• More than 1,300 children (and rising) have been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms across the state, prompting pleas from the Tennessee Department of Health to wear a mask and get vaccinated.
• WPLN has an interview with an ICU nurse that is treating some of those younger patients and how this surge in cases has been the toughest yet.
• The family of late radio host Phil Valentine says no one else should make the same mistakes he did in underestimating the virus.
• Parents of students in Metro Schools are pushing back against a recently passed state law that prevents a return to virtual schooling as cases soar among younger people.
• In what has been a bizarre story, MNPD will now investigate the circumstances around a former TDH official allegedly receiving a muzzle to intimidate her, only to have the state say that she mailed it to herself.
• The Tennessee National Guard is expanding its efforts to support hospital staff amid a shortage of nurses and doctors available to treat COVID patients.
• The Saturday floods that centered in Waverly, Tennessee have surpassed the May 2010 floods and a train car explosion in 1978 that killed 16 as the worst disaster to strike that city.
• President Joe Biden has signed an order to declare Humphreys County a federal disaster area, freeing up resources and financial relief for residents.
• Ernest ‘Rip’ Patton, best known for his activism as a Freedom Rider and participant in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, has died. Patton was 81.
• The scene earlier this month in Kabul, Afghanistan was difficult to watch for many mid-state veterans who had served in Operation Enduring Freedom and other campaigns in the country.
• Opry Mills has instituted a new policy that requires anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult after 3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The move comes as the mall grapples with “disruptive” behavior.
• The Nashville Predators hosted a four-day development camp as they look to elevate younger players into larger roles to make up for those lost to the expansion draft and trades.
• The election may be more than a year away, but candidates are already lining up to take on incumbent Governor Bill lee.
• The Metro School Board passed a unanimous resolution to support teachers against new state rules that prohibit instruction certain topics of race and sex.
• Bone McAllester Norton, one of Nashville’s larger law firms, has merged with a national firm according to a release, but will continue to operate under the same name.
• Tennessee’s new permit-less carry laws has lead to an increase in seized firearms at Nashville International Airport, which again set a monthly record.

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