Good morning, Nashville. The National Weather Service believes that 40 tornadoes touched down in Tennessee on April 27-28th including a couple of EF4 tornadoes in the ‘Noog and surrounding counties. Bledsoe, Cocke, Johnson, McMinn, Monroe and Rhea counties were also the latest Tennessee counties to be given disaster declarations yesterday. This tornado season seems to be one for the record books, and we sure hope it’s just about over.
- Amazon no more? Following the news of the Tennessee legislature’s proposal to charge sales tax on Amazon orders if the company builds distribution centers here, Amazon is reportedly considering pulling out of the plans altogether. Originally, Governor Bredesen agreed to allow them to set up shop here without charging sales tax, but some lawmakers hope to change that.
- Students petition against sex ed bill. McGavock High School students have collected more than 1,000 signatures in opposition to Sen. Stacey Campfield’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill which would prevent teachers from talking about homosexuality in the classroom through 8th grade.
- Now or never. Despite selling out Smashville last night and painting the town gold, the Preds fell 4-2 to the Canucks in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Game 5 takes place tomorrow in Vancouver, and if they don’t win it, they’ll be eliminated.
- Bits & pieces. Former Nashville police chief Ronal Serpas is facing some trouble at his new gig in New Orleans … Belmont is launching an undergrad think tank focused on finding creative solutions to some of the challenges facing the music industry … Festival Tennessee developers haven’t given up on Spring Hill just yet … If you see the water rising around Nashville, it’s because the Army Corps of Engineers may be about to release a bunch of water from the dams … Though hate crimes are down statewide according to the TBI, Nashville’s numbers are rising … Two enormous sinkholes have opened up in Pennington Bend, likely due to last year’s flooding.
Photo by Kerry Woo.