Race the Top Bill Passes State Senate

The governor’s Race to the Top education bill was approved by the state Senate Friday afternoon and immediately shipped to the state House of Representatives for a vote there.

Members of the Metro Sports Authority are using a possible breach of contract to negotiate more favorable terms for the city’s $7.4 million subsidy to the Predators.

Thursday night Metro Council committees approved borrowing as much as $650 million to build a new downtown convention center.

Candidates from both parties for governor in Tennessee say they’d like to strengthen the connection between higher education and industry. Several want more programs tailored to businesses in the state that will hire newly-minted graduates.

Candidates in Tennessee’s race for governor are split about whether to expand Pre-Kindergarten education in the state.

Efforts are underway to bring home the dozens of Middle Tennesseans thought to be in Haiti. Meanwhile, others are contemplating ways they can help the impoverished nation recover from this week’s earthquake.

The governor’s “Race to the Top” education legislation is due to go to the state Senate floor Friday morning. The House version emerged from the Education Committee Thursday afternoon with a few changes.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has been on a shopping spree for wind energy. Thursday the power provider announced contracts for 815-megawatts from planned wind farms in Illinois and Kansas.

As the state legislature considers Governor Bredesen’s proposal to revamp the way the state evaluates teachers, a new, national study gives solid marks for Tennessee’s current methods of assessing teacher quality. But Education Week Magazine’s annual Quality Counts report says the state lags behind the national average when it comes to offering teacher incentives.

Fort Campbell troops are spending this week driving humvees off road and getting a little mud on the tires. But this isn’t recreation. They’re training for the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan and the country’s lack of paved roads. Soldiers are also learning techniques for avoiding roadside bombs, which account for 60 percent of the military casualties in Afghanistan. WPLN’s Blake Farmer reports.