Free Republic

From hateful rants on Fox news to falsehoods in Congress, the far right is exploiting the Nashville shooting, experts warn An already vigorous assault by Republicans on LGBTQ+ rights around the US is certain to gather pace in the wake of the Nashville school shooting, advocacy groups are warning. Hard-right figures wasted little time in seizing on the reported transgender identity of the Covenant school killer to advance tenets of a “hateful” agenda that has become an obsession of Republican-controlled statehouses from Florida to Tennessee.

Mayor John Cooper has requested from Gov. Bill Lee an additional $82.6 million in COVID-19 relief to help aid Nashville’s tourism industry, music venues, small-businesses and to help expand the city’s social resources. In a letter last week outlining the city’s needs as Nashville continues to be rocked by the ongoing pandemic, Cooper reminds Lee the state’s economic recovery begins in Nashville — “right now.” The Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. last month estimated Nashville businesses have so far lost $2.45 billion in visitor spending due to COVID-19 and are losing more than $100 million per week as the pandemic...