It’s froggy out there this morning but the weekend is shaping up to be nice. Pretty sure everyone agrees that we’ll gladly take it after the past couple months of weather fun we’ve had here. [NashSevereWx Twitter & NashSevereWx]
Ooof, kinda terrifying that Tennessee is going down the same road as Kentucky by improperly housing and mistreating children in foster care. Fire up your googler if you want to see how that’s played out the past several years. Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, is calling for a federal investigation into the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. [Behn] said the Department of Children’s Services failed to comply with key federal requirements and to create stability for children in its custody. Behn also pointed to issues of segregation that affect children with disabilities. [The Tennessean]
Davidson County judges have created a special court program to help ice storm victims avoid eviction. The Winter Storm Housing Support Docket will meet twice per week beginning March 3. [News Channel 5]
Meet Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lambert. After 14 years as the Republican state representative for the 44th House District, Lamberth says he still wants to keep freedoms high and taxes low. [Nashville Sunn]
In an era before text messages and FaceTime, love traveled by envelope — folded carefully, sealed and signed. Go read the words of one local husband who closed a letter to his bride with “love and kisses to the sweetest wife on earth.” More than 80 years later, those words — and dozens like them — are preserved at the Metro Archives of the Nashville Public Library. [Tennessee Tribune]
Just what everyone wants their elected officials to be wasting time on. Worrying about whether children who aren’t criminals have parents who fled war-torn countries in order for them to survive… so they can lock them up indefinitely in weird detention camps that should be causing everyone to have sleepless nights. All instead of focusing on actual criminals who cause problems. [Nashville Banner]
It’s a little creepy that these insecure men are obsessed with this issue, isn’t it? Tennessee lawmakers recently questioned whether state prisons and jails are following rules limiting the use of taxpayer dollars for gender-affirming care. [WKRN]
When you get loud enough, your elected officials will eventually have to listen. Wilson County leaders are formally opposing a proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility along Highway 109 South — and now a U.S. senator says the project will not move forward. [WZTV]
It should be illegal for you to use your chosen religious beliefs to discriminate against another person’s health care decisions. We repeat, it should be illegal. Because it is. A Tennessee woman says Ascension St. Thomas Midtown canceled her scheduled sterilization surgery Friday morning hours after she had been admitted and an IV had been placed. [WSMV]
The Tennessee Performing Arts Center has announced its upcoming Broadway season with eight new shows. They are: The Sound of Music, Death Becomes Her, The Neil Diamond Musical A Beautiful Noise, Phantom of the Opera, The Great Gatsby, Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Buena Vista Social Club. [TPAC]
There’s no way to sugar-coat this cruelty: Republicans want to lock up Tennessee’s foster children in jail-like facilities. Research shows it is best practice to house foster kids with families or in communities. Senator Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, and Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland, sponsored the measure. But it is an administration bill — meaning it came from the governor’s office and the Department of Children’s Services. [WPLN]
A cool thing you can do if you have extra money? Go out to eat in Nashville, order takeout, grab lunch. It’s wildly important to support your local restaurants if you want them to continue to exist. [Nashville Buy Local]
We’re not sure if it’s a good thing for a real estate attorney to be leading the Metro Codes Department. But what do we know? This country has definitely never seen someone involved in private sector real estate destroy anything governmental before, right??? [Nashville Business Journal]
