A charter school operator from Arizona wants to open one of the first publicly financed schools in the state that’s designed not just for low-income kids. Representatives from Great Hearts Academies will meet with prospective parents Wednesday and Thursday nights.

First it cut tuition by 10 percent, then held the line. Now the University of the South has announced it will freeze tuition rates for incoming freshmen until they graduate in 2016.

Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper says the U.S. and its European allies aren’t looking for a fight in Syria. Cooper sits on the House Armed Services Committee, and says despite the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, there’s not much appetite to get involved.

Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper says state legislators shouldn’t wait long before taking a role in the federal healthcare overhaul. Some lawmakers have talked about putting such a move off until after the Supreme Court decides if the law can legally make people buy health insurance.

Since the devastating floods of 2010, more than a hundred Nashville homeowners have sold their badly-damaged property to the city. Another 78 in the floodplain are still waiting to close on their buyouts.

Governor Haslam’s agenda for the 2012 session includes changes to the way the state hires workers and a cut in the grocery tax.

The Tennessee legislature hits the ground running today, the second week of its 2012 session. When the gavel bangs at noon, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up two bills that address widespread drug abuse in the state – so-called “designer drugs,” and methamphetamine.

The bills creating new voting maps in Tennessee are now clear to go to the governor for his signature. The state Senate put the last piece down in the jigsaw puzzle this afternoon.

An injection-molding company that makes car parts will expand its factory in Shelbyville and add almost 60 new jobs. New York-based Century Mold has had its facility in Bedford County for almost two decades. In announcing the expansion today the plastic-maker’s CEO praised its Tennessee location a “perfect fit.”

It took only an hour this afternoon for the Republican majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives to approve some of the new voting lines for the next decade of elections. The House passed a new congressional map, and one for its own chamber.