Part of living up to the Music City monicker is making sure music education in Nashville schools is top notch. That’s the message today from city leaders announcing a new plan to expand school music programs to include training that lines up with what happens in places like Music Row.

More than two thirds of Tennessee’s counties have been declared disaster areas this year, which is on top of last year’s flood damage. State officials are waiting for Congress to send them $165 million to pay for recovery efforts. But as of now that emergency funding is caught in a political battle.

Turnout was low for Metro Council’s runoff elections. The Davidson County Election Commission says about 6,200 voters cast ballots in Thursday’s election—that’s about 13 percent of registered voters. Voters decided races in five council districts.

Bela Fleck’s latest project brings his life-long love of the banjo full circle.

Tennessee’s senators are part of a group of about three-dozen calling for big cuts from the so-called “super committee.” That’s the group tasked with finding more than one trillion dollars in federal cuts this fall.

All but one of Tennessee’s House delegation voted Thursday to block the National Labor Relations Board from ordering businesses to close, relocate or transfer jobs to other sites.

Tennessee’s jobless rate dipped slightly in the month of August. Unemployment is at 9.7 percent, still well above the national rate of 9.1.

Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell is downplaying concerns the redistricting process could undermine some fellow Republicans.

The CMA Awards will stay put for the next few years. The Country Music Association has signed a three-year contract to continue holding its awards gala at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville.

Former U.S. Senator Bill Frist peppered one of the nation’s top healthcare officials with questions today over the federal healthcare overhaul. Frist spoke with Donald Berwick, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at a gathering of representatives from Nashville’s healthcare industry.