Monthly Archives: December, 2011
Happy Hour: Let The Backpedalling Begin
- PR firm McNeely Piggot & Fox, which has been in some hot water recently for their convention center contract, has resigned from the project altogether. Though they still maintain that coverage of the kerfuffle has been “misleading,” the resignation letter stated that they felt the convention center project was too important to be sidetracked by the billing controversy. [Tennessean]
- Governor Phil isn’t very optimistic about the state budget situation, predicting today that the stimulus money is simply masking our state’s profound broke-ness. He warned sort of ominously that we haven’t seen the worst of it. [
- A 35-year old intern at the public defender's office was shot in the arm today while working on a case. It was said to be a stray bullet from outside, though we're not sure where exactly it was straying from. [Tennessean]
- Former President Bill Clinton and Nobel-winning sidekick Al Gore will be coming back together to speak at Tennessee’s annual Jackson Day dinner. Low-range tickets will set you back $150 and we hear they’re selling like hotcakes. [Nashville Is Talking]
- Opponents of Guns In Bars are back in court for the second time to try and get the measure overturned. [WTVF]
Photo by Mark In Nashville.
PR firm McNeely Piggot & Fox, which has been in some hot water recently for their convention center contract, has resigned from the project altogether. Though they still maintain that coverage of the kerfuffle has been “misleading,” the resignation letter stated that they felt the convention center project was too important to be sidetracked by [...]
Bright & Early: Good Ideas And Bad Ideas Edition
Good morning, Nashville. In the latest blow against the proposed convention center, members of the school board are worried about a new state law that would allow the new convention center authority to reroute some sales tax revenue intended for schools to pay for the project. Though convention center advocates have insisted several times that they won’t dip into Metro funds, many are concerned that the option is even available, especially given the poorly managed spending we’ve seen so far.
- Ousted. Some folks in East Nashville are so unhappy with their Metro councilwoman that they’re trying to get her removed from office. Councilwoman Pam Murray has admitted to spending a good part of her time in Detroit, though she’s still technically a resident of Nashville. Her constituents complain that she’s rarely in town and available for questions.
- More plans. Not everyone is thrilled about a new plan to revitalize the 10th Ave. South neighborhood. The plan would include a mixed-use development of restaurant, retail, and office space next to the Waverly School building.
- Bits & pieces. A mysterious mix-up caused one bus load of Metro students not to get home until 11:30pm on Friday … No, Congressman Cooper is not going to have any healthcare town hall meetings in the near future … An NES substation malfunction took out power for about 2,500 people yesterday afternoon … Starting yesterday, Southwest cut several flights out of Nashville and won’t be bringing them back until October.
Photo by Grey Street Girl.
Good morning, Nashville. In the latest blow against the proposed convention center, members of the school board are worried about a new state law that would allow the new convention center authority to reroute some sales tax revenue intended for schools to pay for the project. Though convention center advocates have insisted several times that [...]
Darius Rucker To Krush Grand Ole Opry [Freebies]
Darius Rucker is headlining a show at the Opry on August 24 as part of the nationwide Samsung Summer Krush concert series, and it’s free, which is cool. But we have to wonder why we’re even writing about it. We’re pretty sure that we’ve stumbled across 11,402 free country shows in Nashville this year. So to answer our own question, in short, we don’t know! But we are! So visit SamsungSummerKrush.com to grab tickets for Nashville’s very own free Darius Rucker concert!
(And try not to be jealous of New Orleans, who got a free T-Pain concert. But DO try to imagine T-Pain performing at the Opry, because that’s probably not too far off.)
Darius Rucker is headlining a show at the Opry on August 24 as part of the nationwide Samsung Summer Krush concert series, and it’s free, which is cool. But we have to wonder why we’re even writing about it. We’re pretty sure that we’ve stumbled across 11,402 free country shows in Nashville this year. So [...]
Happy Hour: Go Big Or Go Home
- The giant healthcare reform rally/tea party thing that was supposed to happen at West End Middle School today was somewhat of a bust today since the organizer was the only one who showed up. Oops? [Tennessean]
- Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s healthcare town hall meeting, however, was such a huge success that some folks had to be turned away. [WTVF]
- Claire Dickerson, the 14-year old Centennial High School student who was hit by a car yesterday, seems to be improving a bit and is not listed as critical but stable. [WTVF]
- And from the department of Way Too Cute, a 4-year old Shelbyville resident was named an honorary junior deputy state fire marshal today for alerting her grandparents to a fire in their home and probably saving a few lives. [WZTV]
- Clarksville’s 911 call centers now accept text messages, photos, and videos thanks to a shiny new technical upgrade. Hopefully we won’t be too far behind them. [WSMV]
Photo by fallingwater123.
The giant healthcare reform rally/tea party thing that was supposed to happen at West End Middle School today was somewhat of a bust today since the organizer was the only one who showed up. Oops? [Tennessean] Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s healthcare town hall meeting, however, was such a huge success that some folks had to be [...]
Bright & Early: Amnesty For All Of Us Edition
Good morning, Nashville. If you’re one of the folks who have helped rack up Nashville’s $26 million in unpaid traffic fines over the years, you might be in luck. Councilman Eric Crafton is proposing an amnesty program for anyone with minor violations in 2006, 2007, or 2008 who hasn’t paid their ticket(s) which would allow violators to get off the hook by only paying half of the fine. Because half of the revenue is better than none, right? Savor this, Nashville, as it is probably the only time we will see Councilman Crafton supporting any kind of amnesty initiative.
- Rally-O. Supporters of health care reform initiatives took to the streets yesterday near Centennial Park at rush hour, rivaled by a smaller group of counter-protesters. Today is also the day that folks are protesting Rep. Jim Cooper’s non-existent town hall on health care reform at West End Middle.
- Pig flew. Madison had a bit of a pig problem yesterday after a three of them busted out of their pen and promptly began terrorizing a neighborhood. On what is sure to be Metro’s favorite kind of call, it took a handful of officers about an hour to round up the offending swine.
- Bits & pieces. We thought anthrax scares were so 2001, but the Criminal Justice Center downtown had one of its own this morning … Shelbyville has become the latest in a long list of Tennessee cities to opt out of guns in parks … Memphis’ ex-mayor who stepped down last month has filed a petition to run again … This weekend is going to be hot.
Photo by Webslog.
Good morning, Nashville. If you’re one of the folks who have helped rack up Nashville’s $26 million in unpaid traffic fines over the years, you might be in luck. Councilman Eric Crafton is proposing an amnesty program for anyone with minor violations in 2006, 2007, or 2008 who hasn’t paid their ticket(s) which would allow [...]
Happy Hour: School, School, School
- 14-year old Centennial High freshman Claire Dickerson was hit by a car while walking to school for the first day. She’s currently at Vandy in critical condition. [WTVF]
- Guitar legend Les Paul passed away this morning at age 94. [WTVF]
- The college semester hasn’t even started yet and UT-Knoxville is already bragging on its incoming freshman class. [WZTV]
- As a result of the No Child Left Behind results, Metro is mailing out letters to families in the MNPS school system’s 16 underperforming schools offering transfers to other schools that are in better standing. [WKRN]
- Speaking of schools, the ACLU came to an out-of-court settlement with the company responsible for censoring non-pornographic gay & lesbian websites in Nashville and Knoxville public schools. [WPLN]
14-year old Centennial High freshman Claire Dickerson was hit by a car while walking to school for the first day. She’s currently at Vandy in critical condition. [WTVF] Guitar legend Les Paul passed away this morning at age 94. [WTVF] The college semester hasn’t even started yet and UT-Knoxville is already bragging on its incoming [...]
Bright & (Not So) Early: Poor Planning Edition
Good morning, Nashville. Just when we thought things with the convention center couldn’t get any more dramatic, News Channel 5 uncovered another contract that blew the budget out of the water. A consultant hired to help out with the hotel portion of the project was originally capped at $104,500, but then MDHA removed the cap six months later and placed a new $500,000 cap on it last week. The total price tag for the consultant was $315,000, which is about three times more than the original budget.
- Metro councilman Sam Coleman is filing his own non-discrimination ordinance to compete with the controversial one sponsored by Councilwoman Megan Barry. Councilman Coleman’s bill would ban discrimination based on anything other than job performance, though Metro’s lawyers say that the vague language wouldn’t actually protect anyone.
- The Tennessean finds that folks are still coming to Tennessee on vacation, but they’re not staying in hotels nearly as much as they used to. This is probably some bad news for the hotel tax, which is supposed to be paying for our shiny new convention center.
- Bits & pieces. Metro Schools fully expect some outbreaks of the swine flu … Just in time for school to start, some hooligans covered the Schwab Elementary School playground with graffiti … The Music City Star commuter train had a bit of a bomb scare yesterday.
Photo by Neuski.
Good morning, Nashville. Just when we thought things with the convention center couldn’t get any more dramatic, News Channel 5 uncovered another contract that blew the budget out of the water. A consultant hired to help out with the hotel portion of the project was originally capped at $104,500, but then MDHA removed the cap [...]
Tonight: Shakespeare In The Park 2009 Kicks Off
A telltale sign of the rapidly-approaching end of summer in Nashville, Shakespeare in the Park has been busy setting up shop in Centennial Park for the past few weeks, preparing for their first performance of the summer tonight. We love Shakespeare in the Park because it’s a free and entertaining annual event that really brings the community together, and if you’ve been reading Nashvillest for long, you know that we’re (almost) always on board with that!
This year, the Nashville Shakes will feature two performances – The Taming Of The Shrew, today through August 23, and The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare [Abridged], running August 27 through September 13. The free performances at the Centennial Park bandshell are Thursdays through Sundays within the specified dates, and the evening begins at 6:30pm with some pre-show entertainment.
Of course, we have to remind you that donations are welcome (and maybe even encouraged). The Nashville Shakes go to great lengths every year to make Shakespeare In The Park such a great event for the Nashville community, so throw ‘em a few bones to support their work.
A telltale sign of the rapidly-approaching end of summer in Nashville, Shakespeare in the Park has been busy setting up shop in Centennial Park for the past few weeks, preparing for their first performance of the summer tonight. We love Shakespeare in the Park because it’s a free and entertaining annual event that really brings the [...]
Happy Hour: Life As A Tent
- Nashville’s Tent City made the Wall Street Journal yesterday, just in time for Otter Creek’s Night Out for Tent City event tonight. [WSJ]
- Regardless of the fact that Rep. Jim Cooper canceled his appearance at West End Middle School, tea partiers have decided they’re going to protest outside the school anyway and even floated the idea of posing questions to a picture of Rep. Cooper in his absence. [In Session]
- The Titans’ season opener will be graced by the likes of Tim McGraw and the Black Eyed Peas. Not that we advocate these two artists sharing a stage in any way, but we do feel that it’s a nice follow-up to last year’s Keith Urban-Usher pairing. [WTVF]
- Thanks to all the convention center drama, Metro is hosting a public meeting next Monday, August 17th at 6pm to conduct some good, old-fashioned damage control. [City Paper]
- When we wrote about the new Silver Alert program for the elderly this morning, we didn’t realize that they nearly had to issue their first alert last night. [WKRN]
- The City of Franklin is shelling out a $2 million settlement for mistakenly accusing their solid waste director of looking at porn on a city computer two years ago. [Tennessean]
Photo by driver49.
Nashville’s Tent City made the Wall Street Journal yesterday, just in time for Otter Creek’s Night Out for Tent City event tonight. [WSJ] Regardless of the fact that Rep. Jim Cooper canceled his appearance at West End Middle School, tea partiers have decided they’re going to protest outside the school anyway and even floated the [...]
Bright & Early: Rumor Mill Edition
Good morning, Nashville. Thanks to some confused protesters, Rep. Jim Cooper has canceled Friday’s public appearance at West End Middle School where he was supposed to welcome students back to school. Town hall meetings about healthcare reform have been happening all across the country, and somehow word hit the street that Rep. Cooper would be conducting a town hall of his own. Protests were planned, and in an effort to keep the first day of school disaster-free, he decided to ditch the event altogether.
- Silver Alert adopted. Tennessee became the 8th state to adopt a Silver Alert program to help locate elderly folks with Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia who might have wandered off. It works a lot like the Amber Alert system, with alerts being displayed on interstate signs.
- Debate ’08. Belmont is seeing some significant enrollment increases as a result of the infamous Debate ’08 that was held in the Curb Event Center last year. School officials say that enrollment exceeds 5,000 this year and many of the students first heard about the school on the teevee (thanks, SNL!)
- Bits & pieces. A local entertainment company will be producing a Hank Williams biopic to be filmed in Nashville … Nashville State Community College is seeing a record enrollment of over 8,000 students this year … News Channel 5 follows up on their investigative piece about the Music City Center.
Photo by jermscentral.
Good morning, Nashville. Thanks to some confused protesters, Rep. Jim Cooper has canceled Friday’s public appearance at West End Middle School where he was supposed to welcome students back to school. Town hall meetings about healthcare reform have been happening all across the country, and somehow word hit the street that Rep. Cooper would be [...]
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