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Tennessee
Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary celebrates 30 years of wild retirement for animals in its care
As Nashville grows and changes at a breakneck pace, a parcel of land just an hour outside the city is growing increasingly wild — and has been for the past 30 years.
The Elephant Sanctuary, in Hohenwald, celebrated its 30th anniversary on March 3, marking three decades of adopting former circus and show elephants and allowing them to retire in peaceful wilderness.
Started in 1995 with just one rescued elephant named Tarra who roamed 110 acres of land, the sanctuary has grown into the nation’s largest natural habitat refuge for elephants at 3,060 acres, including an educational center for the public. Wide open fields and native foliage provide a backdrop for 12 retired African and Asian elephants to live out their golden years under the loving care of their handlers.
Janice Zeitlin, CEO of the sanctuary since 2013, expressed excitement for the future of the sanctuary and said reaching the anniversary is “overwhelming.”
“We’re sharing this world with some really beautiful and wonderful creatures,” she said. “And we need to take care of them. We need to be respectful and keep them safe.”
The habitat has seen its fair share of heartwarming stories — from a documentary-inspiring friendship between two elephants as well as the refuge serving as partial inspiration for the book “Leaving Time” by best-selling author Jodi Picoult — and hardships, like the decade-long legal fight over ownership of the sanctuary’s first elephant and the accidental death of an elephant trainer in 2006.
The gentle giants that call the sanctuary home — of which there have been 34 in total — come from a wide range of circumstances. One from the Louisville Zoo, a number from a private owner in Chicago, two from the Knoxville Zoo and even one from the cast of the 1988 “Big Top Pee-wee” movie.
“In many of these situations, the zoos and owners are making decisions because their elephants are getting older, and they really want them to have socialization opportunities that they might not have gotten previously,” Zeitlin said. “Elephants really need social opportunities. They’re very social creatures.”
One favorite resident of the facility, Shirley, born in 1948 in Sumatra, made a tremendous impact on her handlers. The Asian elephant, a former circus performer, survived an insane sequence of events, including being kidnapped by forces belonging to Cuba’s Prime Minister Fidel Castro, a shipwreck off of Nova Scotia, a truck wreck, being attacked by another elephant and living for 20 years as the only elephant at a small zoo in Louisiana, before retiring to the sanctuary.
She died in 2021 at 72 years old, making her the second-oldest elephant in North America.
“Shirley was just really special,” Zeitlin said with emotion. “She was so intelligent and entirely her own animal. Shirley kind of epitomized what this sanctuary is all about: giving a home to and helping these big animals have a safe place where they’re taken care of through their lifetime, through all those phases of life.”
Looking to the future, Zeitlin said the refuge is excited to be developing its international partnerships and advocating for elephants everywhere.
“We give out grants once a year for protecting elephants and trying to create better welfare for them, both in human care and in the wild. … We have a group in Vietnam that helps elephants retire from giving rides to tourists, and another group that’s tracking elephants through India and trying to keep pathways open from human conflict,” she said. “We just want to create a better world for elephants wherever they are.”
Tennessee
RTI Reaction: Tennessee Comes From Behind to Win Double Overtime Thriller Against Texas A&M | Rocky Top Insider

Tennessee Basketball fought from behind to earn an 87-82 win over Texas A&M in double overtime on Tuesday night in Knoxville. The Vols trailed for much of the game from the jump, but Tennessee pushed forward and found a way to win in front of its home fans in the Food City Center.
Tennessee spent more than 35 minutes trailing in that game, with much of that coming in consecutive minutes from the opening whistle. The Vols didn’t take the lead until the 5:29 mark in the second half, and still had to fight off a few Aggie runs in order to push the game into extra time. Tennessee and Texas A&M were tied at 71 at the end of regulation and tied at 75 after the first overtime, but the Vols outscored the Aggies by five in the final five minutes to pick up the win.
Tennessee had five double-digit scorers on Tuesday night, led by Nate Ament’s 23 points. The freshman forward also went 9-for-11 from the free-throw line with some clutch makes in the final stretch. Tennessee also outrebounded A&M 60 to 35 during the contest. It wasn’t always pretty, but it’s chalked up as a W in the record book.
After the game, RTI’s Ryan Schumpert and Ric Butler discussed their reactions to the Vols’ win on the RTI postgame show. The guys talked about Tennessee’s slow start, Ament’s big scoring night, impact players, and much more.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Basketball Finds Away Against Texas A&M
Check out the RTI: Reaction show below:
RTI: Reaction
Tennessee
Authorities asking for help with crash investigation in Washington County, Tennessee
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WCYB) — Authorities in Washington County, Tennessee, are asking for the public’s help following a crash that happened last month.
The crash took place shortly before 8 a.m. on December 30 in the 200 block of Liberty Hill Road.
Authorities are encouraging anyone with security cameras along that road to view their footage from that morning and look for a spray painted, black 2001 Chevrolet Silverado.
Anyone with information is asked to call (423) 788-1414. Folks can also report information anonymously via Tip411 at wcso.net.
Tennessee
Tennessee bill rekindles debate over prayer in public schools
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Prayer in public schools has been debated for generations, not over whether students may pray, but over how far government should go in regulating religion in the classroom.
The longstanding question is resurfacing at the Tennessee State Capitol, where Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso has introduced legislation challenging the modern interpretation of the separation of church and state.
Bulso’s bill argues that the principle of separation has drifted from its original intent and now restricts religious expression rather than protecting it. Supporters of the proposal said the result is not neutrality, but discrimination, treating religion as something to be excluded from public life instead of being accommodated.
“It’s pushing the envelope,” said David Hudson, a constitutional law professor at Belmont University. “He’s going farther than that by suggesting the entire body of Supreme Court decisions after 1947 interpreting the Establishment Clause is wrong.”
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Courts have long interpreted that language as limiting government involvement in religion while still allowing individuals to freely practice faith.
Supporters of Bulso’s bill argue that recent applications of that principle have gone too far, creating an environment where religious expression is discouraged in public schools.
Opponents disagree, saying the Constitution requires government neutrality, particularly in a religiously diverse society.
“In a pluralistic country, you cannot have one-size-fits-all prayer,” Hudson said. “That’s part of why the separation exists.”
House Democrats echoed that argument, pointing to what they say is already happening in Tennessee schools. In a statement to News 2, Senate Democratic Caucus Press Secretary Brandon Puttbrese said:
Tennessee public school students are already free to pray and study the Bible. No one is stopping them. In fact, there are student-led Bible study clubs already happening in the district he represents.
Instead of chasing problems that don’t exist, a better use of the legislature’s precious time would be to address the K-12 school funding crisis. Tennessee ranks 47th in public school student spending. That’s a real problem.
⏩ Read today’s top stories on wkrn.com
Newer religion-in-education cases have worked their way through the courts. Hudson said the bill may be designed to test how far that shift could go.
“It may be trying to introduce something that, if passed, is challenged,” he said. “And that would force courts to deal with recent Supreme Court precedent that has lowered the church-state separation barrier.”
Lawmakers return to session on Tuesday. For the bill to become law, it must be referred to committee, pass hearings and votes in both the Tennessee House and Senate, and ultimately signed by the governor.
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