Nashville News Blog

More on that bond financing that's putting cities and counties in a jam. Lewisburg Mayor Bob Phillips: "We certainly did not know what we were getting into. At that time I didn't know what a derivative was. At that point I don't think anyone in America did." ... Morgan Keegan defends itself. Managing director Joe Ayres accuses The New York Times of having some kind of political motivation to make his company look bad. Sorry, what? "Unfortunately, the Times chose to focus on two small communities who are unhappy," Ayres says. "Frankly, it's politically oriented." More from Ayres:

"Morgan Keegan is proud of its very long track record of working with state and local governments in Tennessee and across the United States." In the "large majority of cases," he said, Morgan Keegan was just the adviser -- not the broker -- when local governments did interest rate swaps. "The (Times) article didn't mention we've done dozens and dozens of these successful refinancings in Tennessee in the last year. It just focused on a couple of the more challenging, smaller communities and made it seem like it was a statewide problem."

TVA seeks financial immunity for ash spill disaster. ... The attorney general opines on the firing of election administrators. ... The Senate OKs online public meetings, cracks down on cyberbullying, passes another NRA-backed gun bill and votes to make vending machines green. ... Democrats hope to stop feuding: "There have been some disagreements with people that we haven't quite gotten over yet, but we're working on it," says House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner. And Congressman Steve Cohen slams Rep. Stacey Campfield for trying to ban poor people from winning the lottery.

"The idea of limiting somebody because they might be getting some kind of government benefit is to make them a second class citizen. Put some kind of scarlet letter on them. I'm surprised he didn't suggest some kind of mandatory work program."