House Passes Budget After Sparring Over Youth Development Center

The cut upset Democrats and rank-and-file Republicans.

House leaders also expect one last try to create a completely different system.

A proposed new law could put a rift between doctors and so-called midlevel providers like nurse practitioners and physician assistants. The state Senate today approved tighter rules over who can give injections near a patients’ spine to treat pain.

An employer with a staff of 2,400 in Tennessee has announced more jobs in downtown Nashville.

The board of the Tennessee Valley Authority spent Thursday’s meeting hearing about low power demand and tight finances. Then they voted unanimously to spend an additional $2 billion completing a nuclear reactor in Spring City.

A former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority says the federal utility has had a “love affair” with nuclear power that should end. David Freeman addressed the board at its meeting Thursday morning.

For all the talk of a nuclear renaissance in the U.S., only one reactor is technically “under construction” right now. Watts Bar has a nearly 40 year history. And the Tennessee Valley Authority’s effort to complete a second reactor on site isn’t going well.

The state budget is back on track after being put on hold for three hours Wednesday while House Republicans and Democrats negotiated out some “local projects–” sometimes called “pork barrel projects-” that the Senate had slipped in.

Cigarettes from roll-your-own tobacco shops could soon be taxed at a higher rate under a bill approved yesterday by the state Senate. Roll-your-own shops sell raw tobacco, which is taxed at a lower rate, and then let customers make their cigarettes using a machine in the store.

Thousands of Tennessee parents may be affected by a proposal to require their children to turn five a month earlier in order to start kindergarten. But the measure also includes a “maturity” test that would allow four-year-olds to enroll.