Breaking New Ground
🏛️ Session set to wrap · Immigration division · Sanctuary cities · Soderbergh returns · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
For too long, conservatives have neglected to tend to their cities. Nashville in particular has been commonly cited to me as a lost cause. I disagree. Men like Seneca Scott, who has had success in one of the nation's most progressive cities, Oakland, pushing back against an activist class takeover, is a testament to this.
Join us tonight to hear about his experience, what we can learn from it, and how it's relevant to the future of Nashville. RSVP here.
In other news, the special session on immigration, education, and disaster aid could wrap up today. Yesteday, the Senate passed the immigration omnibus bill which would create a centralized immigration authority, require a special marking on driver's licenses for non-citizens, and outline punishments for officials who adopt sanctuary policies 26-7 with Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) the lone dissenting Republican vote on the grounds that punishing elected officials for a vote violates the US and state constitutions.
When I hit send on this newsletter, the House was debating the Education Savings Bill on the floor—a vote is expected whenever discussions wrap—and soon after, will take up the aforementioned immigration bill. The ESA bill will go back to the Senate after the House session concludes. By all accounts, the bills related to disaster aid and immigration appear set to pass. As for the ESA bill... Depends on who you ask. We'll see.
Onward.
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
🗺️ Sunset On Tennessee Immigration Division During yesterday’s House Immigration Committee meeting, Freshman Representative Michele Reneau (R-Signal Mountain) asked for clarity on a few sunsets added to the special session immigration bill. As originally filed, the legislation would establish a Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division and a Chief Immigration Enforcement Officer who coordinates with the Trump administration. A slight change to the bill terminates those entities on January 20, 2029.
Based on multiple amendments filed by Senate and House Democrats, including Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville), adding a sunset appears to be widely accepted as a good policy on both sides of the aisle. The change also allows the legislature to extend the newly created entities if needed. “By that time, I hope that the mission of making sure that all illegal immigrants have been removed from the country would be accomplished,” said Leader William Lamberth (R-Cottontown).
🌇 Sanctuary Cities On Notice, Kinda Representative Reneau also asked for clarity on how to determine a sanctuary city policy: “For example, if a city maybe doesn't call it a sanctuary city policy, but the citizens believe that it…lends to one, that's what I want clarification on.”
Leader Lamberth pointed to Tennessee Code, which defines them as formally or informally adopted policies that allow illegal aliens lawful presence in the United States, or restricts state or local entities from cooperating with government agencies to maintain or transfer “any alien to the custody of the United States Department of Homeland Security.”
While the new immigration enforcement bill would add some teeth to state law by making the implementation of sanctuary city policies a Class E felony, Lamberth explained that enforcement is at the sole discretion of the local district attorney. Therefore, citizens may bring complaints forward, but whether their concerns will be pursued is a different story.
🗳️ Hundreds Off TN Voter Rolls “Last year, we had about 13,000 people who received letters from the Secretary of State because their immigration status was in question,” Leader Lamberth reminded the House Immigration Committee. “Several hundred of those individuals then took themselves off the voting rolls. I would presume because, after receiving that letter, they realized that it was illegal for them to vote.”
Part of the immigration enforcement bill making its way through special session would create variations to Tennessee-issued licenses that distinguish US citizens from legal residents. Currently, the IDs look the same. “The reason that's a problem is because when you sign up for a license, a lot of times they ask you if you want to register to vote,” explained Lamberth. “Only a US citizen can vote in our elections, and only a US citizen should be voting in our elections. I don't want somebody to get caught inadvertently up in a system where they've just gone and gotten a driver's license, which legal residents can do.”
DEVELOPMENT
- AJ Capital Partners teams with retail giant on luxury outlet mall in Williamson County (NBJ)
- NYC, LA—La Ligne and Rails—retailers to open 12South locations (NBJ)
- Edgehill Village lands D.C.-based framing chain (Post)
- Ex-Corsair building in WeHo sells for $4.1M (Post)
- Melrose commercial building listed for $2.1M (Post)
✹ REVIEW: PRESENCE (2024)
At some point during the first five minutes of Steven Soderbergh’s new haunted house movie, Presence, a hint of nausea straight from Hollywood’s better days of Blair Witch and Jason Bourne may set in. Thankfully, it passes within a minute, but not without serving as an immediate reminder that, even if Netflix makes movies to fold laundry to, the moving image still has an inexplicable power to affect how we feel—in all senses of the word.
Since last year’s Sundance, film fans have been crowing about how a director long known for his technical prowess shot this project entirely from the first-person perspective, a task Orson Welles famously tried to pioneer in his proposed adaptation of Heart of Darkness before he opted to slack off and make Citizen Kane instead. Yet, despite Soderbergh’s reputation as the coldest craftsman this side of Kubrick, he has made a movie about what it means to feel circa 2024, a theme the movie undertakes with such verve it leads one to wonder if its opening motion sickness wasn’t right on point.
Though Presence mines similar territory as the suburban ghost stories before it, the film opts to revel in long-simmering conflicts instead of showy set pieces. Midlevel finance manager Rebekah (Lucy Liu) dragged her family into this model craftsman in the most exclusive suburban enclave so that her star swimmer son (Eddy Maday) could have the best shot at scholarships. Whether she’s just tiger momming or going full Lori Loughlin isn’t quite clear, but her zealotry has begun to erode her relationship with her husband (This is Us’s Chris Sullivan) and daughter (Callina Liang), who is grieving the loss of her best friend to a purported overdose.
As much a searing family melodrama as a horrorshow, Presence finds its real terror in the hollowness of the urbane secular upper-middle class ideal. It’s a rejoinder to extracurricular overscheduling and the self-interest of cutthroat careerism as the peak of contemporary greatness. But, in its scathing critique of the 2%, it offers a glimmer of hope for those who see that there just may be something out there bigger than themselves.
Presence is now playing in theaters.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol @ DRKMTTR, 8p, $16, Info
🎸 Teddy and The Rough Riders @ The Blue Room, 7p, $19.41, Info
🎸 Josh Turner @ Ryman Auditorium, 7p, $40+, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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