🌼 A great weekend to go outside

🤝 A Headscratching Alliance

The Nashville Innovation Alliance got a boost from the mayor recently, but … what is it? And why does it involve genetic information? The City Cast Nashville team is trying to figure that out — and digging into the rest of the news from this week — on today’s podcast. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🗳️ Davidson County Voters Purged

More Davidson County voters were taken off the rolls in the six months between Dec. 1, 2024 and June 1, 2025 than have been purged in the last six years combined, according to the latest report from TN Secretary of State Tre Hargett. 80,170 total voters were purged, including 66,640 who were removed for inactivity. [Nashville Scene]

• Check your voter registration. [TN Map]
• A handful of the candidates vying for former U.S. Rep. Mark Green’s seat in TN-07 responded to a questionnaire about their positions. Early voting for the Oct. 7 primary election begins next Wednesday, Sept. 17. [Nashville Banner]
• How gerrymandering got us here. [Nashville Scene]

💉 Nashville Pediatricians Alarmed by Lack of Vaccines

A recent directive from the Tennessee Department of Health bars doctors from delivering last year’s COVID-19 vaccine to kids under 11, but the updated 2025-26 vaccine has not yet been delivered. Families on TennCare are likely to be most impacted by the delay. [The Tennessean]

• Funding cuts at the federal level could put TennCare at risk [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🏠 Pallet Shelters Remain in Storage

The 108 pallet shelters purchased by Metro with $1.2 million in COVID-era relief funds are still in storage after a failed request for proposals. Those who were interested in using the shelters to help people experiencing homelessness either didn’t have the land or the necessary funding to meet the city’s requirements. [Fox 17]

• The co-op model trying to solve Nashville’s housing crisis [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

Meet Jolene! This is Furball Friday’s second Jolene so far, an intrepid adventurer who was adopted three years ago from Metro Animal Care and Control. She's mostly super sweet and chill, unless she sees another dog on a leash anywhere within a two-mile radius. Her humans are working with her on that. As the owner of a reactive dog myself, I’m sending everyone my love and a recommendation that her humans should try keeping string cheese in their pockets. 👀