Good morning, Nashville. If you’ve been keeping score in Councilman Eric Crafton’s English First debate, he’s now saying that he has half of the 10,000 signatures he needs to get the ordinance on the ballot this November. If it passes, it’ll require that all city business, communications and publications have to take place in English. Crafton managed to get it passed last year by the City Council, but got the big veto by Mayor Purcell. This time around, he’s sending out a couple thousand petition postcards to gather support. We’re just wondering where ours are–we feel sort of left out!

• Indy breaks up. A few weeks ago, we heard about the plans for the State Fairgrounds and neighboring Superspeedway. Now Speed TV is reporting that the Indy Racing League may be leaving the Superspeedway out of the 2009 schedule. Nothing’s been confirmed yet, but it could have a big impact on what the city decides to do with the track.
• Oh noes! The fountains at the Bicentennial Mall, which represent the 31 rivers in Tennessee, aren’t working because of some system glitch that no one can figure out how to fix. “Typically, parents bring children to play in the fountains everyday,” reports City Paper, “but not this year.” Not that we’re bitter or anything.
• Bits & pieces. AT&T statewide cable comes to Tennessee to the tune of $400M; somewhere, Comcast is weeping … The Tennessean will stop delivering to a handful of counties … NAACP is holding a press conference about mortgage discrimination this morning at 10:30am … 100 gallons of diesel is spilled and cleaned up on I-65 near Dickerson … The Sounds actually won, beating Memphis 5-1.

Photo by theworldtoashes.