🤪 The House is entertaining for once

🏛️ Poetic Pleas for Higher Pay at Metro Council Meeting

Metro Council’s annual public budget hearing took place Tuesday night, and hundreds spoke about the need for a 5% cost-of-living adjustment for Metro employees, which includes teachers, librarians, park workers, and more. Two particularly effective public speeches were delivered as poems. As Metro school staffer Jessica Currie rhymed, “Working two jobs and losing sleep; swimming in poverty, the water’s getting too deep.” [Nashville Banner]

🤪 Can We Vote for the Kid Instead?

East Nashville’s controversial Congressman John Rose brought his 6-year-old son Guy to a House meeting, and Guy’s silly faces on camera easily overshadowed his father’s speech supporting a convicted felon. Rep. Rose had apparently asked Guy to smile for his younger brother watching at home, and I think we can all say: mission accomplished. While I don’t know Guy’s stance on politics, I’ve heard several of Rose’s constituents applaud the young man for accurately representing their views. [WKRN]

• The story of how Rep. Rose met Guy’s mother is quite something. [The American Prospect]

📰 Update on Journalist’s Arrest on Vanderbilt Campus

Vanderbilt released an independent review from attorney Aubrey Harwell concerning the university’s arrest of Nashville Scene reporter Eli Motycka during a pro-Palestinian campus protest earlier this year. While the report criticizes Vanderbilt’s lack of policies concerning media access and communication of police presence, Harwell claims that Motycka was not arrested because he was a reporter. [Nashville Scene]

🥵 Nashville Needs More Cooling Centers

As average summer heat temperatures rise in Nashville, cooling centers become all the more vital. Trinity Community Commons on the corner of Meridian Street and East Trinity Lane provides a place for anyone to come and cool off, as do Nashville’s library branches — but many people don’t have access to these resources, and more are needed. [Nashville Banner]