danielpotter

Tennessee students improved in most categories of the statewide comprehensive test, compared to last year. There was only one exception – in eighth-grade reading, scores merely stood still.

The National Folk Festival set to happen in Nashville this September is cancelled. One official blamed what she called “timing problems and acts of God” for sabotaging the event last year, and leaving it in debt. Now the festival hopes to regroup for 2013.

A Texas man has been indicted for calling in a bomb threat last year against a mosque in Murfreesboro. In announcing the indictment Thursday, the U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee said he would not tolerate attacks on religious freedom.

Last night the Metro council approved a slightly modified version of the budget proposed by Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. The tweaked budget still raises property taxes by the full amount Dean asked for, while setting aside some $8.6 million for a rainy-day fund.

Nashville’s Opryland Hotel was forced to evacuate thousands of people last night after an explosion that officials are blaming on a gas leak. No one was hurt. It’s been just over two years since the sprawling hotel and convention center had to evacuate amid another costly disaster – the 2010 flood.

Former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle is bullish on the industry surrounding electronic medical information for patients. Daschle was speaking at a conference in Franklin Tuesday on healthcare information technology.

Several Republicans from Tennessee’s Congressional delegation took shots at big government today at an event in Murfreesboro. It was billed as a ‘field hearing’ of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, although Chairman Darrell Issa of California and Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais were the only committee members there.

Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey doesn’t think Republicans could’ve asked for much more from GOP lawmakers in the session that just ended. Ramsey sees that as one defense to tea partiers looking to unseat incumbents this year.

Governor Bill Haslam says the state should keep learning as it goes when it comes to evaluating teachers.

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker was among those questioning the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase yesterday. While some senators grilled Jamie Dimon over the two billion dollars his company lost earlier this year on a bad hedge, Corker chose a different tack.