Senate Approves Photo ID’s to Vote

The state Senate last night passed a bill to require a photo ID in order to vote, one of several promised “immigration reform” bills. Senator Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro sponsored the bill which passed 18-10, largely along party lines with mostly Republican support. Democrats argued that the bill would simply make it harder for poor […]

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards used Nashville’s Farmers’ Market as a backdrop to detail his ‘Rural Recovery Act’ today. He’s the first to visit the state during the 2008 presidential campaign. The former North Carolina Senator used his own small town roots to say he identifies with rural America. Edwards says the 2008 presidential election […]

Tennessee could see funding shortfalls if the federal government doesn’t get the national deficit under control. A state commission released a report yesterday looking at trends in funding for federal programs. It found that as budget pressures increase, the feds will likely start cutting money for things like Medicaid or Medicare. Cliff Lippard is fiscal […]

State lawmakers say they may try to force giant cable-casters and a giant telephone company into negotiations to try to pry an agreement out of the reluctant industries. The telecommunications industry is roiled up over a proposed law that would give AT&T a statewide video franchise. But the phone company and the cable companies have […]

The six candidates vying to be Nashville’s next mayor took questions this morning in a public forum and at least two offered new initiatives. At-large Metro councilman David Briley wants to permanently take one cent from the county’s property tax and put it toward creating green space. “I believe that we can create another thousand […]

Evacuees from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina living in Tennessee will be able to access federal help to get their homes repaired this weekend. The Road Home program will be having an open house in Memphis on Saturday—the program’s only visit to Tennessee. Road Home spokeswoman Tiffany Alexander says evacuees used to have to go to […]

The family that gave the town of Nunnelly its name is protecting a 1-thousand acre parcel through the Land Trust for Tennessee today. Bill and Walter Nunnelly are the last surviving members of the Nunnelly clan. The brothers have no children. They said they wanted the land to remain intact and thought the best way […]

A ten-year dispute between Brentwood Academy and the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association may come to some resolve by this summer. Attorneys for both sides will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court next week regarding athletic recruiting violations committed by the private school and football powerhouse in 1997. Brentwood Academy says all it did was […]

First Lady Laura Bush visited Nashville today to shine a light on the needs of young people. Mrs. Bush gave the keynote speech for a regional conference of the Helping America’s Youth Initiative, which met at Tennessee State University. She directs the federal program to build partnerships among groups that work with children and teens. […]

Democratic legislators say they’ll start working as early as next week on repairing the governor’s cigarette tax plan that’s supposed to benefit education. Part of that job will be removing the changes added to the plan by a hostile House Agriculture Committee this week. That committee lowered the tax increase from 40 to 20 cents, […]