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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - A state lawmaker with a history of impassioned speeches was at it again at the Capitol. This time, Sen. Ophelia Ford, D-Memphis, wanted to talk about nurses and her experiences in the hospital. Sen. Ford reacted during a senate committee meeting Tuesday night over a proposal that would increase penalties for assaults on healthcare workers. The Memphis lawmaker talked about her own experience during two separate hospitalizations in recent years. "I cannot tell you the horrific experience that I had, and it was nurses who were mainly doing these things to me," she said. The bill...

NASHVILLE -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford -- already a YouTube star for her snarling "what you're saying ain't hittin' on nothin' with me" speech last year -- was back at it last week, berating regulators about new state fees on the funeral industry. Acknowledging that she's a licensed funeral director, Ford complained in a legislative hearing Aug. 13 that fees are going to "eat us up and put us out of business." She demanded regulators disclose who imposed a new $150 biannual registration fee on preneed funeral sales agents and what it's for. Turns out that Ford and her legislative...

Tenn. won't reinstate Ophelia Ford's expired funeral permit

The Supreme Court's approval of the country's strictest election standards doesn't mean every state should adopt them - The U.S. Supreme Court stamped its approval this week on Indiana's decision to require voters to show photo identification at the polls. Should Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas get in line? Not necessarily. State lawmakers should always be concerned about the integrity of the ballot, decide what can reasonably and fairly be expected of voters and legislate accordingly. But there is no federal mandate to adopt the photo ID, a solution that still seems to be in search of a problem. In his...

NASHVILLE -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford is expected to return to the legislature next week after being absent with an unspecified illness since the session started in January. Ford's temporary assistant, Sherwine Lucien, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the Memphis Democrat had contacted her about booking a flight to Nashville on Monday. "As far as we know, she should be here Monday," Lucien said. Ford has been in and out of the hospital with health issues that have plagued her the past year. The 57-year-old said in March that she had a severe case of anemia that had...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — State Sen. Ophelia Ford’s attorney has told the Senate speaker that she apparently won't be able to attend legislative sessions “for at least a few more weeks" and won’t attend Tuesday’s opening of the 2008 session. Citing “privacy concerns,” Memphis lawyer David Cocke’s letter did not disclose the nature of Ford’s illness. But her Memphis colleague, Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle, said today that she needs to allow her physician to explain her prolonged absence.

For the second time in a handful of months, State Senator Ophelia Ford was transported to the hospital after calling 911. The fire department confirmed they transported a patient to Methodist Central following complaints she was having trouble breathing. A neighbor confirmed to FOX13 that it was, in fact, Ford who was taken.

State Sen. Ophelia Ford dialed 911 at 6:30 a.m. Sunday from her Mud Island apartment requesting medical help, according to a tape of the emergency call. "What's the problem ma'am? Tell me exactly what happened," the operator said. "I haven't eaten in about a week and I can't stop shaking," Ford said. "I think I got a blood infection." Sunday's call for help is the latest in a series of events that have raised concerns about the Memphis Democrat, including an off-topic outburst during a Senate committee meeting in Nashville, a hospital stint after reportedly falling off a hotel bar...

State Sen. Ophelia Ford has been admitted to Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, her brother Joe Ford said Monday evening. Joe Ford was unsure why his sister was in the hospital, but said she’d been there since Sunday morning. He planned to visit her Tuesday. "I called my sister and she told me she was in Methodist University Hospital, but I do not know what’s wrong with her," Ford said. Methodist spokesman Ruth Ann Hale said Ford is not in the hospital’s directory of patients, but added that someone can opt out of that directory to avoid publicity. Joe Ford...

State Senator Ophelia Ford is refusing help from her family. Some of her family members went to Nashville to pick up the state senator. This comes after after several incidents including a fall off a bar stool and an accusation of assaulting a cab driver. Ford's brother, Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford says she needs to go to rehab. Ford insists she doesn't have a drinking problem. Meanwhile, Senator Ford is involved in a suit that could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. She's suing the senate for ousting her following a special election where some dead voters had...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford is refusing help from her family despite some of them saying she has a drinking problem. Meanwhile, Ford has filed a suit against the state Senate that could cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. Even though Ford is the senator from District 29, she is still suing the state senate over a disputed special election that occurred 13 months ago. Election officials later found that dead voters cast ballots in the election. Ford attorney David Cocke said a status hearing next month will determine how to go forward with this litigation. "The...

Ophelia Ford refused to talk to family members who traveled to Nashville Sunday to bring the state senator home for help. Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford and two relatives left for Nashville at 6 a.m. Sunday, hoping to bring her home and admit her into rehab. When the party reached the Holiday Inn near Vanderbilt, they called Ophelia Ford. "She found out we were at her door, turned the phone off and wouldn't answer her door. We stayed there about three hours and finally came home. "That's about all I can do. We're washing our hands of it until she...

After failing to hear from state Sen. Ophelai Ford by late Saturday afternoon, concerned family members were planning to head to Nashville to bring her home, said Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford. We know that she checked out of the Holiday Inn in Nashville but we don't know what other hotel she checked into," Ford said of his sister. "But we will be going to Nashville to get her." Ophelia Ford has blamed a string of bizarre episodes in Nashville on 'chronic anemia." She has flatly denied any suggestion that she has a drug or alcohol problem. Joe Ford Said...

NASHVILLE -- Embattled state Sen. Ophelia Ford said Thursday she will remain in office at least through her first term ending in 2010 and flatly denied any suggestion that she has a drug or alcohol problem -- as her brother, Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford, has implied. But just as Ford, D-Memphis, moved to put a string of controversies behind her, news of another bizarre episode surfaced later Thursday: a Nashville taxicab driver told police that an "intoxicated" Ford pulled his shirt collar so hard while he was driving her to her hotel from a downtown bar and restaurant that...

NASHVILLE -- A Nashville taxicab driver told police that an "intoxicated" state Sen. Ophelia Ford pulled his shirt collar while he was driving her and another woman to Ford's hotel Tuesday night from a downtown bar and restaurant. According to a Metropolitan Police incident report obtained today, driver Habib Abdi Hashi told police here that he had transported Ford about 4 p.m. Tuesday and got a call to pick up her party at the Wildhorse Saloon about 9:13 p.m. Hashi told officers that the "suspect was intoxicated and was brought out to the cab under a blanket to keep the...

NASHVILLE -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford of Memphis raised eyebrows during a legislative hearing Monday when she launched into a rant against child-protective service officials and a state auditor. The public hearing focused on a performance audit of the Division of Child Protective Services of the state Department of Children's Services. The audit contained only one finding: That the agency did not complete some investigations of child deaths within the 60 days set out in state policy. But Ford, a Democrat, pressed DCS officials about death certificates and other matters that seemed to have little relevance to the hearing, even...

NASHVILLE -- Embattled state Sen. Ophelia Ford said today that she plans to remain in office at least through her first term that ends in 2010. She also flatly denied any suggestion that she has a drug or alcohol problem, as her brother County Commissioner Joe Ford implied Wednesday. "Ms. Ophelia Ford is going to be here and there is nothing you can say or do to take me away. I don't care what the media says," Ford said in an interview in her Nashville office. "I will be here in the Senate and I will be here until my...

State Sen. Ophelia's Ford family plans to encourage her to enter rehab this weekend, according to her brother, Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford. "I've come to the conclusion that there's a problem. Whether it's drugs, alcohol or anemia, there needs to be rehab," he said Wednesday afternoon. If Sen. Ford doesn't return to Memphis today for the weekend, as most Shelby County legislators do, Joe Ford said another brother, Melvin, plans to drive to Nashville on Friday to get her. Joe Ford said the family plans to meet with the Democratic state senator over the weekend to urge her to...

A judge said Monday he thinks the public is owed a more detailed explanation about an alleged plot by three poll workers to throw a 2005 election to Ophelia Ford, now a state senator. Shelby County Criminal Court Judge John P. Colton took guilty pleas earlier this month from the three election workers who avoided jail time in a deal with prosecutors. Advertisement The workers admitted to voting fraud charges against them, yet never said what motivated them to fake at least three votes, two of them cast in the names of dead people. "I think the public has a...

MEMPHIS - State Sen. Ophelia Ford says a chronic health condition and eating problems caused her to fall from a bar stool at a Nashville hotel, while a 911 call recording indicates that she may have been intoxicated. Ford, who was taken to a hospital Tuesday and kept overnight, told WMC-TV that she has been struggling with anemia and hasn't been eating well. She dismissed reports that she was intoxicated Tuesday night. "I might have a glass of wine, but I'm sorry, that ain't true," she said. "My problem is blood related and not eating." An employee at the Sheraton...