Listen Nashville’s transit officials hear the clamoring for more commuter rail service, which is usually fast and can carry a lot of people. But in Middle Tennessee, that would probably require squeezing passenger trains onto busy CSX freight lines — and those prospects are slim, according to a new study.
Transit Fans Fawn Over Commuter Rail, But Study Says It Doesn’t Fit For Nashville
Metro Schools’ Money Man Explains Why Charters Don’t Result In Cost Savings
Listen Are charter schools adding costs to run the district in Nashville or not? It’s a seemingly simple question the Metro board of education can’t agree on in a continually evolving debate about independently-run public schools. So we talked to the district’s top number cruncher to get an answer.
Ex-Warden Says He Was Forced To Cut Staffing At West Tennessee Prison
Listen The former warden at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary says he was forced to sign a request to reduce staffing as part of a cost-saving move. That decision, he says, has put the safety of guards and inmates in jeopardy.
Ron Ramsey Calls On Christians To Arm Themselves Following Oregon Mass Shooting
Listen Christians should consider arming themselves, Tennessee’s Senate Speaker says in response to Thursday’s shooting at a community college in Oregon. Ron Ramsey says armed enemies are targeting Christians, and they should respond by keeping guns close at hand.
Regional Transit Authority Predicts Gridlock By 2040 Without New Options For Suburbanites
Listen Beyond Nashville’s border, the regional transportation system has not kept up with demand and could fall further behind as the population grows, according to a new transit study. The issues holding back transit through the 10-county region, according to the “State of the RTA System” report, are lack of frequency of regional train and bus service, […]
Tennessee Schools Break New Online Testing Software (At The State’s Request)
Listen Schools uncovered some vulnerabilities in the Tennessee Department of Education’s new online testing software Thursday morning. It was part of the department’s experiment to see if its new program could handle high levels of traffic before it starts administering real statewide testing, called TNReady.
Opponents See Chance To Repeal Tennessee Law That Lets Police Jail Drug-Addicted Mothers
Listen Tennessee’s new law that makes it a crime for pregnant women to use illegal narcotics is coming up for debate again. Groups that tried to block the bill last year are now aiming to keep the law from being renewed.
Haslam Says Tennesseans Shouldn’t Assume The Fix Is In With Review of Prison Safety
Listen Gov. Bill Haslam is urging Tennesseans to wait until a report on prison safety is released, rather than drawing conclusions from how the review is being conducted. The Republican governor defended an audit under way from the American Correctional Association, which is inspecting three Tennessee prisons following reports of violence, staffing shortages and […]
Nashville Pedestrians Fight Construction-Related Sidewalk Closures With A Hashtag
Listen One consequence of Nashville’s construction boom: Displaced (and grumpy) pedestrians. As many as a dozen sidewalks at a time have been closed recently near downtown construction sites.
Tennessee Has A New List Of Best And Worst Counties For Children
Listen For the first time, all of Tennessee’s counties have been ranked against one another in terms of quality of life for children. That’s the new twist in the annual “Kids Count” study by the state’s Commission on Children and Youth.