Corker Calls U.S. Attorney Scandal ‘Non-Issue,’ Backs Thompson Run

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker says the firing of eight U-S attorneys should have been a ‘non-issue.’ As for the job security of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he says details should come to light when Gonzales testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee later this month. “It does seem that every time the attorney general opens his […]

Governor Phil Bredesen has turned nearly every speaking engagement in the past few weeks into a sales pitch for his proposed tripling of the cigarette tax. It would add more than 200-million dollars for school districts with dramatic growth and large numbers of at-risk students. A keynote address to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce […]

The Senate Environment Committee approved a bill today by Mt. Juliet Republican Mae Beavers to establish a recycling program under which computer users would send their outmoded equipment back to the manufacturers, rather than junking them. Proponents say such a system would allow the dangerous materials in the computers to be recycled rather than being […]

Metro Legal Department put the Sounds on official notice today: the minor-league baseball team will default its contract with the city if it does not finance a downtown stadium by April 15th In a letter to the team, Acting Legal Director Sue Cain characterized the Sound’s efforts so far as “a total and unqualified refusal […]

Five bills meant to protect homeowners from the effects of blasting for construction were either defeated or deferred in a state House subcommittee today. Nashville Representative Janis Sontany sponsored three of those bills. She says the proposed regulations would benefit homeowners in densely populated communities. “What we have is existing neighborhoods being sacrificed for new […]

Another bill aimed at regulating Tennessee businesses that hire illegal immigrants moved forward in a House committee today. Cookeville Democrat Hank Fincher says his bill will bar state contractors from using illegal labor. “The bill that I have is modeled after the Georgia legislation that passed last year. It goes as far as we can […]

The deal to build a downtown minor league ballpark will likely expire April 15th. The Metro Council voted unanimously last night not to approve another extension for the Sounds and its development partner Struever Brothers who’ve been at odds for weeks. After the vote, both sides blamed finances as the major stumbling block. In its […]

A bill calling for the popular election of Tennessee’s constitutional officers moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Although the bill’s sponsor Rosalind Kurita is a Democrat, the vote was five Republicans in favor and four Democrats against. Kurita wants to elect not just the three constitutional officers – the secretary of state, the […]

The Senate Commerce Committee recommended a bill by Senator Bill Ketron that would allow local police to enforce federal immigration law – even though a state attorney told the committee that federal law pre-empts such action. Ketron says the General Assembly should still pass the law. “This is not the first time we’ve ever passed […]

The business-oriented state Senate Commerce Committee today/yesterday approved a bill to require state employers to check a federal data base in Washington to clarify whether a potential employee is in the country legally If the bill passes the full legislature, Tennessee would be the first state to require employers to use what is essentially a […]