From the #TennesseeLookout: AT&T donates ~$9.6m to the legislature, gets a nine-figure tax break as a result.

The vote was unanimous, so if you don't like this outcome, your state representative or senator voted for it.
#ATT #Tennessee
https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/08/17/att-the-broadband-conundrum-and-a-204-million-tax-exemption/

Good coverage by the #TennesseeLookout on the TN Supreme Court's ruling that denied a man voting rights in #Tennessee even though his VA felony conviction was subject to clemency and his VA voting rights were restored, particularly of the dissent by Justice Sharon Lee.

#TennesseeLaw #VotingRights

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/07/13/tennessee-supreme-court-rules-in-voting-rights-case/

"Jill Fitcheard, the executive director of Metro Nashville Community Oversight Department, told the Lookout that latest discussions with Metro’s legal department indicate the city won’t file a lawsuit challenging the new state law [eliminating police oversight boards], which was signed by Gov. Bill Lee Wednesday and set to go into effect later this year."

#TennesseeLookout #Tennessee #Nashville

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/05/18/nashville-unlikely-to-sue-over-state-eliminating-police-oversight-board-airport-suit-coming/

The #Nashville Metro Council voted to tweak the stadium deal to send more ticket sales to taxpayers, and the Titans et al. are desperate to kill it.

The deal is still bad, even with that language, but the fact that the team and stadium boosters don't want even that amount of ticket sales to taxpayers should tell you everything about the people promoting the stadium.

Good coverage by Adam Friedman of #TennesseeLookout.

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/17/titans-stadium-deal-opponents-slip-in-language-to-redirect-funds-to-taxpayers-pandemonium-ensues/

For the record, this is the risk protection bill that the Tennessee House refused to take up yesterday.

https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB1574&ga=113&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=933d6790-dbd3-4f5c-afb0-e57e05268e03

The #TennesseeLookout says the House is back to "business as usual" and I can't disagree.

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/13/tennessee-gun-lobby-throws-water-on-governors-protective-order-plan

Steve Smith is a chaos gremlin.

"Tootsie’s Entertainment LLC, the company behind several honky tonks on Lower Broadway, is pushing legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly to remove all bars from oversight by Nashville’s beer board.

"The legislation, filed last week, would block Metro Nashville’s authority to regulate all bars in the downtown tourism development zone and instead give oversight to the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission."

#TennesseeLookout

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/03/14/tootsies-honky-tonk-owner-pushes-bill-to-exempt-lower-broadway-bars-from-nashville-oversight/

If you aren't familiar with the many ways the Tennessee legislature has shortchanged TSU, the #TennesseeLookout has also covered that process. Note that the $250M in make-up funds to TSU still doesn't close the funding gap, and those funds can't be used for the university's greatest current need—housing.

Rather than having the comptroller go after TSU, the legislature could have corrected its historical funding inequity and actually helped TSU serve its students.

https://tennesseelookout.com/2021/04/05/report-state-cost-tsu-tens-of-millions-in-land-grant-funding/

Bruce Barry tells the truth about #Nashville in the latest #TennesseeLookout op-ed:

"Moving here is moving to a place largely run by developers for developers. ... Sure, when pressed they talk the talk of housing and education and poverty and transit, but there is scarcely any serious strategic long-term thinking or planning in the highest levels of city government and civic leadership about any of this."

Read the whole thing!

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/01/30/a-tale-of-two-cities/

From Sam Stockard of the #TennesseeLookout:

"House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who is from Sumner County, is sponsoring a bill to cut the size of Nashville’s Metro Council from 40 to 20 members. Sumner County recently increased the size of its council from 12 to 24, meaning each county commissioner represents about 8,356 people; Nashville’s council members represent more than 20,100 constituents each."

https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/01/13/stockard-on-the-stump-metro-council-get-thee-to-a-nunnery/

#Nashville #Tennessee

This is a good article by #TennesseeLookout columnist Bruce Barry, and not just because he quoted me. But I think my question is the one everyone should be asking: "How can the council make any decision on this sort of proposed deal without knowing much better granular details about the numbers?"

The answer is that the Metro Council cannot and should not. The Council should vote no.

https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/12/13/not-ready-for-takeoff/
#Nashville #Stadium #NissanStadium

This is a good article by #TennesseeLookout columnist Bruce Barry, and not just because he quoted me. But I think my question is the one everyone should be asking.

"Senate Bill 9 ... would conceal law enforcement investigative reports, 911 recordings, photographs and any other records connected to a death if law enforcement agencies determine it was not the result of a crime."

With respect to the Judd family, who are reportedly proponents of this bill, this is bad policy and would hamper discovery in civil wrongful death actions.

Good coverage by the Tennessee Lookout, by the way.

https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/12/05/senate-majority-leader-sponsors-bill-to-close-public-records-in-non-criminal-death-investigations/

#Tennessee #Law #TennesseeLookout #OpenRecords