Still Alive, Guns in Trunks Bills Move Forward

Proposals to allow Tennessee gun permit holders to keep their firearms in locked vehicles in an employer’s parking lot were supposed to be dead – or at least discouraged. But four such bills rushed of a House subcommittee on Tuesday.

Two very different ways of appointing state judges flew out of a state Senate Committee Tuesday and were immediately scheduled for a floor vote on Wednesday.

Governor Bill Haslam has reluctantly allowed a bill to become law that would give some leeway in the teaching of evolution. State lawmakers want protections for teachers who discuss the “weaknesses” of scientific theories.

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is calling a failure to shore up Medicare “generational theft.” The first-term Republican used some of his strongest language yet with an audience in Nashville Tuesday.

After the first three months of a new electronic tracking system, pharmacies in Tennessee say they’ve stopped the sale of about 15,000 products containing pseudoephedrine

Odds are increasing that a book ordered online hasn’t been printed yet. Nashville-based Ingram Content Group runs one of the book industry’s largest “print on demand” operations. Printing one copy at a time is a lonely bright spot for the traditional book industry, which has suffered as e-readers soar.

It’s too early to know whether the unseasonably warm March will ripple into higher summer electric bills across the state. A major factor could be rising temperatures in area rivers, which the Tennessee Valley Authority uses to cool its power plants.

Another bill aimed at synthetic drugs is moving through the General Assembly. Half a dozen bills are taking on so-called designer drugs.

Nashville-area home sales for March were up more than 17 percent over the same month last year, according to figures from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors. Overall sales so far for 2012 are 24 percent higher than the first part of 2011.

A crucial stretch of Interstate 24 in Nashville will be shut down for repairs nearly every weekend this summer. Officials say they’re trying to overhaul two bridges while keeping I-24 open on weekdays, as well as for a couple of big weekend events.