As part of a recent questionnaire that WKRN gave to Metro Nashville mayoral hopefuls, the candidates had the opportunity to tell voters their plans to work with the State and repair the strife that has been growing in recent years.
The 10 candidates who participated in the recent Mayoral Forum hosted by WKRN all submitted answers.
Read the full story
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs released a statement Tuesday announcing a $2 million payout from Monsanto, a former agricultural chemical and seed company that Bayer acquired several years ago. The payout is part of a class action lawsuit in which several municipalities participating in the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) program experienced contamination in their creek and/or lake sediment.Â
The lawsuit against Monsanto resulted in a settlement of $500 million in total. Knox County’s portion of the settlement represents compensation for the contamination of the Fort Loudon Reservoir and Lower Clinch Reservoir with PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls).Â
Read the full story
Metro Nashville Police Officers Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo will receive the National Award of Valor at the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) School Safety Conference next month. NASRO annually presents its National Award of Valor to five individuals “for acts of courage and valor above and beyond what would normally be expected.”
NASRO admired how the officers “ended the tragic shooting at The Covenant School March 27 by confronting and firing at the shooter, fatally wounding them within 14 minutes of the first report of the incident.”
Read the full story
Governor Bill Lee signed the largest tax cut in Tennessee history on Thursday, his office announced. The Tennessee Works Tax Act (TWTA) aims to provide $400 million in savings for families and small businesses.
The sweeping new legislation includes a three-month grocery tax holiday, a tax credit for companies who offer paid family leave to employees, and $150 million in small business tax relief.Â
Read the full story
In a new poll of the Metro Nashville mayoral election released by Tennesseans for Student Success, State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) leads the pack with 21.9 percent. State Senator Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) comes in second with 17 percent, and progressive Metro Council Member Freddie O’Connell comes in third with 15.6 percent.
The margin of error in the poll is 4.38%, with 500 participants taking part.Â
Read the full story
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs released his proposal for a record-high budget to the Knox County Commission Monday. Though the budget reached a record $1 billion, an increase of $90 million over last year’s plan, the mayor did not propose any tax increases. The proposal represents a 9.46 percent increase in spending.
Read the full story
Ten candidates for Metro Nashville Mayor answered questions by fellow Nashvillians Tuesday night at a televised forum hosted by WKRN.Â
Natisha Brooks, Heidi Campbell, Jim Gingrich, Sharon Hurt, Stephanie Johnson, Freddie O’Connell, Alice Rolli, Vivian Wilhoite, Matt Wiltshire, and Jeff Yarbro fielded questions during the two-hour event from citizen representatives, selected by the station, from the north, south, east west, and downtown Nashville.
Read the full story
After Thursday’s qualifying deadline, several candidates have made the cut to run in the District 86 special election, including two Democrats and one independent. One Republican picked up a petition on the day of the qualifying deadline but failed to file the 25 signatures needed to be on the ballot. The Memphis-based district has long been a Democratic mainstay.
Late State Representative Barbara Cooper (D-Memphis) held the seat for nearly 26 years before passing away just two weeks before last year’s general election. She was posthumously reelected by a margin of 46 percentage points.
Read the full story
The candidates for the Tennessee State House of Representatives District 52 special election are set after two candidates – Laura Nelson and incumbent Justin Jones – qualified by the Thursday deadline.
District 52 has a long history of being a Democratic stronghold in the eastern half of Davidson County. Since 2000, the district has elected three Democrats: Rob Briley – brother of former Mayor David Briley, Mike Williams, and most recently, State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville).
Read the full story
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathon Skrmetti led two coalitions of states in filing a six-page letter opposing new Department of Energy (DOE) regulations on household appliances. One set of regulations applies to refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers. The second set applies to washing machines.
Filed as a public comment, Skrmetti disparaged the new regulations as “yet another rule to micro-manage the lives—and kitchens—of Americans.”
Read the full story
In a Monday announcement, Metro Nashville Mayor John Cooper introduced his proposal for next year’s budget. Areas of emphasis in the plan include nearly $100 million in new operating spending for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), an increase in first responder pay, and and $50 million to increase Metro employees’ wages.Â
Mayor Cooper touted the financial successes of his term in his State of the Metro Address, in which he argued that public investments must keep up with private sector growth in the city. He listed four metrics by which in his opinion a great city should be measured: police recruit classes, school funding per student, neighborhood infrastructure investments, and affordable housing units created.Â
Read the full story
Governor Bill Lee said Saturday that the special session he called for on April 21 in the wake of the Covenant Presbyterian School shooting to push through a package of gun control measures dubbed “red flag laws” will likely convene after the July 4th holiday.
“There is broad agreement that dangerous, unstable individuals who intend to harm themselves or others should not have access to weapons,” he said in his original April statement.
Read the full story
State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) will have an opportunity to seek election victories in their respective districts after their expulsions from the State House earlier this month. Nashville Metro Council and Shelby County Commission both voted unanimously to appoint Jones and Pearson to serve as their own interim replacements in Districts 52 and 86.
These appointments are only temporary, as special elections must take place to decide who will serve the remainder of Jones’s and Pearson’s terms.Â
Read the full story
Governor Bill Lee signed a bill on Friday that introduces a new exception to the limits on abortions in the State of Tennessee. The bill created an amendment to the previous law that allows a physician to perform an abortion in certain circumstances that put the mother’s life physically in danger.
Read the full story
In a new release on Thursday, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) announced March 2023 decreases in the unemployment rates in all but one county. Meigs County, a rural area situated between Chattanooga and Knoxville with a population of around 13,000, was the only one of 95 counties that saw an increase in its unemployment figure – by 0.7 percent.
Meigs County also had the highest unemployment rate of any county, with 5.6 percent. Most of the other top ten highest unemployment rates were in rural counties, including Bledsoe, Haywood, Lake, Scott, Clay, Cocke, Decatur, Lauderdale, and Grundy Counties.
Read the full story
In an email exchange late Wednesday night into Thursday morning, American Classical Education (ACE) CEO Joel Schellhammer called into question the originality of Maury County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Lisa Ventura’s report assessing American Classical Academy Maury’s (ACAM) application. As a result, says Mr. Schellhammer, ACE is “highly concerned about the integrity of the Maury County School Review Committee’s evaluation of [its] application.”
Maury County School Board Member Steve McGee told The Tennessee Star that “there’s a good possibility it could have affected the outcome [of the vote] had we known everything that was available.”Â
Read the full story
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation announced on Wednesday a series of new grants for localities “in the form of drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure grants.” The $232 million in grant funding will come from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), also known as COVID Stimulus Package. Tennessee was originally given nearly $4 billion from the ARPA to combat the effects of COVID-19.
Governor Lee touted the announcement as a boon for local water districts. “These grants will address important water infrastructure needs for local communities across Tennessee. We look forward to the improvements these projects will bring, and we commend the communities who have gone through the application process,” he said in a statement.
Read the full story
COLUMBIA, Tennessee – The Maury County Board of Education narrowly rejected the application by American Classical Education to operate a charter school in the county in a vote of 6-5.Â
An application review committee made a presentation about the different strengths and deficiencies of the school’s application in three different areas of qualification. The committee found that the school’s academic, operational, and financial plans only partially met the criteria of the rubric and thus recommended that the board deny the American Classical Academy Maury’s initial application.Â
Read the full story
The Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board (COB) held what could be its final meeting Monday night as a bill to disband the authority awaits Governor Bill Lee’s signature. The measure comes after months of criticism of the Board’s makeup and activity.
State Executive Director of the Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition, Aaron Gulbransen told The Tennessee Star, “Nashville’s Community Oversight Board and those like it in other localities have been lambasted by individuals on both the Right and the Left. I think the Tennessee General Assembly made the right call regarding the legislation they passed.” Previously, Gulbransen was a senior reporter at The Star.Â
Read the full story