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 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."

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The Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Cameron Sexton (R) gives us insight to the last bills passed during this legislative session.

Here are some of the main points.

AIRPORTS- From the 9 member board of the Nashville Airport Authority, 6 state appointments and 3 local appointments. Sexton says, "We put in a lot of money, we have done a lot of things to help the airport, and so we are saying we want some picks on the board. The mayor still has picks, the governor and 2 Speakers have picks. When asked why change the Airport Authority when it is already successful? Sexton added, "It's not a power grab, I would say if you're investing $50, $100, $150 million dollars into something, wouldn't you want to have people on the board to make sure that your investment is doing well?"

AFFORDABILITY- Sexton says that the state has temporarily reduced taxes several times, Cracked down on PBMs, struck down laws preventing hospitals from expanding and created workforce housing. Sexton says, "We are already an affordable state and will continue to be that way."

SCHOOL VOUCHERS AND ESA- Although the state of Tennessee ranks 47th out of 50 states for student funding per capita, Sexton believes private schools with students who already attend private school are justified in receiving the $7530 Education Freedom Scholarship (an increase from last year from $7295) to go directly to pay a portion of private school tuition. The 3.2% increase would remain consistent with per-pupil base increase in the TISA formula, but less per student than what is given to private schools. When it comes to testing, public schools use TCAP, and was required for students using Education Savings Account money for private school, but without TCAP used, how will private schools show student competency? "The private schools are going to tell us what standardized test they are using. Because we want to know what that is. What I think we need to do is look at those tests, look at the TCAP and allow the public schools to use whichever national standardized test that they want to and that's fair... It would be a fascinating argument which they would choose."

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District 32 Tennessee State Rep. Monty Fritts is running for Governor. He says frustration is what initially led him into politics. He believes God is calling him to run for the state's top job.

Fritts is running against a US Senator and US Representative in the Republican Primary but said he expects to win. Fritts says, "My path to victory is my message is very different. I'll talk to anybody about the issues. We are a liberty and less government platform. That's a foreign concept to most of our congressional members. Most of them have embraced an every-growing budget for almost $40 trillion in debt federally. It's a government that over reaches its bounds constitutionally."

Although he voted for President Trump 3 times, he doesn't agree with everything he says or does. "I think sometimes his are "twits" not "tweets"-when he says some of the vulgar things he says. They are unbecoming for a president."

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Tennessee State Senator Jeff Yarbro's takeaway from this current session, "We're seeing a legislature that is absolutely disconnected from the real concerns of Tennesseans. If you go talk to Republicans, Democrats, Independents in small towns, rural areas, suburbs or cities, they are concerned about rising gas prices, rising cost of everything, the difficulty of find healthcare, and this legislative body is not doing anything to address those issues! It's spending its time doing performative nonsense!" Yarbro continued, "Bill after bill after bill - What this legislature is doing is taking away power from citizens, away from local governments and it's frankly concentrating it in the executive branch, making the state government in charge of what ordinances can be enforced in cities- letting the TN Highway Patrol enforce laws rather than local police departments and that is a big shift."

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Close friends of Middle Tennessee State University Professor of Middle East and Islamic History Sean Foley, including those who are analysts use the word "Nightmare" when asked about how the War in Iran is evolving. Foley says "First, this is a region that exports much of its energy through the Strait of Hormuz and that strait is effectively closed. And second, these are states that are being bombed. This includes Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, whose biggest city is Dubai. This is something that they have never encountered. This is a real war."

Foley predicts Iran will not fold easily, "Every time we make a threat and suggest they've been degraded, they've been able to hit targets. Part of the reason is the technology they have been using. Like the Ukrainians and the Russians, they've been able to use drones in ways that have not been used before and ballistic missiles. And both have had enormous consequences."

Foley also explains how prices for goods and raw materials we import from the Middle East will increase, which will be passed onto retail prices for not only American consumers but those in all other countries.

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132 books chosen by the Rutherford County Library Board are slated to be removed from the Children section of libraries. Library Director Luanne James refused to comply protecting public access. Rutherford County Library Board Chair Cody York targeted books related to gender identity, LGBTQIA+ representation, characters of color, depictions of violence, social change, and even book banning itself. The board voted to relocate those books to the adult section and to strip the library’s policies linked to the American Library Association.

Luanne James faces disciplinary action March 30th for insubordination. Vice President of the Rutherford County Library Alliance believes James was defending both the First Amendment and community values, stating: "Do you want your kid walking through the adult section with children books that are right next to adult books like '50 Shades of Grey'? Or some other materials we really don't want our kids looking at? She (James) is protecting everyone in our community and argue she is protecting everyone across this country by standing up and saying No, I will not violate my own personal morals and I will not violate the Constitution of the United States."

Lambert also asserted that moving children books to the adult section constitutes a book ban under its legal definition — by denying children the chance to browse. "Children books written specifically for children, needs to be in the Children Section.

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