Associated Press - March 11, 2008 3:15 AM ET
Senate votes to allow employers to require English at work
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Senate has passed a bill that would allow employers to require English be spoken in the workplace.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Jack Johnson, a Brentwood Republican, would continue to permit workers to speak other languages while on break or off the clock.
Johnson also emphasized that that it would up to the employer to decide whether to make English language requirements.
The bill the passed Senate unanimously on Monday. The companion bill has been assigned to a House subcommittee.
More cuts could be needed amid Tenn.'s worsening revenue picture
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Phil Bredesen says more spending cuts may be necessary after another month of lower-than-expected tax collections.
Tennessee's general fund tax collections were $28 million below expectations in February, bringing the state's overall budget shortfall for the year to more than $210 million.
Bredesen, a Democrat, says he will wait one more month before deciding on what cuts will be necessary. The budget year ends June 30.
State officials want to see if business tax collections in March or April will defray sluggish sales tax collections.
Lawmakers pass bill against participating in boundary commission
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee House of Representatives have passed a resolution against participating in a boundary commission proposed by Georgia legislators to consider moving the states' border.
Both chambers of the GOP-controlled Georgia Legislature last month passed a resolution that calls on their governor to establish a commission to try to rectify a 19th century survey that mistakenly placed Georgia's northern line just short of the Tennessee River.
But Tennessee lawmakers on Monday unanimously approved a measure that formally rejects any participation in a border line commission.
The resolution declares the Tennessee-Georgia border has been well established for nearly 200 years and that there is no valid reason for Tennessee to revisit the issue.
McNairy, Tipton, Wayne counties get federal storm aid
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - McNairy, Tipton and Wayne counties have been approved for federal individual assistance for last month's tornadoes, bringing the total number of counties receiving aid to 19.
Individual assistance can include grants and loans to individuals or businesses to help pay for temporary housing, home repairs and other serious disaster-related expenses.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also said Monday that $6.7 million in grants and loans has been approved and more than 4,000 people have registered for some type of assistance.
Storms and tornadoes killed 32 people in Tennessee and destroyed or severely damaged more than 800 homes.
Bredesen: Reward in Memphis slayings should go to child victim
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Phil Bredesen says he hopes a reward offered for clues in the recent gruesome Memphis homicides will go to a child who survived the attack and named his uncle as the assailant.
Police believe 33-year-old Jessie Dotson shot and killed his brother, Cecil Dotson, after an argument and then tried to kill everyone else in the house to eliminate witnesses. Three other adults and two children were killed while three children were wounded but survived.
Memphis newspaper The Commercial Appeal reported Monday that Southern Christian Leadership Conference president Dwight Montgomery was asking government officials to consider giving the $81,000 reward money to the child victims.
Bredesen told reporters later Monday that he has asked his attorneys to look into whether it was possible to do that under the law.
Death row inmate wins new trial and sentencing hearing
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A man who was convicted of first-degree murder and twice sentenced to death has been granted a new trial by an appeals court.
Forty-7-year-old Richard Taylor was twice found guilty in the 1981 killing of Ronald Moore, a corrections officer in Hickman County.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously reversed both the conviction and sentence last week because of several errors made by the trial court.
He was first sentenced in 1984, but an appeals court overturned the conviction because Taylor was found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial.
After months of treatment for schizophrenia, state psychologists said Taylor was fit to stand trial again. Taylor represented himself at trial and didn't testify, call any witnesses or present any evidence. He was sentenced again to death in 2003.
UT prepares to move dairy for research campus in Knoxville
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The University of Tennessee is preparing to move its dairy farm in Knoxville to make way for a new high-tech research campus.
The UT Institute of Agriculture on Monday told the eight employees of Cherokee Farm that the 200-acre site will be formally turned over to the UT system for development in August, and they will be transferred to an agricultural experiment station in Knoxville.
A new dairy research facility in nearby Blount County won't be ready for two years, so most of the existing livestock will be sold or moved to other agriculture experiment stations.
Bill would prohibit SS numbers on voter registration cards
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Social Security numbers would not be printed on voter registration cards under a proposal that's headed to the governor for his consideration.
The measure sponsored by Rep. Debra Maggart, a Hendersonville Republican, unanimously passed the House on Monday. It was unanimously approved in the Senate last month.
The bill would not affect other general information on the cards, such as the voter's residence and date of registration.
Gov. Phil Bredesen could not be reached for comment about whether he will sign the bill.
Goody's finds new CEO at Wisconsin-based retailer Shopko
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Privately held Goody's Family Clothing Inc. has found a new chief executive officer at Wisconsin-based retailer Shopko Stores Operating Co.
Paul White assumed the post at Knoxville-based Goody's on March 5, less than a month after Chuck Turlinski quit the moderately priced family clothing chain a year after he arrived, Goody's said Monday.
The 51-year-old White has been president and chief merchandising officer at the 132-store Shopko chain based in Green Bay since 2006, and previously was a merchandising and advertising executive at Famous-Barr, a division of May Department Stores.
SCLC records go to Emory University, including MLK sympathy cards
ATLANTA (AP) - Historical records for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including sympathy cards when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, have been placed with Emory University.
The Atlanta school's Manuscript Archives and Rare Book Library is getting the papers.
The collection contains 1,100 boxes, including photographs documenting events such as voter registration workshops during the civil rights movement.
Also included are drafts of speeches by Ralph David Abernathy and others - many annotated in the hands of their authors.
King was slain in Memphis in 1968.
Events mark 40th anniversary of King assassination
MEMPHIS (AP) - Forums, exhibits and other events are scheduled in Memphis and Atlanta to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
King was shot April 4, 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was 39.
The Lorraine Motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is sponsoring many of the Memphis events marking the anniversary.
King was born and raised in Atlanta, where he was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where several events are also planned.
Julio Iglesias Jr. 'Gone Country' with new country single
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The winner of Country Music Television's "Gone Country" reality show was born in Madrid, Spain, and raised in Miami, but these days Julio Iglesias Jr. is spending a lot of time in Nashville.
Iglesias, who is the son of the well-known Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, lived with six other contestants as they competed for a record deal. The six are R&B singers Bobby Brown and Sisqo, Twister Sister's Dee Snider, "American Idol" finalist Diana DeGarmo, Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips fame and "Brady Bunch" star Maureen McCormick.
The series was taped over 10 days in October at the former home of country star Barbara Mandrell.
Iglesias' debut country single, "The Way I Want You," is expected to begin airing this week.
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