Genre-bending artist Koe Wetzel has added fall dates to his ‘Road to Hell Paso’ North American headline tour. Presented by Monster Energy, the newly announced 22-date run kicks off July 28 in Idaho Falls, ID with stops in Baton Rouge, Indianapolis, San Antonio, and more. The tour will conclude with shows in Lubbock and El Paso, TX, both of which have inspired a couple of Koe’s song and album titles. Additionally, Koe has added a performance in Sioux Falls, SD on June 29. See full routing below.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, 4/28 at 10am local time. Fans can register for presale access at https://roadtohellpasotour.com/. For additional information, visit https://www.koewetzelmusic.com/#tour.

Koe has been on the road playing sold out shows across the country in support of his latest album Hell Paso https://koewetzel.lnk.to/hellpaso, which debuted at #12 on the Billboard 200 upon release in September. Recorded at the iconic Sonic Ranch Studio outside of El Paso, TX, the 13-track LP perfectly blends Koe’s musical influences and carves a unique lane for himself. In speaking about the album, Koe says: “We pulled in every genre we were feeling at the time. We spent the last ten years trying to make this sound, Hell Paso has it.”

With over 100,000 tickets sold thus far this year, the Texas-born singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer continues to dominate the touring world. In addition to his ‘Road to Hell Paso’ dates, Koe will support Eric Church this July. He will also perform at various festivals including a headline slot at the inaugural Georgia Country Music Fest this Labor Day Weekend in Marietta, GA. Visit https://georgiacountrymusicfest.com/ for more information.

This Friday, Koe will be featured on Ella Langley’s new song “That’s Why We Fight” – stay tuned for more from Wetzel coming soon!

Charges are pending following an investigation into a deadly head-on collision in Monroe county.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol has identified the drivers involved in Tuesday morning’s crash as 33 year-old Janice Stapleton and 36 year-old Anthony Capp who died in the crash.

According to a preliminary report from THP, Stapleton and Capp were driving opposite directions on Highway 68 near Frontier Road when Stapleton crossed into the opposite lane, hitting Capp head-on.

Additionally, both drivers had children in the car. Stapleton had two juveniles in the car, an 11-year-old and 5 year-old girl who were not wearing seatbelts and were both injured.

Capp had a 7 and 6 year-old boy in the car, the 6 year old was not wearing a seatbelt.

Charges are pending for Stapleton.

Mayor John Cooper and the mayors from three other major Tennessee cities are urging Governor Bill Lee to consider enacting major changes to the state’s gun laws following the deadly shooting at The Covenant School.

Mayor Cooper of Nashville, Mayor Lee Harris of Shelby County, Mayor Tim Kelly of Chattanooga, and Mayor Indya Kincannon of Knoxville drafted a letter the governor on Wednesday that included a list of recommended actions to reduce gun violence in the state.

The recommendations include:

• Require background checks for all gun purchases.
• Tennessee should require point-of-sale background checks for all gun purchases, including rifles and shotguns.
• This requirement would help close a loophole that currently allows felons and other people who are prohibited from possessing firearms to bypass a background check by buying a gun from an unlicensed seller.
• A mandatory background check would screen to make sure the buyer is not legally prohibited from owning firearms due to criminal history.
• 20 states currently require background checks. Those state laws are associated with lower rates of homicide and suicide by firearm.
• A recent poll showed that 88% of Tennesseans support background checks for gun sales.
• Implement Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
• Known as a “red flag” law, an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) empowers law enforcement and family members to intervene and temporarily prevent those at extreme risk of harming themselves or others from possessing guns.
• Law enforcement and immediate family members could petition a civil court for an ERPO to temporarily remove guns from the possession of those at serious risk of harming themselves or others. If a judge finds that there is sufficient evidence, that person is temporarily prohibited from purchasing and possessing guns. The guns they already own will also be held by law enforcement for the duration of the ERPO.
• Once the immediate threat of harm to an individual or others is removed, individuals can petition to have the ERPO removed to ensure proper due process.
• Tennessee should allow law enforcement to petition a civil court for an ERPO. Petitioners could also include immediate family members and medical professionals. 20 states have already implemented ERPOs.
• A recent poll showed that 71% of Tennesseans support adopting red flag laws.
• Enhanced safety of the concealed carry law.
• Recognizing that Tennessee legislators support concealed carry without a permit, action can still be taken to protect Tennesseans without undoing our state’s overall policy on concealed carry. Tennessee should prohibit individuals who have been convicted of a violent misdemeanor offense from carrying a concealed firearm.
• This policy change would follow states like Florida, which eliminated its permit requirement this session while still prohibiting people convicted of violent misdemeanors from carrying in public, but would stop short of banning gun purchases for violent misdemeanants (a law that 15 states including Alabama have in place).
• The right to carry a concealed firearm should not be extended to members of society who have proven themselves to be violent. Tennessee should become the 24th state to bar concealed carry by people with violent misdemeanor convictions.
• Establish a statewide minimum age for purchasing firearms.
• Under Federal law, a gun buyer purchasing from a licensed firearm dealer must be 21 years old to buy a handgun and 18 to buy a long gun. Federal law prohibits someone under 18 from possessing a handgun, but there is no minimum purchase age for long guns bought from an unlicensed seller.
• 22 states have adopted higher minimum age laws for purchasing firearms. Florida is one of seven states that set the minimum age at 21 for all firearms purchases.
• Tennessee should establish a minimum age of 21 to purchase handguns or any centerfire semiautomatic long gun. All other rifles (including .22 rimfire rifles) and shotguns could be purchased at 18 years of age. This policy will make sure that the firearms most likely to be used in violent crimes and mass shootings are less easily attainable for young people.
• Require and enable secure storage of guns.
• Secure storage laws reduce gun violence and firearm accidents. 25 states currently have laws to prevent children from gaining unauthorized access to firearms.
• Tennessee should adopt a secure storage law that penalizes gun owners if a child (under 18 years old) or person prohibited from possessing firearms gains access to a firearm.
• A recent poll showed that 82% of Tennesseans support adopting safe storage laws.
• The State of Tennessee should also provide funding to any city or county government interested in operating a distribution program for mailing gun locks to residents who request a lock. For example, Shelby County has given out 600 gun locks so far in 2023 at a total cost of less than $10,000.
• Limit gun thefts from cars.
• Gun thefts from cars are a common problem in Tennessee and contribute to further crime. Tennessee should take action to limit thefts of guns from cars by requiring cars containing a gun to be locked and for the gun to be stored inside a locked compartment within the vehicle.
• Ban high-capacity magazines.
• Limiting magazines to fewer rounds of ammunition requires a shooter to reload more often, thereby making it more difficult to inflict mass casualties. For reference, the shooter in the Covenant School shooting fired 152 rounds using high-capacity magazines. In the 2019 Dayton, Ohio shooting, the shooter used a drum magazine holding 100 rounds.
• High-capacity magazines are typically defined as greater than 10 rounds. 14 states have laws banning high-capacity magazines. States with a ban on high-capacity magazines experience mass shootings at less than half the rate of states without restrictions.
• Protect women by prohibiting convicted stalkers from owning guns.
• Stalking is linked to the murder of women. 89% of femicide victims who had been physically assaulted had also been stalked in the 12 months before their murder. 54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers. (Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center)
• People convicted of misdemeanor stalking in Tennessee can currently still own a gun. Tennessee should pass a law that prevents convicted stalkers from possessing a firearm. 20 states have laws that ban convicted stalkers from owning guns.
• Provide funding for school threat assessment teams to keep schools safe.
• School threat assessment teams are trained to identify warning signs and intervene before students commit acts of violence. Such programs are unanimously recommended by school safety experts. In 77% of school shootings, at least one person, most often the shooter’s classmate, had prior knowledge of the shooter’s plan.
• Nine states require school threat assessment programs including Kentucky, Florida, and Texas. Numerous other school districts, such as Metro Nashville Public Schools, have implemented threat assessment programs even if not required by state law.
• Tennessee already has a law that enables Local Educational Agencies (LEA) to adopt policies to establish threat assessment teams (Section 49-6-2701). The State of Tennessee should now provide funding for school districts that want to form school threat assessment teams to keep their students safe. Additional funding for SROs is helpful to this effort, but it is important to note that school threat assessment teams’ scope goes beyond law enforcement.
• Require reporting of lost and stolen guns.
• 15 states require gun owners to promptly report to law enforcement if a gun is lost or stolen. These reporting requirements allow law enforcement to investigate and track down gun trafficking operations. Laws requiring reporting of lost and stolen guns can reduce illegal gun movement by 46%, according to one study.
• Tennessee should require gun owners to report a stolen or missing gun within 72 hours of the incident. Such a law would not restrict gun rights, but evidence suggests it would reduce illegal gun sales by preventing people from claiming a gun was stolen or missing only after it was used in a crime.

The mayors state in the letter that Tennessee has the 12th highest rate of gun deaths in the country over the past four years, and ranks 9th in total deaths by firearms. They also see a direct correlation between the strength of a state’s gun laws and its rate of gun violence, as the six states with the strongest laws rank among the eight safest states.

Story courtesy of WVLT

Two men trapped in a trench collapse are both freed and one man remains hospitalized.

Officials with the Knoxville Fire Department are still investigating yesterday’s incident at a construction site on East Inskip Road.

Both men were responsive when taken to the hospital. They were employed by Davie Construction, working about four feet under the ground at an apartment construction site looking for a water leak when the trench collapsed.

KFD says one of the men was “minimally” trapped at the ankle while the other was trapped from the waist below in quarter-sized rock and mud from the leak. KFD officials say what makes this type of accident life threatening is something that’s called compartment syndrome. It’s what happens after intense and prolonged pressure is relieved form the men’s legs which could cause internal issues.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating a crash involving a train and a semi-truck which closed Harriman Highway in Roane County over the weekend.

According to THP, the driver of the semi-truck, a 41 year-old man, Jagit Singh, was parked on the tracks and in the sleeper cab when a train hit the truck. No one was injured in the crash. The truck driver is facing charges for parking on the railroad tracks.