Pinnacle Pinched by More Bad Loans

Nashville’s largest locally-owned bank foreclosed on $34 million of loans in the fourth quarter. Loan losses for Pinnacle Financial Partners grew from 1% of its total loans at the end of 2008 to more than 2.5% at the end of 2009.

Last night Nashville’s City Council overwhelmingly agreed to fund a new downtown convention center with a vote of 29 to nine. Mayor Karl Dean says construction will begin shortly, and he expects plans for an accompanying hotel to fall into place as well.

Tuesday, state lawmakers began work on Governor Phil Bredesen’s plan to create a single, unified community college curriculum for certain core courses.

First Tennessee Bank’s parent company is trying to make itself leaner and more versatile by limiting the kinds of business it does. But while officials say the restructuring will ultimately be good for First Horizon’s finances, the short term costs are high.

A national tour of Nissan’s new electric vehicle swings through Middle Tennessee this week. The vehicles won’t go on sale until late this year. The prototypes on display will be silent. Engineers of the Leaf are still playing with what kinds of noise the electric vehicle will make.

Federal funds are making it feasible for health care providers to switch to electronic records. But a panel of financial experts speaking last week to the Nashville Health Care Council said it’s not clear how the numbers for health care IT will look once the stimulus money is gone.

A growing number of hospitals are giving families of patients a new tool to call for emergency help. Now, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, they can contact the hospital’s rapid response team without waiting for a nurse to assess the situation.

A special session called by Governor Phil Bredesen continues today at the state legislature. Late Friday night, lawmakers handed Governor Phil Bredesen what he said he needed to make Tennessee competitive for hundreds of millions of dollars from the “Race to the Top” education fund. The General Assembly changed how public school teachers will be evaluated for their pay, allowing a good portion of that to be based on student achievement. WPLN’s Anita Bugg talked with Capitol Hill Correspondent Joe White about what action the legislature has taken and what steps are next.

Large, bipartisan majorities in both houses approved the bill that for the first time would allow student achievement scores to be factored into a teacher’s job rating.

Tying teacher evaluations to student achievement could help Tennessee win a massive Race to the Top grant from the federal government, but some are concerned about the potential ramifications.