As homelessness rises, some states make it illegal to sleep outside 

Aug 11, 2022
In Missouri, it’s now illegal. In Tennessee, it can be a felony. But criminalizing homelessness could make it harder for people to find homes.
Inflation and high rent prices in New York City are contributing the city's ongoing homelessness crisis.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Company aims to buy and restore struggling rural hospitals in Tennessee

Mar 24, 2022
For rural communities, a key question: Can a new company that is taking over ownership restore confidence in the care the local hospital provides?
Kyle Kopec uses his phone to illuminate a cabinet of medical supplies in the shuttered Decatur County General Hospital. His company, Braden Health, is taking over the facility with a pledge to invest $2 million to reopen it.
Blake Farmer/WPLN News

Nashville's downtown is still recovering a year after a bombing rocked the area

Dec 24, 2021
The Christmas Day bombing impacted dozens of businesses. Some have relocated, while others are waiting for the city to rebuild.
Buildings damaged in the Christmas Day 2020 bombing stand on Second Avenue in downtown Nashville. Some businesses have relocated out of the district.
Damon Mitchell/WPLN News

A year after a deadly tornado in Tennessee, people weigh the decision to rebuild

Mar 3, 2021
Rebuilding has been slowed by the pandemic, fears about future storms and the pain of lost lives.
Survivors have been dealing with the tornado's aftermath, from rebuilding homes to post-traumatic stress and grieving for lost loved ones.
Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

In some isolated rural areas, COVID-19 is hitting hard

Nov 13, 2020
Grundy County, Tennessee, is seeing new cases of COVID-19 every day, but health services are not readily available there.
In Tennessee, the National Guard has resumed running weekend drive-thru testing sites in rural communities, where COVID-19 testing is sometimes only available at the local health department.
Blake Farmer/WPLN News

How to grow a union in an anti-union state

Feb 26, 2018
In the South, where people are “ashamed to tell their neighbors that they are in a union,” one labor organization is turning things around.
Demonstrators rally in front of city hall in solidarity with union workers across the country on February 26, 2011 in New York City.
Michael Nagle/Getty Images

How a tiny Tennessee town built a sewer and finally started growing

Apr 11, 2017
Eagleville, a one-stoplight town is seeing its first major development in about a decade.
It's taken almost 20 years to move Eagleville from septic tanks to a sewer system.
Tony Gonzalez / WPLN

For public good, not for profit.

Fierce opposition to gas tax proposal in Tennessee

Feb 27, 2017
Despite closed bridges and major bottlenecks, the state still faces an uphill fight for its first gas tax increase in 28 years.
A panel in the Tennessee House of Representatives opens debate over a proposal to raise the state's gas tax by 7 cents a gallon. 
Chas Sisk/Nashville Public Radio

Opioid epidemic inspires startup to help mothers with drug addiction

Jan 9, 2017
Babies born addicted to opioids require expensive hospital stays. One Tennessee company is trying to cut those costs.
The "recovery services" sign at an addiction center in East Tennessee. 
Blake Farmer

Gatlinburg looks to holiday tourism as it recovers from fire

Dec 15, 2016
City's mayor asks those who want to help to "come and visit us."
In Gatlinburg's sister city, Pigeon Forge, a Yuletide-themed hotel called Inn At Christmas Place has had to reassure patrons that the building is fine. Pigeon Forge escaped the worst of the fire.
Meribah Knight/WPLN