We watch them so you don’t have to.
- Wow! Love that new set on WBIR-TV’s Inside Tennessee. John Becker and his panelists stood at a glass table, cutting the distance among them. This week Becker ran snippets of a recent interview with Gov. Haslam, allowing the panel to comment after each. It made for a faster-moving show.
- John North, panelist, made the dramatic move from “worst hair” to “best hair” with a new do. Way to go, John North!
- Billy Stair, panelist, said the voucher idea in Tennessee has lost steam. His reason: those “one high school in town” rural Republicans who have an affinity for their home school and don’t want to “take on the teachers.”
- Bill Haslam, what’s next? Both Stair and Susan Richardson Williams bet “UT president” over U.S. senator. Haslam is term-limited in 2018.
- AARP ran a commercial during the show, asking viewers to “Tell Sen. Corker to vote no” on the GOP-crafted health care reform bill. Interesting, Tennessee has two senators, both possible targets to defect, but AARP targeted Corker only. Could it be because his term ends in 2018?
- Over on WATE, Mayor Rogero said she’s got no plans “but a nice, long vacation at the beach” when her term ends in 2019.
- George Korda, panelist (and tieless for some reason), was almost nice. He said Rogero is “motoring along dealing with the city” … with “nice little smooth sailing going on.”
- Sidewalks will get a boost from the recently-adopted city budget, Rogero said. In response to calls from the community, she quadrupled the usual $750,000 per year budgeted for new sidewalks to almost $3 million and said the city will “tackle five big projects.” We’ll check on this first thing Monday.