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In This Issue

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Episode 119

Beyond Heavy Breathing and Heaving Breasts A novelist discusses her plan for making history come alive

Won't You Be My Neighbor? Vanderbilt professor believes the Golden Rule is more than just a commandment

Dead Again Yet another study of Tennessee’s death penalty falls flat after legislators refuse to extend the review an extra year

Bitter Pill Rape is alleged at an embattled youth treatment facility

Hurricane Mark Tennessean editor infamous for his temper

What Would Jesus Say? Churchgoers are asking for protection against clergy sex abuse, but the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention says there’s little it can do to fend for the flock

Confederacy of Dunces

 

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Representatives from both states were reportedly coalescing around a proposal that would give Georgia the territory it wants—but at the high price of also having to accept Memphis.

The ancient controversy between the states was reignited last week when a resolution in the Georgia legislature sought to redraw the state line about a mile north of its current location. The Peach State’s argument is that the boundary was incorrectly drawn as a result of an 1818 surveying error.

“Everybody agrees—the real reason for this is water,” says a Tennessee legislative staffer who is involved in discussion with counterparts in Atlanta. “That one-mile move may not seem like much, but it gives the whole state of Georgia access to water from the Tennessee River.”

The Atlanta metropolitan area has been struggling with drought conditions for more than two years, with Lake Lanier, the main source for municipal water in the region, almost tapped dry. The desperate land grab is actually a desperate water grab.

But does Georgia want water enough to accept Memphis as part of its state?

“That would be a bitter pill,” says one Georgia legislative leader. “Tennessee is really driving a hard bargain on this.”

One Memphis leader says he is ambivalent about the potential change.

“I don’t see how our relationship with a new capital in Atlanta could possibly be any more acrimonious than it is with Nashville,” he says. “On the other hand, it feels kind of funny being the ‘city to be named later’ in this trade.”

One state government source in Nashville summed up the appeal of the deal from his point of view: “The Ford family would suddenly be Georgia’s problem,” he says with a broad smile. “Man, that’s worth a lot of water!”