Tanner: Closing Deficit Means Tough Calls More Than Tough Talk

A retired Tennessee Representative says the new Congress has to put tough talk aside and get practical if it’s serious about closing the budget gap. Democrat John Tanner served the district west of Nashville for two decades before deciding not to run again last fall.

Nashville area home sales had another down month in December, but realtors say they see signs of slow but steady growth ahead.

Once known as Ford Glass, the West Nashville facility made windshields and windows for Ford vehicles for more than half a century. At one time, it was the largest of the automaker’s three US glass-making facilities, and at its height, an estimated 3500 people worked there. The current employee count is closer to 500.

Homecoming ceremonies 12-months in the making begin Thursday night at Fort Campbell. The first flight of soldiers returns from Afghanistan. Many come home to wives who’ve become accustomed to the cycle of deployments.

The state government’s total unreimbursed expenses for damage related to last May’s floods are now expected to come to just a million dollars. Treasurer David Lillard received an insurance check worth more than $7 million this week.

Tennessee’s newly elected Representatives are in Washington with their families for the swearing in ceremony. The state’s delegation officially swings from majority Democrat to nearly all Republican.

A former first lady of Vanderbilt University has died. Jean Heard was 86.

Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander is blasting a move by Democrats to alter filibuster rules in the Senate, but he says there are some procedural changes that both parties can agree on.

Franklin-based Nissan North America joined the big three American automakers in posting double-digit gains for 2010. Nissan had a record sales month for December, up nearly 28 percent from a year prior.

Bank failures and a housing market collapse made economic headlines for the southeast over the last few years. But in an outlook for 2011 released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, economists see a bright future in manufacturing.