MNPD Conduct Concerns, More Deep Fakery, and Is Love Truly Blind?

Today on CityCast Nashville, it's time for our Friday News Roundup. I'm joined by our creative producer, Marie Cecile Anderson, and executive producer Whitney Pastric to go over everything from voting for our next governor to voting for the best of Nashville, 2026. We also dig into recent MNPD conduct before sending you off with some of this week's good news. If you remember, stick around for this week's hell gnaw about a rising trend that feels particularly antithetical in such a Creative City. It's Friday, July 31st. I'm your new host, Rachel Yacobone, and this is what Nashville's talking about. Welcome to the Friday News Roundup. I'm your new host, Rachel Yacobone, and I'm joined by the woman whose stylish shoes I'm trying to fill, Marie Cecile Anderson, and our executive producer, Whitney Pasterick. Woo-hoo! Welcome, Rachel. For everybody who missed yesterday's guide to the month of August, that was Rachel's official debut. But this is our first time having her on a roundup. We are so glad you're here, Rachel. Remind everybody where you came from? Most recently from Connecticut. I know, I know. I did some reporting there for a year. And before that, I was at Nashville Public Radio and at other public radio stations for the last decade. Well, we're thrilled to welcome you back to Nashville and to have you here. And yeah, we're throwing you right in, your first F&R. Let's freaking go. We're so happy to have you, Rachel, seriously. You have quite the reputation. So we are so excited to have you here at CityCast, Nashville. Yeah, no pressure. And now the news. Voting is open, which I'm very excited about. We've been talking about the polls, of course, but equally importantly in our city on the Nashville scenes website for Best of Nashville. Thank you to everyone who made us Nashville's best podcast last year. I had nothing to do with that, but thank you. Yeah. It's time to vote for us again. Go to vote.com. The scenes polls are open now through August 26th. We are in the media and politics section. You can vote for us as best podcast there, and it would just mean the world. Y'all, you have no idea how much it meant last year when you gave us your votes. Speaking of politics, I like to think our reminders about early voting or really doing something because there's been a big surge in turnout so far this midterm election. One in 10 registered voters in Tennessee have already cast a ballot. And here in Davidson County, we've more than doubled our early turnout since the last midterm election. Okay, I quickly did a little poll on my own personal Instagram and asked my friends and family if they have early. voted yet and everyone has said no. But that's a good thing. You still have until August 1st to early vote or you can just vote on August 6th, but some people actually really like and prefer going on actual election day. I just had to re-register my car to get... Dolly's Imagination Library license plate, of course. And I was worried I was going to miss my appointment, actually, because the county clerk's lot, if you've not had to register your car yet, it's at the county clerks. And the lot was so packed with early voters. I had to do a lap for like 10 minutes. Some political analysts are theorizing that that turnout is due to the competitiveness of these races. In particular, there's the governorship up for grabs. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn is facing Congressman John Rose in the Republican.

We're finally using our new law, discouraging something that we were hoping would never happen, but apparently is the future. And I also want to shout out the Tennessee Equality Project executive director, Chris Bernie Sanders, because he wrote an amazing op-ed in the Tennessee lookout this week about the big old drag show happening in my congressional district, congressional district six. But second of all, I have to agree with Chris when he wrote, it's more fun to dream up drag sports skits and create AI pride parades than it is to deal with the affordability issues Tennesseeans are fair. And I mean, y'all, that's really it, isn't it? Like, who is talking about the issues that matter anywhere right now? Is this whole election just running on childishness and vibes? Yes. Yeah. That's it, right? Take some time to think about it first. Well, I mean, just right out of the gate, we get Marcia's extremely racist ad. And that just nails it because our Tennesseans actually worried about... China. Probably not. Communist China as she, you know, that is not what we're worried about. If they can't put food on the table or even find jobs in this time when nobody can find jobs, that should be the conversation. But yet, I think Trump has given people liberty to go hard in this direction. And it's a distraction tactic, in my opinion. It's making me nostalgic for the rent is too damn high, which I never thought I'd say. I would love to play me now for me back then. Right. It is a different era for sure. I mean, Rachel, you just got here from Connecticut. Is this kind of BS happening up there before you left? No, those ads were about Zohran Mamdani, even when it was not a state that he was even a part of. So the few Republicans that exist in that blue state were very threatened by the New York City mayor. I guess we all have our issues. Nixon five. When we come back, we'll zoom in tighter on the city in our regular segment. Sing it, Marie. Metro Moments. Yeah.

Concerts, bowling, and a full-service restaurant all under one roof. Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville is always a great night out, and its upcoming calendar is absolutely stacked. Pond kicks things off on August 6th with high-energy psychedelic rock. Then on August 10th, Catch Walk Off the Earth, the wildly talented pop group known for turning practically anything into an instrument. Seriously, y'all, you will never know what might make it out on stage. If dancing is more your speed, like myself, St. Lucia brings a full-on neon dance party August 12th, and Bluegrass fans won't want to miss Mountain Grass Unit celebrating the release of their new album Appalachian Smoke on August 27th. September gets even louder with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats on September 10th. Then make a weekend of it with Rising Texas country star Braxton Keith on Friday, September 11th. Followed by Nashville favorites The Weeks on Saturday, September 12th. Grab your friends, make a night of it, and get tickets now at Brooklyn Bowl.com slash Nashville. This week, we saw two stories involving MMPD conduct, or maybe misconduct is a better term. Whitney, what's going on? Well, we told you all a couple weeks ago about the felony arrest of a pair of unhoused folks who were staying in the South Englewood Park. picnic shelter, even though neighbors in Inglewood Mutual Aid and many nearby residents, including myself, have stated that the people who hang out there have never posed a threat to anyone. But a neighbor still called the cops, and MNPD showed up to arrest them and even ended up tasing one gentleman named Lamont Williams, whose story made NPR National News. And that was an incredibly moving piece that everybody should go check out. Now, according to the Nashville banner, MNPD leadership has released a training bulletin, essentially reminding officers that they're not supposed to do that. MNPD deputy chief Chris Gilder told one council member via email that these responding newer officers don't typically deal with unlawful encampment issues on their overnight shift. Marie, Rachel, are you all buying this excuse that these were newer officers who just didn't know the protocol? I mean, even if they were, this has been a topic of conversation since, what, 2020 during the racial justice protests and then afterward came the laws on the state level. So I can't imagine that this is not something that they're being trained on. I mean, you're on the night shift and you're not encountering people sleeping outside. But also, everyone should be clearly trained that you need to call in backup. You need to call in one of those partners in health program people. This is not a place to make a felony arrest because South Anglewood Park is not state property. And DA Glenn Funk has been very clear that that law is not something he plans to enforce. Well, the only thing I just wanted to add is that this week we did have an episode that we did with the contributor where we took you along on an audio tour with a person who had experienced homelessness. And one of the things that he just kept reiterating was the fact that M&PD was constantly harassing him throughout his two years of being unhoused, making him feel like a criminal, constantly bringing him down to the station. And it just made me.

you know, kind of open my eyes to what type of training we actually do need on the ground. The banner released another story yesterday that a lot of people found really upsetting. In 2019, a pregnant woman named Naya Abbey was moving boxes in North Nashville because she and her eight-year-old had just been evicted. She was followed by a blue car that turned out to be MNPD who arrested her in front of her child for felony reckless endangerment and evading arrest. The officers, including Terence Stuckey, claimed she was speeding and running red lights and almost hit a pedestrian. Her son was placed in the custody of child protective services, but her trial was delayed for three. years for some reason. And right before her court hearing, Abby obtained the 911 dispatch calls from her arrest and learned that even while Officer Stuckey was following her, he was telling dispatch that she was driving normally and her case was dismissed. The banner goes on to talk about all the ways in which Ms. Abby's life was basically ruined by this event. She miscarried her pregnancy. The felony charges cost her her job and the home she was about to lease. So she lived on the streets for two years. And her son now lives in Alabama with his dad. But where the story really burned me up is that Ms. Abby and her son... Eventually sued MNPD for damages, and on July 17th, according to the banner, the U.S. Court of Appeals essentially dismissed her case because the statute of limitations had been exceeded. Rachel, I need someone smarter than me to explain how this could be possible. How can they just ruin her life and get away with it? Well, this all comes down to when the clock was determined to start on that statute of limitations. It's a small window, only a year. And basically, it was determined that it began at that traffic stop in 2019. So she would have had to have sued by the same time in 2020, not like we all had... anything else going on that year. Right. And even then, with the court delays, it's unclear how it would have played out. Ultimately, one of the judges wrote, quote, the expiration of the statute of limitations does not render that conduct lawful, acceptable, or excusable. It simply deprives this court of authority to provide relief. So they don't necessarily support MNPD, but their hands are legally tied. Anyway, fun fact, Officer Terrence Stuckey is still on the force. Also, he was involved, speaking of 2020, he was involved in the fatal police shooting of William Johnson that year, which was one of the awful incidents that led to Davidson County voters electing to create a community oversight board, which was later completely defanged by the state. And I'm just going to stop talking now before the trap door opens under my chair. But I do want to tell folks at home, Monday's episode is actually going to be all about felony disenfranchised.

and the consequences that you face in your life when you are convicted of a felony. We're really excited to have our friend Larry Turnley on the show to talk about how he got his voting rights back. And so we really encourage folks to tune into that. And we are sending our love and thoughts out to Ms. Abby and her son. We're about to wrap up this segment and move to good news. And maybe this actually counts as good news. The Nashville downtown partnership is wondering if we should have public bathrooms downtown. Marie, Whitney, your thoughts? You mean like every other major city in the country slash Europe? Y'all, in Tokyo. Oh, here comes Marie with Japan again. I'm sorry. Okay, I went once. They're public restrooms. You could choose what sound you would like to listen to while using the restroom, like birds or an ocean or rain. This was just a public restroom I stumbled upon while I was in the park. Wow. It was free. It was so clean. And, you know, in theory, I would love Nashville to have public restrooms. I am nervous what Nashville downtown partnership, what type of hostile architecture they may come up with for these said public restrooms. Spheres, are they going to make us pee on a sphere? Big beautiful balls with a little hole in them. Please, give us public bathrooms downtown. I would love it. Swoon. But like, would those actually work, given our downtown clientele, are extremely drunk people going to be able to figure out the mechanisms of what is probably going to be like a pod on a corner or something? You can actually give some input, it looks like. You can learn more at Nashville, downtown.com, but you can also attend a public meeting that's happening on August 11th from 6 to 730. That's at the downtown Presbyterian Church. I can't wait to paint a bench that says please don't blow up our public restrooms again. No. The worst version of a double entendre right there.

Concerts, bowling, and a full-service restaurant all under one roof. Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville is always a great night out, and its upcoming calendar is absolutely stacked. Pond kicks things off on August 6th with high-energy psychedelic rock. Then on August 10th, Catch Walk Off the Earth, the wildly talented pop group known for turning practically anything into an instrument. Seriously, y'all, you will never know what might make it out on stage. If dancing is more your speed, like myself, St. Lucia brings a full-on neon dance party August 12th, and Bluegrass fans won't want to miss Mountain Grass Unit celebrating the release of their new album Appalachian Smoke on August 27th. September gets even louder with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats on September 10th. Then make a weekend of it with Rising Texas country star Braxton Keith on Friday, September 11th. followed by Nashville favorites The Weeks on Saturday, September 12th. Grab your friends, make a night of it, and get tickets now at brooklynbowl.com slash Nashville.

Dunna, done a, good news! This week, love is possibly on the horizon for some very lucky Tennesseans because the hit Netflix reality show, Love is Blind, is coming to our state, ladies and gentlemen. This week, kinetic content, the production company behind the hit show, announced that it's currently casting for their new... season. Whitney, we're going to get you in there. Oh, yeah, they really want a 51-year-old lady on their show. I mean, I see all those evening gowns right behind you that you can just slither in. I just bought a pair of Birkenstock mules that I'm referring to as my lesbian retirement slippers. I'm sure I'll be at the top of their list. Oh, well, I just love their social media posts said if you're single, tired of dating apps, and ready to prove that love is actually blind, your pod is waiting. Y'all, if you're listening right now and you want to apply, just head on over to libcasting.com. But whatever you do, do not get this show confused with Love is Blinds, Nashville, a local custom window treatment store based in East Nashville. Now, I would audition for that. I could use some new window treatments. I do think that's where you meet your queer partners. Love is Blinds. Love is Blinds. Hey, I would watch that reality show, actually. Look, I'm happy to meet a nice man anytime, but based on having watched every single season of Love is Blind, I doubt I would find one there. Well, you know, a couple of our other CityCast cities have had Love is Blind show up in their towns. I don't think it was a great experience for the people shooting it or being near it or having to live in apartment buildings near these people. But I'll tell you, that like cookie cutter. apartment condo complex that they move them all into after the pods. We got like a hundred of those here. Yeah. The look and feel will be right. We've got rooftop bars. We don't have any places where they can paddle a swan boat, I don't think, for a day. Oh, I want them to be on one of those pedal taverns that are on the water. So bad. Oh, the pontoon saloon. Guys, I've been on one. Shout out. Not a sponsor. I have been on one. Well, as a new hire, I think we're going to do a team exercise out there. Whitney, is that approved on air? For sure. You have to get it for free. All right, we've got some. I would say non-controversial good news here. We've got great news for SACCO, our beloved Tex-Mex restaurant over by Vandy. Last week, if you don't know it by its little nickname San Antonio Taco Company, it was reported that it was changing owners after 42 years in business. But a social media post from, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this on air, music shitty said that they spoke to a cashier on Wednesday night and they said nothing is going to change. Menu, name, employee.

are staying the same. Fantastic news. Yes, and you're absolutely allowed to say music shitty on air. That's a trademarked name. Sadly, one popular restaurant that is not staying the same here in our town, Sean Brock's Appalachian-inspired restaurant, Audrey, which just announced that it's closing. Our friend Margaret Liman wrote in the scene this week that they're closing their doors on August 16th. Sean Brock didn't own it anymore. He had sold it to the people behind South Hall Farm and Inn. We're in and Farm. It's one of those. I'm not rich enough to go out there. You know, Joyland closed the week before. The Sean Brock Empire. What is happening? Yeah. Unfortunately, it just didn't come as a surprise. I think the one I grieved the most and then I stopped getting emotionally attached to his businesses was the Continental. I think that had the best laminated dough in the city and... I have a long list of others that I really love. Brightside, doesn't. I can keep going. But I really thought it was kind of like high tea, but Southern, you know? Yeah. People really liked that place. Well, at least we still have show pizza for now. Um, Musicians Corner. They launched their fall lineup this week. And fun fact, CityCast Nashville remains a proud presenting sponsor of this event. So we can't wait for it to start up again on Friday, August 28th. This year, the free concert in the park series runs until Friday, September 25th and features artists like Morgan, Buddy Miller, Arlo Parks, and more to be announced. Always a good time. Mark your calendars. Pick a time to go out to Centennial Park and see free music. And then. There's a big thing around the corner, Rachel. What's happening this weekend? And then what's happening on August 11th? I feel like I need air horns for this one. It's tax-free weekend, meaning that starting at 1201 a.m. So not exactly Monday. Through 1159 p.m. this Sunday, August 2nd, shoppers can buy qualifying clothing, school supplies, and computers without paying state or local sales tax, which is perfect since MNPS teachers are going back to school on Monday with the kiddo. is returning on, as Whitney alluded to, August 11th. Summer will soon be officially over. Oh, no, it's still summer for those of us who don't have children. I'm just going to point that out. It's summer for us all, thanks to climate change, for a lot longer than it used to be. Ding, ding, ding.

I just wanted to point out something I actually saw on Reddit. So this is kind of for teachers, but also there are a lot of homeschooling parents that I could see really using this as well. Turnup Green Creative reuse. If you're searching for low-cost ways to prepare your classroom for the upcoming school year, it's a great place to stop by for supplies. They have all these bins of colored pencils, paper, other supplies. And not just for the art teachers, they have about 50 of the MS Physics Quest 2021 kits. What is that? They are the like little physics kits for kids. Have you seen anything? I went to theater school. I don't do physics. I respect gravity, but I don't understand it. That's honestly, we should all be more like that about things we don't understand. Well, all right, guys, that one's a pay what you can. We'll have more resources, of course, as the school year starts. But I just wanted to shout that one out. It's been a talker online. You know Margaret Kingsbury, our trusty newsletter editor slash token parent, we'll make sure that y'all are prepared. So keep an eye on your inboxes. What are we doing this weekend? I'm going to Bob Dylan. Yeah, you are. Tomorrow night. With those new burks. He's playing a send amphitheater. For some reason, like a gazillion tickets are still available. So buy yourself. a lawn seat and come sit by me. Well, I'm going to be over at Brooklyn Bowl that same night going to Club 90s Michael Jackson night. It's 18 and over, so I'll be hanging out with some teenagers, I guess, dancing to Michael Jackson for a friend's birthday party and I'm very excited about it. It's going to be a fun hang. Rachel! Since you're still so new back to Nashville, what are you getting into this weekend besides, you know, maybe unpacking, getting some furniture, just settling back in. This is all just a lot of queer events, apparently, because I'm going to Belcourt. I immediately got my Bellcourt, my Frist, and my Arrington memberships reinstated. And Bellcourt is doing a documentary showing right now of Mary Oliver. So I'm going with my mom, which I think will be illuminating for her. Wait, are we going to have time to get Nancy in Lerner, Linda together before Nancy leaves town? Yes, you've got another couple weeks, so we'll get that on the calendar. Okay, good. We've got to get my mom. I demand social content of the two of y'all's moms hanging out. Oh, that would be so fun. All right, folks, guess what time it is? It's that time in every Friday news roundup where we're about to go into our bonus content segment, Helma! Helma! Helma! It's just for CityCast Nashville neighbors. And if you are not a CityCast Nashville neighbor, you're not going to be able to hear it. So, Marie, what do folks need to do? Just pause for one moment right now and head on over to membership.fm to join right away. There's so many perks. We were just telling Rachel the other day all the amazing membership perks. So pause now. Join $10 a month, $100 a year. Join today. So you can listen to our hot takes. And today is a really good one. Hey, and we need to, before we start Hell Now, we need to shout out the new members who are able to hear this for the first time today. Welcome to the neighborhood, Julie D, Simone M, Wade N, and Hallie S. Please enjoy listening to your first Hellna.

All right. And now we've got some big news for the weekend. Number one, we will obviously be at office hours again today. East National Beer Works 2 to 5. Bring your computer. Get your stuff done. I just read a thing in the New Yorker about how these like admin hours events are taking off up there where people go hang out with other people to pay their bills or take care of emails that they needed to answer. And somehow the being around people helps with your productivity. So that's what office hours is for. Come eat a secret sandwich. And then speaking of East Nashville Beer Works, Marie, what's happening tomorrow? Oh, my goodness. They're having a gigantic festival to celebrate 10 years of East Nashville Beer Works. And their poster looks like Taylor Swift's Airs Tour. So, you know, I love that. It's their annual August fest event. They will be releasing five, count them five different beers throughout the course of the day. Two more things like Rachel said at the top of the show. Best of Nashville voting is open. Vote.nashville.com. Vote for us for Best Podcasts. Please. We love you. We need your votes. We hope we've earned them again this year. And then finally, I'm going to let Marie announce her huge. News. Citycast Nashville is producing our very own roast of Music City at Zanies on September 15th. We have local comedians. I'll be hosting. We also have our beloved musician Freddie Angelico going to premiere a song roasting Music City. Oh my gosh. It's all out of love. We love our city, but we love to hate it also. It's just going to be a really, really great time. And proceeds from the event will go towards Open Table, which we cannot shout out enough. We love Open Table. Tickets are only $15. There is a service charge, so I think it's still less than $20. We're going to be talking about this a lot. The Roast of Music City presented by Citycast Nashville, September 15th. Mark your calendars. Tickets on sale now. Rachel, you did it. You did it. You did your first Friday news run up. How does it feel? It feels good. Yeah. I think it was really like, oh, God, oh no, with the technical stuff for a second there. And then once that was settled, I was like, all right, we got this. This is part of the podcast, too. I'm being honest. That's true. We did need to get Rachel's microphone set up. But she's in her closet. Everything sounds great. Yeah, I should be doing more of the visuals since they can't see. She's trapped in her closet. Between a tan coat and a very bright 80s dress. And they've been very kind to me as I was setting up in my closet today. So it's been a great first week and first roundup. All right. Well, we did it, everybody. We did it again. Y'all take care of each other. Have a great weekend. I'll see you at MJ on Saturday. Boop Boop. dancing with the 18 year olds. All right. That sounded creepy. If you see me at Bellcourt with tears streaming down my face, say hi to me maybe next week.

That's all for today here on CityCast Nashville. And hey, remember you have two days left of early voting for the August 6th state and federal primary election. Today and tomorrow, so go vote. And don't forget, you can support this show and get great perks by becoming a CityCast Nashville neighbor at membership.citycast.fm.fm. I'm your host, Rachel Yakovone. Our executive producer is Whitney Pastric. Our creative producer is Marie Cecile Anderson. Our citycast Nashville newsletter editor is Margaret Kingsbury. And our theme music is by Prof. Jenkins with additional music by The Curious Case from Epidemic Sound. Post-production this week was done by Kyle Neal with roving support from producers Alyssa Castles and Lizzie Goldsmith. If you enjoyed the show, why not tell your friends? Rate the show, leave us a review, and subscribe to our CityCast Nashville newsletter. We'll be back Monday morning with more news from around the city. And I'll leave you with a little piece of Puerto Rican encouragement. Balante.