by LeBron Hill | Feb 2, 2018 | BREAKING NEWS, News Slider
Nashville mayor Megan Barry admitted Wednesday to having an affair with the head of her security detail dating back to spring 2016. The controversy comes while Barry is trying to sell the public on her $5.2 billion transit plan. The Metro Council votes next week on putting the transit plan on the ballot in May, a key step for the mayor’s plan. Barry’s affair with Metro Police Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr. reportedly lasted for a year. Sgt. Forrest earned $50,000 in overtime wages during that period. “I’m embarrassed, and I am sad, and I am so sorry for all the pain that I have caused my family and his family,” she said at a news conference Wednesday. “I know that God will forgive me, but that Nashville doesn’t have to. … I hope that I can earn your trust back and that you will forgive me.” Lipscomb professor of political science Dr. Marc Schwerdt agreed that the scandal will affect the voting for the transit plan. “It’s going to personalize this referendum from her,” Schwerdt said. “It becomes a referendum on her instead of just about the merits of that plan.” A metro council committee chairwoman announced Friday that she planned to create an investigative special committee to look into the use of taxpayer dollars and Barry’s trips around the time of the affair. The mayor spoke at the youth summit held at on campus last...
by Olivia Waldorf | Feb 2, 2018 | News Slider, Opinion
It’s cold, and for those of you from places that get even colder than Nashville (and like to remind everyone when the rest of us are bundled up on a 45-degree day), admit it: this weather is still uncomfortable. If you truly are one-of-a-kind and enjoy hanging outside in below 30 degree weather, go for it. For the rest of us warm-weather- seekers, here are five places that always keep me cozy during these icy months. I’ll start out with an obvious solution to the drab grey skies and harsh wind chill: coffee shops. I know this sounds cliché and more like universal knowledge than a hidden gem of an idea, so I’m only going to share one café specifically that quickly has become my second home: JJ’s Market. From the red, velvet couches to the dim lighting and brick walls covered in art, this inexpensive coffee shop and mini-market is one of the only coffee shops worth spending hours in, no matter the weather). Curling up with a book and sipping on an Einstein or any other specialty drink will change your life. Well, maybe not your entire life but it will definitely make your day a lot warmer. Next, we have something for the art lovers: Museums, and lots of them, like the Frist. Not only is the “Nick Cave: Feat.” exhibition going on, but you can wander around to look at the other pieces.Moving on past the infamous Frist, these cold Nashville days can also push you into some of music city’s best exhibits for influential musicians. This also works out because if you are in...
by Russell Vannozzi | Feb 2, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
As Lipscomb guard Garrison Mathews goes, so do the Bisons. The junior currently ranks 12th in the NCAA in scoring with 22.1 points per game and is regarded as one of the best mid-major players in the nation. But Mathews wasn’t always a sure lock to be a star. He had limited college options coming out of Franklin High School in 2015, touting just four Division I offers from Lipscomb, USC Upstate, UMass Lowell and Austin Peay. “I took official (visits) to Upstate and Lowell,” Mathews said. “Ultimately, going to (Lipscomb) was the best decision for me. I felt like I fit in with the players here.” However, Mathews wasn’t initially Coach Casey Alexander’s top priority. “We had been recruiting somebody else longer, and we told that player we were going to wait for his decision,” Alexander said. “We put Garrison on hold, and it turned out the other guy picked a different school.” The Bisons then extended an offer to Mathews, who jumped at the chance to play close to home. But one has to wonder: did being the second choice put a chip on his shoulder? “I guess a little bit,” he said. “I was just excited to get here. It was a blessing to get a Division I offer, because that’s something I dreamed of as a little kid.” The 6-foot-3 guard has played in all 23 games this season and has already totaled 508 points as of Feb. 2. Last season, he became the fastest Lipscomb player to reach 1,000 career points, needing just 65 games to reach the feat. “We’re really lucky that things...
by Spencer Boehme | Feb 2, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
It was a tale of the Lipscomb bench in Nashville. Lexi Manos scored a career-high 20 points en route to a total of 57 points put up by the Lipscomb Lady Bisons’ bench. The Lady Bisons had control for most of the game as they won 97-78. The USC Upstate Spartans struggled to convert on shots, going 27-of-77 on field goals (35.1 percent). This led to 50 rebounds for the Lady Bisons as opposed to 40 for the Spartans. Upstate could not contain Lipscomb’s offense, which generated a season-high point total. After beginning with a promising 7-0 lead, including a 3-pointer to start things out, the Spartans allowed multiple scoring runs by Lipscomb to quickly erase that momentum. After the first half, Upstate had only converted 23.7 percent on field goals, including 2-of-15 from the 3-point line. The score at that point was 45-26 Lipscomb. The Spartans engendered a 5-point run to start the second half. But it wasn’t enough, as the Lady Bisons quickly slotted themselves back into the competition. Both teams each scored 52 points apiece in the second half. The main story for the Spartans was their consistently missed shots. They were off-target from the start and couldn’t really pick up in that category until the Lipscomb bench saw a lot more playing time towards the end of the game. The main story of the night for Lipscomb was Lexi Manos, who put up the most points of her career. Coming off the bench, Manos converted on her first five field goal attempts to result in 9-of-14 on the night for her team-high 20 points. “It...
by Cole Gray | Feb 1, 2018 | News Slider
Five gubernatorial candidates discussed some of their visions for the state of Tennessee Thursday at a forum put on by the Tennessee Press Association. Republicans Randy Boyd, Bill Lee and Kay White were in attendance. Speaker of the House Beth Harwell planned to attend but was unable to make it due to the ongoing legislative session. Both declared Democratic candidates for governor, Minority Leader Rep. Craig Fitzhugh and former Nashville mayor Karl Dean, spoke at the event. The forum was led by TPA president Eric Barnes, the publisher of the Memphis Daily News. Questions of various topics were provided before the event by the editorial boards of various Tennessee newspapers as well as the sponsors of the event, including the ACLU of Tennessee. On the issues The candidates expressed some of their top priorities to the crowd of media professionals. All spoke on education. Boyd emphasized the importance of Tennessee’s “Drive to 55” program, which seeks to ensure that 55% of all Tennesseans hold a degree or certificate by 2025. Boyd helped develop the program as Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development. White said she’d rather bring technical training back into high schools than push for the “Drive to 55.” Rep. Fitzhugh praised the new rigor requirements in Tennessee for better preparing students for college, but said he didn’t want students to lose the “joy of learning.” He said learning to read early so that students could “read to learn” was the ideal situation. “I am a pre-K believer,” Rep. Fitzhugh said, referring to pre-kindergarten education, and said he wanted early childhood education in every school....
by Charissa Ricker | Feb 1, 2018 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Lipscomb’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences hosted a screening of the HumanDocs film “I Am Evidence” Wednesday night in Shamblin Theater. The HBO film, directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Trish Adlesic, features the cities of Detroit, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Thousands of untested and unopened rape kits there span decades of sexual crimes. The documentary showcased testimonies of women in the three cities who were victimized first by rape and then by the system’s neglect. They waited as long as 15 years to see progress on their cases and eventually grew to expect that nothing would happen. In an effort to rebuild trust in the justice system, city officials have begun offering resources and implementing special teams to ensure that the kits get tested, victims get justice and serial rapists are taken off the streets. Lauren White, assistant professor of theology in the College of Bible and ministry at Lipscomb, introduced the film. “This documentary comes to us at a watershed moment in our cultural history and consciousness,” White said. “In view of the recent #metoo movement, our country has been unable to ignore the voices of assault survivors and has had to confront the disturbing evidence of just how pervasive sexual violence against women actually is.” The event also featured a panelist discussion after the film. The speakers, Ilse Knecht, Rachel Freeman, Captain Harmon Hunsicker and Pam Crues, all help victims of sexual assault in the community of Nashville. A new crime lab was recently built in Nashville. It focuses on processing backlogged kits and holding offenders accountable. Captain Harmon Hunsicker in the Forensic Services Division at...
