Category Archives: Nashville

Tennessee shootout near university leaves one dead and nine wounded

Posted on by

Gunfire erupted between two groups during homecoming events at Tennessee State University, police say

One person was killed and nine others wounded in a shootout amid a crowd near a university in Tennessee Saturday afternoon, police said.

A crowd that gathered earlier in the day for homecoming events at Tennessee State University was beginning to thin out when the gunfire erupted between two groups around 5pm, said Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron. He said shell casings indicate that gunfire was exchanged across a street near campus between the groups.

Guardian staff contributed reporting

Continue reading...

James Lawson Jr, civil rights activist and nonviolent protest pioneer, dies aged 95

Posted on by

Reverend, pastor and professor, who was a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr, dies in Los Angeles after short illness

The Rev James Lawson Jr, an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the civil rights movement gained traction, has died, his family said on Monday. He was 95.

His family said Lawson died on Sunday after a short illness in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor.

Continue reading...

John Oates opens up about Daryl Hall amid bitter legal battle: ‘I have moved on’

Posted on by

Duo’s music ‘will always trump almost anything that Daryl does on his own or I do on my own’ says Oates, weeks after Hall filed to stop him selling his share of their rights

John Oates, half of the hugely successful pop rock duo Hall & Oates, has opened up about his partnership with Daryl Hall amid their ongoing and fractious legal battle.

Hall, 77, is suing Oates, 75, in an initially confidential lawsuit that came to light in November when Hall also filed for and received a temporary restraining order against Oates in a Nashville court.

Continue reading...

Nashville police chief’s son is suspect in shooting of two officers outside store

Posted on by

John C Drake, 38, is estranged son of metro police chief; officers treated in hospital after incident in city of La Vergne

Authorities in Tennessee were searching on Sunday for the estranged son of Nashville’s police chief as the suspect in the shooting of two police officers outside a Dollar General store.

Officers in La Vergne, a city about 20 miles (32km) south-east of Nashville, were investigating a stolen vehicle outside the store on Saturday afternoon when they struggled with the suspect, who pulled a handgun and shot them, said the local police chief, Christopher Moews.

Continue reading...

Nashville elects Tennessee’s first openly transgender politician

Posted on by

Olivia Hill, 57, a military veteran, joins the Nashville city council in historic election

A transgender woman won election to a seat on Nashville’s city council, becoming the first openly transgender person to be voted into political office in Tennessee.

Olivia Hill, 57, secured one of the four open at-large seats on the metro council of Nashville, a politically liberal city in an overwhelmingly conservative state.

Continue reading...

Nashville council votes to reinstate expelled Democrat Justin Jones

Posted on by

Republican majority had ousted Jones and fellow house member Justin Pearson over protests they led demanding gun control

The city of Nashville’s governing council on Monday afternoon voted unanimously to return expelled Black lawmaker Justin Jones to the Tennessee state legislature.

The body’s Republican majority state lawmakers had expelled Jones and fellow house member Justin Pearson late last week because they led protests in the chamber demanding gun control after yet another mass shooting in an American school, this one at an elementary school in the city days before.

Continue reading...

Harris visits ousted Tennessee lawmakers as Republicans accused of ‘overt racism’

Posted on by

GOP-controlled state house voted to expel Black lawmakers Justin Jones and Justin Pearson while sparing Gloria Johnson

Kamala Harris made an urgent trip to Nashville on Friday to meet with two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled from the state legislature for their role in in a peaceful protest calling for gun control in the aftermath of a school massacre, an unprecedented act of retaliation that sparked accusations of overt racism.

The Republican-controlled legislature voted on Thursday to expel representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, but to spare a white Democratic lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, who participated in the same protest but narrowly avoided being kicked out.

Continue reading...

Funeral for nine-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus will be first for Nashville shooting victims

Posted on by

Loved ones described Evelyn as a ‘shining light’ and invited guests to wear joyful hues in tribute to her ‘love of color’

The first funeral service will be held on Friday afternoon for the victims of this week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, as the shocked and grieving city continued to mourn the dead after the horrific attack.

Nine-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus will be memorialized on Friday and laid to rest on Saturday in a private burial, with her loved ones describing the sporty girl as a “shining light” and inviting guests to the funeral service to wear pink or other joyful hues in tribute to her “love of color”.

Continue reading...

Republicans accused of hypocrisy over gun safety after Nashville shooting – as it happened

Posted on by

School shooting that left three children and three adults dead brought condolences from conservatives who oppose gun control

Joe Biden has commented on his ability to get gun control passed following Monday’s massacre at a Nashville elementary school, noting that he can only “plead with Congress” for action.

Biden spoke to reporters while on his way to Durham, North Carolina.

Continue reading...

Republican congressman says ‘we’re not going to fix’ school shootings

Posted on by

Tim Burchett says he doesn’t see a role for Congress in preventing tragedies ‘other than mess things up’ after Nashville shooting

After the latest massacre of schoolchildren in the United States, the Republican congressman Tim Burchett answered the question Americans have all but given up asking of their elected officials by telling reporters: “We’re not going to fix it.”

The three-term congressman from Tennessee, the state where an intruder fatally shot three nine-year-old students and three adults at a small Christian school on Monday, appeared to compare the expectation of safety for American schoolchildren with that of soldiers fighting Japanese suicide attackers during the second world war.

Continue reading...

Legendary Nashville store Ernest Tubb Record Shop to close

Posted on by

The oft-photographed country music institution, which has been in Nashville since 1947, will close in the spring

The downtown Nashville, Tennessee, record store that was opened by Opry legend Ernest Tubb in 1947 and has been a landmark in country music for decades will close as the building is being put up for sale.

The owners of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop said in a statement on Friday they were heartbroken that the store, which has been in its current location on Broadway since 1951, will close in the spring. The building and store is owned by the Honky Tonk Circus, LLC, and the David McCormick Company, Inc.

Continue reading...

‘We’re like Mork and Mindy!’ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, music’s odd couple

Posted on by

Fourteen years after their Grammy-winning debut, the roots duo have reunited – facing high expectations. They explain how they left their comfort zones with a ‘nuts but tasteful’ all-star band

More than half a century since arriving to play his first show in the US with Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant was in the strange position of having to explain himself to the authorities.

“I had to prove that I was contributing to the betterment of the American system somehow, which is kind of cute, really,” Plant says of this post-lockdown trip to Nashville. He is sitting in the city’s famous Sound Emporium studio with his collaborator, the bluegrass legend Alison Krauss. It is the same place where they recorded their second, highly anticipated record as a duo, Raise the Roof, before the pandemic put the world on pause.

Continue reading...

Nashville explosion: investigators work to find motive behind Christmas blast

Posted on by
  • Anthony Warner, 63, died in Friday explosion he set off
  • Hundreds of tips and leads given to police and agencies

Federal authorities are working to piece together the motive behind the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville that severely damaged dozens of downtown buildings and injured three people.

Related: Nashville blast: officials identify Anthony Warner as the bomber

Continue reading...

Nashville blast: investigators name 63-year-old man as person of interest

Posted on by

Blast caused damage to dozens of buildings and hurt three people as police reportedly examine whether bomber had 5G paranoia

Authorities in Tennessee on Sunday named a 63-year-old Nashville resident as a person of interest in the Christmas morning bombing that injured three people and destroyed sections of the city’s historic downtown.

The Nashville police chief John Drake linked Anthony Quinn Warner, from the south eastern suburb of Antioch, to the explosion that took place outside a facility owned by the telecommunications company AT&T and knocked out or impaired mobile phone services in several other cities.

Continue reading...

Nashville: FBI combs wreckage as mystery surrounds Christmas Day blast

Posted on by
  • Three people lightly injured and possible human remains found
  • Unclear if or how remains are linked to downtown explosion

Mystery surrounds the motivation behind the detonation of an apparent bomb on the streets of downtown Nashville that rocked Tennessee’s biggest city on Christmas morning as investigators continued to comb the wreckage for clues.

Three people were lightly injured in the blast and some possible human remains have been found near the site of the RV that exploded and caused serious damage to Nashville’s historic core. But it is not clear if or how the remains are linked to the incident.

Continue reading...

Large explosion damages buildings in Nashville at Christmas – video

Posted on by

Footage filmed after a vehicle exploded in Nashville early on Christmas morning shows damage to several buildings. The explosion is being considered an 'intentional act' by local police as vehicle broadcast an apparently recorded message telling people to evacuate the area before the blast

Continue reading...

Blast that rocked downtown Nashville appears to be ‘intentional act’, police say

Posted on by
  • Explosion linked to parked RV occurred at 6.45am
  • Three suffer non-critical injuries as structural damage reported

A large explosion that rocked downtown Nashville early on Christmas morning appears to have been an “intentional act”, according to local police, as the FBI announced it would lead the investigation into a blast that caused severe damage and left three people with non-critical injuries.

Continue reading...

Tennessee paper religious ad claims ‘Islam’ will detonate nuclear bomb in Nashville

Posted on by
  • Editor of the Tennessean calls full-page advertisement ‘horrific’
  • Newspaper investigating ‘breakdown in the normal process’

A Tennessee newspaper said on Sunday it was investigating what its editor called a “horrific” full-page advertisement from a religious group that predicts a terrorist attack in Nashville next month.

The paid advertisement that appeared in Sunday’s editions of the Tennessean from the group Future For America claims Donald Trump “is the final president of the USA” and features a photo of Trump and Pope Francis.

Continue reading...

Nashville tornadoes: at least 25 people killed and hundreds homeless

Posted on by
  • Fire crews and police comb through tornado’s wreckage
  • Torn walls and roofs, snapped power lines and downed trees

Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee as people slept early on Tuesday, shredding at least 140 buildings and killing at least 25 people. Authorities described painstaking efforts to find survivors in piles of rubble and wrecked basements as the death toll climbed.

A Tennessee emergency management agency spokeswoman raised the death toll on Tuesday morning, after police and fire crews spent hours pulling survivors and bodies from wrecked buildings.

Continue reading...

Footage shows aftermath of deadly overnight tornadoes in Nashville – video

Posted on by

Footage recorded by a Nashville resident after two tornadoes ripped through central Tennessee shows shredded buildings, damaged power lines and debris across roads. At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds are homeless

Continue reading...