Blake Farmer

Tennessee hospital chiefs huddled in Franklin this weekend, largely to focus on their shared hiring crisis. The staffing shortage has not eased even as the pandemic subsides, and many hospital leaders are beginning to get used to high turnover.

Tennessee’s main crime lab is still very much treating marijuana like a dangerous drug. And state law enforcement has no plans to back off even as some prosecutors look the other way.

When rural hospitals go out of business, they're frequently gone for good. But now, some comebacks are a welcome sign for communities that have been without easy access to health care.

A new abortion ban took effect this week in Tennessee. Unlike some other state bans, it doesn’t include any exceptions for rape and incest. WPLN News wanted to find out if lawmakers were open to changes, so they asked. But only Democrats were willing to respond.

It will still be a month or more before abortions are available within a three-hour drive of Nashville. Clinics in Carbondale, Ill., are still under construction, even as Tennessee’s total abortion ban takes effect today.

The U.S. Attorney for Nashville says both were indicted by a grand jury on Monday. The FBI arrested them at their homes Tuesday morning.

Promising cures for Huntington’s Disease have resulted in more genetic testing at Vanderbilt’s clinic, which serves a multi-state region. The rare neurological disease is often viewed as a death sentence, which scares people from even wanting to know.

Some rural hospitals are in such bad shape, they're selling for next to nothing. One company is snapping several distressed or closed hospitals in rural Tennessee, hoping to turn a profit.

Festival promoters are allowing lifesaving medication as fentanyl deaths surge, but volunteers are often left to distribute it, and more controversial forms of harm reduction aren't openly allowed.

The YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club are planning nearly 10,000 new childcare spots across Tennessee with the state’s help. The money is coming from what’s left of COVID stimulus funding.