By Kevin Bouldin

This morning we begin a new series of storytelling focused on the people and places of Middle Tennessee. Upon First Meeting: A Series of Introductions begins with today’s subject: a man who was crushed by a nine hundred pound falling branch. WPLN’s Kevin Bouldin introduces us to Ethan Swiggart, a tree surgeon who possesses the skills of an ax man and the eyes of an artist.

By Daniel Potter

Last night Governor Phil Bredesen unveiled his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year. It would lay off more than a thousand state workers, while affording those that remain a 3 percent bonus.

Bredesen says the state can afford the bonus because it’s found enough savings in the current year’s budget to avoid drawing too heavily from its reserve funds. And he says the proposal should leave some breathing room for the next governor. WPLN’s Daniel Potter reports.

By Blake Farmer

Fort Campbell troops are spending this week driving humvees off road and getting a little mud on the tires. But this isn’t recreation. They’re training for the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan and the country’s lack of paved roads. Soldiers are also learning techniques for avoiding roadside bombs, which account for 60 percent of the military casualties in Afghanistan. WPLN’s Blake Farmer reports.

By Daniel Potter

State lawmakers will likely make substantial changes this week in how teachers’ job-performance is assessed. That comes as part of Governor Phil Bredesen’s push to position Tennessee to receive hundreds of millions of federal ‘Race to the Top’ dollars. Bredesen says the change is crucial for Tennessee to have a serious shot at the money.

He appears to have support from both Republicans and Democrats in the legislature. And last night the state teachers’ union signed off on the change as well. WPLN’s Daniel Potter reports

By Ann Lloyd

An East Tennessee man is facing his busiest time of the year – shipping the famed, rare Perigord Black Truffle to chefs across the nation. The nubby, round, aromatic fungus worth hundreds of dollars a pound grows wild in France, but it has stubbornly resisted commercial production in the United States. From WUOT in Knoxville, reporter Ann Lloyd introduces us to truffle farmer Tom Michaels.

By Daniel Potter

One year into a colossal cleanup, the Tennessee Valley Authority still doesn’t know where it’s going to put all the ash that spilled from a massive holding pond at a coal plant west of Knoxville. Every day workers dredge thousands of tons of ash from the Emory river, which was smothered after an earthen dam burst a year ago. Three hundred acres of sludge – over 200 football fields worth – blanketed the river and nearby countryside last year. WPLN’s Daniel Potter reports on TVA’s billion-dollar cleanup of one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind.

By Blake Farmer

A retired minister in Nashville is using an online store to help keep Cambodian women out of the sex trade. Socially-minded entrepreneurs have used the Internet to help artisans from remote regions earn a living wage selling their wares all over the world. WPLN’s Blake Farmer reports on one such project supporting silk weavers in Cambodia called Mekong Blue.

By Anne Marshall

The tough economy has left at least ten thousand Tennessee school children drifting with their families from motel rooms, to friends’ couches, to a relative’s home for shelter. School officials who track that movement call them families “living in transition.” WPLN’s Anne Marshall has the story of one family struggling to keep life as normal as possible.

By Blake Farmer

The economic recession has hit small business in a bad way. Many firms have failed. Others are barely holding on after laying off employees and cutting benefits. Even with the best pep talks, the worker spirit has suffered. At Smithfield Manufacturing in Clarksville, machinists who’ve survived a round of layoffs are trying to keep busy, hoping business picks back up. They’re still waiting. WPLN’s Blake Farmer has this profile.

By Joe Nolan

In Nashville, great musicians record in great rooms – Elvis Presley at RCA Studio B, Jack White at Blackbird Studio. Now, artists and engineers are discovering a space for music-making that isn’t a studio at all. It’s a 150-year-old church sanctuary inspired by the architecture of ancient Egypt. WPLN’s Joe Nolan reports.

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