Notable quotables for the week in news from WPLN that cover the redistricting aftermath, the renovations at historic Ft. Negley, tree trimming worries and “Chud the Builder.”

There are now four lawsuits challenging the redrawn Tennessee map, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton removed all Democrats from the committee assignments as a punishment for protesting.

Nashville Electric Service is ramping up its tree cutting — a move that has drawn blowback. And city leaders are working to improve Fort Negley, a Civil War historic site, and one of the foundational pieces of Nashville’s Black history.

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Despite efforts from the current administration in the White House, Fort Negley in Nashville is getting a historical reckoning and a renovation.

It’s a project that some have been seeking for years. Metro is working to update the fort with a more accurate presentation of its story — which is complicated. It’s a Civil War fort built by the Union using forced Black labor.

WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams reports the renovation comes at a time when such efforts are being discouraged by the White House.

Dr. Learotha Williams from TSU said: “People were talking about putting a Kroger here, then tennis courts. All kind of bad ideas. ... But we are here and it`s a testament to council people and the mayors and the community who decided to say, “OK, this is a place that we are going to protect.’ ”

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Photos: Cynthia Abrams / WPLN

Nashville and Tennessee leaders are at odds. Again.

Cynthia Abrams reports that when Tennessee’s General Assembly concluded the legislative session in April, the work for local leaders was only beginning. Metro’s legal team began their annual legislative review, identifying new laws that, they feel, are adversarial to Nashville and assessing the potential for legal challenges.

And while the number of new laws that concern city leaders is high, the possibility for legal action may be lower than in recent years. In 2023, Metro filed four lawsuits over laws that the city claimed unfairly targeted Nashville, and, thus, violated Tennessee’s Constitution.

The preemption laws passed in the 2026 legislative session don’t target Nashville in the same way. Rather, they impact local control on a broader level statewide.

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Photos: George Walker IV / AP, Cynthia Abrams / WPLN

What a week in Tennessee news. The biggest story was Tennessee Republicans’ decision to break up the state’s only majority-Black Congressional district. They said the move was critical to carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda. The final vote came 24 hours after the proposed maps were published, and eight days after a U.S. Supreme Court decision walked back protections against racial gerrymandering.

We also covered an inclusive baseball league for children and adults with disabilities, a Dolly Parton Vegas residency cancellation, and Amy Grant’s new album.

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Amy Grant`s career has been defined by her success in the face of controversy.

She became a figure in pop culture right next to Madonna and Prince. But she was held to a different standard. “To serve the CCM market, it’s very important for any artists to conform to conservative white evangelical ideals,” says Leah Payne, author of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music.” From the "three button controversy" of the 80`s, to the backlash over her admission that she enjoys having sex with her husband and sunbathing nude, to the recent controversy over hosting a same sex marriage ceremony on her Nashville property — all of this generated market consequences.

Now Grant is facing new market challenges. One her new album, "The Me That Remains" she steers clear of controversy, or at least it tries to. The first song on the record is "The 6th of January" a song that Grant chose to sing because it asks for political empathy and speaks of "times of hope in unrest." Grant sees it as her responsibility to bring people together in this politically charged time. Her label says the challenge of marketing the record will be that it works against a music discovery algorithm that rewards the praise and worship music like Grant`s first hits in the 80`s.

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Photos: courtesy of the artist

Heeding a call from President Trump to give Republicans more seats in Congress, Tennessee’s GOP-led statehouse voted to carve Memphis into three reliably red districts.

Democrats and protesters have criticized the redistricting plan, which struck down state law against mid-decade redistricting and did in three days what usually takes months.

Republicans say the new maps will represent the state’s GOP majority by sending all Republicans to the U.S. House.

Democrats in both chambers staged walkouts as the measure passed. Three protesters from Memphis were arrested for refusing to clear the House gallery, including the brother of Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, who had been running for congress in Memphis’s former 9th Congressional District.

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Photos: Marianna Bacallao / WPLN, George Walker IV / AP

What would it take to bury electrical lines in Nashville?

When Winter Storm Fern devastated Nashville this year, it left hundreds of thousands of Nashvillians without power in frigid temperatures. And many people turned to Curious Nashville with some form of the question about burying our lines.

Curious Nashville reached out to a utility expert who could help answer this question. Wade Sexton, a Knoxville-based member of the National Utility Contractor’s Association told WPLN that retrofitting an entire city with underground lines would require two main things: total buy-in from customers and a LOT of money. Like double digit billions of dollars kind of money.

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Photos: John Amis / AP Photo, George Walker IV AP Photo