NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you’re feeling the need to do a little de-cluttering in the new year, you are not alone.

According to Goodwill of Middle Tennessee, in the final days of 2024, their donations increased by about 40%.

“We’re taking in those donations from the community, processing them, and then getting them out on the sales floor as quick as we possibly can,” said Leisa Wamsley, Chief Operating Officer of Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee.

Ken and Carla Webb took part in the drive-through Donation Express on Thursday at Goodwill’s Bellevue location.

“We cleaned out the closet after Christmas and got rid of some old clothes and some things that didn’t fit anymore and brought them in to Goodwill. Maybe they’ll go to some good use,” said Ken Webb.

The Webbs make this stop two to three times a year.

When cars come through the drive-thru, a bell alerts workers someone has arrived.

“When I hear that bell, what I think about is that it is a bell that’s going to change people’s lives,” Wamsley said.

Appliances, Christmas decorations, clothes, books, and more are sorted in the back before employees place them in the store to be purchased, however, that transaction is only part of the process.

According to Wamsley, the money made from selling donated items helps fund Goodwill’s mission, including its Career Solutions Centers.

“Solar installation training, construction training, welding, those are all programs that the community can take advantage of for free and that’s paid for by the sale of donations,” Wamsley said.

This time of year, as the donations pile up, their purpose is clear to Wamsley.

“Three pairs of jeans are going to pay for an hour of career coaching,” Wamsley said. “I can tell you that I’ve seen so many lives changed simply because people donated their goods to us.”

Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.

Just days after Tennessee announced it had a new manual for executing death row inmates, the state’s top prison officials said they aren’t going to release the document to the public.

The Tennessee Department of Correction last week told The Associated Press to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the latest execution manual, known as a protocol. However, the agency this week denied the request, saying it needs to keep the entire document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.

The decision to maintain secrecy differs from how the state has handled similar requests in the past, but mirrors efforts across the U.S. to suppress public access surrounding executions, especially after anti-death penalty activists used records to expose problems.

The protocol is typically a detailed set of procedures describing how the state executes death row inmates. Tennessee had been operating under a 2018 protocol that included directions on selecting execution team staff and the training they should undergo. It explained how lethal injection drugs should be procured, stored and administered. It gave instructions on the inmate’s housing, diet and visitation in the days leading up to execution. It provided directions on how to choose media witnesses.

For lethal injection, the 2018 protocol required a series of three drugs administered in sequence.

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The new version unveiled last week requires only a single dose of pentobarbital. But that is all that is known about the revised protocol.

In an email sent Monday, Tennessee correction spokesperson Kayla Hackney told the AP the “protocol is not a public record” and cited a Tennessee statute that makes the identities of the people carrying out executions confidential.

However, that same statute says the existence of confidential information in a record is not a reason to deny access to it, noting that the confidential information should be redacted.

What has Tennessee done in the past?

In 2018, Tennessee’s correction agency provided a redacted copy of the protocol to an AP reporter over email.

In 2007, a previous version of the protocol was treated as a public record and provided to the AP after former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, announced a surprise halt to executions. A reporter’s review of that 100-page “Manual of Execution” found a jumble of conflicting instructions that mixed new lethal-injection instructions with those for electrocution.

Why did Tennessee update its protocol?

Executions have been on hold in Tennessee since 2022, when the state admitted it had not been following the 2018 protocol. Among other things, the Correction Department was not consistently testing the execution drugs for potency and purity.

An independent review of the state’s lethal injection practice later found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed since 2018 had been fully tested. Later, the state Attorney General’s Office conceded in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs “incorrectly testified” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.

Executions in the U.S. have remained at historic lows for years, but the small group of states still carrying out the death penalty have only increased the secrecy surrounding the procedures, particularly over how and where the state secures the drugs used for lethal injections.

Many states argue that secrecy is critical to protect the safety of those involved in the execution process. Yet in a 2018 report, the Washington-D.C.-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center found that this argument often led to these states refusing to provide information about the qualifications of their execution teams and some courts have criticized such arguments for lack of evidence that more public disclosure would result in threats against prison officials.

Kelley Henry, chief of the federal public defender’s habeas unit that represents many of Tennessee’s death row inmates, described the state’s refusal to release the new protocol, given that background, as “mystifying.”

“The secrecy, which cloaked the former execution protocol, created a culture of incompetence and lack of accountability,” she said in an email.

No. 13 Tennessee (12-0) will open Southeastern Conference basketball play on Thursday. Rankings reflect the USA TODAY Sports women’s basketball coaches poll.

Texas A&M (7-5) will host the Lady Vols at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas. Tennessee leads the basketball series versus the Aggies, 11-8, dating to 1997.

Tennessee is looking to start the 2024-25 basketball season 13-0 for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign (15-0).

The Lady Vols enter Thursday’s SEC opener having scored 100 points six times during the 2024-25 season. The all time record for the Lady Vols is seven during the 1987-88 season.

READ: 2024-25 Tennessee Lady Vols basketball roster

PHOTOS: Kim Caldwell through the years

Here is how to watch the Tennessee-Texas A&M basketball game, including time, TV schedule and streaming information.

What channel is Tennessee vs. Texas A&M game on? Time, TV schedule

TV channel: SEC Network+

Start time: 8 p.m. EST

Steve Miller (play-by-play) and Tab Bentz (analyst) will be on the call.

Watch Tennessee vs. Texas A&M live on ESPN+

Tennessee Lady Vols 2024-25 basketball results

Oct. 31 Carson-Newman (Exhibition — W, 135-49)

Nov. 5 Samford (W, 101-53)

Nov. 7 UT Martin (W, 90-50)

Nov. 12 Middle Tennessee State (W, 89-75)

Nov. 16 Liberty (W, 109-93)

Nov. 26 Western Carolina (W, 102-50)

Dec. 4 Florida State (W, 79-77)

Dec. 7 Iowa (W, 78-68 — Brooklyn, New York)

Dec. 14 North Carolina Central (W, 139-59)

Dec. 18 at Memphis (W, 90-75)

Dec. 20 Richmond (W, 92-67 — West Palm Bech, Florida)

Dec. 21 Tulsa (W, 102-61 — West Palm Beach, Florida)

Dec. 29 Winthrop (W, 114-50)

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