News Briefly
Ben Stein on the hill
Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any weirder at the legislature, they did. Monday night, while the state House and Senate both were in session, actor Ben Stein, a former Richard Nixon speechwriter and the star of the Comedy Central show Win Ben Stein's Money, showed up to mingle with lawmakers and lobbyists. "I love this place," he said in the hallway of the Capitol. "You sort of expect it to be surrounded by armed guards. Instead, I walk in here and the first thing I see is a popcorn stand." Stein said that his main reason for visiting Nashville was to see the site of the Battle of Franklin and contribute toward its preservation.
Six degrees
Nashville news junkies might remember the name Michael Chertoff, the assistant U.S. attorney general who's in charge of all the Enron prosecutions and who secured the indictment of Arthur Andersen. Before rejoining the Justice Department in the Bush administration, he was counsel to Nashville-based HCA in defending Medicaid fraud charges, a situation that the hospital company subsequently settled.
Lamar!
Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, a Republican candidate running for Fred Thompson's U.S. Senate seat, is wasting no time getting his name back in the minds of voters statewide. His first television ad was set to begin running this week. Alexander, a two-time presidential loser, is running against Congressman Ed Bryant in the August Republican primary.
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