s birth control rules on Wednesday. Ginsburg, 87, was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Tuesday night, but was animated as she participated in an oral argument via teleconference surrounding a Trump administration policy that allows […]

Family eats outside at restuarant in

Rural GOP leaders beg Gov. Lee to end all economic restrictions, completely reopen Tennessee

BY: - May 6, 2020

Eight rural county Republican Party organizations begged Gov. Bill Lee in an open letter this week to reopen the state’s economy and bring the legislature back into session immediately. The letter was from GOP groups in Maury, Lawrence, Giles, Marshall, Lincoln, Coffee, Perry and Wayne counties. Lee began a limited reopening of the economy on […]

A second Tennessee Democratic Party veteran escapes being booted

BY: - May 6, 2020

On Monday, the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee held a three hour virtual meeting to vote on removing former State Sen. Bill Owen of Knoxville from his post as a member of the Democratic Committee. The charge? Owen, a lobbyist, has made numerous donations to Republican elected officials, including a 2019 contribution of $8,500 to […]