News Briefly
Primetime Phil
He came, he saw, he cut their funds, they clapped, then they all went out and had a rare steak with a loaded spud. Such was new Gov. Phil Bredesen’s first budget speech before the state legislature Monday night. He’s cutting state government steeply to patch some horrendous cost overruns. The legislature is largely quiescent, happy to be irrelevant to the process. That a governor has come along to do the heavy lifting is fine enough by them.
Tennessean goes absurdist
Faced with criticism that the daily newspaper is, well, awful, the Gannett product has decided to launch a strange series exploring Indian women who cut off all their hair. Akin to electroshock therapy, the technique of running insane news stories has been used successfully in other markets to remind readers not to take their daily paper for granted. “It’s startling, kind of like cold water to the face,” one newspaper consultant said. Of course, we are making this up, but we don’t know how else to describe the newspaper’s ongoing series, “Sacred Strands.”
Let the investigations begin
Only months after Gov. Don Sundquist left office, the state comptroller’s office and federal and state investigators are having a field day investigating a number of contracts that were awarded during his tenure. Most of the attention so far is aimed at a company called Education Networks of America, which was founded by a Sundquist friend. That company had a $75 million contract to provide Internet access to public schools, even though a competing firm submitted a lower bid.
Vandy basketball goes south
As Scene sportswriter Randy Horick points out this week, Vandy basketball is in a tailspin. All of that has prompted unusually personal attention toward coach Kevin Stallings, who had what amounted to a therapy session with a Tennessean sportswriter this week in which he discussed his strengths and weaknesses as a human being. Basically, the team had one of its worst seasons in 50 years, and few see any hope on the horizon for what used to be one of the top squads in the city.
Let the investigations begin
Only months after Gov. Don Sundquist left office, the state comptroller’s office and federal and state investigators are having a field day investigating a number of contracts that were awarded during his tenure. Most of the attention so far is aimed at a company called Education Networks of America, which was founded by a Sundquist friend. That company had a $75 million contract to provide Internet access to public schools, even though a competing firm submitted a lower bid.
Vandy basketball goes south
As Scene sportswriter Randy Horick points out this week, Vandy basketball is in a tailspin. All of that has prompted unusually personal attention toward coach Kevin Stallings, who had what amounted to a therapy session with a Tennessean sportswriter this week in which he discussed his strengths and weaknesses as a human being. Basically, the team had one of its worst seasons in 50 years, and few see any hope on the horizon for what used to be one of the top squads in the city.
