Bill To Allow Helmet-Free Adults

On a close vote today, the Tennessee House Transportation Committee approved a bill to allow adult motorcyclists to ride without helmets. The vote to send the bill on to the Finance Committee was nine to eight. The bill has already passed in the state Senate. Mike Hayes, the lobbyist for Concerned Motorcyclists of Tennessee, has […]

Governor Bredesen will announce major changes to the way the state’s schools are funded this week. A joint session of the House and Senate is scheduled for Thursday. That’s where the Governor will outline changes to the BEP – an intricate mathematical formula that distributes state money to local school systems. Bredesen has called the […]

Governor Phil Bredesen announced last night that he will allow a three-month moratorium on state executions to expire tomorrow. Concerns over the state’s lethal injection process prompted Governor Bredesen to issue a moratorium in February. Last night, the Governor released a statement saying that Department of Correction Commissioner George Little had revised the death penalty […]

Upon returning from a trade mission to China, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell told a business-heavy downtown Rotary Club audience (today/yesterday) that the city should capitalize on its global connections. “An Air China 747 lands here in Nashville every single morning. It starts in Taiwan, it refuels in Alaska and it lands here in the early […]

Nissan Motor Company posted its worst quarterly profits in seven years last week, and (today/yesterday) the Japanese automaker unveiled a vehicle it hopes to help lead a turnaround. “I introduce you to the new 2008 Nissan Altima coupe.” The sporty two-door broke through a banner as line workers at the Smyrna plant stopped to watch. […]

Enrollment in CoverRx reopened today. The state’s pharmacy assistance program started in Janurary. More than 21-thousand Tenneseans signed up in the first month. Then in February, budget concerns lead the state to halt enrollment and monitor the program’s expenses. As of today, that suspension is lifted. Officials have given the ok to both enroll the […]

Anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean [Pray-shohn], author of Dead Man Walking, called on Gov. Phil Bredesen today to extend a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty. Earlier this year, Bredesen told a panel of Correction and legal officials to review the state’s protocol for capital punishment. The governor said the written directions were […]

A coalition of district attorneys, police chiefs and sheriffs today called on the state legislature to impose more prison time for gangs or any individual who uses a gun to commit violent crimes. Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas says Nashville has reduced violent crime but faces the continuing problem of repeat offenders. “We have three […]

A short film called ‘College on the Brain’ was the inspiration behind the next mayoral forum in Nashville – dubbed a ‘youth-issues’ forum. The documentary featured students from Metro Nashville’s Stratford High School and depicted a struggling school with no college counselor, among other downfalls. Marcus Bagwell, a junior at Hillsboro High School, says it […]

The battle over who gets to provide cable service to millions of Tennessee customers has moved back to small rooms out of the range of cameras. Lawmakers say the adversaries – AT&T and the cable-casters –have a week or more to work on changes to the statewide video franchise bill. The bill has been amended […]