Two artists who started their careers outside of country music were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as early rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and bluegrass performer-turned-country star Keith Whitley joined the ranks.

Lewis, the 87-year-old artist nicknamed “The Killer,” was unable to attend the induction ceremony Sunday in Nashville, due to guidance from his doctor. But fellow country stars Hank Williams Jr. and Kris Kristofferson showed up in his stead to accept and honor the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

Whitley’s widow, fellow country star Lorrie Morgan, accepted the medallion on his behalf during the ceremony featuring performances by Garth Brooks, Mickey Guyton, Chris Isaak, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert and Alabama.

Also inducted this year was music executive Joe Galante, who had a key role in marketing country music to wider pop and rock audiences starting in the 1980s.

New Balance investing $68.5 in Lebanon

New Balance Athletics has announced it will invest $68.5 million to establish a new distribution center in Lebanon.

Located in the Speedway Industrial Park, New Balance says the facility will create more than 150 new jobs in Wilson County, which will support a portion of the company’s digital commerce business for footwear, apparel and accessories, as well as service its wholesale and retail operations for its apparel business.

The new automated processing facility will be approximately 350,000 square feet and is expected to be completed in late summer 2023.

Founded in 1906, and headquartered in Boston, privately held New Balance is a global athletic footwear and apparel leader with more than 7,000 associates worldwide and global annual sales of $4.4 billion in 2021.

Panel rules public housing can’t ban guns

Public housing agencies in Tennessee can no longer include provisions in their leases that bar tenants from having guns in their homes, a state appeals panel has ruled.

A three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals made the unanimous decision Oct. 14, saying that the prohibitions in public housing violate the Second Amendment rights of its residents.

In the ruling, the judges cited a prominent U.S. Supreme Court decision from June that expanded gun rights, while striking down a New York law requiring people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry a a concealed gun in public.

The Tennessee decision could set up an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The case centers on a lawsuit by Kinsley Braden, who signed a lease agreement with Columbia Housing & Redevelopment Corporation in April 2018 that barred him from having a gun on the premises.

In November 2020, housing officials sought to evict Braden when they found out he had been keeping a handgun in his residence at the Creekside Acres low-income housing complex. Lower court judges ruled in favor of Columbia Housing in the initial case and an appeal, then Braden sought another review, the ruling states.

In the latest decision, Judge Frank Clement wrote that “a total ban on the ability of law-abiding residents – like Mr. Braden – to possess a handgun within their public housing unit for the purpose of self-defense is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.”

Dolly’s strategy: ‘Give from my heart’

Dolly Parton laughs at the idea that she is some sort of secret philanthropist.

Sure, social media sleuths did piece together that the country superstar had been quietly paying for the band uniforms of many Tennessee high schools for years.

And yes, it did take decades for her to reveal that she used the songwriting royalties she earned from Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” to purchase a strip mall in Nashville to support the surrounding Black neighborhood in her honor.

Oh, and it did eventually come out that Parton had donated $1 million for research that helped create the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19.

“I don’t do it for attention,” she told The Associated Press in an interview, shortly before she received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy at Gotham Hall in New York City Oct. 13. “But look! I’m getting a lot of attention by doing it.”

In fact, Parton believes she gets too much attention for her philanthropic work – which ranges from promoting childhood literacy to supporting those affected by natural disasters and providing numerous college scholarships through her Dollywood Foundation.

In her Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy speech, Parton said she doesn’t really have a strategy for her donations.

“I just give from my heart,” she says. “I never know what I’m going to do or why I’m gonna do it. I just see a need and if I can fill it, then I will.”

Verustat acquires Florida’s MassCare

Verustat, a full-service remote patient monitoring company, has acquired Florida-based MassCare, a provider of annual wellness visit and chronic care management services.

Moving to Verustat’s software platform that was a part of the recent One Healthcare Solution acquisition, MassCare’s service model provides physicians with scalable implementation of AWV and CCM offerings with no upfront costs.

MassCare’s clinical programs and staff act as an extension of the practice to help to close care gaps and proactively keep populations healthy. Its processes optimize quality sores and capture new revenue opportunities.

Existing Verustat clients will have the option to add chronic care management and annual wellness visits to their current Verustat services. New Verustat clients can choose the entire suite or individual services (RPM, CCM, AWV).

State ag dept. partners for local food support

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture announced its participation in a program that will increase purchases of local foods from Tennessee’s underserved farmers and producers and get it to those who need it most.

TDA will participate in the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service and authorized by the American Rescue Plan.

The initiative aims to maintain and improve agricultural supply chain resiliency to support local, regional and socially disadvantaged farmers and producers through the purchase of locally grown fresh foods, food products and beverages.

TDEC grants $34.5M for water infrastructure

The Department of Environment and Conservation recently announced 12 grants totaling $34,585,121 from the state’s American Rescue Plan fund, part of which TDEC is administering in the form of water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure grants.

The grants announced follow the announcement of six grants totaling $37,910,909 from the ARP in August, bringing the total awarded by TDEC thus far to $72.4 million. The grants announced include one collaborative grant and 11 noncollaborative grants for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure planning, design and construction.

Tennessee received $3.725 billion from the ARP, and the state’s Financial Stimulus Accountability Group dedicated $1.35 billion of those funds to TDEC to support water projects in communities throughout Tennessee. Of the $1.35 billion, approximately $1 billion was designated for noncompetitive formula-based grants offered to counties and eligible cities. The remaining funds will go to state-initiated projects and competitive grants.

Grants announced are for Sumner County, Farragut, White House, Lewisburg, Rutherford County, Metro Lynchburg Moore County, Germantown, Johnson City, Millington, Loudon, Livingston and Mitchellville.

Vanderbilt gives $750K for Centennial Park

Vanderbilt University will elevate its long-term collaboration with Centennial Park Conservancy through a capital gift to help enhance the cultural and physical environment of the West End Neighborhood and surrounding community.

The university has pledged $750,000 over a three-year period for direct support of the conservancy’s and Metro Parks’ Centennial Park Master Plan to restore, renovate and revitalize the park.

The two completed phases of the plan have enhanced the park’s Great Lawn, increased walkability from West End Avenue to the Parthenon, created the Musicians Corner amphitheater, and honored women and children through the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument and the Children’s Memory Garden.

Vanderbilt’s contribution will further extend walkway connections from West End to Park Plaza, including the creation of a pedestrian entrance at the 31st Avenue Connector. This gift also will support the creation of a new, world-class event pavilion adjacent to Lake Watauga for community gatherings and park programming.

In addition to the pledged $750,000, Vanderbilt will contribute $50,000 to Centennial Park Conservancy’s arts and educational programming that is reflective of the university’s mission and values.

These additional funds will support current programming, such as Musicians Corner, Kidsville and Nashville Earth Day, and will be used to develop new park-based initiatives that expand cultural activities and events near campus.