Crystal Bowersox is a musician and a photographer and recently a seamstress, making masks for people to help stop the Covid spread. She’s been donating them and she even posted a video on how to make the masks on her Instagram account. Crystal’s songs have always pulled at the heart strings with stories of real life and real pain but of hope and brighter days as well. She just released a new song with a message of unity and kindness called “Courage To Be Kind” and she has a new full-length album, Hitchhiker due this fall.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A teenage driver has pleaded guilty to charges in a crash that killed a Metro Nashville police officer.

News outlets report Jayona Brown entered the plea Thursday to vehicular homicide, felony aggravated assault, evading arrest and driving without a license.

Police say Brown sped through a blinking red light while fleeing an attempted traffic stop in July 2019 and crashed into Metro Officer John Anderson’s cruiser at an intersection.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/Anne M. Peterson)  --  The new school year will begin online for students in Nashville public schools, thanks to skyrocketing COVID-19 case counts.

Metro health officials on Thursday reported an all-time record high 688 new cases over the previous 24 hours. The city has suffered 132 COVID-19 related fatalities.

Nashville Public Schools Director Adrienne Battle says classes will begin August 4 online, with remote learning continuing through at least Labor Day.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Ashley Norman)  --  The number of mid-state residents dying from COVID-19 remains relatively low despite the recent spike in active cases, according to data from the Tennessee Department of Health.

Davidson, Rutherford and Williamson counties have all reported climbing case counts in recent weeks, but corresponding increases in fatalities due to virus-related complications have not materialized. WMOT spoke with one of the region’s top infectious disease experts to understand why.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee panel has voted to recommend that the bust of a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader be moved from the state Capitol into the state museum, following Republican Gov. Bill Lee's suggestion.

The State Capitol Commission on Thursday cast first of two votes needed to remove the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest. The panel went further to suggest the busts of Union admirals David Farragut and Albert Gleaves be moved to the museum as well.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Anne M. Peterson)  --  Nashville SC has withdrawn from Major League Soccer’s MLS is Back tournament in Florida after nine players tested positive for the coronavirus, the league announced Thursday.

Nashville is the second team to withdraw from the tournament. FC Dallas had to pull out after 10 players and a coach tested positive for COVID-19.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT)  --  Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is again challenging a decision by President Donald Trump.

The Senator on Wednesday criticized the president’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT)  --  Vanderbilt University has pushed back hard against a new directive from the Trump Administration that could see international students deported this fall.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week notified colleges that any international students taking classes online -- rather than in-person -- will lose their student visas.

Administration officials argue the move will make it easier for universities to implement social distancing.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Mike Osborne)  --  New numbers released Thursday morning by the State Department of Labor show unemployment in Tennessee is not only climbing again, but accelerating.

Pandemic induced layoffs and furloughs peaked in early April when just over 116,000 Tennesseans filed initial jobless claims. The number of new benefit applications has fallen steadily in the months since.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Mike Osborne)  --  A Middle Tennessee State University researcher says mid-state residents were slowly returning to their normal travel patterns during May and June.

That may be good news for the regional economy, but could complicate efforts to bring a recent spike in new cases of COVID-19 under control.