DECEMBER 4, 2024

Today’s weather: Partly cloudy with rising temps. HIGH 53, LOW 26

THE LEDE

A Single Vote Settles the Issue of MNPD’s Proposed Use of Fusus

The main event at Tuesday’s Metro Council meeting was continued discussion around Fusus, a software program that would have allowed the Metro Nashville Police Department to access security camera footage from willing private business owners. 

Ultimately, the legislation fell one vote short of passing. The Metro Council voted 20-18 in favor of the technology, but the resolution required 21 votes to pass. Two members, Jennifer Gamble and Sandy Ewing, who told the Banner she was planning on voting no, were absent.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell and interest groups applied pressure as the vote approached. Groups including the NAACP, Community Oversight Now and the Urban League urged councilmembers to vote no, citing concerns about privacy and federal or state misuse of the footage. Business groups and O’Connell were among those asking councilmembers to approve the contract.

FROM THE BANNER

LANDFILL CASE: The Tennessee Court of Appeals heard arguments in a legal battle over the proposed expansion of Murfreesboro’s Middle Point Landfill, which is expected to reach capacity by 2028. The Murfreesboro Regional Planning Board denied BFI Waste System Services’ request to expand the landfill by 100 acres in 2021, and a chancery court ruled that errors made by the board in following the correct procedure for rejecting the plan were “harmless.” One member of the three-judge panel challenged both sides during the proceeding. READ THE STORY

TRANSGENDER CARE FIGHT: The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine whether or not transgender children in Tennessee have access to healthcare. L.W. v. Skrmetti challenges a 2023 Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including surgery and hormone blockers. The plaintiffs, led by the ACLU, argue that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, while the state counters that it has a right to make laws regulating medical practices. A ruling is expected in the spring. READ THE STORY

ON THE RECORD

ON THE HUNT: Metro is beginning the search for a leader of the newly established Music, Film, and Entertainment Commission. The volunteer board is tasked with supporting the entertainment sector in Nashville. The executive director job listing was posted Monday and lists a salary of $90,000 to $100,000. The director would be tasked with maintaining relationships with media companies, the local creative community and state officials. The executive director will work out of the mayor’s office. — Stephen Elliott

PARTNERS IN CARE: The Metro Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee received an update Tuesday afternoon on Nashville’s Partners in Care program. The initiative pairs clinicians from the Mental Health Co-Op with police officers to respond to calls for mental health crises and certain other incidents. Mike Randolph, who leads the co-op’s side of the effort, told the committee that Partners in Care has responded to 3,400 mental health calls this year, along with about 20,000 other calls. Of those mental health calls, he said, 55.5 percent required a full mental health crisis assessment and 34 percent had to be taken to an emergency department. Around 10 percent had to be taken directly to the co-op’s crisis treatment center or a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Randolph also said that 75 to 80 percent of the people the program interacts with live in a house, apartment or group home. In the Central Precinct downtown, however, the situation is flipped, with 75 to 80 percent of mental health calls relating to unhoused people. — Steven Hale

ETHICS VIOLATION: Gov. Bill Lee broke state law by accepting free travel from a conservative lobbying group, according to the Tennessee Ethics Commission. The trip to Florida, originally reported by The Tennessean this summer, was paid for by the Alliance for Defending Freedom, which has someone registered to lobby the state legislature, making it an illegal indirect contribution according to the Commission on Tuesday. Lee has already repaid the roughly $1,900. — Sarah Grace Taylor

INTERSTATE DEATH: A 22-year-old Mt. Juliet man was struck and killed Tuesday while walking along the side of I-40 East near the Nashville airport in what Metro Police said was a hit and run. Austin David’s body was discovered at 11:15 a.m., but police said the collision could have occurred as early as 2 a.m. Tuesday morning. Police believe he was struck by one car before being run over by other vehicles in an adjacent lane, but no witnesses or vehicles remained at the scene. Authorities closed the interstate for several hours Tuesday, diverting drivers off the interstate and onto local roads. The I-40 hit-and-run comes less than a month after 18-year-old Bethany Doolittle was killed when a car hit her while she was walking in the middle of I-24. Police said the driver that hit her initially left the scene, although others stayed on the scene. — Steven Hale

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Tennessee Titans founder K.S. “Bud” Adams remains a Pro Football Hall of Fame outsider. Adams was one of eight semifinalists as a Contributor for the Class of 2025 but was not among the five finalists across three categories (Contributor, Coach and Senior) who were announced Tuesday. No more than three of those five ultimately will be enshrined next year. Adams was one of the American Football Leagues original owners when he launched the franchise, then the Houston Oilers, in 1960. He scored one of the AFL’s first significant victories when he convinced 1959 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon to sign with the Oilers rather than play for an NFL team. The Oilers then won the first two AFL championships and lost in the championship game the next season. The Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills were the only other teams with multiple championships in the 10-year history of the AFL, and their original owners, Lamar Hunt and Ralph Wilson, respectively, are Hall of Famers. Adams relocated the Oilers to Tennessee in 1997 and remained in charge of the team until his death in 2013. — David Boclair

BEST OF THE REST ($ indicates subscription required)

• CHANGE FOR THE BETTER? What to know about the latest iPhone and a few things you can do to help make the changes more bearable. (The Washington Post)

• LOOK AWAY: In a world of increased digital tipping, customers who feel they are being watched while adding the gratuity are less likely to return to that establishment. (The Conversation)

• MURDER MYSTERY: More than 20 years after skeletal remains were found in a New York basement, the case of a missing person that dates back to the 1960s is solved. (Rolling Stone)

• NO PLACE TO HIDE: The world’s most cancerous air pollutant is so pervasive that no one in the United States is safe from it, even when they are indoors. (ProPublica)

• LOCKED UP: State prisons’ response to chronic understaffing is to put prisoners on lockdown more often and for longer periods, which has led to increased tensions and violence. (Stateline)

• BACK CHANNELS: Some experts believe Iran and its proxies benefit to the tune of $1 billion a year from an oil smuggling operation that has flourished since Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani took office. (Reuters)

• SWING AWAY: Major League Baseball is considering the addition of the Golden At-Bat, a rule that would allow a team to send any hitter to the plate at any time, regardless of where that team is in its batting order. (The Athletic) ($)

Quote of Note

“For years, there were tourists coming every single day to get their photo at the Rocky statue and there was nothing here officially to greet them. There were no maps, no signage, no sort of visitor services infrastructure here at the Rocky statue and steps, even though it was such a big tourist attraction. That’s why we wanted to open a visitor’s center here. In the process of the city pursuing that, Sly Stallone reached out to us and was like, let’s do this in partnership.”

— Maita Soukup, Philadelphia Visitor’s Center spokesperson, on the creation of Rockyfest, which kicked off Tuesday and runs through Monday to celebrate the iconic move that premiered in 1976.