By J. Holly McCall | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, Lookout readers.
At 59, Dr. Ty Webb looks years younger — an endurance athlete, he’s run plenty of marathons and participated in a number of triathlons — but even so, he won’t practice medicine forever. After nearly 30 years of seeing patients in Sparta, he’s looking toward retirement.
“I love medicine. I would keep doing this for a very long time,” he said. “The problem is the bureaucracy of medicine and it’s killing me.”
Contributor Jamie McGee talked to Webb and other family medicine physicians practicing in small communities and rural parts of the state about a growing shortage of practitioners — and writes about a potential solution designed to attract young doctors to the Volunteer State.
Of note: On Saturday, the Williamson Remembers Committee unveiled two permanent historical markers in downtown Franklin acknowledging and memorializing African American lynching victims from the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras in Williamson County. The placement of the markers is the culmination of a 6-year effort.
Elected. Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk of the 20th Judicial District, was elected to the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference Executive Committee. The 9-member panel supports all 32 district attorneys in the state.
On this day: Congress created the U.S. Department of Justice (1870,) President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill of Rights (1944,) and President Richard Nixon signed the 26th Amendment into law, lowering the voting age to 18 (1970.)
THE LOOKOUT’S TOP STORY
Dr. Ty Webb, who has been practicing medicine in Sparta, Tennessee, for nearly 30 years, is nearing retirement and has fears about how health care needs will be met in rural Tennessee as fewer physicians move to small communities. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Jamie McGee
Tennessee is already lacking in rural health care and the pool of family medicine doctors in rural areas continues to shrink: The number of family physicians in rural areas in the South fell by 14% in the seven years through 2023. Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, with support from state lawmakers, is giving grants of up to $200,000 to help physicians repay medical school debt in exchange for setting up practice in small communities or rural areas.
NEWS AND NOTES
When teens drive less, they don’t register to vote. Here’s how civic groups are adapting. | Jonathan Shorman, States Newsroom
US Education Department offers two-year trim on student loan interest rates | Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom
COMMENTARY
Signage at Stones River National Battlefield, which holds living history reenactments like the one pictured here, is slated to be reworded under an executive order from President Donald Trump. (Photo: National Park Service)
by Ren Brabenec
As July 4 and America’s 250th anniversary approaches, Tennesseans will head to the state’s federally-managed parks, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park and several Civil War Battlefields. But signage at several of those parks is slated to be rewritten at the demand of the Trump administration — a means of rewriting history.
ICYMI
Thanks for reading The Daily Lookout. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.