Commentary
Tennesseans on the move: People to watch in 2022
As one year passes and another begins, the staff of the Tennessee Lookout brings your attention to a handful of Tennesseans on whom to keep your attention on in the coming year. Politicians, activists and healthcare professionals will stay in the spotlight as we enter our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and an election […]
Commentary: The Power Poll – A peek at 2022 (and beyond)
The Nashville economy will continue its thundering roar into 2022 and advance upon its explosive growth in prior years, according to the December Nashville Power Poll. Members were also asked whether it would be a good or bad thing if Facebook were to open up a massive headquarters here, as is being rumored. A majority […]
Commentary: City living for city dwellers
The brown and yellow smoke billowed in the distance, but I couldn’t tell how far away its origin was located. It looked like it was coming from the same place as the 4th of July fireworks we enjoy each summer, so I checked Twitter to see if anyone had posted about it. I had awakened […]
Commentary: This Christmas, be a Who
The Christmas season can be an emotional and introspective time of year for many, those of us who miss family or loved ones, for instance. In spite of the bright lights and festive parties, it can be too easy to dwell on the negative. But a couple of days ago, John Partipilo made me reconsider […]
Stockard on the Stump: AG staffer submits redistricting plan, Senate GOP keeps their map secret
With political talk focusing on redistricting of Tennessee congressional and state seats, as well as the lack of a Senate Republican plan, some lawmakers are questioning a proposal brought by a state attorney in the Attorney General’s Office this week. Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat, is among those who want to know why someone […]
Editor’s column: A Christmas list for Tennesseans
The holiday season, we often hear, is for children, a magical time of lights and jolly elves and fancy cookies and gifts. But the older I get, the more I realize that adults need magic in our lives as much or more than kids. Given the last couple of years — tornadoes, a pandemic, multiple […]
Stockard on the Stump: Funk will audit the governor’s pandemic spending spree
Never one to shy away from conflict with the state government, District Attorney General Glenn Funk is taking up the request of a state senator to audit the pandemic spending of Gov. Bill Lee’s administration. Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, asked Funk this week for an audit and financial review of about $740 million in no-bid, […]
One weird trick for backsliding democracy: Read banned books
We’ve been buried by a blizzard of news lately. So much has happened — special anti-mandate legislative session, Supreme Court poised to reverse Roe v. Wade, omicron variant popping up across the United States — it’s difficult to choose just one target in the shooting gallery of opinion. But let’s step back for a moment […]
Commentary: Four more children dead, and a nation shrugs. Is enough finally enough now?
Families in Michigan will set an empty place at the table this holiday season in the wake of the mass shooting at Oxford High School in southeast Michigan that left four children dead and seven more injured. The deaths at Oxford this week came a little more than two weeks before the ninth anniversary of […]
Stockard on the Stump: Legislature could rescind much of COVID-19 law
Barely a month after the Legislature passed a COVID-19 omnibus bill cobbled together in a secret meeting, some lawmakers are ready to unwind it. Much of the legislation was nearly rendered moot by two federal court rulings that put a hold on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate, followed by Comptroller Jason Mumpower’s move to suspend […]
Editor’s column: 1619
You’d have to be completely out of the political loop—and I suspect you aren’t, if you are reading this—to not have heard of “The 1619 Project” and the brouhaha surrounding it. A publication of journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times, “1619” first appeared in an August 2019 issue of the New York Times […]
Commentary: Partisan gerrymandering must end
In all that seems to divide us today, there are still a few core values Americans share across the political spectrum. Among those are democracy and fairness. We believe strongly that the collective will of equal citizens should be reflected in public decisions, without unfair privileges or disadvantages. Whether our preferred candidate wins or loses, […]