Jeremiah Wooten

The MNPS Board voted tonight to end their universal mask mandate on March 11, signing onto director Adrienne Battle's recommendation. Fran Bush voted no. Sharon Gentry was absent. I'll add an embed of the video once it's posted on YouTube. Of course, Fran Bush's "no" vote wasn't because she wanted the mask mandate to remain in effect; rather, she wanted it to be removed effective immediately. As usual, student board members Abenezer Haile and Angelie Quimbo had some of the more articulate comments of the evening. They gave some clear reasoning, provided evidence albeit anecdotal, and, most importantly, kept their comments relatively brief. But what stuck out to me most was the director recommendation part. I tried long and hard to think of a time that this board has voted against any of Battle's recommendations, and I can't think of one. Now, I haven't been watching school board meetings closely for all that long — really just the better part o...

There's been a lot of information swirling about license plate readers the last few weeks. Almost two weeks since Metro Council voted to approve license plate readers on third reading, there's some poetic justice found in the revelation that the new Tennessee license plates are invisible to LPRs at night. But whether they work or not, legislation was passed allowing them to be installed in public right-of-ways throughout Nashville. It was not surprising to see how the vote went but certainly disappointing. In a last minute campaign over the weekend proceeding the vote, Mayor John Cooper's administration was reportedly working the phones calling council members and whipping their support. Metro police chief John Drake and strangely the brand new NDOT director Diana Alarcon also threw their hats into the ring, releasing a statement urging council members to vote for LPRs. In that letter , Chief Drake made a claim that was pretty clearly false. Regardless of Chief Drake's...