Fern Fallout Cont.

NES storm debt comes due as Metro greenlights $430K post-Fern review.

Lead story · By Megan Podsiedlik

🏛️ Mayor O’Connell files $1,000-per-year-of-service retirement buyout for eligible Metro employees
Employees eligible for a normal pension would get $1,000 per year of service, and those eligible for an early, reduced pension would get $500 per year. Employees must apply by January 21 and, in most cases, leave by February 26. The plan comes as O’Connell predicts flat revenues and what could be the tightest budget of his term. The first of three Council votes is November 17.  (Banner)

🏗️ Metro Council approves $35M to start design on proposed $417M Davidson County jail
The money pays for design and early site work on a complex that would replace the 32-year-old men’s correctional center off Harding Place and combine the county’s other jail facilities. The acting sheriff called the current facility “deplorable.”  A coalition of two dozen groups opposes the jail, saying Nashville has an over-incarceration problem rather than an overcrowding problem. The vote does not commit the city to the full $417M. (Fox 17)

🇫🇷 Macrons’ defamation case against Candace Owens lands in Nashville federal court
A Delaware judge dismissed the claims against Owens personally for lack of jurisdiction, so Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron filed a 409-page complaint in the Middle District of Tennessee, where Owens lives.  They are seeking a jury trial and damages over Owens’ unproven claims that Brigitte was born a man, that the couple are blood relatives, and that Macron’s rise was tied to mind control. Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. has the case. (Post)

🚨 Police arrest Lafreda Batey and Shanna Thomas after gun displayed in Opry Mills fight
Metro police arrested two women after a Saturday fight near Five Below at Opry Mills with another woman and her mother.  According to the arrest affidavit, one of them pulled a handgun from a purse while the other yelled “shoot her.” (WSMV)

🩺 Judge extends block on immigration checks in Tennessee HIV/AIDS program; ruling on injunction expected this week
Chancellor I’Ashea Myles extended her order barring the state Health Department from requiring proof of citizenship or immigration status in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program and its companion housing program.  Nashville CARES argues the checks conflict with federal law and would increase disease transmission. The state calls it a contract dispute and says it will verify status even if provider agencies refuse. (Lookout)