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National parks struggling with maintenance would get a boost under Biden budget request
Basic needs at the largest U.S. national parks top the Biden administration’s first proposed lists of projects to receive funding through public lands trust funds, showing how much maintenance is needed even as parks brace for record numbers of visitors this summer. The projects likely wouldn’t be visible to the usual tourist, but they are […]
Memphis Council delays vote to preserve aquifer
The Memphis City Council is expected to make a final decision within the next few weeks on an ordinance regarding the Memphis Sand Aquifer and its preservation. On Tuesday, the council delayed a vote until July 6 to recognize the importance of the aquifer as the sole source of drinking water for many Shelby County […]
City leaders push for more women’s professional sports in Nashville
In the last 25 years, the city of Nashville has spent around $1 billion to provide stadiums and incentives to its four professional sports teams. Proponents say those investments, beginning with Mayor Phil Bredesen’s decision to build the arena on lower Broadway in the 1990s, positioned Nashville as a major league city, spurred economic development […]
Former Agriculture Commissioner L.H. “Cotton” Ivy dies at 91
Former Democratic state representative and Tennessee Secretary of Agriculture L.H. “Cotton” Ivy died Tuesday at the age of 91 in Decaturville, Tennessee, his home town. The son of a sharecropper, Ivy was the principal agent with Farm Bureau Insurance in Union City before running for the state legislature in 1984. He served two terms before […]
State to retake coal mining regulation with industry at rock bottom
“Mister Peabody’s Coal train” doesn’t run much through upper East Tennessee these days. The trains John Prine sang about in his famous song, “Paradise,” are practically non-existent. Compared to the 1950s and ’60s when Claiborne, Campbell and Scott counties were considered coal-mining country, the industry has nearly vanished, according to those who monitor it. Yet […]
Pro-Palestine demonstrators hit streets in Nashville
Hundreds of Tennesseans marched through the streets of downtown Nashville on Friday night to support Palestine and protest treatment of Palestinian civilians in the recent Israel-Palestine conflict. Many of the approximately 800 attendees were of Palestinian descent. “We will sacrifice our blood and souls for Palestine,” was a refrain chanted by marchers in Arabic through […]
While battles loom over landfills, Middle Tennessee hurtles toward a trash crisis
From a lawsuit over the rejected expansion of a landfill in Nashville to the protracted political battle over closing the landfill in Murfreesboro, the urgency of Middle Tennessee’s trash crisis has increased in intensity in recent months. The situation has all the ingredients for a political logjam. Neighborhoods across the region have made blocking new […]
Tennessee board details impact of Christmas bombing on 911 systems
Sixty-six emergency communications districts in Tennessee experienced service interruptions, lasting more than 97 hours, as a result of the Christmas morning suicide bombing on Second Avenue in downtown Nashville, according to a report released earlier this month by the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board. Working in tandem with AT&T, the contractor for the state’s emergency communications […]
Report: $126M price tag for cleaning up Tennessee’s abandoned coal fields
Tennessee has more than 14,000 acres of abandoned coal fields, but the cost of remediation —such as replanting trees and improving water quality — far outweigh the federal funding available to the state, a new report shows. The report by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a think tank dedicated to examining Appalachia, concluded that the […]
Memphis bridge reopening unclear as governor criticizes federal funding plans
Gov. Bill Lee took another shot Tuesday at billions of dollars in COVID-19 federal funding, saying the state should have the flexibility to use that money on roads and bridges as officials said they are expediting work on the cracked I-40 beam that forced the shutdown of Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Asked about his criticism of […]
Legal Director Bob Cooper to leave mayor’s office
Metro Director of Law Bob Cooper will leave Mayor John Cooper's administration in the coming weeks to return to private practice.