christinebuttorff

The Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center announced plans for a major expansion of its facilities today, adding more convention center space and a new luxury hotel. The 400-million dollar project would increase Gaylord’s convention center by 400-thousand feet and create 13-hundred new jobs. Gaylord C-E-O Colin Reed says the project is not designed to […]

(link to Mayor Purcell’s text included below) Mayor Bill Purcell vetoed the English-first ordinance today. The ordinance would have required all government communications to be in English except in cases of public health, safety and welfare. Purcell said quote, “we don’t need a law to tell us what language we’re already speaking.” He went on […]

The U-S Army Corps of Engineers has no absolute answers as to when or if two problematic dams might break, but they are offering area residents consolation that they’ll be well prepared. The Corps of Engineers is in the process of shoring up two dams that are seeping water through and around their foundations—the Wolf […]

The Metro Council approved an English-First ordinance on its final reading last night, meaning all communication from metro government will have to be in English—unless it has to do with health, safety or public welfare. Because of the broad exceptions the bill’s impact will likely be low.  Even the bill’s sponsor, councilman Eric Crafton, agrees. […]

A special report issued last week said the state of Tennessee is not providing adequate care for children in the TennCare program. In 1998 the state settled with the Tennessee Justice Center, a non-profit law firm, over allegations that the TennCare managed care organizations were denying things like wheelchairs to children. Last year, a federal […]

For writers and historians, the importance of Nashville’s Civil Rights movement was the non-violence training led by the Reverend James Lawson, who studied Ghandhi’s method in India. A generation of Nashvillians used that method to desegregate theaters and lunch counters in the city. Now, through re-enactments, songs and film footage, two Nashville theater companies have teamed up to highlight the contributions of those Nashvillians in a new play. WPLN’s Christine Buttorff reports.

Oak Ridge National Laboratories could face funding cuts if Congress deals with its proposed budget as expected this week. Instead of re-crafting a new budget, Congress is looking at passing a continuing resolution which means funding for federal agencies would remain the same as last year. Oak Ridge officials say that may mean the loss […]

Nashville’s role in the Civil Rights movement was commemorated by members of the original Freedom Riders who spoke at Fisk University this weekend. In 1961, a group of civil rights activists – both black and white – attempted to ride the bus from Washington D-C to New Orleans to test federal court rulings that desegregated […]

Former Congressman Harold Ford Junior is taking the helm of the Democratic Leadership Council, a national moderate democratic group. The Memphis Congressman narrowly lost the race for US Senate to former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker in November. Vanderbilt Political Science Professor John Geer says the DLC is a centrist group, and that Ford’s conservative Democratic […]

For the first time, local elected officials will have to turn in financial disclosures forms to the Tennessee Ethics Commission. Legislation enacted last year required local governments to set up their own ethics rules and disclosures. But there are differences between the state’s disclosure requirements and Metro’s, for instance. The state requires that elected officials […]