The Tennessee Department of Education put out proposed rules Monday on a new state law that limits teaching race in schools. It spells out how people can file complaints, and what enforcement of the vague law will actually look like.
Paige Pfleger
Paige Pfleger covers the music industry, arts and culture for WPLN News. Previously she has worked in Central Ohio at WOSU News, covering criminal justice and the addiction crisis, and was named Ohio's reporter of the year by the Associated Press in 2019. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, Marketplace, and PRI's The World, and she has worked in the newsrooms of The Tennessean, Michigan Radio, WHYY, Vox and NPR headquarters in DC.
Nashville Youth Theater Troupe Confronts A Year Behind Screens In ‘Selfie The Musical’
An original play about what it’s like to be a kid online is being performed in Nashville through Aug. 1. The director of the Theater Bug troupe says this show felt timely, because the pandemic made a generation who grew up online even more reliant on it.
After Decades-Long Fight, Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Bust Is Out Of The Tennessee Capitol
For decades, activists pushed for the bust of a slave trader and early leader of the Ku Klux Klan to be removed from the state capitol, but a 2013 law made the process lengthy and arduous. On July 22, 2021, the majority of the state building commission voted to move the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest to the Tennessee State Museum, and it was gone the next morning.
Tennessee’s Former Vaccine Chief Refutes Claims She Was Fired Over Performance
The Tennessee vaccine official who was fired last week has issued an eight-page rebuttal to claims that she was let go for poor leadership. The reasons laid out for Dr. Michelle Fiscus’ termination don’t match what’s found in her performance reviews.
‘I’m Not A Political Operative’: Tennessee’s Ousted Vaccine Official Says Lawmakers’ Opinions Overrode Science
Fiscus was fired this week and has since landed squarely at the center of a national controversy. She says she was ousted because of an on-going battle between science and politics.
Tennessee’s Ousted Vaccination Chief Blasts Politics Over Teen Vaccines
Accusing state leaders of putting their heads in the sand, Dr. Michelle Fiscus said,”I am ashamed of them. I am afraid for my state.”
A Mix Of Gratitude And ‘Lingering Concern’ As Nashville’s Largest COVID Testing Site Winds Down
Sixty-seven weeks into a COVID testing site most assumed would be short term when it went up, the city is closing the location amid an increase in vaccinated people and a decrease in the positivity rate for the virus.
New CMA ‘Summer Jam’ Will Also Air As Primetime TV Special
A newly announced two-night concert at the end of July will feature big name acts in Nashville, including Luke Bryan, Mickey Guyton, Gwen Stefani, Carrie Underwood and others.
Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Bust Can Officially Be Removed From Tennessee Capitol, But No One Is Sure When It Will Be
The bust of confederate general and KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest could technically be removed from the state capitol Friday, but instead it is caught in a sort of legislative hot potato.
This Black Nashville Artist Experiencing Homelessness Reflects On Seeing His Work Displayed On Prominent Street
Nashville artist Edwin Lockridge has been experiencing homelessness and other challenges, but is among the artists with the group Poverty and the Arts to see his work displayed on the city’s Avenue of the Arts.
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