Good morning, Nashville. Things look pretty grim for Metro Nashville Public Schools this morning since the state has published a new report taking them to task for failing yet again to follow orders that were intended to bring them up to federal standards. Problem is, they seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. While they’re supposed to be hiring 41 new people to fulfill requirements for adminstration, ESL, and special education, constant budget cuts have forced them into a hiring freeze. Just this month they’ve been asked to cut an additional $4M with more cuts expected in February. All we can say is that newly-hired director Jesse Register sure has his work cut out for him.

• Killing us softly. Seems like everyone has a bone to pick with the TVA these days. As the result of a lawsuit filed by the State of North Carolina, they now have to put special pollution controls on the four coal-burning plants closest to the border because of sulfur dioxide and other nasty stuff that floats into our neighboring state. And we wonder why Nashville gets smoggy in the summer.
• The old-fashioned way. About 250 students showed up for the protest outside the Capitol yesterday regarding college tuition hikes intended to save the state some money. A few of them succeeded in getting a meeting with the Governor, which we can imagine is no small feat on the first day of the General Assembly.
• Bits & pieces. We’re pretty much going to be freezing our butts off from now until Saturday afternoon, but we’re sad because there’s no snow in the forecast … UT students aren’t exactly happy with their imminent tuition hikes … Dell-haters were vindicated yesterday when Dell had to settle with Tennessee and 45 other states for providing crappy products and customer service … Volkswagen promises they’re not going anywhere but the ‘Noog.

Photo by Silenus81.