Good morning, Nashville. Few things are spookier (or photogenic!) than an old abandoned state penitentiary, and as of this afternoon, we’ll have another one in our midst. The Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in East Tennessee, which has been housing some pretty nasty criminals (including MLK Jr.’s assassin James Early Ray) for 113 years, but will be officially closing its doors today. The best part about this is that they want to turn it into a bed & breakfast. Or maybe an historical site like Alcatraz. Or maybe a military training site. So many possibilities!

• High stakes. Remember when someone busted the owner of Oshi Flowers for racking up more than $10,000 in parking tickets downtown? He’s finally paying up to the tune of $100 per month. The city is also trying to figure out how and when to start enforcing a new ordinance that allows them to boot cars with more than three outstanding parking tickets.
• Tourists. A tourist from Alabama is suing Tootsies for $2 million because he says that some bouncers chased him down and knocked him out last month after an argument over a $2 bottle of water.
• Bits & pieces. The folks in north Nashville who were trying to put a stop to the largest Habitat for Humanity project in the US lost the case and the project will go on … Say hello to Tennessee’s brand new mini-nuclear reactor … In case you’ve missed it somehow, it’s going to be stormy today … Spring Hill GM workers are going to have to wait a few more weeks to hear about the new car they might be manufacturing there … T-Pain is in Nashville. If you see him, you must send us pictures please. Please?

A year ago on Nashvillest: We started getting excited about the Dragon Boat Race on the Cumberland, gave you a few reasons why you should immediately paint yourselves blue, cooled off with a rundown of the Metro spraygrounds, and checked out Metro’s strategic sidewalk plan.

Photo by Girl Healthy.