• Vivian Wilhoite, the Property Assessor for Davidson County, is proud of the office her work did to prompt Nashville’s homeowners to challenger their assessment if they believed they were overvalued. The consequence of the successful reduced assessments is a lower overall tax collection for metro, which has materialized into a budget crunch.
• It was a wild St. Patrick’s Day weekend, at least according to the police report the following Monday. At least nobody (that we know of) took another dip in the symphony fountain.
• Nashville police say that out of 117 murder cases they investigated, only 61 of them were solved. People with information are encourage to call Crime Stoppers at 615-74-CRIME.
• MNPD has also asked for a $13.5 million increase to its budget to hire more officers to keep up with the city’s growth. They are hoping to hire 22 new officers this year.
• Rich Riebeling, the COO of Metro Nashville and an appointment of the former mayor, has apologized for spending $135K without prior approval for design work on the MLS stadium, $85K of which came from the Sports Authority without their knowledge. There has been ongoing speculation about Riebeling’s future with metro.
• Speaking of the soccer stadium, council member Steve Glover attempted to rescind the approval for bond issues after the revelation came to light. The rarely-used “Rule 36” would have allowed the council to recall a previous resolution if two-thirds of the chamber supported it.
• Betsy at the Nashville Scene asks an important question in light of recent revelations about city spending: can we trust Metro with our tax dollars? New mayor David Briley has vowed to work to restore public trust.
• One-time mayoral candidate Bill Freeman has announced he will not run in the August election to complete former mayor Megan Barry’s unexpired term. There are still a few other names that have not yet made up their minds.
• A man attempted to smuggle 25 lbs. of marijuana through Nashville International Airport. He told police that he was paid to bring the weed into Tennessee, but did not say who he worked with.
• Oh look, another country music personality has opened a bar on Lower Broadway aimed at tourists. We aren’t sure there are many spots left (until some of the others close).
• The Contributor, a newspaper that is produced and sold by Nashville’s homeless, has announced that it will switch to a bi-weekly (once every two weeks) magazine and now charge five dollars instead of one dollar per issue. The change was based on feedback from supporters.
• The community of Madison on the north-side of town will be the new home of Yazoo Brewing, one of the original craft breweries to open in Nashville. Their current location was originally listed for $9.75 million if you were looking to buy it.
• The Nashville Predators (48-14-10) extended a franchise record 15-game point streak with a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres (23-37-12) Monday night to close out their road trip. The Preds return home tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs (43-23-7) before a back-to-back road trip Saturday against the Minnesota Wild (41-24-8) and Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets (44-19-10) that will have massive playoff seeding implications for all teams.
• The Predators also made a key signing yesterday of Devin Roque, an 8 year-old boy undergoing cancer treatment. The total player compensation was listed as “priceless.”

Photo by Stephen Yeargin. Want to see your photo feature here?