Tennessee's top Republican lawmakers launched a full-throated attacked on Vanderbilt University Hospital this week over its pediatric transgender clinic. Political analyst Otis Sanford says that while politicians should remain out of families' personal medical decisions, anti-transgender rhetoric appeals to Republican voters.
Also this week, Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert defends her management of the clerk's office and called herself a "whistleblower" for reporting wrongdoing by Mayor Lee Harris' administration, though the accusations are still spurious. Rep. Mark White hopes to introduce a bill that would allow just 1 percent of Shelby County's registered voters to recall a local politician. Sanford says it could come back to haunt Republicans.
Finally, revelations that an untested rape kit might have prevented a crime nine months laters has received national attention.
