Ian Round is The Daily Memphian’s state government reporter based in Nashville. He came to Tennessee from Maryland, where he reported on local politics for Baltimore Brew. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland in December 2019.
There are 432 articles by Ian Round :
Officials responsible for administering the food-assistance program for low-income Tennesseans appeared before a state Senate committee Wednesday to explain the problems and how they plan to solve them.
Catholic education leaders believe the Jubilee Schools wouldn’t have closed if the state government had paid a portion of the families’ tuition. That’s why they support Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which would make private school vouchers much more widely available.
If the state attorney general says Gov. Bill Lee has the power to temporarily assign judges from around Tennessee to handle criminal cases in Shelby County, Taylor will request he do so “immediately.”
Dubbed the Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security — or ELVIS — Act, the bill represents one of the first attempts by a government to regulate artificial intelligence.
“There are more questions than definitive answers about what rejecting federal K-12 dollars could mean for Tennessee’s obligations because no state has ever done so,” the report states.
Members of the public were only given a fraction of the seats in the two galleries overlooking the House floor.
The panel, which Daily Memphian CEO Eric Barnes will moderate, is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Church of the Holy Communion, at 4656 Walnut Grove Rd.
Other than Gov. Bill Lee’s proposal to expand private school vouchers, legislation intended to fight crime is likely to be the General Assembly’s biggest focus in its 2023 legislative session, which begins Tuesday.
Lawmakers will return to Nashville on Tuesday, Jan. 9, for the start of the 2024 legislative session. It’s the first time the full General Assembly is back since an August special session on public safety
Bill Lee has held office as a “conservative education revolution” has swept states controlled by Republicans.
Tauheed Rahim II, a native Memphian and artist-in-residence at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., circulated a petition to maintain his rights to a problem property where his mother used to live near St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The governor called DeAndre Brown earlier this month and Brown said, “I just lost it — I mean, tears, snot, I couldn’t even talk. ... To have that be removed with a phone call was mind-blowing.”
Memphis-Shelby County Schools leadership said Tennessee’s new letter grades for schools don’t “tell the full story.”
TDOT announced a plan to rebuild the I-55 bridge over the Mississippi River with funding from Gov. Bill Lee’s $3.3 billion Transportation Modernization Act.
The Tennessee Department of Correction “housed potential aggressors in the same cells as potential victims of sexual abuse” and officials weren’t disciplined after substantiated cases of sexual misconduct.
While ascribing the gloomy climb to any one cause would be simplistic, one factor jumps out: relaxed gun laws.Related story:
More than three-quarters of Tennessee voters support at least some access to abortion, background-check requirements and restricting “high-risk” people’s access to guns.
The gingerbread replica of the governor’s residence is highly accurate, but pastry chef Konrad Spitzbart made sure to include the Peabody’s famous ducks.
The General Assembly approved private school vouchers by a one-vote margin in 2019, with some supporting the program because it applied only to Memphis and Nashville. Now, Lee wants anyone, regardless of income, to have access to discounted private school tuition.
As a Rhodes College student, Mariam Khayata explored questions central to her identity and her experience living in Syria. Last month, she got the opportunity to continue those studies at the University of Oxford in England.
An armed man’s stroll on Peabody Avenue near Cooper Street forced two schools to increase security measures on Monday. What he did was legal, and the ordeal drew attention to Tennessee’s lenient gun laws.
A three-judge panel ruled that the state Senate map is unconstitutional because the districts in Nashville are not consecutively numbered. The state House map will remain unchanged, and the redrawn Senate map is unlikely to change the body’s partisan or racial composition.
More than 50 troopers will contribute to an ongoing “surge” over the next few weeks, after state Sen. Brent Taylor pleaded for more help fighting crime in Memphis.
Eight hours of meetings focused on federal education funding and whether Tennessee should give that funding up wrapped last week. Here are some of the main takeaways.
Tennessee’s education commissioner refused to say Tuesday whether she supports or opposes the possible rejection of more than $1 billion in annual school funding from the federal government.