News
Lee reopens little league through executive order
Little league baseball, softball and other non contact sports can resume playing in much of Tennessee following an executive order signed by Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday. Lee’s order applies to 89 of the state’s 95 counties, while the six most populated counties with their own health departments guide their own reopening strategies. Although noncontact […]
VUMC, Ryman, CVC launch public health program to help businesses
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Ryman Hospitality and the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. announced on Thursday a new program providing businesses that reopen safely with extra resources and access to public health officials. The program, called Good to Go, will be available to businesses that vow to abide by guidance from the Metro Public Health […]
Team Joe skateboards towards the White House
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 […]
Administration ends practice of sharing patient information with law enforcement
Gov. Bill Lee’s administration will stop giving daily lists of patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 to law enforcement, but the sharing of private patient information continues in Tennessee’s capitol city. The practice of sharing patient information with law enforcement and first responders drew outrage from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the Tennessee Black […]
Advocates worry about youth unemployment this summer amid pandemic
Davidson County Juvenile Court Clerk Lonnell Matthews hosted a town hall meeting last week about the importance of summer employment for Nashville’s youth. The online forum was relegated to Facebook Live and a livestream on Zoom because of the pandemic. Matthews worried COVID-19 could do more than change the way he holds community meetings. Statewide […]
Commentary: Environmental racism hurts body as well as soul
Long before COVID-19 killed almost 100,000 people in the U.S., causing disproportionate suffering among poor and low-income people and communities of color, I was fighting another kind of disease that kills poor people and minorities: environmental racism. I grew up near the Memphis Defense Depot, a military installation in the center of several black communities. […]
Opioids and COVID: Caught between two epidemics
Mark Sriedfertg was helping a friend move last week, when he noticed she had disappeared. He found her in the bathroom, blue-lipped and unconscious on the floor. “I didn’t have Narcan,” said Sriedfertg, who, at 58, has been in recovery from opioid addiction for nine months. “I applied ice to her groin and the top […]
Librarians, national guard recruited for states’ new contact tracing armies
As states seek to loosen wide-ranging restrictions imposed to constrain the novel coronavirus, they’re also looking to deploy a huge new fleet of workers to keep cases under control. Enter the contact tracers. With interpersonal contact certain to increase as states lift COVID-19 restrictions, tracing the who infected people had contact with — and then […]
COVID-19 pandemic upends graduations across the state
As the academic year officially comes to a close, schools from across the state are conflicted about graduation and whether officials can provide as traditional a ceremony as the epidemic allows. Gov. Bill Lee extended Tennessee’s State of Emergency declaration until June 30, which leaves school officials to choose between holding ceremonies under strict social-distancing […]
Woolworth on 5th and Pemrose sue insurance company over pandemic loss
Two Nashville restaurants sued their insurance company in recent weeks over rejected claims from lost business due to the pandemic. The lawsuits were filed separately by the downtown restaurant Woolworth on 5th and Pemrose, which is in the Gulch against the Cincinnati Insurance Company. The restaurants are both represented by the Frazer Law. Woolworth and […]
COVID-19 puts damper on tourist activities and revenue for long weekend
Memorial Day weekend normally kicks off Tennessee’s summer tourist season, but given the COVID-19 pandemic, many entertainment facilities will remain postponed until further notice, putting a damper on an otherwise big weekend for visitor activity. Gov. Bill Lee lifted restrictions May 15 for large attractions, such as amusement parks, waterparks, theaters and museums. With most […]
Leaders of civic group give detailed economic recommendations to Cooper
Leaders with The Equity Alliance, a statewide non-profit focused on the civic and economic empowerment of the black community have released a detailed set of recommendations for Nashville’s spending of the $121 million of federal CARES Act funding for economic recovery. Charlane Oliver, co-founder and co-executive director of The Equity Alliance is a member of […]