Tag: Metro Nashville

Family of Woman Shot Near Belmont Campus Sues University, Nashville, and Tennessee for ‘Negligence and Recklessness’

Tom Pappert
Jillian Ludwig

The parents of Jillian Ludwig filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Belmont University, the State of Tennessee, and Metro Nashville after the 18-year-old student was fatally shot near the university’s Nashville campus last year.

Ludwig was allegedly shot by Shaquille Taylor, who police say fired a weapon at public housing near Belmont after he was previously released from jail on unrelated firearm charges. Authorities deemed Taylor mentally incompetent, with doctors claiming he has the mental capacity of a small child. Taylor’s former coworker disputed this claim.

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FBI Used Confidential Human Sources, Undercover Agents to Monitor Alleged Nashville Energy Bomber for Months Prior to Arrest

Tom Pappert
Skyler Philippi, Nashville Electric Company

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice announced on Monday the arrest of 24-year-old Skyler Philippi, who prosecutors claim plotted to use a weapon of mass destruction to bomb a Nashville energy facility, as part of what Attorney General Merrick Garland called a “violent white supremacist ideology.”

In his Monday statement, the attorney general revealed, “the FBI had already compromised his plot,” and charging documents reveal the federal agency first gained knowledge of Philippi in June.

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Fisk University Professor Decries Increase in White Population in Nashville

Peter D'Abrosca
Shirley Rainey-Brown, PhD

A Fisk University professor decried the fact that Nashville’s population oof “whites” increased last year.

“Yes, the Nashville demographics are changing,” Shirley Rainey-Brown, the dean of Fisk University’s School of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, told The Tennessean. “We are seeing an influx of whites over other minorities, and I think it has to do with the type of jobs and industries that are coming here.”

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Nashville Announces It Will Test Some Beer Sellers for Selling Without Checking ID

Matthew Giffin
Drinking alcohol

Nashville will test some of its beer sellers by having someone attempt to purchase beer without presenting identification.

The Metro Beer Permit Board announced Monday it will conduct compliance checks by having an individual over 21 years old enter establishments with off-sale beer permits and try to purchase beer without an ID, according to a Nashville government news release. The board wants to enhance compliance with state law among sellers with off-sale permits.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Reportedly Planning Mass Transit Referendum After ‘Car-Free Streets’ Executive Order

Tom Pappert
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is reportedly planning to introduce a major mass transit project this year that will need to be approved by voters in November, and would likely require an increase to the city’s sales tax.

A report published Monday by Axios claims O’Connell is days away from announcing a “mass transit funding proposal” that will be “less downtown and tourist-focused than” the proposal previously defeated by voters in Metro Nashville in 2018.

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Two Metro Nashville Schools Where Students Allegedly Brought Weapons Received ‘D’s’ on Their State Performance Reviews

Tom Pappert

Two Metro Nashville students were arrested on Wednesday as a result of separate incidents at two Metro Nashville schools involving firearms. Both schools, a middle school and high school, received D grades by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE).

A 14-year-old student was arrested on Wednesday at Hunters Lane High School after another student reportedly told school administrators he suspected a firearm in the other student’s backpack. School administrators searched the backpack and found a semi-automatic pistol, prompting the student’s arrest and transport to a juvenile detention facility.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Signs Executive Order for ‘Car-Free Streets,’ Expanding Initiative Started by Disgraced Mayor Megan Barry

Tom Pappert
Nashville Mayor

Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell signed 44 executive orders on Friday, including Executive Order 45, which expands Metro’s Green and Complete Streets policy with calls for the city to close some streets to vehicles and “serve the most vulnerable users of the transportation network.” The policy was originally introduced by disgraced former Mayor Megan Barry in 2016.

The text of O’Connell’s order acknowledges inspiration from Barry’s Executive Order 31, signed in 2016, which aimed to “[a]pproach every transportation improvement project phase with the purpose to create greener, safer, and more accessible streets for all users” to “enhance environmental quality” of Metro Nashville.

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Metro Nashville Government Posts Job Listing for ‘DEI Education Trainer’

Tom Pappert

The Metro Nashville and Davidson County government placed a job listing for a “DEI Education Trainer” on Friday, who will work a “flexible/hybrid” schedule for about $56,000 per year.

Posted on Friday, the job listing indicates the full-time position is for the government’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion division, and the applicant will be “responsible for expanding the current training efforts” of the city’s DEI office “and promoting alignment of Metro’s equity goals.”

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Tennessee Has 30 Days to Appeal After Court Restores Previous Metro Nashville Airport Authority Board

Tom Pappert

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) has 30 days to appeal the Tuesday decision from a three-judge panel that ruled the legislature violated the state constitution with its new law governing the Metro Nashville Airport Authority.

Metro Nashville filed the lawsuit after the Tennessee Legislature passed a law changing how the board’s members are selected, with the new law allowing the mayor, governor, and House and Senate speakers to each select two appointees. Tuesday’s ruling invalidated this law, and restored the board’s previous members who were all appointed by Nashville’s mayor and approved by the Metro Nashville council, effective immediately.

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Court Filing: The Tennessee Star and Others Argue Metro Nashville Has No Case in Denying Release of Covenant Killer’s Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

In a new court filing, attorneys for Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Tennessee Star, argue that the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davison County and intervenors in a public records lawsuit have no right to keep the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related records from the public.

The memorandum of law, filed with Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles, asserts the Metro Nashville Police Department cannot “play ‘hide the ball’ with the reason for denial and come in later, raising wholly new and unrelated denial reasons.”

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Nashville Council Delays Vote on New $2.2 Billion Titans Stadium, Adds Fee Increase

The Center Square

A second vote on the final documents for a potential $2.2 billion new Tennessee Titans stadium was delayed one meeting after discussion of some amendments early Wednesday morning.

That means the bill could get a second vote April 18 and then receive its final approval at a late April meeting. Metro Nashville has a rule it cannot approve bonds while the budget is on the table, which is expected to happen before the body’s first May meeting.

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Metro Nashville to Backstop $150 Million to $250 Million of Titans Stadium Bonds with General Fund

The Center Square

Metro Nashville plans to backstop between $150 million and $250 million of the $760 million in revenue bonds taken out by the Metro Nashville Sports Authority for a new estimated $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium if the deal is approved in April by both the sports authority and the Metro Nashville Council.

Financial details of the deal were presented to the sports authority Tuesday after a similar meeting scheduled for Monday with the city’s finance committee was postponed following the Covenant School shooting that left seven dead.

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New Titans Lease Has ‘First-Class’ Clause That Led to $1.829 Billion City Obligation Claim

The Center Square
Nissan Stadium

A “first-class” condition requirement was at the forefront of Tennessee Titans Chief Executive Officer Burke Nihill claiming Metro Nashville would owe $1.839 billion in renovation costs at Nissan Stadium.

But a new lease agreement with the team for a new estimated $2.1 billion stadium, set to open in 2026, would also include a similar “first-class” requirement. The final documents were released publicly Wednesday before they are scheduled to receive a first reading at Tuesday’s Metro Nashville Council meeting.

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Meharry Medical College and City of Nashville Agree to Settle Lease Dispute Through 2027

Kaitlin Housler

The city of Nashville and Meharry Medical College have reached a lease agreement through 2027 for the buildings on Meharry’s campus that house Nashville General Hospital.

In the agreement, all outstanding issues are resolved, and a new rent structure is established for the buildings Meharry leases to the city’s safety net hospital, Nashville General Hospital, Nashville Mayor John Cooper, announced in a press release.

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Americans for Prosperity Calls Out Oracle for Reported Layoffs While Receiving Taxpayer Money

Kaitlin Housler

Following a report that tech company Oracle has begun laying off workers from its Nashville location, the libertarian conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is calling on state and local leaders to scrutinize the company especially after it received “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money.”

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Metro Nashville Denies Release of Titans Stadium Communications, Claiming ‘Deliberative Process’

The Center Square
Nissan Stadium

Metro Nashville denied an open records request for its internal communications related to Nashville’s East Bank, citing a “deliberative process privilege” exemption to the state’s open records law.

Justin Hayes, a Nashville resident who requested those records, only received notice of the exemption after following up on the records request several times. Initially, Hayes was just provided email threads from communications staff commenting on story links.

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Legislation That Would Make It More Difficult for Metro Nashville Citizens to Amend Charter Fails

Aaron Gulbransen
Jeff Yarbro

Legislation that would make it more difficult for Metro Nashville citizens to amend their city charter failed in a key Senate committee and is effectively dead for the year.

SB2544, which failed to pass out of the Tennessee Senate State and Local Government Committee, proposed to eliminate exemptions to the requirements for recall, referendum, or initiative in Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2 that allow Metro Nashville’s charter to govern the signature requirement process.

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Democrat-Sponsored Legislation Would Make It More Difficult for Metro Nashville Citizens to Amend Charter

Aaron Gulbransen

Democrat-sponsored legislation that would make it markedly more difficult for Metro Nashville citizens to amend the Metro charter is set to be considered by a key state Senate committee.

The measure increases petitions signature requirements to trigger Metropolitan charter amendment ballot referendums in Davidson County. The Metro Charter currently allows citizens to propose charter amendments by ballot initiative for public referendum. The required number of petitions signatures has historically been 10 percent of the voters for the previous general election.

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Nashville Mayor John Cooper Calls on Bordeaux and North Nashville Businesses to Register as Nashville Vendors and Suppliers

Aaron Gulbransen
John Cooper

Nashville Mayor John Cooper is calling on small business owners in Bordeaux and North Nashville to join the participatory budgeting initiative by registering as Metro Nashville vendors and suppliers.

In a statement, Mayor Cooper also said those small business owners should be “ready for competitive procurement opportunities as these projects take shape.”

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Metro Nashville Expands COVID-19 Testing Hours

Aaron Gulbransen

Metro Nashville is expanding COVID-19 testing hours, offering testing on the weekends for the month of January, starting Saturday.

Testing demand has been high. On Monday, nearly 1,300 individuals were tested at the Metro testing centers close to 1,600 were tested on Tuesday. That is only the number of people tested at Metro testing sites. It does not include people who get tested at other sites, like pharmacies, doctor’s offices, at home, or other places.

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Several City Council Districts in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee Likely to Shift

Bradley Vasoli

Metropolitan Nashville’s (MetroNashville) Council, the legislature for the city of Nashville and Davidson County, is currently preparing to consider a second draft of the its newly revised Council-district map.

A number of Nashville Council’s 35 districts stand to change dramatically, particularly with districts losing land mass in the city’s northeast, as population growth there has not kept pace with the city’s southern area.

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Will Continue Requiring Masks, After Nashville Officials Ended the Mask Mandate Last Week

Corinne Murdock

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced last week that they will continue enforcing their mask mandate indefinitely. The announcement came out Friday – the same day that Metro Nashville health officials ended the mask mandate.

The Tennessee Star reported on a recent court ruling that schools lacked the legal authority to impose a mask mandate contrary to state and their local government policy decisions. The Star inquired with MNPS about the relationship between this ruling and their decision to continue the mask mandate. MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted told The Star that the case referenced doesn’t prevent a school district from enacting or enforcing mask requirements. The Star asked if this ruling would jeopardize MNPS’s qualified immunity if parents challenged the mask mandate in court. Braisted responded that MNPS wouldn’t comment on hypothetical legal challenges.

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Tennessee Legislature Passes Bill Changing Davidson County Boundary Line

Corinne Murdock

Part of Davidson County will now go to Wilson County, according to a bill passed by the Tennessee General Assembly this week. As reported by The Tennessee Star, the latest development was the culmination of a lengthy process that began in 2019, undertaken by Davidson County resident Mason Hunter. Hunter’s property was divided between the two counties, and the only accessible driveway was located in Wilson County.

The boundary change received unanimous bipartisan support in both the House and Senate up until the final House vote on the bill. Only four members voted against the change: State Representatives Mark Cochran (R-Englewood), Ron Gant (R-Rossville), Chris Todd (R-Madison County), and Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville). 

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Nashville’s Affirmative Action-Style Business Opportunity Program Doled Out $49 Million for Minority and Women-Owned Businesses – Doesn’t Mention Asians

Corinne Murdock

Nashville government reported that it spent $49 million during the first year of its Equal Business Opportunity (EBO) program – but Asians didn’t make the list. $30 million reportedly went to women business enterprises, and $19 million went to minority business enterprises. The report noted that it had a 250 percent participation increase with Black, Brown, and women-owned subcontractors.

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Biden Recruits Meharry Medical College CEO for COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force

Corinne Murdock

Meharry Medical College CEO and President Dr. James Hildreth was appointed to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. Hildreth and 11 other appointees’ responsibilities will include issuing recommendations on the equitable allocation of COVID-19 resources and relief funds. According to the Biden administration, the task force’s purpose is to remedy unspecified health inequities caused by the pandemic and prevent those inequities in the future.

Since the pandemic began, Hildreth played a central role in advising Metro Nashville officials on COVID-19 responses. This included his support for Metro Nashville Public Schools’ (MNPS) to remain closed for in-person learning last fall. Other doctors and health officials had reportedly informed Metro Nashville and MNPS officials that in-person learning last fall wasn’t only safe, it was necessary for students’ health and well-being. 

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Taxpayers Have No Idea How Much Possible Nissan Stadium Renovation Could Cost

Jason M. Reynolds

While the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Mayor John Cooper are talking about renovating Nissan Stadium and extending the team’s lease, a price tag for taxpayers has not been disclosed.

The franchise and the city announced their discussions last week, The Tennessee Star reported. The negotiations have been going on for some time, but the team said it was making the process public, citing a story by The Tennessean. Something should be known in about six months.

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Three Nashville Women Charged for Hosting Party on Halloween in Violation of COVID-19 Rules

Jason M. Reynolds

Metro Nashville charged three women for hosting a Halloween party that officials say violated COVID-19 restrictions.

Charged were Madilyn Dennington, Bailey Mills and Olivia Noe, according to a story by WKRN. They are residents at a house on Boscobel Street that allegedly hosted the party; authorities received complaints for a loud party there.

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Metro School Board Member and Plaintiff Fran Bush Says Constitutional Lawsuit Against Former Superintendent Dr. Shawn Joseph is Still Pending

Jason M. Reynolds

The lawsuit against former Metro Nashville Public Schools superintendent Dr. Shawn Joseph and the Metro government is still pending, one of the plaintiffs, a school board member, says.

Fran Bush is one of three MNPS school board members who are suing Joseph and the Metro government. The other plaintiffs are board members Jill Speering and Amy Frogge.

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Metro Nashville Council Member Wants People Not Wearing a Mask to Be Charged with Murder or Attempted Murder

Laura Baigert

Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Sharon Hurt said Wednesday during a virtual meeting of the Joint Public Safety and Health Committee that there should be stronger legislation for those not wearing masks and suggested they be charged with murder or attempted murder.

Hurt said that she works for an organization that, “If they pass the virus, then they are tried for murder or attempted murder.”

Hurt thinks the same standard should apply to the general public.

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Host Michael Patrick Leahy and State Senator Kerry Roberts Discuss the Insensitivity of Mayor Cooper’s Property Tax Increase Proposal

Julie Carr

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined in the studio by Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield).

During the second hour, Roberts and Leahy discussed Metro Nashville’s reluctance to cut state costs while marveling at the insensitivity of Mayor John Cooper’s ill-timed property tax increase proposal.

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