No. 663: Phoning In

Good afternoon, everyone.

Happy Valentines Day from just North of the border. We’ll be back in full swing tomorrow. Until then, get the missus something nice.

Onward.

From Megan Podsiedlik

Tomorrow morning, Mayor O’Connell will hold a press conference to make a “special announcement”— of course, all suspect he will unveil his long-awaited transit referendum. Last week, Freddie visited the Nashville Business Breakfast, where he spoke about the logistics of his plan.

Though the mayor conceded that it would call for slightly higher taxes, he seemed confident in his ability to provide the people with what they want. "Demand for transit in Nashville far outpaces most of our peer cities," O'Connell said, answering one attendee’s question. "It is incredibly popular. If you try to cut a transit route, you will hear from a Metro Council member, the wails and laments of their constituents."

We will know more after the mayor’s announcement tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

On Monday, Mayor O’Connell appointed Dr. Leah A. Dundon, an environmental attorney and assistant professor at Vanderbilt School of Engineering, as his designee to the Metro Planning Commission.

According to the mayor’s office, Dundon’s main areas of expertise include “sustainability, climate education with a focus on international treaties, and infrastructure resilience.” She also serves as the director of Vanderbilt’s Climate Change initiative.  

“I am excited that Leah Dundon will serve the city of Nashville on the planning commission as she will lend a unique perspective to the body,” O’Connell said in a press release on Monday. “As a graduate of Metro Schools and with a PhD from Vanderbilt University, Dundon knows the community well. Further, her legal background and engineering expertise mean she’s extremely qualified to review technical matters, and we want to take a long view of planning activities as we build trust in our planning processes.” 

“It’s a wonderful day to fight on behalf of our student-athletes in Tennessee,” Skrmetti’s office posted as the attorney general took part in yesterday’s preliminary injunction hearing against the NCAA. The latest of the AG’s antitrust suits is challenging the nonprofit’s NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) recruitment ban. “Due to the NCAA’s arbitrary and illegal rules, student-athletes are being harmed and prevented from making important decisions concerning their name, image, and likeness rights — which may have a big impact on their academic and financial futures,” said the AG in prepared remarks released after the hearing. “Meanwhile, everybody else involved in college sports is getting rich at those student-athletes’ expense.”

From the steps of the Greenville courthouse, Skrmetti told reporters that the hearing was both educational and confusing. “The lack of clarity is hurting athletes,” he said. “The lack of opportunity to make informed decisions is hurting student-athletes. It's not fair and it’s not legal.”