Activists Unhappy with Progress of Homelessness Commission

Homeless activists in Nashville are calling for the Metro Homelessness Commission to be disbanded or at least overhauled. The panel was set up in 2005 and originally tasked with ending chronic homelessness in Nashville by 2015.

The congressional district that includes Nashville would stretch west and encompass Dickson County under a proposal released today by Republicans in the state legislature. But all in all, the representative who holds the seat calls the redistricting plan “fair.”

An organization named the Tennessee Tea Party is no more. It was established by a husband and wife team from Springfield shortly after the tax day protests in 2009 that drew thousands of protesters to the state capitol. The founders say they now realize the tea party isn’t the way to advance their conservative Christian views.

More than 200 Tennesseans bought electric cars in 2011. While the actual number of vehicles is relatively small, emergency responders want to be ready in case one of these vehicles is involved in an accident.

Governor Bill Haslam outlined a wide ranging public safety plan Thursday that includes 40 separate “action steps” – from increasing sentences to keeping tabs on who is taking prescribed pain killers.

The Tennessee Department of Education is cutting back its administrative staff. More than 40 civil service positions are going away.

Vanderbilt scientists are part of an international group whose experiments this year could make or break decades of study. Experts in Nashville say the results could cement long-held theories of physics, or turn much of the discipline on its head.

Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper wants his district to go back to the way it once was and include all of Davidson County.

Tennessee’s House of Representatives would have the same number of minority voting districts under a proposal released Wednesday, even if it results in fewer minority lawmakers.

A dozen incumbent members of the state House – mostly Democrats – would have to run against each other in the redistricting plan released by Republicans Wednesday. One contest pits two Representatives in Davidson County.