Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell reflects on his first-term accomplishments, delivering tangible results for residents, and the challenges he aims to tackle if elected to a second term. He cites the strain on resources during the NES response to the recent ice storm, saying changes are needed:

“I am encouraged by what I’m seeing, but I think there’s still some ways to go to fully restore public confidence. We are trying to be good and responsible partners (with NES)—and good partners hold one another accountable.”

O’Connell also expresses concern over pre-emptive legislative bills granting the state increased authority over Nashville and Memphis, reducing local decision-making power.

He reacts sharply to the GOP-controlled legislature’s redistricting—which split Nashville into three Republican-leaning districts—and to House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s April 24 comment on how he believes Nashville should be governed.

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The U.S. Supreme Court delivered another severe blow to the 1965 Voting Rights Act striking down protections against discrimination aimed at racial minority voters. After the ruling, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted a solid red map calling on the Tennessee legislature to redraw districts to ensure Republicans dominate every election.

Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson represents District 86 which covers Memphis and Shelby County. He says, "This is the only district that's in the entire state that is majority black and is Democratic that ensures representation for the people in our community. Representation they would not get otherwise because those would be all majority white districts. The fact that Marsha Blackburn who is running for governor of this state is proposing this, and other folks who are doing the similar thing, is really worrisome to the representation we deserve and that has been fought for. The reality of this is the use of racism, of bigotry, that created the need for District 9 in the first place have not disappeared. And our right to be able to choose a representative who understands our values, understands our culture, understands our dignity is extremely important. Now we are being told racism will not be viewed by the court, but racism can be used to take away, strip away our voting rights."

Justin J. Pearson is now running for District 9 against incumbent Steve Cohen.

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The episode will air throughout the weekend on NewsChannel 5+ Sat. at 5:30am, 3pm, Sun. at 1am, 9am, 7pm, Mon. at 2:30pm and Tues., 3pm unless pre-empted.

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The State of Tennessee held its third execution since the three-year moratorium investigating the process of lethal injections. Lawyers and advocates are demanding greater transparency about the drugs used and their expiration dates. Harold Wayne Nichols was executed December 11th. Nichols' lawyer, Stephen Ferrell of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee fought in court to obtain information about expiration dates of drugs used during lethal injection. This would give his client crucial guidance when choosing which method of execution to select. Lethal injection was chosen for Nichols.

Given the prison system's history of non-compliance, Ferrell remained skeptical about the efficacy of the drugs use. "They say they are not expired, but don't want to give us a picture of the label with just the expiration date. The judge said that they could remove or cover up, redact all other information." Reverend Stacy Rector, Executive Director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to Death Penalty agrees, "If you read the law, the legislation passed several years ago, this Confidentiality Law that says that the public is not able to know where the drugs are procured or the names of the individuals participating in the executions. That's it. There is no more protected information. Never has been."

Newschannel 5+ can be seen of Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 250, Spectrum/Charter Ch. 182 and over the air on Ch. 5.2. Inside Politics also streams live Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 3pm on our website: https://www.newschannel5.com/live3 as well as the NewsChannel 5 Now app on Connected TVs through Roku, AppleTV, AndroidTV, etc.

The episode will air throughout the weekend on Newschannel 5+ Sat. at 5:30am, 3pm, Sun. at 1am, 9am, 7pm, Mon. at 2:30pm and Tues., 3pm unless pre-empted.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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