Orange Isn't My Color
🟠 Former Stratford HS Assistant Principal alleges more MNPS grade manipulation · Dispatch from the Heart of the Beast premiere · Lee pauses all executions in TN · Much more!
Upcoming Pamphleteer Activities We’re gearing up for next week’s as the conversation around how the government should posture itself towards AI advances. If you want a taste of the conversation, be sure to get a ticket our event with James Poulos next week. (Buy Tickets)
Big Council Watch Update. Our council tracking tool is no longer just a campaign finance scorecard. Follow your councilmember, and we'll tell you what they actually do. (Take a look)
Like what we do? Forward us to a friend.
Former Stratford High School Assistant Principal alleges grade manipulation, says practices were “criminal.”
From Megan Podsiedlik
Former Stratford High School assistant principal Dr. Howard Jones alleges that the school held “fake classes” in order to help manipulate student grades and graduate students. According to Jones, students were sometimes placed into courses that weren't actually on the school's master schedule, given failing grades in those courses, and then allowed to use the district's Edgenuity credit-recovery system or “test for credit” to earn the credits needed to graduate.
“I’m not going to look good in orange,” Jones said, describing his reaction when he first discovered there was grade manipulation. “I think this is something we should not be doing. I’m not going to jail, sir. I think it’s criminal.”
Jones’ account adds to previous allegations from other former Stratford educators that grades and credit-recovery procedures were manipulated. In fact, the Stratford High School controversy began with allegations in 2019, leading to an MNPS investigation and disciplinary action of former principal Michael Steele.
In 2022 and 2025, former counselor Constance Wade raised additional concerns about students earning credits unusually quickly, though MNPS said its investigation of her 2025 grievance did not substantiate her claims. Eventually, all came to a head in 2026, when multiple former educators publicly came forward and alleged that administrators pressured teachers to change grades, prompting the Tennessee Department of Education to open an investigation into Stratford and MNPS practices.
✹ THE LIMITS OF MASTERY
The Limits of Mastery with James Poulos As AI grows more powerful, the question is no longer just what machines can do, but whether human beings still know how to govern themselves. James Poulos argues that our technological age is forcing an older question back into view: What does real self-mastery require? Join us Wednesday, October 7 for a conversation on AI, Dostoevsky, human agency, and the spiritual stakes of technological power.
This event benefits The Pamphleteer, Nashville and is priced with that in mind. Bard-level subscribers receive free, privileged admittance.
✹ DISPATCH FROM THE HEART OF THE BEAST PREMIERE
Paramount may stay in California for the time being, but Hollywood is already moving to Nashville
The remnants of the heat dome had somewhat abated at Franklin’s First Bank Amphitheater on September 16 as audiences took their seats for the global premiere of Paramount’s new Brad Pitt survival thriller Heart of the Beast. But a different kind of heat announced itself shortly after showtime. As a who’s who of Hollywood talent like Pitt and J. K. Simmons mixed with Nashville-based personalities, including Jana Kramer, Jason Aldean, and Brett Cooper, the Hollywood trades broke the news. Paramount had begun meeting with Middle Tennessee realtors about relocating the storied studio away from California and its overzealous, anti-merger Attorney General Rob Bonta.
By last Monday, Bonta and Paramount had reached a settlement that provided a tentative greenlight for the company to buy Warner Bros. Though courts have delayed the agreement that commits Paramount to staying in California for at least the next five years, Heart of The Beast’s unveiling in Nashville proved that Hollywood has finally realized its survival requires it to unshackle itself from its LA state of mind.
Three weeks ago, the movie industry officially shattered the record for summer box office revenue–a feat that seemed impossible in the post-pandemic era. COVID caught Hollywood woefully unprepared, but the real threat to its declining cultural clout has been its unrepentant case of TDS that began in 2017 and, even with an assist from Marvel, was already leading to flagging attendance.
While the 2026 figures are nowhere near the attendance highs of 2013, they indicate that movies have begun an earnest attempt to return to the center of American pop culture with a series of throwback hits retreating from the excesses of Peak Woke and cancel culture. Michael demonstrated that Americans cared less about outrage than iconography; The Devil Wears Prada 2, Toy Story 5, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day took the popcorn flick back to its mid-aughts universality, and Gen Z breakouts Obsession and Backrooms operated on a similar level of political sensitivities as the 80s’ most unhinged domestic thrillers.
HEADLINES
- ⚖️ Lee pauses all executions for the year after failed lethal injection. Gov. Bill Lee has ordered a third-party review of Tennessee’s execution procedures and paused all executions for the remainder of 2026 after Christa Pike survived two rounds of lethal-injection drugs. The decision means Gary Wayne Sutton’s scheduled December 3 execution will not take place this year. (TNJ)
- 🏫 J.T. Moore Middle School teacher arrested on domestic-abuse charges. A teacher at John Trotwood Moore Middle School in Nashville was arrested and charged in connection with domestic abuse, yet remains employed at the school, according to the Nashville Banner’s report. The case raises questions about what disciplinary or employment action Metro Nashville Public Schools takes when an educator faces criminal charges. (Banner)
- 🔋 $1 billion battery investment coming to Middle TN. Ultium Cells, the LG Energy Solution–General Motors joint venture, is investing $1 billion to expand its battery manufacturing operation in Spring Hill. The facility is expected to become the first in the world to mass-produce prismatic lithium manganese-rich (LMR) battery cells, which the company says have 33% greater energy density than lithium-iron-phosphate batteries. (WSMV)
- 🍽️ BrickTop’s founder Joseph Ledbetter dies at 81. Joseph Ledbetter, the Nashville restaurateur who founded BrickTop’s and was involved with Houston’s, has died at 81 following an illness. Ledbetter helped build BrickTop’s into a Nashville-based restaurant brand that expanded beyond Middle Tennessee. (Tennessean)
✹ PAMPHLETEER TOOLS
Pamphleteer Tools Council Watch tells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote. The Property Tax Calculator tells you what that cost you.
DEVELOPMENT
- Simon Property Group snags 100 acres in Thompson's Station for $32.5M (NBJ)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 Slothrust @ The Blue Room, 7p, $25.34, Info
+ garage rock
🎸 Miranda Lambert @ The Truth, 8p, $55, Info
🪕 Remedy Tree @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info
🎸 Undie Fest 5 @ The Underdog, No Cover, Info
🎙️ Open Mic @ Fox and Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.