📰 THE DUMP – March 13, 2026

YOUR LOOK AT THE WEIRD, THE WILD AND WILLIAMSON COUNTY

Hey friends — welcome back. It’s your weekly roundup peeking into the weird, the wild, and the Williamson County.

This week brought us a courthouse reality check, an annexation chess move, and a statewide revelation that the local vape shop might not be operating under strict pharmaceutical supervision.

Meanwhile, Brentwood would like a word with the county commissioners, a former congressman has discovered a private-sector deposition, and the State Executive Committee races are suddenly looking a lot less sleepy.

In other words, the usual. Let’s dump it out.

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⛽ THAT DEAL TOO GOOD TO REFUSE? … ABOUT THAT.

Former Tennessee congressman Mark Green is back in the news again, and it’s not exactly for ribbon cuttings.

You might remember Green’s exit from Congress. The explanation at the time: he had a private-sector opportunity he simply couldn’t refuse. Big international business, new ventures, odd new business name… the next chapter.

Let’s catch you up.

Green is now tied to a civil lawsuit involving a refined-fuel project connected to Guyana, the small South American country that has suddenly become a magnet for global energy money after major offshore oil discoveries.

Two energy companies — Curlew Midstream and Playera Group — say they had been developing a fuel import and distribution project there and shared detailed planning and business information during discussions with Green and a Washington lobbyist.

How could this possibly go wrong?

According to the lawsuit, that information later showed up in a competing effort tied to Green’s company, Prosimos. (Try saying that three times fast.)

In short, the companies claim they were building the deal… and somebody else decided to run with the blueprints.

Green and the other defendants deny wrongdoing, and the case is still in its early stages. For now it’s just a complaint moving through court while the lawyers settle in to see how many billable hours the idea was really worth.

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WW BOTTOM LINE:

Maybe Mark Green found the deal of a lifetime. Regardless, that fast exit from Congress is looking a lot less like destiny and a lot more like discovery. What an interesting start to Green’s post-Congress career arc.

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🏛️ RESOLUTION REVOLUTION: BRENTWOOD CLAPS BACK AT COUNTY LAND POLITICS

Brentwood’s City Commission just fired a shot across Williamson County’s bow.

Monday night the city unanimously passed Resolution 2026-28, formally opposing a recent Williamson County Commission resolution asking the Tennessee General Assembly to rewrite the rules governing urban growth boundaries.

In plain English: the county went to the Capitol to change how cities grow.

Brentwood’s response was essentially: not so fast — and what a fascinating time for this resolution to suddenly appear.

City leaders were clearly irritated that the county pushed the issue without talking to the cities that would actually be affected.

Mayor Nelson Andrews got straight to it, pointing directly at County Commissioner Christopher Richards, who represents Brentwood on the county commission.

“Christopher Richards… voted in favor of this, didn’t ever call me. I’m not aware of him looking into it at all, and I don’t feel like that’s very fairly representing Brentwood.”

Andrews, clearly not done, then turned to county mayoral candidate Mary Smith, reminding the room that Brentwood residents are citizens of the county as well as the city — and suggesting the city might reasonably have expected a conversation before the county asked the legislature to change the rules governing them.

“I feel like I need to remind her that Brentwood is in Williamson County and we are citizens of the county as well as the city… [and] did not call to consult or consider.”

Longtime Commissioner Anne Dunn cut through the policy language and went straight to the political implication.

“This is just catering for votes.”

Brentwood’s resolution ultimately passed unanimously, reaffirming support for the existing cooperative growth planning framework and opposing the county’s request for the state to intervene.

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WW BOTTOM LINE:

The county passes a resolution. The cities pass resolutions about the county’s resolution. And somewhere in Nashville, legislators are about to discover that Williamson County’s growth debate is less policy discussion and more cage-match politics.

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⚖️ COURT IN THE LOT

Monday night’s Williamson County Commission meeting wandered through the usual county-government terrain — until the conversation turned to the courthouse. And that’s when things got a little more real.

Circuit Court Judge David Veile stepped up during public comments and shared a story from a recent jury trial that pretty neatly explains why the courthouse conversation keeps coming up.

A few weeks ago, a jury in his courtroom convicted a defendant of rape. Jurors delivered the verdict, the trial ended, and the panel was dismissed — which normally means the jurors gather their things and head home after doing their civic duty.

The only problem is how that exit works at the current courthouse.

“I had a jury trial three weeks ago where the jury convicted a defendant of rape,” Veile told commissioners. “As soon as they returned their verdict, they walked out the same doors and walked to the same parking lot as the defendant’s family may have been. That is not okay.”

Which, when you picture the scene for half a second, is exactly as awkward as it sounds.

Modern courthouses are usually designed so jurors, defendants, and the public move through separate hallways and exits. It’s less architectural flourish and more common sense. When emotions are running high after a guilty verdict, the goal is usually to keep everyone moving in different directions — not funnel them into the same parking lot.

Novel idea.

Commissioner Gregg Lawrence, who has toured the courthouse with members of the judiciary, added another wrinkle during the discussion. According to Lawrence, courtroom space itself is becoming a bottleneck.

“We’ve got residents who are waiting for trials for over a year, sometimes close to two years for trials that take more than four days,” Lawrence said. “I don’t call having to wait a year and a half for a trial a speedy trial.”

Ah yes — the Sixth Amendment.

So the commission voted 21–0, approving a resolution establishing a courthouse task force that will examine the county’s long-term judicial facility needs. Recommendations will soon be on the docket — renovation, expansion, relocation — All Rise! (Yes… had to.)

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WW BOTTOM LINE:

If Williamson County expects residents to show up for jury duty — and it does — the least the county can do is design a courthouse where jurors aren’t leaving the building through the same exit as the defendant’s family.

Until then, jurors will get a complimentary three-minute head start to sprint to their cars. (Kidding… mostly.)

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🌲 ANNEXATION STATION

If you dropped into Tuesday night’s Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting cold, you might have wondered what all the fuss had been about. The Harlin PUD issue that’s been circulating for months moved forward quietly — no neighborhood commentary, just the familiar procedural march as one of the area’s most watched land questions moved another square on the board.

At its regular meeting Tuesday night, BOMA approved the plan of services and annexation for roughly 80 acres of the Ingram property south of Beasley Lane and west of Columbia Pike, bringing the disputed tract inside the city limits. The vote was unanimous among members present.

Vice Mayor Patrick Baggett framed the decision in tidy legal terms: the board looks at the owner’s request, whether the land sits in the Urban Growth Boundary, and whether annexation serves the public interest.

Sounds straightforward.

But anyone who has been paying attention knows this was never just about tidying up a family tract. The Ingram acreage has been one of the pressure points in the broader Harlin PUD conversation for months, which is why Tuesday night’s vote matters.

With that vote, the land moves one step deeper into the city’s planning process.

What ultimately happens with the land — and how it fits into the broader planning conversation around the Harlin PUD — is another matter that will continue to work its way through Franklin’s development pipeline.

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WW BOTTOM LINE:

The chess piece just moved another square on the board and nobody even said “check.” The real debate — whether the city can actually handle what comes next — is still loading. Columbia to Mack Hatcher is headed for rush-hour Thunderdome, and the BOMA meeting where that finally sinks in won’t have enough chairs.

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🌿 SMOKE SIGNALS: TENNESSEE DISCOVERS HALF THE GAS STATIONS ARE DRUG DEALERS

The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced this week that it has uncovered more than 650 retailers illegally selling hemp-derived cannabinoid products since January.

Yes.
Six hundred and fifty.

Which means state regulators have essentially spent the first two months of 2026 discovering that the glowing glass case between the beef jerky and the scratch-offs might not be operating under strict pharmaceutical standards.

To put that in perspective, agents have inspected about 4,400 businesses across the state so far this year. Somewhere around inspection number 27, they appear to have stumbled upon a shocking revelation: if a store sells novelty lighters, neon alien posters, three hundred flavors of vape juice, and something called “Cosmic Chill Delta-Whatever Gummies”… it might also be selling hemp.

State officials say many of these retailers were operating without the proper licenses now required under Tennessee’s new regulatory system. Beginning in 2026, oversight of hemp-derived cannabinoid products was handed to the TABC under legislation passed last year.

Under the new rules, sellers must obtain a license, pay the proper taxes, and submit their products for testing to ensure THC levels remain below the legal 0.3% threshold.

According to regulators, that’s not always happening.

Officials say unlicensed operators may be selling products with higher THC concentrations or skipping safety testing altogether — raising concerns about contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, microbes, and other things you generally don’t want mixed into something resembling a kid’s Halloween candy haul.

In a statement, TABC Director Russell Thomas warned consumers that buying from an unlicensed store means there is “no guarantee where that product came from or what is in it.” (Now he tells us!)

In fairness, there is a certain charm of buying psychoactive candy from a spinning rack next to the Slim Jims.

The commission says enforcement will continue, and violators could face fines of up to $2,500 and up to 11 months and 29 days in jail. (Don’t ask.)

So if you happen to run a convenience store with a suspiciously colorful glass display case near the register, now might be a good time to double-check your paperwork. Or at least rotate the gummies behind the ring pops.

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WW BOTTOM LINE:

When the state announces it has uncovered 650 illegal hemp retailers, that doesn’t necessarily mean Tennessee suddenly developed a hemp crisis.

It mostly means the government finally walked into a vape shop.

Whatever happened to the good old days when truck stops kept it simple — coffee, Little Debbies, and caffeine pills strong enough to make your scalp itch?

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FINAL FLUSH: SEC AND YE SHALL FIND OUT

Now that the ballots are finalized for this year’s state races, most voters will do what most voters always do: scan the top, look for the splashy names, maybe squint at a judicial retention question, and breeze right past one of the strangest little corners of Tennessee politics — the State Executive Committee.

That would be the SEC.

Not the glamorous SEC, with sports, tailgates and television money. Oh no, dear reader. This SEC is the one made up of the party rule-keepers, bylaw bouncers, and procedural hall monitors — the non-glamorous folks who help govern their party apparatus and, every so often, pop out of the attic to remind everybody they take themselves extremely seriously.

Usually these races get about as much public attention as a zoning notice stapled to a telephone pole. Much of the time they go unopposed, mostly because not many sane people wake up and think, “You know what I’d love? A thankless internal party post where I can spend my weekends arguing over bona fides, credentials and bylaws.”

But last year, the SEC managed to make itself noticed… not in a good way — kind of like belching on a Zoom call.

That happened when the legislature took up the caucus bill — the one that effectively shut down the Republican party-insider smoke-filled-back-room version of county nominations and pushed things toward primaries instead. And the SEC, bless their hearts, did not take that well.

They drafted their angry resolution and sent their stern little letter. They called it principle. Everybody else called it a tantrum.

So who are the Williamson County SEC members connected to that mess? Cyndi Miller, Steve Allbrooks, Angie McClanahan, and Chris Morris — yes, that Chris Morris, the one who reportedly lives in Ardmore, Alabama. Some people commute for work. Morris apparently commutes for influence.

And now comes the fun part.

Every single one of these Williamson-linked SEC incumbents has a challenger.

Good.

That is how this is supposed to work.

After last year, these sleepy little down-ballot races don’t look so sleepy. The SEC helps shape who gets protected, who gets boxed out, and whether party rules are applied fairly — or deployed like a weapon by people pretending not to have favorites.

And last year? The mask slipped.

So for once, these races might actually be worth a look. Because sometimes the most revealing names on the ballot are the ones buried near the bottom — sitting there quietly, hoping nobody remembers a thing.

Unfortunately for them, some of us do.

So yes — fire up your campaigns. May the best candidate win… preferably one who understands that “party service” is not supposed to mean running a private club with the lights off.

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And that’ll do it. Like a bad gas-station space gummy… this one might take a minute to wear off.

Have a great weekend, friends. We’ll see you back here next week.

Stay wrong, Williamson.