Nashville

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Referendum supporters have counter-arguments to most of those. The signalization plan would reduce commute times by 10 percent, Briggs said, and could not be rolled out quickly without the new funding. Bus ridership is increasing, and new cross-town routes enabled by developing transit centers around the county would help people commute without transferring downtown. Additionally, supporters emphasize that establishing dedicated funding for transit will help the city bring more than $1 billion in federal funding back to Nashville, and the zoning reform elements of those applications are not specific demands and account for a small portion of only some of the programs.

The conversation broke into a debate at the District 26 meeting when Marcia Masulla, a representative of the independent campaign supporting the referendum, used the Q&A time to ask Evans what her alternative plan was.

“We all admit and recognize that Nashville has made a lot of mistakes,” Masulla said. “Are you suggesting an alternative plan, or are you saying just stick our head in the ground and wait another eight to 10 years? Traffic is not going to get better. Things are not going to get better if we do nothing. We’ve learned that.”

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Republican Congressman Mark Green has filed for divorce from his wife of 35 years after having an affair, according to a dispatch from his wife.

In a note obtained by the Banner, Camilla Green accuses her husband of having an affair with a 32-year-old woman after being corrupted by his time in Congress, warning that his peers may become “intoxicated with power and adoration.”

“He is living life greatly deceived. I have offered reconciliation, and he wants nothing of it and has insisted on a divorce. Satan has rewritten our marriage in his mind,” she wrote. Multiple sources tell the Banner that the letter was sent to members of Congress.

Rep. Green asked for privacy after the note was released, but did not address the validity of the affair.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19643632

> Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240911120039/https://www.propublica.org/article/russell-maze-nashville-medical-examiner-recants-testimony

Bus ridership in Nashville has been rebounding after dramatic reductions seen nationwide during the height of the pandemic. And officials say the latest numbers show overall trips have surpassed pre-COVID levels.

WeGo says its strongest improvements are being seen on its bus route connecting to the airport (Route 18), and on some of the routes with the most frequent service, like those on Murfreesboro (55), Dickerson (23), and Nolensville (52) pikes. In the last part of 2023, ridership was up 6% compared to the prior year.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18924931

> Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240822113428/https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/franklin-politics/a-white-supremacist-warned-me-to-comply-with-his-demands-or-else-now-hes-in-federal-custody

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18310079

> The brazen appearance of white supremacist groups in Nashville left the city grappling with how to confront hateful speech without violating First Amendment protections. > > They first arrived at the beginning of July: dozens of masked white supremacists, shuffling out of U-Hauls, to march through Nashville carrying upside-down American flags. > > A week later, members of a separate neo-Nazi group, waving giant black flags with red swastikas, paraded along the city’s famed strip of honky-tonks and celebrity-owned bars. The neo-Nazis poured into the historic Metro courthouse to disrupt a City Council meeting, harassed descendants of Holocaust survivors and yelled racist slurs at young Black children performing on a downtown street. > > The appearance of white nationalists on the streets of a major American city laid bare the growing brazenness of the two groups, the Patriot Front and the Goyim Defense League. Their provocations enraged and alarmed civic leaders and residents in Nashville, causing the city to grapple with how to confront the groups without violating free speech protections. > > Non-paywall link

Hey all, I'm visiting Nashville (Brentwood) with my dad this next week and was hoping for some local input on fun things to do, places to see, etc… One thing I'd really like to find is a good beer bar (wide selection, especially local offerings) that has trivia either Tuesday or Wednesday night. Good places to eat during the week would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance! 🤙

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17681956

> Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240718111142/https://www.newschannel5.com/news/the-only-way-to-appeal-an-eviction-in-tennessee-is-pay-an-entire-years-rent-upfront

From Jefferson to Davidson to Shelby Counties, Tennessee has a housing affordability problem as the demand for new homes has outpaced supply, a new report from the state’s intergovernmental agency details.

Since 2019, Tennessee’s median home price has risen by 44%, surpassing the national average of 34% as tracked by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The problem isn’t isolated to fast-growing counties and cities, the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) said in its report approved by commission members last week, but across the state, adding more people are seeking to buy a limited supply of homes, driving up prices and putting the cost “out of reach for many.”

TACIR identified zoning, particularly single-family zoning, as one of the driving factors impacting the number of new homes that are built.

Single-family zoning is a type of land regulation that prevents homeowners from building more than one housing unit on a property. This type of regulation makes it harder for developers to build apartments or even split properties into multiple units. It ultimately restricts the number of people who can live in certain neighborhoods and communities, creating intense competition for fewer homes and driving up prices.

Zoning has become a bipartisan issue, with states like Democratic-controlled California and Republican-controlled Montana adopting laws requiring city and county governments to remove many of the regulations around building new homes.

Ron Shultis, a policy researcher with the conservative think tank Beacon Center of Tennessee, said the state’s single-family zoning creates a housing affordability crisis and that rents are increasing slower in cities like Minneapolis, which have abolished the policy.

“You can see the results when you put in best practices and allow for essentially the market to do what it does best, which is to meet a demand,” Shultis said.

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Around a year ago, the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) gathered for a meeting. A new state law had just been passed to eliminate the OPA’s civilian counterpart — the Community Oversight Board — and the meeting was called to address how that would affect internal investigations into police misconduct allegations.

Five years after more than 134,000 Nashvillians had voted to create the Community Oversight Board, establishing a mechanism for previously unprecedented external police accountability in the city, Tennessee Republicans passed a law abolishing such bodies throughout the state. While Nashville officials quickly made plans to form a new entity, the Community Review Board, in its place, the law guaranteed that such a replacement would have a significantly diminished oversight capacity.

So, last year, OPA Director Kathy Morante called together her staff and invited Deputy Chief Chris Gilder to the meeting. But rather than calling him forward to discuss the implications of the new law on the OPA’s work, Morante used the occasion to celebrate the work Gilder had done behind the scenes, along with Assistant Chief Mike Hagar, to help get the law passed. She presented him with a small, engraved crystal trophy to mark his apparent accomplishments in reducing outside accountability for Nashville police.

That allegation is one of many found in a scathing 61-page complaint written by former OPA Lieutenant Garet Davidson, who retired in January this year. The document was the subject of a heated Community Review Board meeting earlier this week, at which members expressed outrage at the allegations within it but largely refrained from detailing them at the urging of a Metro attorney. Davidson also filed the complaint with the OPA and sent it to Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office. CRB leader calls for federal investigation

After local media outlets, including the Banner, started obtaining unredacted copies, the MNPD released a redacted version of the document Thursday evening with some personal information omitted.

In an email, the MNPD stated that the complaint was under investigation by the OPA, which is, itself, notably the main subject of the complaint.

“We will look at whether our administrative processes for internal investigation and discipline need any refinement,” said Police Chief John Drake in a written statement.

The department did not address, or deny, one of the complaint’s most significant allegations: that members of MNPD’s command staff participated in the effort to gut civilian oversight of the police, with the full awareness of the chief.

Davidson makes numerous other allegations and cites various instances of what he sees as improper conduct by the department and its highest-ranking officials. The consistent theme of the document, though, is illustrated by his account of the trophy presentation at last year’s OPA meeting. He presents a picture of a police department that has worked to thwart external accountability, while at the same time eschewing a good-faith pursuit of it internally.

Jill Fitcheard, the executive director of the CRB — who served in the same role for the COB — told the Banner Thursday that she believed the allegations in the complaint call for a federal investigation of MNPD.

“The allegations are serious and an investigation of this complexity should be conducted by an independent external law enforcement agency or law department. I would ask that city officials bring in the US Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice or Federal Law Enforcement Partners to conduct an impartial inquiry into these serious allegations of gross misconduct by officers of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department,” she said.

Policies not consistently applied

Davidson’s complaint describes the MNPD as a place where internal policies are not consistently followed or enforced. In his telling, MNPD higher-ups routinely interfere with internal investigations, “driving disciplinary outcomes based upon their discretion and ulterior motives rather than objective, fact-driven investigations and decisions bound by policy.” One result, according to Davidson, is an environment in which the higher up the command structure an officer climbs, the less accountability they are likely to face.

“MNPD has a culture of protecting high-ranking supervisors, providing better outcomes, interfering with investigations, taking advantage of a manipulatable disciplinary policy, and even not documenting complaints or failures in performance at all so that no written record exists—thus limiting knowledge of misconduct to a very small group of individuals and removing it from public record discovery,” he writes.

Davidson singles out Assistant Chief Hagar, a 34-year MNPD veteran, as a high-ranking MNPD official who has “enabled and perpetuated harm to employees through disparate treatment and sustaining a culture which tolerates certain misconduct.”

In one such example of “rank bias,” Davidson writes that former Deputy Chief Chris Taylor was the subject of an internal investigation stemming from a confrontation at the MNPD’s training academy in which witnesses “believed he was about to assault the training instructor.” Taylor was also under investigation for campaigning to be elected mayor of Sumner County while in uniform “and possibly on duty.” Davidson writes that Taylor was found to be in violation of several MNPD policies as a result of these investigations, but, because of his high rank, he argues, was allowed to resign rather than receive any official sanction.

Elsewhere in the complaint, Davidson contrasts two cases that he says illustrate how rank bias works in the department.

In the first, Davidson writes, Lt. Michael Gooch was investigated for “being at a bar for around nine (9) hours one day, instigating a confrontation following the other patron outside and causing a physical confrontation requiring the other to act in self-defense, and then getting into his truck and driving off despite being obviously intoxicated.” Gooch was later pulled over but not charged with driving under the influence. Despite all this, Davidson writes, Gooch was allowed to enter a rehabilitation program and saw several policy violations rolled into one to obscure the details of his conduct.

In another case, Det. William Thorowgood — two ranks lower than Gooch — was forced to submit a letter of unconditional resignation after he started a physical confrontation with a man outside his home, a video of which was posted online.

“The low-ranking officer received additional pressure and antagonism from leadership to force him out, possibly because there was some actual publicity on his case,” Davidson writes.

The complaint includes other examples of the department failing to uphold its own job performance standards and policies, like the enforcement of body-worn and in-car cameras. According to Davidson, an internal unit that performs monthly audits of officers’ camera footage “noted that they had individuals who had easily half-a-dozen or more of these audits without any actual formal action being taken to address the officer’s repeated violations of policy.”

Davidson also alleges that MNPD supervisors “are discouraged from scoring poor performing officers as failing or are given instructions to change scores” on annual evaluations. He writes about the case of Officer Brian Woodard who failed his annual evaluation in 2017. But that evaluation, Davidson writes, was effectively buried and a subsequent Job Performance Improvement Plan — which Davidson wrote himself for Woodard — was “not fully supervised or implemented” by Woodard’s supervisors.

In Davidson’s telling, this represented the department turning a blind eye to an officer whose conduct was raising red flags. Several years later, that officer was arrested for sexual battery. No policy on sexual harassment

In 2020, then-Mayor John Cooper’s 2020 Policing Policy Commission recommended that the MNPD create a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual assault and sexual harassment. But Davidson writes that the department has failed to follow through on this.

Davidson cites the 2021 case of Lt. Taylor Schmitz. An internal investigation, Davidson writes, found that Schmitz had engaged in “a pattern of mistreatment towards female employees.” The conduct included “how he placed his hands on them and invaded their space, ignored them during meetings” and in one case, “carelessly moved academy equipment” in a way that led to “significant physical injury” to a female training academy officer. Despite all that, Davidson writes, the case was settled without a hearing and Schmitz was not even demoted. He adds that the woman who’d been harmed was not consulted or updated on the case.

Davidson also notes the case of Officer Sean Herman — who was recently fired by the department after he appeared in an OnlyFans video in uniform — groping a woman during a simulated traffic stop. Although he doesn’t include details, Davidson writes that Herman had previously been suspended for violating the department’s harassment and discrimination policy. Reduction in police training

Also among the issues highlighted in Davidson’s complaint is a reduction in training hours for MNPD recruits. He says the department’s training academy has been reduced by one month, from 23 weeks to 19. While he acknowledges that the department is still meeting state standards for police training, he suggests that the department has decided to accept diminished training as a means of combating ongoing struggles with recruitment and retention.

Davidson’s commentary about the department’s training requirements was the one area of his complaint that attracted a specific response from the police chief in his statement Thursday night.

“The State of Tennessee requires a minimum 488 training hours to be certified as a police officer,” Drake said. “New police officers who graduate from MNPD basic training receive 893.5 hours of training, 83% more training hours than required by the state. New lateral officers, those men and women with policing experience who have transitioned their law enforcement careers to Nashville from other agencies, receive a total of 621.5 training hours from us, 27% more than required by the state, on top of what they received from their former agencies. I believe our training process and our instructors are exemplary, and we work to ensure that our training conforms with essential elements that officers need on the streets every day to be personally and collectively successful in serving the Nashville community.” Elimination of external oversight

The elimination of the Community Oversight Board last fall left a bad taste in the mouths of many Nashvillians. That disappointment has been exacerbated by the new Community Review Board’s struggle to serve a similar role with diminished power. Davidson’s complaint arrived as the CRB has been expressing public frustration over the difficulty they’ve faced getting the MNPD to come to the table and discuss an agreement for cooperation between the two agencies.

To learn that, according to Davidson, the MNPD was involved in the process of “crafting and advising” the legislation behind the significant reduction in external oversight of the police prompted unrest at the meeting of the CRB earlier this week. It also produced obvious tension between board members and Metro Legal. The department’s attorney advised members not to discuss the allegations in the complaint, frustrating some members who were already upset by Metro’s decision not to wage a legal fight to defend the COB against the state last year.

Board chair Alisha Haddock told members that the allegations, if true, would vindicate the long-held suspicions of Nashvillians fighting for civilian oversight of the police.

“I think these allegations uncover a lot,” she said. “They uncover that we were not imagining things.”

Over 61 pages, Davidson lays out a detailed case calling into question the accuracy, fairness and effectiveness of the MNPD’s OPA, an office he worked in for 2 years. That office is now, according to Chief Drake, beginning to investigate Davidson’s complaint. To CRB members, and the community advocates who spoke at their recent meeting, that notion is even more problematic than the department being left to police itself in the first place.

“After reading through the complaint, it is my belief that the Office of Professional Accountability should not be involved in or the lead investigation of this magnitude,” the CRB’s Jill Fitcheard told the Banner.

Davidson argues in his complaint that, in allegedly lobbying for less community oversight, “the department has spit in their face by finding a solution which rather effectively overturns the will of Nashvillians.”

As it is now, he writes, “both external and internal mechanisms of addressing police employee misconduct have been reduced or eliminated, and they are on a trajectory to continue to do so.”

“Accountability of those engaging in misconduct is eroding at the MNPD, and this is being driven not by those investigating the misconduct but by a leadership willing to pull the strings to get the results they want, rather than the results the facts and public demand,” he writes.

Paywall-free link here: https://archive.ph/jluc3

Driving from one end of Nashville's East Bank to the other currently means navigating a disjointed network of streets around parking lots and industrial properties.

A north-south trip requires five turns, according to a vision plan adopted in October 2022. The approximately 550-acre strip of prime land lining the Cumberland River is today cut in half by the concrete wall of the James Robertson Parkway Bridge. Interstate 24 divides the East Bank from the more walkable streets of East Nashville.

Plans to redevelop the underused area into Nashville's newest neighborhood focus heavily on transportation of all types: an improved vehicle grid, dedicated lanes for public transit, pedestrian corridors and bicycle lanes to name a few. A 2-acre plot of city-owned land is slated to become a hub for WeGo bus service, topped by 300 units of affordable housing. A main boulevard running parallel to the river would include extra-wide sidewalks, bus lanes and lanes for slow-moving vehicle traffic, according to the Imagine East Bank Vision Plan.

The "blank slate" nature of the city's East Bank holdings offers unprecedented planning control, something Metro Planning Director Lucy Kempf celebrates. "Future transit" was one of the pillars around which the planning department made core decisions for the land's redesign, a process that took two years. "The way we've thought about the East Bank is that it is a major lynchpin to a number of different existing networks that need to be served, so I would say, firmly, that transit readiness was at the very front of our thinking in developing the plan," Kempf said.

With a new Tennessee Titans stadium under construction and a public-private partnership in place with The Fallon Company to develop an initial 30 acres of city-owned land, a handful of factors and their timing will impact how transportation takes shape over the coming decades:

• The city's ability to acquire land it needs to build the north-to-south arterial boulevard
• Working with the state to bring the James Robertson Parkway Bridge to street level
• The removal of the current Nissan Stadium
• The relocation of the Juvenile Justice Center (planning for a new facility is underway)
• Exploring a reroute of CSX freight tracks

A new grid for more than cars East Bank transportation plans include a wide multimodal boulevard, an extension of the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and multiple projects designed to make the area more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists.

East Bank boulevard The north-south boulevard is currently designed to be about 110 feet in width, featuring extra-wide sidewalks, vehicle lanes with a 25 mph speed limit and lanes dedicated to frequent bus service. "The boulevard has to be, first and foremost, a public place for people," Kempf said. Second Street, which will run parallel to the boulevard, will prioritize pedestrians and cyclists with protected bike lanes and sidewalks, as will Waterside Drive near the riverfront. A pedestrian- and cyclist-exclusive East Bank greenway will connect to Shelby Bottoms Greenway, River North and Frederick Douglass and McFerrin parks in East Nashville.

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WHEN YOU VISIT BOB RITCHIE at his home in the jagged hills outside Nashville, the guy who will likely greet you at the door is a tall, well-dressed, exceedingly polite gentleman who goes by “Uncle Tom.” Because of course he does. Ritchie makes his living as Kid Rock, but a big part of being Kid Rock these days involves doing things that are simultaneously provocative, offensive, and, at least to him, funny. It tracks, then, that a middle-aged white guy who began his career more than three decades ago in thrall of a Black art form, but who has since thrown his lot in with an overwhelmingly white political movement criticized for its racist rhetoric, would have a white butler named after a racial slur aimed at Black people who are overly accommodating to the white establishment. It’s all a little dizzying. Like so much in the world of Kid Rock circa 2024, it leaves you wondering, “Is he serious? Is he fucking with me? Does he himself even know?” ...

In an age when many people have a story about a relative who arrived at Thanksgiving in a red MAGA hat, and shortly thereafter started forwarding BitChute videos and QAnon memes, the idea that a rich white guy would become a die-hard Trump supporter is not exactly shocking. But Ritchie always seemed to be in on the joke of his outrageous Kid Rock persona. These days, though, it’s hard not to wonder who’s at the wheel.

Citing a family emergency in Florida, third party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. arrived four hours late for a Nashville campaign fundraising event on Wednesday.

Kennedy’s “A Night of Comedy” featured comedians including former Saturday Night Live cast members Rob Schneider and Jim Breuer and Russell Brand.

Nicole Shanahan, a veteran of the tech industry and Kennedy’s running mate, took the stage just before 11 p.m., followed by Kennedy, who spoke to the crowd — which had thinned significantly since the 7 p.m. start time — for less than 15 minutes. Kennedy did not address any themes of his campaign.

Kennedy, who is on the presidential ballot in six states, has not qualified for Tennessee’s ballot. The deadline to qualify for the November election is August 15.

Just like Florida Georgia Line itself, the bro-country duo’s Nashville bar is kaput. FGL House, which first opened its doors in June 2017 with a ribbon cutting by members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, has closed and will be replaced by a new Lainey Wilson venture.

The shuttering of FGL House marks the first country-star branded bar of the modern era to close in Nashville. TC Restaurant Group, which operates bars by the likes of Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, and, formerly, Florida Georgia Line, will partner with Wilson to create Bell Bottoms Up.

Wilson announced the opening of Bell Bottoms Up, set for this summer, on Tuesday. “I’ve always wanted to create a destination for all my fans to visit and create new memories at, in the heart of Country music city. So, to have a permanent destination in Nashville, is such a dream come true,” she said in a statement. “I can’t wait for all my Wild Horses to get to experience my home away from home.”

Wilson’s entre into Nashville’s Lower Broadway is a welcome bit of female representation in an entertainment district dominated by bro bars. (Morgan Wallen will open his “This Bar” over Memorial Day weekend.) It’s also the latest in a string of high-profile announcements for the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year: Her single “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” went Number One at country radio this week, she launched a collaboration with Coors Light, and she joined Keith Urban on his new song “Go Home W U.”

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred made one thing clear: An MLB expansion team is not coming to Nashville — or anywhere — anytime soon.

Manfred said during his annual meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors group at MLB offices Monday that he anticipates having an expansion process in place by 2029, when his term as commissioner ends.

Add in the time needed for the process to play out, time for a stadium to be built or brought to MLB standards, and you're talking at least another couple of years beyond 2029.

Manfred balked when asked specifically about the viability of Nashville as a candidate for expansion.

"I have never identified particular cities as targets," he said. "We need an Eastern time zone and either a Mountain or Western time zone (city), just in terms of making the format work in the best possible way.

"I truly believe we're going to have multiple candidates in both categories."

Across 94 pages, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell has laid out a proposal to transform the city’s transportation systems.

The $3.1 billion proposal would establish dedicated funding — raised through a half-cent sales tax increase — to construct new sidewalks and bike lanes, update traffic signals, build safer pedestrian crossings, increase bus service frequency, and, in some areas, construct dedicated bus-only lanes.

Before appearing for voters on the Nov. 5 ballot, the proposal will undergo an independent financial audit and require approval from the state’s comptroller and Nashville’s Metro Council.

The announcement was no surprise. Murmurs of a referendum have circulated since well before Mayor Freddie O’Connell took office. As one of only four top 50 cities in the country without dedicated funding for transit, Nashville can only get dedicated funding through a referendum, which requires the mayor’s office to build out a plan and present it to the voters with a price tag attached.

In 2018, the $5.4 billion price tag on Mayor Megan Barry’s plan proved too much for Nashvillians to stomach, and 65 percent of voters said no. But concerns about traffic have only grown in the years since, with Nashville even topping a recent list of worst cities for commuting in the country, so the issue was at the top of voters’ minds when they elected O’Connell in September.

“Access to transit and commuting by bike were the keys to my own pathway to home ownership,” said O’Connell at a press conference Thursday morning where he announced his office’s decision to pursue a referendum. “More people deserve that opportunity. But my story shows how much of this isn’t about me. It’s about the people who live here and whether they can afford to stay here.”

Federal agents raided the homes and seized the phones of three vocal critics of House Speaker Cameron Sexton in connection with a“cyberstalking” investigation, documents show.

The search warrant targeted Cade Cothren, former chief of staff to former House Speaker Glen Casada, both of whom are set to go on trial in March on federal corruption charges. A judge handling the case ordered U.S. prosecutors Friday to explain the seizure of Cothren’s filing claims federal agents raided his Nashville home shortly before 6 a.m. Tuesday and took four cell phones, using a search warrant in connection with a “cyberstalking” investigation.

The warrant also targeted Brian Manookian of Brentwood in Williamson County and Larry Grimes, according to documents. Manookian has been highly critical of House Speaker Cameron Sexton in online posts, accusing him of living in Nashville instead of Crossville where he claims to live and targeting his personal life. Grimes is a former Republican Executive Committee member believed to be an X account critical of Sexton.

Sexton has been cooperating with federal agents in their investigation of Cothren in a Capitol Hill corruption probe.

Cothren contends the search warrant served on him and others is “overbroad and constitutionally invalid,” claiming it is “limitless in scope” and allows the governor “to search within every nook and cranny” of his cell phone for evidence related to a “cyberstalking” investigation and more.

Cothren filed a motion with U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson to quash a search warrant and requested an immediate protective order prohibiting the processing or review of materials.

U.S. attorneys said in a court document filed Thursday the phones taken from Cothren and other individuals in raids early Tuesday could provide evidence in a corruption probe of Casada and Cothren and sought to postpone their March trial.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell indicated Friday that his administration will decide whether or not to pursue a transit referendum by the end of the month.

O’Connell addressed various topics with the media, including the upcoming freeze, his nominations to the embattled Metro Arts Commission and the hiring of Michael Briggs as the director of transportation planning. Although O’Connell did not confirm that a transit referendum will happen this year, he said the administration expects to have the final questions about the feasibility of one answered by the end of this month.

“The things you need to clear are Legal and Financial first and foremost — can we meet all of the conditions that would allow it to be on the ballot in the first place?” said O’Connell. “The next is can the departments — particularly WeGo and NDOT — support the planning process that would meet the financial legal test. And I think we’ll know that by the end of the month.”

While NDOT personnel work in 12-hour shifts 24 hours a day until the roads are passable, there’s only so much that crews can do when temperatures reach single digits.

“We’re dealing with extreme cold,” NDOT Director of Strategic Communications Cortnye Stone told the Banner. “13 degrees is kind of the magic number for the products that we use on the roadways to work. And we’re colder than that. So until temps get up a little bit, we’re going to struggle to get roads completely clear.”

NDOT encourages people to stay off the roads if possible, especially for the next 12 to 24 hours. The city has 32 snow plows working to get 28 primary routes and 28 secondary routes cleared. And as a reminder, just because a vehicle has four-wheel drive or “all-weather tires” doesn’t mean it’s easy or safe to navigate snowy streets.

Forecast: Today, MLK DAY: Very Cold, Snow Showers |High: 19 | N-5 Tonight: Mo. Cloudy, Scat. Shower Showers Early |Low: 8, Wind Chills Below Zero at Times |NW 5-10 Tomorrow: Mo. Cloudy Start, Few Flurries then Pt. Cloudy|High: 19| NW 5-10

In Depth: Winter Storm Warning in Effect until 6am Tuesday for most of our area. Some counties in West TN and South Central Kentucky are under a Winter Weather Advisory

Stay warm out there, y'all!

A couple of folks walk through a quiet Printers Alley that waiting for nightfall to come alive on Dec. 23, 1993. Plans are underway to spruce up the Nashville landmark to attract some of the tourism expected by several new downtown ventures coming, like the Wildhorse Saloon and Hard Rock Café.

https://www.tennessean.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2023/12/20/nashville-then-30-years-ago-in-december-1993/71959058007/

In the latest development for control of Music City, a three-judge panel has sided with Metro Nashville, blocking a state law that would have replaced nearly half of the members of the local sports authority with state-appointed members.

The judges issued the temporary injunction Friday morning — three weeks after state and Metro attorneys presented arguments.

The decision marks the fourth time this year that courts have sided with Metro Nashville in its legal fights with the state.

"Today's unanimous ruling to enjoin the Sports Authority Takeover Act is a clear victory that protects the constitutional rights of all local governments against overreach by the State," Metro Director of Law Wally Dietz said Friday morning in a statement. "Four different three-judge panels — with judges from across Tennessee — have all ruled unanimously that the legislature violated the Tennessee Constitution four different times when it passed legislation that targeted only Metropolitan Nashville."

Dietz said that Metro does not "enjoy suing the State" but that the city remains "ready to protect the rights of Metropolitan Nashville and the people who live here in the hope that 2024 results in an improved relationship between the State and Metro Nashville."

Mayor Freddie O'Connell said Dietz has a "track record of general success" in defending Metro in these constitutional cases, and it's one of the reasons O'Connell's administration asked Dietz to remain head of Metro Legal following former Mayor John Cooper's term.

The elephant in the room remains the battle between the state and Nashville. But with the O’Connell administration’s hiring of Rep. Darren Jernigan (D-Nashville) as the director of legislative affairs and lots of rhetoric surrounding new beginnings with the state, local officials hope the coming session will be less combative.

“We have a new mayor, we have a new vice mayor, 50 percent new council — it is a reset moment and a time to build back relationships,” says Nashville Vice Mayor Angie Henderson.

Some legal battles over state preemption have carried over from the previous administration — top of mind is a battle over legislation that allowed the state to take over the airport authority board. In the first months of O’Connell’s administration, a three-judge panel ruled that bill unconstitutional, leading to a dramatic reversion to the old Metro-appointed board. But not only has the state already expressed its intent to appeal the ruling, Sen. Paul Bailey (R-Sparta) has already said he plans to file legislation to take over other airport authority boards around the state, which would sidestep the Home Rule provisions that Metro Legal has used to argue against legislation targeting Nashville.

But while some issues may already be under litigation, Henderson hopes that other less dramatic but arguably more impactful issues may present opportunities for bipartisan action.

“I would like to see us, as a region, make some clear advancements on transportation,” says Henderson. “Just a few weeks ago, the mayor and I were together at the Transportation Policy Board meeting there, chatting with and talking to folks in leadership at TDOT, so I think we have a lot of opportunities in some of our shared spaces and corridors.”

Earlier this month, Chattanooga was awarded a grant from the Department of Transportation to fund a study of what it would take to install an Amtrak line linking Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta. This came following the conclusion of a TACIR study in June that, aside from pursuing the grant, also recommended various actions the General Assembly could take to prepare the state for regional transit, including establishing a public transit office. The idea was met with bipartisan enthusiasm.

O’Connell and Dalton both sit on the board of the Tennessee Municipal League, an organization that promotes legislation deemed good for local control, and fights back against legislation that could be preemptive. Dalton says the league has been in conversation with legislators on both sides of the aisle in preparation for the coming session.

“I would hope that as we build relationships, folks in service at the state would be in dialogue with us to get our perspective as a city,” says Henderson. “Coalition building, I think, is really important all across the state because state policy absolutely does affect and have local results — for the good and the bad.”

Nashville Electric Service officials appeared before two Metro Nashville Council committees Monday to defend a $47 million no-bid contract to upgrade the city’s street lights to LED fixtures.

Antonio Carroll, an attorney with Nashville Electric Service (NES), told Metro Council members state law allows the utility provider to use a professional services exemption when choosing a street light contractor. ...

But by not soliciting other offers, Nashville will spend more money and the project is estimated to take longer to complete compared to cities like Memphis and Philadelphia, which signed similar street light conversion deals in 2022.

The final NES cost is roughly $851 per light replacement. In contrast, a similar project undertaken by Memphis’ utility provider last year will cost it $608 per fixture, 29% less than what NES is paying.

“(W)e have no help and really if you get assaulted, you’re going to get assaulted until the inmates get tired of beating you because there are really no (correctional officers) available to come help you out,” one officer wrote.

SmileDirectClub, the international direct-to-consumer dentistry and orthodonistry company that sold teeth aligners, has shut down less than three months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The telehealth company, [which was] founded in 2014 [and went public in 2019], said in a statement posted on its website Friday that it “has made the incredibly difficult decision to wind down its global operations, effective immediately.” It thanked customers for their “support and letting us improve over 2 million smiles and lives.”

Because a typical SmileDirectClub teeth-straightening course takes 4-6 months, some existing customers may be stranded in the middle of treatment.

Potential tornadoes were reported in Middle Tennessee on Saturday as severe weather left heavily damaged structures and homes, downed trees and widespread power outages in its wake.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for multiple areas across Middle Tennessee on Saturday afternoon and evening, including Clarksville, parts of Nashville, Madison, Hendersonville and Gallatin. A tornado watch for most of the Middle Tennessee until 7 p.m. Saturday as heavy storms packing high winds move through the area.

Infrastructure in Nashville is like a friggin 3rd world country.

Where's the most happening parties this Saturday night? We're dressing up in costume and looking for a huge crowd and lots of fun. Yes, we'll be on Broadway, which is dumb, i know, but where else you gonna go?

I'm on the board of a mission that works out of the basement of First Wesleyan on Shelby Ave. in East Nashville. We're offering paid work for unemployed/underemployed people in Nashville.

If you know someone who needs some work and would like a community, please send them our way.

If you have an interest in helping mentor folk, we'd love to talk about that, too.

We'd also love it if you'd contribute a job to our database. We all have little jobs around our homes and businesses that we could pay someone to do. Paying a neighbor is a great way to build stronger communities.

We meet Wednesdays at 5:30p and you can learn more about us here: https://christouranchor.org/about/

I just want to help this new community take off! I’ve lived here since 2009 - let’s hear about Nashville memories, new or old.

I’ll start - anyone remember Lake Nashville? That giant hole off of West End pretty close to what is now Cook Out? Was empty for nearly 8 years before finally being developed about two years ago.

Or maybe good ole Paradise Park? That was the only place I’d still visit downtown.

As far as new goes, if you haven’t been to Buttermilk Ranch you are missing out. Best eggs Benedict of my life.

Let’s hear some more!

And it never has.

Welcome to those migrating over from Reddit!