Good morning, Nashville. The state held a series of town hall meetings yesterday for state employees to talk about the buyout offers they’ve been mailing out over the past week. Trouble is, one really knows what went on because they wouldn’t allow the media or the public into them. As of now, about 2,300 state employees are looking at accepting buyout offers or being laid off.

• Boots strapped. After five multi-million dollar lawsuits were filed against him in the past month, Boots owes a total of about $88M to creditors, which is $35M more than he actually has. Let that be a lesson, kids.
• Powering down. More Nashvillians are going without power because they can’t afford to pay their electric bills. About a third of low-income households haven’t paid the full amount or haven’t paid at all, and about 1 in 5 moderate-income households. NES has been consistently shutting off electricity to 400 homes per day.
• Bits & pieces. Another wandering black bear sighted in Oak Ridge … High-speed chase during rush hour yesterday in Gallatin … Ralph Nader says something about Barack Obama “talking white” … Second Harvest’s mobile food bank is out of money.

Photo by Ryan2013.