Catherine Sweeney
WPLN Health ReporterCatherine Sweeney is WPLN’s health reporter. Before joining the station, she covered health for Oklahoma’s NPR member stations. That was her first job in public radio. Until then, she wrote about state and local government for newspapers in Oklahoma and Colorado. In her free time, she likes to cycle through hobbies, which include crochet, embroidery, baking, cooking and weightlifting.
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which helps more than one in 10 Tennesseans get groceries — is already in legal trouble in the state for delayed benefits and other mismanagement concerns. It could be soon be undergoing massive cuts. -
The state of Tennessee executed Oscar Franklin Smith Thursday morning. It was the first lethal injection since 2019, and comes on the heels of a third-party investigation into the state’s protocol that found failures in testing the drugs used during executions. -
Tennessee is scheduled to resume executions this month, and some victims’ rights advocates are arguing there are better ways to spend state money than administering capital punishment. -
Rural Tennesseans already have limited access to labor and delivery services, and a recent study shows the problem could get worse. -
Tennessee’s measles vaccination rate is much lower than it needs to be for community protection -
A lawsuit is accusing the Tennessee Department of Human Services of mismanaging nutrition assistance benefits so badly that the agency is breaking federal law. -
The rate of new HIV cases tied to drug use in Tennessee is surging — doubling over the past few years. Experts say that makes safe syringe programs more important than ever. -
Tennessee will soon resume executions, after an Associated Press investigation led the state to pause all lethal injections and redesign its protocol. -
People in Tennessee die of overdoses at a higher rate than almost anywhere in the country. But one of the evidence backed-tools that could stem that tide gets a lot of blowback. -
Doctors will likely get paid less next year for treating Tennessee’s 1.4 million Medicare beneficiaries.
