See where in Tennessee student loan forgiveness has been most popular
Close to half a million Tennesseans applied for President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief program, according to an analysis of data obtained by Politico under the Freedom of Information Act.
About 486,500 state residents submitted applications — about 2% of the nationwide total — during the four weeks the program was live last year before being halted by federal court orders. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide in the coming months over the fate of the initiative seeking to provide up to $20,000 in debt relief to borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year.
Here is a breakdown of how many applications were filed in each county and what percentage of the adult population submitted paperwork:
[UPDATE: Due to a spreadsheet sorting error in an earlier version of this story, Maury and Madison counties ended up with a much higher percentage than they actually had. The correct figures are 11.1% and 10%, or fifth and sixth in the state, respectively).
| County | Applications | Percentage of Adults |
| Anderson | 4,355 | 7.2% |
| Bedford | 1,972 | 5.3% |
| Benton | 612 | 4.8% |
| Bledsoe | 316 | 2.5% |
| Blount | 7,017 | 6.5% |
| Bradley | 6,727 | 7.9% |
| Campbell | 1,529 | 4.9% |
| Cannon | 446 | 3.9% |
| Carroll | 1,329 | 6% |
| Carter | 1,827 | 4% |
| Cheatham | 2,589 | 8.1% |
| Chester | 730 | 5.4% |
| Claiborne | 1,762 | 6.8% |
| Clay | 110 | 1.8% |
| Cocke | 1,030 | 3.6% |
| Coffee | 2,789 | 6.4% |
| Crockett | 581 | 5.5% |
| Cumberland | 1,851 | 3.7% |
| Davidson | 68,775 | 12.1% |
| Decatur | 304 | 3.4% |
| DeKalb | 650 | 4.1% |
| Dickson | 2,944 | 7% |
| Dyer | 1,955 | 7% |
| Fayette | 2,360 | 6.9% |
| Fentress | 440 | 3% |
| Franklin | 1,317 | 3.8% |
| Gibson | 3,305 | 8.7% |
| Giles | 1,388 | 5.8% |
| Grainger | 737 | 3.9% |
| Greene | 2,478 | 4.4% |
| Grundy | 128 | 1.2% |
| Hamblen | 2,973 | 6% |
| Hamilton | 28,940 | 10% |
| Hancock | 139 | 2.6% |
| Hardeman | 1,332 | 6.5% |
| Hardin | 716 | 3.4% |
| Hawkins | 2,079 | 4.6% |
| Haywood | 1,273 | 9.2% |
| Henderson | 779 | 3.6% |
| Henry | 1,521 | 5.9% |
| Hickman | 885 | 4.5% |
| Houston | 415 | 6.4% |
| Humphreys | 908 | 6.1% |
| Jackson | 242 | 2.6% |
| Jefferson | 2,735 | 6.2% |
| Johnson | 394 | 2.6% |
| Knox | 34,323 | 9.1% |
| Lake | 120 | 2% |
| Lauderdale | 1,477 | 7.6% |
| Lawrence | 1,955 | 5.9% |
| Lewis | 396 | 4% |
| Lincoln | 1,302 | 4.8% |
| Loudon | 2,614 | 5.9% |
| Macon | 738 | 3.9% |
| Madison | 7,842 | 10.2% |
| Marion | 1,375 | 6.1% |
| Marshall | 1,725 | 6.6% |
| Maury | 8,584 | 11.1% |
| McMinn | 2,438 | 5.8% |
| McNairy | 1,168 | 5.8% |
| Meigs | 679 | 6.7% |
| Monroe | 2,018 | 5.5% |
| Montgomery | 21,606 | 13.4% |
| Moore | 111 | 2.1% |
| Morgan | 599 | 3.5% |
| Obion | 1,297 | 5.4% |
| Overton | 554 | 3.1% |
| Perry | 228 | 3.5% |
| Pickett | 142 | 3.4% |
| Polk | 472 | 3.3% |
| Putnam | 5,332 | 8.5% |
| Rhea | 1,548 | 6.1% |
| Roane | 1,970 | 4.5% |
| Robertson | 5,263 | 9.5% |
| Rutherford | 29,770 | 11.6% |
| Scott | 854 | 5.1% |
| Sequatchie | 569 | 4.5% |
| Sevier | 4,384 | 5.6% |
| Shelby | 95,224 | 13.7% |
| Smith | 392 | 2.5% |
| Stewart | 737 | 6.9% |
| Sullivan | 8,439 | 6.6% |
| Sumner | 12,934 | 8.6% |
| Tipton | 4,350 | 9.4% |
| Trousdale | 411 | 4.3% |
| Unicoi | 698 | 4.8% |
| Union | 562 | 3.6% |
| Van Buren | 159 | 3.2% |
| Warren | 1,687 | 5.4% |
| Washington | 9,450 | 8.8% |
| Wayne | 310 | 2.3% |
| Weakley | 1,717 | 6.5% |
| White | 1,177 | 5.5% |
| Williamson | 12,458 | 6.9% |
| Wilson | 10,019 | 8.9% |
Democratic state House candidate arrested for cussing cops in Maury County
David Carson, a Democratic candidate for state House District 71, was arrested for disorderly conduct four days before the primary for berating police officers, the Daily Herald of Columbia reports. Carson was unopposed for the nomination and faces Republican Kip Capley in the election to succeed retiring Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro).
Carson was taken into custody after a woman complained to police after he and two other men had come to her property to complain that electrical work done by her husband was not to his liking. Her husband was not home, she said.
When she asked Carson to leave, she said he moved to the edge of the property and parked on an easement road. When Mount Pleasant officers arrived and requested his ID, they said Carson became “loud and verbally abusive toward officers.” According to the report, Carson was told he would be arrested if he did not calm down and stop being loud but that he “kept interrupting by yelling and cursing officers” until he was taken into custody.
Carson told the paper he didn’t think he was on private property and that he had gone to the residence to pick up a trailer. He said he expects the charges to be dropped at a court hearing scheduled for Sept. 7.
Potential gubernatorial candidate Ogles: ‘We are not Nashville’
Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, a potential GOP challenger to Gov. Bill Lee in next year’s primary, is touting his refusal to impose a mask mandate or impose other restrictions on businesses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In that chaos, my objective was to keep Maury County open for business,” Ogles told the Maury County Chamber & Economic Alliance, The Daily Herald of Columbia reports. “I could not afford to let our downtown square close. We are not Nashville. We don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on tourism.”
Ogles has criticized what he has called Lee’s “abuses of power” and backed calls to hold a special session to push back against mask mandates. Ogles had declined to impose a requirement to wear face coverings despite the governor previously extending that authority to county mayors.
“Nowhere in the state constitution do I have that authority,” Ogles said. “Nowhere in state law did I have that authority, and I refused to accept that authority. That is not what government is designed to do.”
Ogles’ comments at the Chamber event were mostly focused on economic matters and population growth issues facing the county. The Daily Herald did not report on any reaction by Ogles to Lee landing a $5.8 billion Ford plant for the Memphis Regional Megasite last week.
Ogles has been more pointed in his previous attacks on what he called “Lee’s indecisiveness and half measures.”
“At a time when truly conservative Governors are aggressively fighting against both local and federal assaults on our freedoms, Governor Lee is taking the twisting path to appease the Left and their allies,” Ogles posted on social media in August.
Republican lawmakers being called back into a special session later this month to take up a $500 million incentive package for Ford are clamoring for yet another special session to try to block mask mandates.
