• Mayor David Briley announced Wednesday a $1 million program to increase the college graduation rates of the city, though the funding may be tough to come by in the next budget year. The number of college educated adults plays heavily in the city’s business recruitment efforts, such as the one that landed the Amazon center.
• The union representing the city’s police officers says that a survey shows their members suffer from low morale and lack confidence in policing strategies. The department is still evaluating the findings of two separate reports in the last year that have been critical of practices, along with the passage of the community oversight board referendum last month.
• The Tennessee Republican Party is asking the state legislature to close voting primaries to only registered members of each party, ending the current practice of allowing voters to request whichever ballot they want on election day. Both the outgoing and incoming Republican governors have said they do not support such a move.
• As for the community oversight board, numerous people have been nominated to fill the 11-person panel by the end of the year. Many groups are jockeying for influence on the new board.
• Cameras captured a video of a Bird scooter rider apparently running a red light and being struck by a car Monday downtown. Another woman was hit the next day by a car pulling out of a parking lot. Both riders are recovering from their injuries.
• With the Christmas parade kerfuffle behind us, somebody registered kidrockformayor dot com and your News Rodeo author desperately hopes to never write about that prospect again. ?
• The Nashville Farmers Market kicked off a six-month renovation plan that will increase the accessibility of the building and create new retail space. Notable is that more than 70 percent of the contracts awarded were to woman-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses.
• The Nashville Predators (19-8-1) defeated the Buffalo Sabres (17-8-4) 2-1 Monday night in Nashville to close out their five-game home-stand. The team is on the road tonight against the Vancouver Canucks (11-16-3) after  rare consecutive days off.
• Reminder that the Tennessee Titans (6-6) play at 7:20 p.m. tonight downtown against the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-8) for Thursday Night Football, guaranteeing a rougher than usual commute home. Analysts and analytical models say this is a must-win for the team if they hope to make the playoffs.
• If you have ever been curious about projects leaving huge holes in your neighborhood’s roads, the city has set up “NashDigs” to let you know what’s up. Critics have said that there isn’t enough transparency and notice on infrastructure projects. ?
• We like candy as much as the next person, but this Springfield man who drives around town in a Reese’s-theme car takes it to a whole other level. The candy company put up billboards around Nashville searching for the car’s owner.
• Vice Mayor Jim Shulman has asked Metro Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) Executive Director Jim Harbison to appear before a Metro Council committee to address questions about the agency’s oversight and transparency after media reports that the agency issues millions in incentives without much public disclosure. The agency has been central to downtown’s revitalization but critics say it has strayed from its primary focus.
• Isn’t it a little creepy that a wax statue of Taylor Swift made a visit to the children’s hospital instead of the actual person? Also, how do you pack one of those? ?
• You might notice a few new historical markers going up around town, including one that honors the legacy of Nashville’s first gay bars that were located where the Renaissance Hotel now stands. The late Jim Ridley also wrote about the bars for the Nashville Scene in 1995.

Photo by Paul Felton. Want to see your photo featured here?