By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — On a bitter windy January night, a homeless threesome huddled behind the VIP Clothing store on Nolensville Rd, sipping vodka and smoking cigarettes to ward off the bone-chilling cold. It was 5°F and even wearing a good coat I was shivering after just a few minutes spent in their company. “This ain’t cold compared to what it was,” said Misty C dismissively. “It was colder last night,” she said. “Aren’t you going to the shelter?” I asked her. “Not tonight,” she said, implying she might go to the city’s emergency shelter at the East…
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By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — The life of Nashville General Hospital is hanging by a thread just like one of its patients not too long ago. Van Douglas, 62, has too much income to qualify for TennCare but too little to buy insurance. So when a brown recluse spider bit him on his forehead, Douglas went to General Hospital’s emergency room. A month later a knot appeared under his arm. A cat scan revealed a large mass between his lungs unrelated to the spider bite. During the next four months Douglass had five biopsies. A staff oncologist at General…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — Citizen activists are doing better with bills they’ve put in front of the city council. Wearing t-shirts and carrying signs, members of the People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) and Stand Up Nashville crammed the City Council chambers two weeks ago. “I’m here for the transit and the Do Better Bill. Having been in the trenches on the ground in the community like I have, clearly I see that all these concerns are very much intersectional,” said veteran organizer Jackie Sims. Sims advocates for working people. She said she wants the city…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — When you finish high school you can go to school, go to jail, or go to work. Trade schools used to provide practical training that led to good-paying jobs. In the U.S. today, few high schools offer shop classes and trade schools have been out of vogue for decades. But Job-training programs are making a comeback. Remington College has a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) program at their Elm Hill Pike campus. The one-year program teaches basic refrigeration and covers motors, condensers, and HVAC installation and repair. The tuition is $16,000 that…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — Now that Nashville has got a major league soccer team, Fairgrounds vendors are worried. “The proposed plan for the stadium is right on top of where all the outside vendors are and four buildings, how is that not going to impact us at all?” asked Tonya Jackson. Mayor Barry and the Fair Board have promised the continuity of events at the Fairgrounds, including car racing and the flea market. What they haven’t said is whether vendors will have to move or that soccer games won’t stop the flea market from happening on the last…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — A joint Judiciary and Government legislative subcommittee invoked the threat of Tennessee’s Sunset Law against the Department of Corrections last week and gave the troubled department one year to improve conditions at four privately-run state prisons run or face dissolution. “One year, that’s a punishment, okay?” said Representative G.A. Hardaway. “It means they are still under our thumb. They literally don’t know how long they can survive.” The unusual threat comes after a scathing audit of a private prison last month by the state comptroller’s office. CoreCIvic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – District 17 Councilman Colby Sledge told the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct last week that he met with the Cloud Hill Partners in the Mayor’s office in late 2015, more than a year before the city put Fort Negley out to bid. “In late 2015 I was called into a meeting with the mayor’s administration and various department heads regarding a proposal from members of what became the Cloud Hill team. The Cloud Hill team discussed their proposal how the Greer Stadium property could be re-developed,” Sledge testified. Tommy Lynch, former head of parks,…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — The city council voted Tuesday to approve an ordinance that would require community benefits in city contracts awarded to private companies. “I hope it creates better transparency so we know where every tax dollar is going and have better accountability about what we put our hard-earned dollars into,” said Odessa Kelly, Co-Chair of Stand Up Nashville, a coalition of community-based organizations and labor unions. Businesses that get tax breaks, use public assets, or receive other incentives would be required to disclose wage and job information before the council would approve a city contract. Contractors…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — Droves of conservative politicians checked into the Omni Hotel in downtown Nashville last week for a big meeting about the state of political affairs. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) put on the three-day conference. The idea of such meetings–and ALEC had nine last year—is to share information among state legislators and businessmen concerning everything from right to work laws to ending the “death tax” on inherited wealth. Sharing does go on but there is not really an exchange of ideas. ALEC members all believe the same things: regulation is bad, lower taxes are…
Governor Bill Haslam sang his swan song Thursday when he spoke to a thousand attendees at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) States and Nation Policy Summit held at the Omni Hotel December 6-8. Haslam listed his accomplishments after seven years as Governor which included creating 378,000 private sector jobs and lowering the unemployment rate to three percent, the lowest level in Tennessee’s history. ALEC is a conservative political organization of state legislators and corporate members with ties to a number of rightwing advocacy groups like FreedomWorks, the Family Research Council, and the CATO Institute. ALEC highlighted Tennessee in a…