Good morning, Nashville. Starting this morning, the Metro Nashville Health Department is giving out free H1N1 flu vaccines to the general public. Though they originally planned to save the first 4,900 doses for healthcare professionals, only 64 actually showed up yesterday. Officials are recommending that kids and young adults receive it first since they’re the most susceptible and it hasn’t been approved for pregnant women, another vulnerable group. Currently only a live vaccine in nasal spray form is available, but shots are expected to arrive a little later in the season. The clinic is open from 7am-4pm today (directions).
- Capping SCHIP. Coverkids, which is Tennessee’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), is putting a cap on new enrollments because our state can’t afford it anymore. There are about 42,000 kids in the program at the moment and we’re not sure when the cap will be removed.
- Delays with the convention center. Officials are saying that construction on the Music City Center is already behind by about a year, meaning a 2013 grand opening is looking doubtful. But because the Convention & Visitors Bureau has already ambitiously booked some 2013 conventions, we could owe $290,000 in penalties–much of which would likely be public tax dollars.
- Bits & pieces. Police finally arrested the kid who took a Metro school bus on a joy ride over the weekend … Nashville’s per-pupil spending is up almost 19% from 2001 … Three cheers for Dickson County for actually balancing their budget and not shutting down their schools and jails … Tennessee’s stimulus has reportedly created more than 1,700 jobs.
Photo by sunndog818.
No related posts.