AT&T Bill Gets Final Hearing, Though Vote May Be Delayed

The proposed state law that opens up cable markets to AT&T is due for one last day of discussion today at the state capitol. But Senator Steve Southerland, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, isn’t optimistic that the bill will be voted on that soon. “So I don’t know if the bill will pass out. […]

In what has become a regular show of highway libertarianism, the state Senate last night voted again to allow motorcyclists 21 and older to ride without helmets. Republican sponsor Tim Burchett of Knoxville expressed his ride-free philosophy after the vote. “Motorcycles are dangerous. The states that have lifted the ban, they’ve seen a rise in […]

A group of homeless advocates are calling for disciplinary action against a Nashville judge who they say set excessive bond amounts. On March 21st, sixteen activists holding an all-night vigil were arrested when they refused to leave the Public Square at closing time. Because they were charged with misdemeanors and were very low-flight risks, the […]

Tennessee powerboat owners may have to get titles for those boats within the next three years. The measure pits boat manufacturers against their own dealers – who have always opposed such a scheme. Senate sponsor Tim Burchett of Knoxville says it will make it harder to steal and re-sell boats. He says the state is […]

Tennessee’s U.S. Senators will meet this week to strategize on how to stop legislation that claims it will bring competition to the Tennessee Valley Authority. It also would fund a study on privatizing the public utility. TVA officials have denounced the legislation, sponsored by Kentucky Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning who are both Republicans. […]

What is Easter without eggs? Long a symbol of fertility and rebirth, eggs achieved imperial status when Alexander III commissioned a Russian jeweler with a French name to make an Easter present for his wife.” That was 1885, and the Russian tradition of Fabergé eggs was born. Three of those imperial Easter eggs recently arrived in Nashville at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art – but the eggs are not the stars of the show, as WPLN’­s Christine Buttorff reports. More info at www.cheekwood.org

More than one-thousand homes were damaged or destroyed when a series of powerful tornadoes moved through Goodletsville, Hendersonville and Gallatin one year ago. Even today, some homes and businesses that weren’t completely destroyed are tarped and vacant. More-hidden evidence of the storms lies in the empty lots of the Woodhaven neighborhood where three of the […]

State attorney general Bob Cooper rejected a proposal from Fisk University today that would allow it to sell two paintings from a collection donated by Georgia O’Keeffe in the 1940s. The decision comes after Cooper put a moratorium on the sale of the iconic work Radiator Building – Night, New York. It would have gone […]

A panel charged with repairing the state’s lethal injection protocol sat through lectures by anti-death penalty advocates today during a public hearing. Governor Phil Bredesen formed the panel after he found the protocol to be a quote, “cut and paste” job. Bredesen has asked for a rewritten protocol that can actually be followed to humanely […]

What started out as two different ways to give a sales tax break on food, quickly has degenerated into a legislative food fight between state Democrats and Republicans. Yesterday, House Democratic Leader Gary Odom offered a bill that would take sales tax off milk, eggs and baby food. The Bredesen administration quickly declared that it […]