By J. Holly McCall | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, Lookout readers.
“We have no other choice. We have to take him from Children’s Special Services. . . I don’t want to put the life of my children in their hands. I don’t want immigration to come to my house. I don’t want them to put us in detention. In detention (my son) wouldn’t get any care.” — Gabriella, mother of a child enrolled in Children’s Special Services
Last week, Senior Reporter Anita Wadhwani wrote that the Tennessee Department of Health has notified families lacking full legal status with critically ill children that in order to continue receiving care through a last resort health care program, their personal information will be turned over to a state agency that cooperates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Today, Wadhwani reports advocates for the families with kids who have spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and cancer, among other critical — and sometimes terminal — issues are scrambling to find alternatives for chemotherapy, ventilators and feeding tubes.
Wadhwani, who is on a roll of sorts, also reports today that nearly 100,000 Tennesseans have lost SNAP food benefits following the July 2025 passage of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which cut funds for the program and passed stricter requirements.
All this comes in a state in which political leaders like to brag on being “pro-life.”
THE LOOKOUT’S TOP STORY
Gabriella, the mother of a child with complex medical needs covered by a last resort state health care program for critically ill kids, used a translation app on her phone to talk about program cuts. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Photograph by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
by Anita Wadhwani
“I can’t overstate the impact we’re seeing,” Dr. Morgan McDonald, who sits on Nashville’s Metro Health Board, said during a Thursday board meeting. “We’re seeing nurses scramble for ventilators, for feeding tubes, to try (to obtain) metabolic formula, to try to keep kids out of the hospital, to try to keep kids alive,” she said.
NEWS AND NOTES
Bloody UFC cage match on White House lawn marks Trump’s 80th birthday | Ashley Murray, States Newsroom
Kennedy Center facade blocked from public view by tarp after Trump’s name removed | Sam Gaunt, States Newsroom
(Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk) Tami Sawyer Faces 20 Years in “Significant Public Corruption Case” | Memphis Flyer
O’Connell Issues Executive Order Supporting Moratorium on Data Centers | Hannah Herner, Nashville Scene
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
Cassandra Doyle, photographed at Nashville women’s shelter, is one of nearly 100,000 Tennesseans who lost SNAP food benefits since the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill took effect in July 2025. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Anita Wadhwani
Nearly 100,000 people in Tennessee who have lost SNAP, the federal food aid program, since July 2025, according to state enrollment data. The drop coincides with a new law from the Trump Administration that rewrote many of the rules in the program.
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
Private prison company CoreCivic has agreed to pay for body cameras to be worn by officers at Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility, with the company operates. (Photo: Tennessee Department of Corrections)
by Sam Stockard
Tennessee private-prison operator CoreCivic is paying the cost of equipping officers with body cams at besieged Trousdale Turner, but much of the video captured in the delayed pilot program will not be subject to the state’s Public Records Act.
COMMENTARY
State Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat, holds a photo of the new U.S. House map passed by Tennessee Republicans during a recent special legislative session. The next legislative session could include redistricting of state House and Senate seats. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Bruce Barry
Tennessee Republicans used the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais to redraw the state’s congressional maps. What’s to stop them for redistricting the state House and Senate in attempt to cut all Democratic seats out?
ICYMI
Local Tennessee officials are putting data center plans on ice to consider regulations | Cassandra Stephenson
Tennessee waste task force eyes changes to law allowing local rejection of landfills | Cassandra Stephenson
COMMENTARY
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