Chas Sisk

Listen Republican state lawmakers are denying they pressured the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga into firing a public radio reporter. Reporter Jacqui Helbert has been accused of recording meetings between a group of high school students and their state lawmakers without identifying herself.

Listen This year’s state legislative session has been dominated by headline-grabbing debates over issues like transgender bathrooms and six-week abortion bans. But it’s often not the proposals that gain the most attention that actually become Tennessee law. Sometimes it’s the less ambitious measures that hide in their wake. WPLN statehouse reporter Chas Sisk is here […]

Listen Nashville’s local ordinance that lightened the penalties for marijuana possession are close to being overturned. Tennessee lawmakers say it’s potentially discriminatory.

Listen Tennessee lawmakers have rejected a measure that would’ve restricted which bathroom transgender students can use, apparently putting an end to the debate for the year. A Senate panel on Wednesday declined to take up a proposal that would have required transgender students to use the bathroom of the sex on their birth certificate.

Listen Plans to make marijuana legal for medicinal use appear unlikely to go anywhere this year in the Tennessee legislature, after one of the lawmakers behind the effort says he needs more time to build support. State Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, says he plans to turn his proposal to allow medical marijuana and other plans […]

Listen Many have fond memories of recess, those breaks in the school day when they could get up and move around. But in an era of regular testing and crowded schedules, schools in Tennessee have been struggling to figure out how to work recess into the day. At many schools, kids have been spending less […]

Listen The Republican rework of Obamacare is forcing states to figure out what it means for them. And so far, they’re not cheering in the Tennessee legislature. WPLN’s Chas Sisk joins us to explain how the health care plan is playing here.

Listen Several thousand people made it inside Municipal Auditorium Wednesday night to hear President Donald Trump deliver a defiant speech. He thumped a federal judge’s ruling on immigration, sparked jeers at former opponent Hillary Clinton and pledged to put a stop to Obamacare.

Listen Some might think that feeding milk to a calf couldn’t be all that hard. But ask state Sen. Jim Tracy. “Easy, easy,” the Shelbyville Republican said as he attempted to steady a hungry, month-old Holstein named Raven. “Go baby go. That’s good stuff, man, come on.”