DRAPER JAMES SOLD
PAGE 10
9/11 REMEMBRANCE
PAGE 5
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 | VOLUME 35 | NUMBER 36
Mt. Juliet cyclist killed in Friday evening Bellevue crash STAFF REPORTS
Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw exchange signed documents on Sept. 9, proclaiming each other as sister cities. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS
Nashville celebrates newest sister city Erbil BY MATT MASTERS
A girl wearing a dress bearing Kurdish and American flags presents Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw with flowers. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS
Nashville officially has a new sister city. Erbil, located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, joins the list of Nashville’s other sister cities including Belfast, Northern Ireland; Caen, France; Chengdu and Taiyuan, China; Edmonton, Canada; Kamakura, Japan; Magdeburg, Germany; Mendoza, Argentina; and Tamworth, Australia. More than 100 community members joined Nashville government and community leaders in welcoming the Kurdish delegation at the Nashville Downtown Public Library after a week of events across the city. Those events included visits to the National Museum of African American Music, The Hermitage Mansion and Museum, John Overton High School, Ft. Negley, the Grand Ole Opry and a Nashville Sounds game, while they also dined at The Hermitage Hotel, Tansuo and Prince’s Hot Chicken, and met with
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. “The bonds between Nashville and Erbil transcends geographical boundaries, and it fosters cultural understanding,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said. “Hopefully, this partnership will open doors for economic collaboration, and that businesses from Nashville and Erbil will find common ground to explore new markets and opportunities, and that there will be a people-to-people connection forged through the sister city relationship, to enrich the lives both of Nashville and Erbil, and to collaborate on various humanitarian and social initiatives to build solidarity to strengthen our friendship and compassion, through knowledge and understanding with each other.” In the 1970s, Nashville became the home of a handful of Kurdish refugees who helped to grow the Kurdish community to more than 20,000 residents, the largest in the
A Mt. Juliet cyclist was killed on Friday evening when she was hit by a truck on Highway 100. 23-year-old Alyssa Milligan was traveling on a bicycle with another cyclist near Harpeth Trace Drive at approximately 6:45 p.m. when she was struck by the passenger side of a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Milligan, a well-known athlete who was a member of the Nashville Triathlon Club, was thrown off her bike and died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Metro Nashville Police said that the 46-year-old driver told officers that he saw a cyclist ahead of him on the right side of the roadway’s fog line, and he attempted to change lanes, reporting that “after looking over his shoulder, the cyclist was suddenly in front of him.” Police identified the driver as Maryville resident Donald Mashburn, who they said did not show any signs of impairment when they said he failed to yield the right of way to Milligan. The crash remains under investigation and charges could be filed against Mashburn. United States, in what Cooper called a “great achievement and friendship and partnership.” Erbil is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, a region in the north of the country, and one of the largest cities in Iraq. “Every single one of the Kurdish people who came here to live in the city, they all have their own special stories,” Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw said through an interpreter. Xoshnaw thanked his hosts and several organizations, including Nashville nonprofit Kurdistan Cultural Institute, and noted the longstanding diplomatic and military partnership between the U.S. and the Kurdish people, who live in a region that stretches across portions of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. “We would like to develop >> PAGE 2
THENEWS @ FWPUBLISHING.COM | 615.298.1500 | INFO@THENEWSTN.COM TICKED OFF: tickedoff@fwpublishing.com
PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID NASHVILLE, TN PERMIT # 338