Good morning, Nashville. Last night’s Metro Council meeting got a little, er, colorful when the subject of the proposed fairgrounds expo center came up. Dozens of Nashvillians (possibly including everyone’s favorite Protest Chicken) found their way into the meeting after protesting the proposal outside City Hall earlier in the evening. As a result, the Council voted 31-6 to turn the meeting into a surprise public hearing during which about 40 folks stepped up to the microphone to express their concerns. Despite all that, the bill did pass its first reading.

• Trapped in the closet. Somehow the Metro Council also found time at last night’s meeting to question MTA officials about statements from employees claiming that they were forced to stay in the MTA headquarters in May during the flood to save city buses. Employees later had to be rescued by the Metro Fire Department. MTA says these allegations are all completely fabricated.
• Murfreesboro mosque hearing wrapping up. The Murfreesboro mosque hearing will finally come to a close today. Plaintiffs have filed suit against Rutherford County in hopes of getting a restraining order to stop the mosque construction because they claim officials violated the open meetings law when they approved it. The hearing has instead strayed to discussion over whether Islam is an actual religion, possible terrorist ties and the validity of Sharia law.
• Bits & pieces. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the cost of Thanksgiving dinner has increased a bit this year … Metro Schools are using Race to the Top funding to hire data coaches, which will hopefully help school officials improve their approaches by paying attention to data on past student performance … Metro’s IT department accidentally sent out a command that completely wiped the hard drives of 600 city computers earlier this week … No one is really using the energy rebate program in Tennessee.

Photo by HoorayParaPulse.

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