How Nashville's institutions affect you and your neighbors

Welcome to Sunday.

I'm Liz Schubauer, and I've recently been promoted to oversee some of Nashville's core news beats focusing on city hall, courts, and education and children's issues.

With our coverage, we work to show how the city's institutions affect everyday Nashvillians. Helping our community is core to our mission.

In my first days on the new job, I've gotten to edit a trio of important subscriber-exclusive stories. In each story, Tennessean reporters show how things like laws, budgets and relief funds can help or harm people.

Cassie Stephenson wrote about groups who are using $7.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds to try to revolutionize access to child care. Some of those funds will go to supporting dozens of home providers who fill key gaps in a disjointed child care system.

Meghan Mangrum dug into the debate around this year's schools budget to show how employees could be affected. Bus drivers could get an $11,000 raise under Mayor John Cooper's proposal, but even he acknowledges there's ultimately more to be done.

Mariah Timms and Natalie Alund experienced a rare phenomenon this week: a courtroom featuring a smiling judge, prosecutor, defense attorney and defendant. They were covering a new law that allows the state to revisit the sentences of people who were convicted under a defunct version of the state's Drug Free School Zone penalty.

Those last two stories publish tonight, and you can find them at Tennessean.com, on our mobile app or in our morning Daily Briefing newsletter.

Stories like these take time and resources to tell. Thank you for subscribing to the Tennessean. You make these stories possible, and I'd love to hear from you at lschubauer@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Nashville's institutions affect you and your neighbors