• Early voting has begun in Nashville, with about 560 votes cast on Friday for mayor and four at-large council seats. The run-off election is September 12.
• Students at Meharry Medical College are demanding that the school’s administrators explain why they accepted money from electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul to study the health effects of vaping. The school received $7.5 million in grants and says they have full control over the study’s results.
• A man on a scooter was captured on traffic cameras riding along I-24 East before being stopped by a police officer and escorted back to much safer roadways. Pedestrians and low-speed vehicles are not allowed on the interstates.
• In a separate case, police say a man attempted to flee a car burglary scene on a scooter until they gave chase and he ran on foot to hide in the bushes.
• A portion of 25th Avenue South will be renamed Perry Wallace way to honor the civil rights trailblazer as the first black man to play basketball for an SEC school in 1967. Wallace died in 2017.
• By now you’ve probably heard about the Washington Post story calling the East Nashville neighborhood “East Nasty” and “the Portlandia of the South.” The column was written by a purported 10-year resident of the area, so we’re just as confused as you are.
• Members of the Communications Workers of America, the union representing about 20,000 employees of AT&T call centers and technicians in nine states, went on strike late last week because they say company is not negotiating in good faith (namely, sending somebody who can actually negotiate) about their new contract, among other grievances.
• Nashville-based Christie Cookie is no longer locally owned after being purchased by a New York company, though leaders say the day-to-day operations will not change. ?
• Police say a man urinated off the balcony of Honky Tonk Central downtown on to a stranger on the street below. Remember to pack your umbrella if you go on Lower Broadway, we guess? ☔️
• If you’re tired of the Tennessee Legislature overriding local governments, we have some bad news about the plans of the incoming Speaker of the House. The state has taken a special interest in ordinances past by the Metro Council in recent years around single-use plastic utensils and short-term rentals, among other topics.
• Apple and Tennessee State University are partnering on a app design course that will be free to alumni of the university.
• The Nashville Scene has an interview with the OZ Arts founder Tim Ozgener, a member of the ill fated polar expedition that featured several other Nashville dignitaries including former mayor Karl Dean. It’s a wild one.
• Nashville SC’s stadium at Fairgrounds Nashville won’t open for a while, but the team has released some new renderings which conspicuously omit or replace most of what is currently at the fairgrounds. There are ongoing lawsuits related to that last bit.
• The Nashville Sounds will have a new name for their stadium, as First Horizon Park will replace First Tennessee’s branding as the company consolidates under a single identity. The new signs will go up in January.
• High school football games in Metro will have heightened security after last year’s fights and other violence that broke out during the contests.
• It was not the Tennessee Titans Night (1-3) as they fell 18-6 to the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers (3-0). The Titans wrap up their preseason schedule against the Chicago Bears (1-2) on the road this Thursday.
• Weirdly, most Titans fans are talking about the sudden retirement of another team’s quarterback.
• A Nashville man says that aggressive panhandlers are typically running scams and wants to change state law to penalize anyone who gives money to them. The law is likely to face constitutional challenges if it ever got that far.
• And finally, here is a photo of a very big cat that needs a home.
• PSA: Early voting continues through September 7, with all locations opening this Friday.

Photo by Jonathan Belcher. Want to see your photo featured here?