Julian Casey Wanted for Market Robbery & Gunfire

November 16, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE An armed robber who fired a number of shots at a citizen chasing him has been identified, but remains at large. Julian Casey, 19, walked into Antioch Shell, 2813 Smith Springs Road, at 10:55 a.m. Sunday, pointed his pistol at the female clerk, and demanded that she empty the cash drawer into a plastic bag. He also took the victim’s purse. As Casey fled, he was followed by the clerk’s husband. Casey fired three shots as he ran to the rear of the market and his getaway car. He started to get in, saw that he was still being followed, abandoned the car and fled on foot. Casey again fired three shots as he ran from the scene. No one was hit by the gunfire. A police canine team tracked Casey across Smith Springs Road and onto Butler Road before losing trail. Items of clothing that Casey shed while running were recovered. Detectives identified Casey through the getaway car he left at the market. It is registered to his mother, who confirmed that Casey had left in the car. She also confirmed that the clothing depicted in surveillance images was his. An arrest warrant has been issued charging Casey with aggravated robbery. Additional charges are forthcoming. Casey is considered to be armed and dangerous. Anyone seeing him or knowing his whereabouts is urged to contact Hermitage Precinct Investigations at 862-6993 or Crime Stoppers at 74-CRIME. Persons can also send an electronic tip to Crime Stoppers by texting the word “CASH” along with their message to 274637 (CRIMES), or by going online to www.nashvillecrimestoppers.com. Those who contact Crime Stoppers qualify for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

Recession helps fuel runaway-kid problem

More children on streets say finances are factor By Janell Ross • THE TENNESSEAN • November 16, 2009 The number of young people calling the National Runaway Switchboard at least in part over financial problems at home has tripled in the past three years. In the same period, Metro police saw declining calls about runaways, but one police captain said some parents aren't reporting their runaway children. Nashville agencies that aid runaways say more are reporting financial problems as a factor in leaving home. The switchboard is a Chicago-based nonprofit agency widely respected because it gleans data from actual calls from young people who chose or were forced to run away. Its annual study suggests the recession is increasing tension in homes and driving up the number of so-called "throwaway children" — kids pushed out of their homes. The economy also makes it harder for children to survive safely and legally on the streets. Parents' job problems take toll In Nashville, agencies that work with runaways say they're finding parents' job situations exacerbating children's behavior, said Michael McSurdy, vice president of programs at the Oasis Center. When a parent loses a day job that pays the mortgage and takes a night shift that doesn't, troubled children may start missing curfew more frequently and failing in school and be asked to leave. "Younger kids, ages 13 to 17, are feeling the brunt of the economy because of the chaos that it creates in their families," McSurdy said. "In some cases … fuses get shortened, and what was tolerable last year for parent or child just is not right now." He said parents might get tougher on their children because they're losing control in other areas of their lives. In 2006, there were 2,367 children reported to Nashville police as missing or having run away. That number dropped to 1,838 last year and is trending lower this year to date. Most missing- children reports involve runaways, and most runaways return home within five working days. "There are kids out there that have left home and are living from house to house, friend to friend, and their parents don't ever report them as a runaway," said Metro Police Capt. Marlene Pardue with the Youth Services Division. "We don't ever hear from them, but an agency like Oasis might. But we do believe we've put some programs in place that are making a difference." In January 2007, officers from the Youth Services Division began contacting the families of any child returned home after having been reported missing, asking them to come in and see a counselor. The counselor connects them with social services they may need. Addressing the issues Officers visit the homes of families that don't come in, ask questions to better understand the family's issues, and suggest agencies that may be able to help. "One of the things we realized is that we had a lot of repeat offenders that were constantly running away from home, maybe 13 times in a single year," Pardue said. "So, we tried to think and look at some of the things to help that, to help these families and these kids address what's going on." The Oasis Center maintains a number of programs and services for runaway and homeless teens, including a drop-in center where 10 to 15 teens come on a typical day to connect with social services or counselors and wash their clothes. Teens contemplating running away can get some breathing room at a youth shelter that matches them with services that may help them return to and stay with their families. The agency also operates a transitional living program for young people ages 17 to 22 who have no place to live but are enrolled in an educational or vocational program. Survival is a challenge The question of how many kids leave or are pushed out of their homes each year and where they go when either happens is an important one because of what can happen once a child leaves home, said Katie Walsh, a spokeswoman with the National Runaway Switchboard. About 74 percent of callers to the hot line reported surviving with the help of family or friends. One percent said they stole, 3 percent turned to panhandling and about 2 percent worked in the sex industry. .

Man sentenced in fatal O'Charley's stabbing

WKRN Channel 2 News Posted: Nov 13, 2009 3:42 PM CST NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The man convicted of stabbing an off-duty employee at an O'Charley's restaurant in August 2008 will spend the next five and a half years behind bars. David Kimball was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced Friday. Police said he stabbed Eris Bruno inside the restaurant on Bell Road in Antioch after going to the restaurant to collect $10 in drug money a waiter owed him. When Kimball walked into the restaurant, he was confronted by Bruno, an off-duty kitchen supervisor, who just so happened to be inside. The confrontation immediately became heated and resulted in the stabbing. Bruno was stabbed in the neck and chest, and died on the scene

Mortgage aid requests soar

But plan to modify 4 million loans still hasn't worked out the kinks By Alan Zibel • ASSOCIATED PRESS • November 14, 2009 Texas — Shontaye Edwards spends her day in a gray cubicle at a Bank of America call center in this Dallas suburb. On the other end of the phone line are homeowners — tense, exasperated and looking for help. They often call with questions about the Obama administration's plan to help borrowers modify their mortgages, but many simply don't qualify. They make too much money, or too little. They have too much debt. They don't actually live in the home. "I do get attached at times," Edwards said during a momentary break in the office where she and about 350 colleagues sit under flat-screen displays showing how long callers have been kept on hold. "But at the same time ... we have to go by the procedures." Since February, when President Barack Obama announced a lofty goal of limiting foreclosures by modifying up to 4 million loans over three years, the administration's program has been riddled with problems. Banks couldn't hire and train employees fast enough to keep up with the crush of people who wanted to take advantage of the help. Documents were lost. The government kept changing the rules. For the industry, the transformation has been tremendous. Before the housing crisis, mortgage servicing companies had collections departments that mainly tried to wring payments from tardy borrowers. Now the same departments, augmented with thousands of new employees, are engaged in the far more complex task of figuring out whether millions of borrowers qualify for help. Bank of America, which collects payments on more loans than any other mortgage company, has lagged its competitors in the percentage of troubled borrowers it has signed up. The steady rise in unemployment has made the problem even worse. Bank of America is now getting about 100,000 calls a day from troubled homeowners, up from about 60,000 at the start of the year. Government officials insist the program is on track. "We're reaching borrowers at a scale that has not been done by any other modification program," said Michael Barr, an assistant treasury secretary. There has been progress lately. More people have been helped in recent months after the government started publishing a monthly report card detailing how many homeowners each bank had helped. But experts still doubt the administration will come anywhere near its goals. The program allows homeowners to have their mortgage interest rate reduced to as low as 2 percent for five years. After that, the rate can rise again, but the increases are capped at levels that were prevailing when the modification was made. Qualifying is a challenge. For example, if you already spend less than 31 percent of your pretax income on your mortgage, you're out. Second homes don't qualify. Neither do vacant homes. As of last month, about 20 percent of eligible borrowers, or more than 650,000 people, had signed up. However, most of those enrolled so far have been signed up only on a preliminary basis for trials lasting up to five months. To make the change permanent, they have to complete a pile of paperwork and show they can make payments on time. As of the start of September, only 1,700 homeowners had completed the process. The government plans to publish an update in the coming weeks. "We're just getting the early data in," Barr said. "But we can tell it's not good enough." Influx of calls for help At the Bank of America call center in Texas, workers in the bank's "Home Retention" division get as many as 15 calls an hour. They're from people being laid off, getting divorced, dealing with a pileup of medical bills or trying to get out of a risky loan made during the housing boom. On the other line are workers like Edwards, 23, who is also finishing her bachelor's degree at night. They make $28,000 to $35,000 per year, plus overtime and bonuses. They get four weeks of classroom training, starting with mortgage industry basics. The training includes detailed scripts for how to respond to specific situations, such as when a borrower can't qualify because his income has been cut dramatically, and "soft skills," such as how to express empathy. Edwards is polite and professional, even when emotions run high. "I have family that ... are in the process of losing their home and needing assistance," she said. "So, I definitely understand." The size of Bank of America's problem is huge. It is the nation's largest mortgage servicer, with about 14 million loans. Nearly two-thirds of those come from the troubled portfolio of Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America bought last year. Since the Obama plan's launch, the bank has spent millions of dollars to upgrade its computer systems, including fax servers that couldn't handle the deluge of documents. It has hired and trained about 3,500 workers who take calls, process loans and work on computer systems since the start of the year, raising the total to about 13,000. The bank has 11 domestic call centers and one in Costa Rica that handles Spanish-speaking callers. Many new hires have no previous mortgage industry experience. Edwards, for example, worked in a Westin hotel before starting at Bank of America last year. One of her co-workers used to be a marketing manager for an Oklahoma casino. Bank of America has signed up nearly 137,000 homeowners. That's nearly five times as many as in July, and the biggest raw number of any lender in the program. But, as a percentage of the bank's nearly 1 million eligible borrowers, it works out to 14 percent — far lower than competitors like Citigroup or JPMorgan Chase, which have signed up about 40 percent and 32 percent, respectively. Bank of America executives insist these numbers are misleading. They point out that they have extended aid to more than 223,000 additional borrowers this year — assistance that's not counted by the Treasury Department. They also note that around a third of the bank's customers whom the government deems eligible for help actually don't qualify off the bat. Homeowners are upset Frustrated homeowners, however, say that getting the bank to respond is a confusing, prolonged ordeal. George Hicks, a retired and disabled veteran from Clovis, Calif., has been trying since spring to get help with his mortgage after moving back into a home that he had used as a rental property. He owes nearly $340,000 on a Countrywide Financial option-adjustable rate mortgage — a particularly toxic breed of loan that allowed borrowers to defer a portion of their interest payments and add them to the principal. Hicks says he faxed documents several times and spoke with numerous Bank of America representatives but received conflicting responses. He finally was offered help after The Associated Press inquired about his case. The modification, if it is made final, will lower his monthly payment by about $100. The process has been trying, he says, but "you kind of have to dance to their music." Bank of America got $45 billion in federal bailout money, and its executives are sensitive to charges that they aren't doing enough to help ordinary Americans. Still, they also say that the enormous publicity around the program has created a belief — among homeowners whose financial pain isn't necessarily severe — that their lender is obligated to help. "It's not an entitlement," said Jerry Durham, Bank of America's Texas-based vice president of homeownership preservation. "It's something that we use as a tool to help keep them in the home when they're facing hardship." At the call center near Dallas, Ken Scheller, a senior vice president, says the industry and government made it all sound too simple. "When you apply it in the real world," he said, "it's got some additional complexities that I don't know that any of us thought of."

Nashville parks approves budget plan avoiding mass layoffs

$850,000 sought from city reserves By Nate Rau • THE TENNESSEAN • November 14, 2009 The Nashville Parks & Recreation Board on Friday approved a plan presented by Mayor Karl Dean's administration that balances the department's budget while avoiding the extensive layoffs being considered. The board approved a plan that will lay off five parks workers, while also asking Metro Council for an emergency appropriation of $850,000 from the city's rainy-day fund. More workers could face layoffs in the near future, as the board will decide in the coming weeks how to cut $200,000 from its recreational and cultural wellness programs. The $850,000 would come from Metro's $15 million reserve fund, and a resolution appropriating the money probably will go to the Metro Council for approval in January. Most of the cuts approved by the board are administrative and do not result in layoffs or service reductions to the public. In fact the plan, presented by Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling, one of Dean's top aides, will lead to no service reductions at parks facilities. "This doesn't end the issues — we need to continue to work on ways to address that," Riebeling said, referring to cost overruns at the parks department. He added that the administration's goal was to make a recommendation to the board that avoided closing facilities. "This certainly looks better than what we were considering on Tuesday," board member George Anderson said. About 55 faced job loss The board was looking at laying off about 55 workers in addition to closing five community centers and trimming operating hours at other facilities to help balance an anticipated $1.7 million overage for the current fiscal year. The board passed the move with a 4-1 vote. Dissention came from board member James Lawson, who said he wanted to see how the recreational and cultural wellness programs would be cut before he approved a plan. Councilman Jerry Maynard called the board move a "win-win" because it called for fewer layoffs and avoided closing facilities. The Metro Council will hold a special meeting on Monday to hear a presentation from the board and Parks Director Roy Wilson regarding the plan to balance the budget. Wilson had no comment regarding the board action.

Robber Smashes SUV Into Covenience Store

News Channel 5 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Police continued to search Friday morning for a suspected robber, following a smash-and-grab at a convenience store late Thursday night. Police said around 11:30 p.m. a man rammed his Ford Explorer into the AM PM Express on Nolensville Pike at Bradford Hills Drive. Then the robber ran into the store and stole some items before fleeing the scene.

Pre-existing conditions put insurance coverage out of reach

Those who qualify still face steep insurance premiums By Getahn Ward • THE TENNESSEAN • November 13, 2009 No longer covered by his mother's health insurance after turning 25 two months ago, John Mathews has learned firsthand how difficult and expensive it can be to find coverage when insurers flag a past injury or illness as a pre-existing condition. In fact, the majority of 10 insurance companies from which the Mathews family tried to buy a policy denied him coverage because they said two crushed vertebrae in his back caused by a 2008 car accident were a "pre-existing" condition that made him ineligible at any price. One company was willing to sell Mathews a policy that included coverage of his back ailments for $1,200 a month; while another wanted to charge him $6,000 a year in premiums but exclude any problems linked to his old injury. That's far more expensive than the average $5,000 annual cost typically paid by a single person with employer-based coverage. "We've been a healthy family and never had to deal with anything like this," said Jan Mathews, the young man's mother and a Brentwood resident who works for the state. "We've always been responsible and (he) can't get insurance?" Mathews' plight and similar difficulties faced by many other consumers with medical conditions ranging from kidney disease to diabetes to high blood pressure come as the Obama administration pushes for a massive overhaul of the nation's health insurance system in Congress. A landmark bill to extend health insurance to millions of additional Americans narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week and is pending in the Senate, where it faces more hurdles linked to costs, abortion rights and other issues. But it does include a ban on insurers using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage to anyone. Some 36 percent of people who try to buy health insurance on their own outside of group plans get turned down, face exclusions or are charged higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions, according to a 2007 survey by The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group. That represents about 12.6 million people ages 19 to 64, the group said. Consumer advocate Tony Garr, executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, says ending insurance denials related to pre-existing conditions remains a critical part of bringing affordable health insurance to the masses. "That's inhumane and not fair because everybody is going to get sick at one point or another and that practice … needs to be outlawed," Garr said. Bill would dilute risk Pre-existing conditions for which BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the state's largest health insurer, can deny coverage include cancer, diabetes, AIDS, cirrhosis of the liver, congestive heart failure, polycystic kidney disease and bipolar disorder. Asthma is among conditions that could be excluded but the coverage still can be written. Under legislation being considered in Congress, insurers won't be allowed to use health status or specific health problems as a basis for setting premiums. That should result in cheaper premiums for people such as Mathews, whose back condition resulted from a car accident that involved an insured motorist in Maryville, Tenn. He was a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville at the time, his mother said. Under one provision in the House version of health-care reform, a total of $5 billion would be set aside between 2010 and 2013 to help people who've been uninsured for at least six months, or denied a policy for pre-existing conditions, obtain coverage. National insurers agreed to an end to their right to invoke pre-existing conditions as a way to block an individual's coverage in return for assurances that health-care reform would require all Americans to get health insurance by a set date. That expands the pool of risk and is a key to driving down insurance costs, proponents say. Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the America's Health Insurance Plans trade group, considers the trade-off a fair one. "If you do market reforms, but don't require everybody to purchase insurance, there's a powerful incentive for people to wait until they're sick to purchase insurance," he said. "We would love to do away with pre-existing conditions as long as everyone is in the pool," said Scott Wilson, a BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee spokesman. Agent is grateful As an insurance agent in Columbia, Tenn., Cindi M. Nickle says she's grateful for her self-insured group policy even though she has to pay $700 a month in premiums and the first $2,500 of care before high-deductible coverage kicks in. Nickle, whose mild case of Crohn's disease (an inflammation of the intestines) is a pre-existing condition, estimates that if she had to seek individual coverage outside of her group plan, no one else would cover her. Last month, the insurers through which Nickle writes policies for others turned down two applicants seeking individual policies who had degenerative disc disease, a cause of lower back pain. At times, a past surgery or some other medical situation that may have happened years ago can still count against an applicant as insurers comb through lab reports and other medical records. Patsy Smiley, an Ashland City resident, said she's looking forward to turning 65 and getting on Medicare in February. She's paid a hefty price for health care and had trouble getting insurance coverage because she's taken the anti-depressant medication Prozac since 1990. She pays $500 a month for a limited major medical policy today, and figures Medicare will provide better coverage at a lower price. Or consider 31-year-old Kris Galbraith, who hasn't had insurance since his coverage under COBRA ran out three months ago. Insurers cited episodes of what they call "post-traumatic epilepsy" related to a pair of seizures he experienced two years ago in turning him down. His current job through a temporary employment agency doesn't provide insurance. And then there's Debbie Heibert, a Brentwood resident once denied insurance because a set of lab tests suggested she could have had lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease, although later screening ruled it out. Heibert and her husband, who owns a small business, have insurance but they pay more than $1,200 a month in premiums, with a $5,000 deductible. "Health insurance is a huge mess for those who do not work for a large company," Heibert said. "It's sad it has gotten this way." Previous PageGetahn Ward covers the business of health care. Reach him at 615-726-5968 or gward@tennessean.com.

ABC to hold casting call for new weight-loss reality show

Tennessean November 13, 2009 A casting call for a new ABC television reality program with a working title Extreme Weight Loss Show is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Buffalo Billiards, 154 Second Ave. N. in Nashville. The program is seeking men with at least 200-plus pounds or women with at least 150 pounds to lose. They must be at least 18 years old. The show concept is to send an expert trainer to the home of participants selected in order to take weight off and follow that process for a year, said casting director Brandon Nickens. Show contestants should bring a non-returnable photo to the casting call. Contestants are asked not to line up before 8 a.m.

Health-care reform 'still on life support,' Rep. Cooper says

By Chas Sisk • THE TENNESSEAN • November 13, 2009 Democrat-sponsored legislation to reform the nation's health-care system stands a good chance of defeat in the Senate, even after surviving a close vote in the House of Representatives last week, Rep. Jim Cooper said Thursday. "If you peel back the layers further, you realize it may be difficult for the Senate to vote on anything," Cooper told The Tennessean's editorial board. "I'd say health reform, despite the House vote, is still on life support." The Nashville congressman voted Saturday night in favor of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, helping Democrats secure the slim, five-vote majority they needed to clear the House. The tight vote and the compromises needed to get the bill passed show how hard it will be to get it through the Senate, Cooper said. In that chamber, Democrats may hold the supermajority of 60 seats needed to cut off debate and pass a bill. But Cooper cited West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, whose health has been poor, and Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who represents a conservative state, as two Democratic votes that the party may not be able to count on. To get the needed votes, senators will have to agree among themselves on the shape of reform, rendering meaningless much of the language contained in the House version, Cooper said. "There are a number of senators saying they're not going to send it to conference. They're going to say to the House, take it or leave it," he said. "They know what they have to do to get the 60 votes. … A 60-vote majority is very fragile." Nonetheless, Cooper has said it was important for the House not to kill reform. On Thursday, he again defended his vote for an amendment sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., that bars health insurance plans listed on a new, federally subsidized health-care exchange from including coverage for abortion services. Abortion rights groups have vowed to fight for the amendment's removal from the final health bill. "We are disappointed," said Keri Adams, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee. "Politics is all about compromise. We just wish that compromise was not at the expense of women's reproductive health care." But Cooper said the Stupak amendment was essential to getting the House votes for a health-care bill. Stupak also may prove to simply be a codification of the 1977 Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, he said. Regardless, Cooper said he did not cut any deals in exchange for his vote. After showing himself as a public skeptic of the House reform bill, Cooper said he came under no pressure from the White House or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It's really not like she's ever done anything for me," he said. "If I've gotten anything, it's the back of her hand." He also dismissed arguments that voting for health-care reform was fiscally irresponsible and statements by Gov. Phil Bredesen that the House had passed along part of the cost of reform to the states by expanding Medicaid rolls. Related Q&A: How would abortion restrictions work in health bill? Transcript of Jim Cooper's discussion with 'Tennessean' editorial board Cooper said failure to cut health spending would adversely affect the nation's bond rating, and he said the federal government would pick up 91 percent of the cost of new enrollees. "I think we're actually being dangerously generous," he said. "We had to start somewhere." But Cooper said the Stupak amendment was essential to getting the House votes for a health-care bill. Stupak also may prove to simply be a codification of the 1977 Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, he said. Regardless, Cooper said he did not cut any deals in exchange for his vote. After showing himself as a public skeptic of the House reform bill, Cooper said he came under no pressure from the White House or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It's really not like she's ever done anything for me," he said. "If I've gotten anything, it's the back of her hand." He also dismissed arguments that voting for health-care reform was fiscally irresponsible and statements by Gov. Phil Bredesen that the House had passed along part of the cost of reform to the states by expanding Medicaid rolls. Related

Middle Tennessee locations for H1N1 vaccine

Tennessean November 12 MIDDLE TENNESSEE Where to get the H1N1 flu vaccine Call for times, clinic locations and who is eligible. Availability is subject to change Health departments Metro Nashville H1N1 FluMist only — 615-340-7775 or http://www.health.nashville.gov/ Walgreens, participating locations — find times and addresses at 1-866-825-3227 or www.takecarehealth.com. Cost is $18.

Downtown Nashville parkers to lose free Saturdays

By Nicole Young • THE TENNESSEAN • November 12, 2009 Saturday visitors to downtown Nashville soon will have to feed the parking meters just like on the weekdays or face a ticket. The affected area runs from Broadway north to James Robertson Parkway and from Rosa Parks Boulevard east to Second Avenue. The Metro Traffic and Parking Commission voted earlier this week to enforce parking meters downtown from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Meters are currently enforced 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with free parking nightly and on weekends. It costs $1.50 to park at a downtown meter with a two-hour limit. Expired meter tickets start at $11. Officials say the new parking guidelines, which go into effect in January, were handed down to create turnover in the downtown spaces. Metro Public Works Department spokeswoman Gwen Hopkins-Glascock said the industry standard is to have an 85 percent occupancy rate of parking spaces in an area. Change could bring in extra revenue "Metro has almost 100 percent occupancy," she said. "People are staying in spots all day and not allowing others to use them." Hopkins-Glascock said a feasibility study was conducted in the summer on all parking meters, lots and garages owned and managed by the city. According to the study, seven other cities comparable to Nashville had Saturday enforcement. Hopkins-Glascock said the change would bring in extra revenue for the city, but officials are not certain how much money could be generated from weekend parking. Hopkins-Glascock said the public works department would not incur any additional costs. "Our existing personnel will adjust their regular 40-hour workweeks to cover Saturdays," she said. Kathy Jernigan, a Nashville resident for more than 20 years, says she's skeptical that no extra costs will come out of the personnel shift. "I tend to believe it when I see it," she said. "Everything seems to increase costs, and when that happens, it comes back to me as a person who lives here." Jernigan said she doesn't go downtown very often. "When I do go, I have my chosen places to park, and I pay for it," she said. The extra revenue will help offset a slight deficit within the parking program, officials said. Each year, Nashville sees about $1 million in revenue from parking meters, but the city pays more than that to operate and manage them. "The operating costs have steadily increased but the revenue hasn't," Hopkins-Glascock said. "We don't foresee those operating costs going down, so we looked at ways to bring the revenue in line to help cover the expenses." Contact Nicole Young at 615-259-8091 or nyoung@tennessean.com.

Convention center would cost $585 million to build

The Tennesean By Michael Cass • THE TENNESSEAN • November 12, 2009 Metro would have a $585 million budget to build the proposed downtown convention center, including $415 million for construction itself and $170 million for related costs, officials said today. The project, which was expected to cost $635 million until recently, would create 1,000 to 1,200 construction jobs at its peak and about 3,000 over the life of construction, project leaders told the city's convention center authority. Mayor Karl Dean is expected to present a financing plan for the convention center to the Metro Council in the coming weeks. The price could come down further if an ongoing review of revenue projections shows the tourist-targeting revenues wouldn't be as strong as city officials have been planning for.

State approves convention center tourism zone

By Michael Cass • THE TENNESSEAN • November 12, 2009 A special sales-tax collection area that's critical to financing a proposed Nashville convention center was approved by a state panel today. The State Building Commission unanimously approved the tourism development zone after Mayor Karl Dean's administration adjusted the boundaries in response to state officials' concerns. The project would get the annual growth in sales tax dollars generated within the zone as long as it outpaced the county's overall sales tax growth rate. Sales tax rates on items purchased within the zone would not change. Dean's administration brought some of the zone's boundaries closer to the convention center site south of Broadway after State Comptroller Justin Wilson, in particular, questioned whether some businesses would truly benefit from the center's development. But the administration also moved the western boundary further out West End Avenue to Interstate 440 so it could collect more money from hotels that would house conventioneers. Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling said the adjusted zone should generate more annual revenue than the earlier boundaries would have produced. Revenue projections for the initial proposal topped out at $7.85 million a year, though officials said that was a conservative estimate. "This is a very important piece of the puzzle," Riebeling said after the meeting. Contact Michael Cass at 259-8838 or mcass@tennessean.com.

Tenn. caps enrollment in subsidized health program

WKRN CHANNEL 2 News Associated Press - November 12, 2009 1:35 PM ET NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee's subsidized health care plan will stop accepting new enrollment at the end of next month because of budget constraints. The CoverTN program targets the uninsured who aren't eligible for Medicaid. Under the plan, the state kicks in one-third of the monthly premium, while employers have the option of paying for another third. Each third averages about $60 per month. Program director Gerald Reed said CoverTN's recent enrollment period resulted in more than 2,500 new members. But he says the state "must continue to manage the program within our budget capacity." As of last month, CoverTN had about 21,000 enrollees. Last month, the state announced it was ending enrollment at the end of this month for CoverKids, Tennessee's health insurance program for children.

Nashville airport to offer free WiFi this holiday season

WKRN Channel 2 Posted: Nov 12, 2009 12:27 PM CST Nashville International Airport is one of 47 airports nationwide partnering with Google to offer complimentary WiFi service to travelers this holiday season. The wireless service is free of charge however Google is encouraging users to make a contribution to their favorite charity. The WiFi service will be available at the airports from November 10 through January 15. To access, users simply select the option for the complimentary WiFi and accept the terms of service. No login or e-mail is required. Click here for additional details and frequently asked questions.