By Ryan McCarthy and Maryam Jameel PROPUBLICA Two weeks after the polls closed in this year’s Ohio primary, two U.S. Postal Service employees showed up in the office of Diane Noonan, the director of elections in Butler County. The workers carried a tray of 317 unopened ballots that had been sitting in a Postal Service warehouse since the day before the election. The ballots would have counted if they had been delivered on time. Now, there was no way to legally count them. The next day, another ballot that had been postmarked in time to be counted arrived with no…
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In recent weeks, American cities, suburbs, and small towns have seen an explosion of protests reacting to the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Even as many have commented on the racial diversity of the demonstrators, many of those organizing the marches are young African Americans activists. But while black pastors have organized several marches in major cities like Chicago and Washington DC, they have not been at the forefront of a movement that arguably began back in Ferguson in 2014. “While you may have had many black pastors and clergy who may have shown up at events,…
Griots Republic It was February 7, 1964, when hit song Change Is Gonna Come was first performed by singer and songwriter Sam Cooke and quickly became one of the American civil right movement anthems. It’s easy to understand why, even before hearing the lyrics. The title says it all: change is what humans have been looking for since the beginning, especially by those who have had their rights stepped on, and history teaches us that one of the most persecuted group of people has been African Americans. The song was in fact composed in 1963 by Sam Cooke, born in…
By Amanda Scurlock Sports Writer Special to the TnTribune from the Los Angeles Sentinel Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar held a discussion on Friday with members of the Black press about the social injustice in America in wake of George Floyd’s murder by the hands of former police officers. Abdul-Jabbar spoke with Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper managing editor Brandon I. Brooks and NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent Stacy M. Brown. On May 30, the NBA icon penned an article for the Los Angeles Times explaining how the protests that ensued after the death of Floyd is a result of a long history of…
Several hundred supporters of the Peoples’ Budget gathered in front of City Hall Tuesday. Metro Council largely ignored their calls to defund the police and transform city government. Flexing its muscles against the city’s tight financial constraints, Metro Council passed a budget in the wee hours Wednesday morning that will increase property taxes by 34%. At-Large Councilman Bob Mendez sponsored the substitute budget that raises minimum pay for MNPS employees to $15/hr. and gives a 1% COLA to city workers. It also gives the Metro Arts Commission $3.44 million and $2.6 million for new police recruit salaries. Those things will…
Tjuana Kinard is the sole supporter of her extended family. She tried for weeks to collect on her unemployment claim. “It’s just not fair, man. I feel like Governor Lee failed us,” she said. NASHVILLE, TN – Governor Bill Lee is proud of the way the Tennessee Department of Labor responded to the pandemic. It used to handle about 2500 unemployment claims a month; now it pays 320,000 weekly claims. “Tennessee was one of the first ten states in the country to engage in the federal unemployment program, the pandemic unemployment insurance. We engaged very early on,” Lee said. Via…
NASHVILLE, TN — Belmont University’s School of Nursing received a $285,000 Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to address the national shortage of nurse educators who are committed to educating the next generation of nurses and family nurse practitioners. Dr. Cathy Taylor, dean of the College of Health Sciences and Nursing, stated, “Congratulations to the School of Nursing and primary authors, Dr. Martha Buckner and Dr. Linda Wofford, for securing funding to initiate an exciting new chapter for graduate nursing at Belmont. This award will enable us to support talented students and…
November 4, 1961 – June 2, 2020 Donald Reuben Moody, age 58 transitioned from this earthly life to eternal life on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. The fifth of eight children born in Detroit he has united with his late parents, George and Georgetta Moody, in that city. Donald R. Moody graduated from Detroit Northern High School and at- tended Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. At TSU he was the Captain of the Tennessee State Univer- sity Tiger Sharks Swimming Team and a Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. Throughout his sports career of competitive athletics, he was…
NASHVILLE, TN — As part of its response to the revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Metro has renegotiated more favorable agreements with select vendors. As part of this process, Motorola, previously WatchGuard. Inc., the vendor selected by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) in August 2019 to provide the department with in-car and body-worn cameras (BWCs), has agreed to delay payment for Nashville’s camera system for two years. That decision, along with creative problem-solving from local stakeholders, has allowed Metro to resume movement toward the full deployment of BWCs and in-car cameras. “Body-worn cameras will promote trust between…
Dr Joseph Webb, CEO of Nashville General Hospital, speaking at an the unveiling of two emergency COVID-19 wards on Friday June 5. “Nashville General Hospital has been providing care for this community for 130 years. That’s a long time. From Spanish Flu in 1918 to the current COVID-19 pandemic today. As the city’s original hospital, Nashville General is committed to providing equitable access to excellent clinical care to all of our patients.” NASHVILLE, TN–Governor Bill Lee, Mayor John Cooper, and several dignitaries celebrated the completion of two standby coronavirus wards at Nashville General Hospital (NGH) last week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency…