No Need to Threaten Veto, Haslam Says Guns in Parking Lots Won’t Pass

Legislation that would allow gun owners to store weapons in their cars at work is advancing against the wishes of the state’s top elected officials. It passed a House committee Tuesday. Still, Governor Bill Haslam says he doesn’t expect the bill to reach his desk.

This week state lawmakers are debating a phase-out of the estate tax, which could be followed by a bill to do the same to the state’s tax on cash gifts.

First Lady Michelle Obama paid a lunchtime visit to Nashville today. Several hundred people attended the $500-a-plate downtown fundraiser for her husband’s reelection campaign.

The Tennessee Senate voted tonight to cut some lottery scholarship awards in order to build up lottery reserves. But the measure has an escape clause that leaves the scholarships untouched, if the lottery continues to bring in additional money each year.

Tonight, the Tennessee Senate approved a proposal for naming state judges – a first step in making a change to the state constitution. And it was the one that most resembles the current system.

State officials are still pushing the rules-change that Governor Bill Haslam wanted in order to evict Occupy Nashville. It would add another way the state could keep occupiers from planting tents on the plaza outside the capitol, on top of the law Haslam signed last month.

The often-described “father of supply-side economics” told lawmakers Monday all that’s holding Tennessee back from economic prosperity is a tax on gifts and large estates. Legislation cutting those taxes is being debated this week.

Senator Bob Corker says the recent Wall Street reform needs of a few “technical corrections” that he believes could have bipartisan support. He certainly has the backing of Tennessee bankers.

For about a year Tennessee lawmakers have listened to testimony from people burned by cosmetic lasers, tools used in spas to remove body hair, rejuvenate skin, and erase sun damage.

U.S. Representative Jim Cooper complains many in Congress don’t want to take on the messy federal budget until after this fall’s election. Cooper says the conventional wisdom is they’ll work out a deal in the less political lame-duck session afterward, but he warns they shouldn’t wait.