🎃 Nashville’s best fall festivals

🕵️ Why Are the Feds Investigating a Former Metro Employee?

Federal law enforcement is investigating former Metro Water assistant director John Honeysucker, alongside two prominent Nashville businessmen. Why? On today’s podcast, Nashville Banner reporter Stephen Elliott, who broke the story, explains what we know so far about this scandal involving real estate deals, trash trucks, and some of Metro’s biggest names. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

📉 More ICE, Less Money

As immigration enforcement ramped up in Nashville and nationwide, local businesses saw as much as a 60% drop in sales, according to UC Berkeley and UCLA’s Deportation Data Project. Economist data at the University of Pennsylvania also shows a loss of at least $21 million in spending at Nashville businesses during the first year of the current Trump administration. According to a local business owner, “The community’s afraid of going out to spend money on groceries, malls, stores because of the situation we are living in now.” [WKRN; Deportation Data Project]

🛣️ Will TN Have To Raise Taxes?

A state agency’s report found that Tennessee lawmakers either need to increase taxes or allow borrowing to meet our growing transportation needs. The agency found a $400 million funding gap for highway improvements that could increase to as much as $4 billion by 2055. Tennessee is one of six states that restricts borrowing money for road construction. [Tennessee Lookout]

• Nashville state Democrats Sen. Heidi Campbell and Rep. Aftyn Behn are planning to revive their Pot for Potholes Act for the 2027 legislative session to help fund roadway projects. But it failed to make any headway this year, and with the state’s hemp ban, the legislation faces an uphill battle. [Tennessee Lookout;🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• Meanwhile, state lawmakers are seeking a record-breaking federal loan for Tennessee’s Choice Lanes project. [🔐 Nashville Business Journal;🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🏫 Enrollment Problems at Prestigous High School

Students seeking admission to Hume-Fogg, Nashville’s highest-performing public high school, through the lottery process are less likely to receive a spot next year. Kids at Meigs Academic Middle School who meet academic standards are guaranteed a spot at Hume-Fogg, but an unspecified error led to larger-than-normal enrollment at Meigs in 2024. Hume-Fogg plans to make room for those additional students in the coming school year. About 69% of Meigs’ student body is white, so fewer lottery students at Hume-Fogg likely means a less racially diverse student body compared to other Nashville schools. [Nashville Scene]

• Meanwhile, Metro Nashville Public Schools’ chief financial officer is stepping down, the third member of Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle’s administration to leave this year. [Nashville Banner]