This week’s Dose of news: A rescue, a rattlesnake and the rich getting richer in Tennessee – Tennessean
Why Tennessee has thousands of children without health insurance, and how the number is growing. More on former President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Nashville to help build homes. And, on a sentimental note: The Tennessean said goodbye to one of its own last week. It’s with love that I pause to remember Heidi Hall. Thanks for caring. I’m Jessica Bliss, and this is your weekly Dose.
This week’s dose of news
‘Rich getting richer’: As Nashville dominates growth in Tennessee, rural areas lag farther behind metros
The widening economic divide between rural and urban areas is a nationwide phenomenon as companies flock to cities with highly educated talent pools during the most enduring economic boom in U.S. history. But Tennessee is unique in that only one city has taken the lion’s share of economic development. Here’s how Music City is outpacing the rest, leaving small towns languishing in its development dust.
A rescue and a rattlesnake: News from Nashville’s parks
Hundreds of searchers combed the undeveloped sections of the 1,700-acre Beaman Park this week, expanding a multi-day search for a missing hiker. (He was, thankfully, found alive.) Meanwhile: After a Brentwood man was dive-bombed by an owl in Percy Warner Park two weeks ago, last weekend he had an even more surprising encounter (and for the snake-wary among us, way more scary). He saw a 4-foot long rattlesnake crossing the trail in front of him. Yeah, it was just shaking its music-maker and slithering across the trail. NBD. Hoping for your own reptilian rendezvous? (Or maybe you are just pumped that fall is finally here and you won’t melt outdoors anymore.) Here are some Nashville-area trails and hikes worth exploring this October.
Avoiding shutdown: Glencliff High School’s football team almost forfeited the rest of the season, now it’s week-to-week
With less than 25 players on the varsity roster, coaches didn’t feel they had enough keep the squad going. A decision was made Tuesday to shut down the program. The team was revived Wednesday, but it is still on life support. Meanwhile, there has been some back and forth with one Nashville public schools official who didn’t want to allow media to attend practice and ask the players how they are feeling about all this. A school board member has clarified the policy.
Updates, quick hits and tidbits
- Sure, it “takes a village,” but Carrie Underwood says women can balance a happy marriage, children and a career at the top of their field. She knows because she’s living proof.
- Grin and bear it: These orthodontists are suing Nashville-based SmileDirectClub, accusing them of fraud.
- Direct from your highly-caffeinated reporting crew, we present to you: the five best coffee shops in Nashville. Grab a nitro brew and discuss.
- Awwwww, snap: As the world waits for Cyntoia Brown to release her first book next month, she appears to be enjoying life outside prison walls with her new Christian hip hop artist husband — according to the pics on his Instagram.
- Cash for college: Fisk University is feeling some financial love after generations of struggle have created a chance to turn the page.
- No, Nashville’s still not getting a Major League Baseball team, but the group pushing for one sure has some pretty drawings of their envisioned downtown ball park.
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Numbers worth knowing
Nearly 83,000 Tennessee kids had no health insurance in 2018 — a significant increase. Here’s what we know so far.
Officials from TennCare and the Tennessee Justice Center suggest two different factors may be contributing to the number of uninsured children. The governor’s office said its soon-to-be-formed health care task force will examine “affordability and access” to health care. A more detailed explanation for the increasing number should come into focus later this month. The Census Bureau is scheduled to release demographic information on Tennessee’s uninsured populations in mid-October. It will be critical to understanding what exactly has gone wrong, said Stephanie Whitt, an official with The Beacon Center of Tennessee.
For now, here’s a look at the numbers:
Nearly 83,000: Tennessean children without health insurance of any kind last year, the highest estimate in the five years, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
17% increase: The Census Bureau reports uninsured children in the state increased two years in a row — rising 33% in 2017 and 17% in 2018.
At least 220,000: Tennessee children were cut, or were slated to be cut, from state health insurance in recent years in an unwieldy TennCare system that was dependent on hard-copy forms and postal mail, according to a Tennessean investigation.
1 in every 10: Of all Nashvillians (adults and children) does not have insurance, according to NashvilleHealth survey and state data reported by the Census Bureau.
One third: Of all Latinos (adults and children) and 30 percent of all gay, lesbian and bisexual residents in Nashville are without health insurance, according to a landmark survey published by city government that unveils vulnerabilities of minority populations.
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All the good feels
Former President Jimmy Carter coming to Nashville to build Habitat for Humanity homes
For more than 35 years, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have worked tirelessly to build affordable housing for people around the world. They have attached siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home in Georgia. They have constructed wood framing for walls of a new place in Washington. They have passed nails between them, hammering together a house in Memphis. This week, the Carters will travel to Nashville, where hundreds of volunteers from across the country — including music legends Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood — will help build 21 homes in the Habitat-developed neighborhood of Park Preserve in North Nashville.
Quote of the week
“We love you, Busbee!”
— Sentiment from some of the music industries’ biggest stars as they learned of the hit songwriter’s death.
Grammy-nominated songwriter Michael James Ryan — known professionally as Busbee — died Sunday at age 43. The Jonas Brothers, performing in Tulsa on Sunday night, took a moment to honor “the late, great Mike Busbee” and performed “Feelin’ Alive,” a 2010 hit Busbee wrote. Blake Shelton, Maren Morris, Keith Urban and other artists also paid tribute.
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Published 8:41 PM EDT Oct 2, 2019
