A First March 31, 2009

    For the first time in his five years as a lawmaker,  Rep. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) has passed a bill on the House floor.

Guns in Bars Delayed or Dead? March 31, 2009

     An attempt to strip the curfew off of the guns in bars/restaurants that serve alcohol prompted the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Curry Todd, to roll the bill a week.  After session, he was ticked at his Republican colleagues, who he says have been working behind the scenes against him on stripping that language.
   “I’m disappointed [...]

Guns in Bars/Restaurants Debate March 30, 2009

      As HB 962 came up, there were several murmurs of “Here we go!” by different representatives.  First of a gazillion amendments is up and there is debate on it.   Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh is asking questions about the 11:00pm curfew imposed  on it.
Rep. Todd is giving a speech right now about how drinking at a restaurant [...]

Guns in Bars/Restaurants with Alcohol March 30, 2009

     Rep. Curry Todd, R-Memphis, rather gleefully confirmed to me just a few minutes ago that he is going to run guns in bars tonight.  There had been some talk that it might be rolled to a later date, or that the remainder of the gun bills might go on the calendar at the same [...]

Wine and Groceries Pt. 2 March 24, 2009

     It is a packed room in the House State and Local Government Committee.  Rep. Curry Todd, R-Memphis, just had the people representing the grocers, wholesalers and retailers to stand up.  the wholesalers and retailers outweigh the grocers 3 to 1.  We’ve got “Wine is Not Food” stickers or “Red, White and Food” stickers on almost [...]

Wine in Grocery Stores March 24, 2009

    This is the bill that I get more questions about than any other bill in the state legislature.     
    The pro- and anti- wine in grocery store forces have descended on Legislative Plaza today.  The bill is on the Senate State and Local Government calendar this morning, and the House State and Local is holding hearings [...]

The Governor’s Budget Address March 24, 2009

   I apologize getting to this so late, but it’s been a crazy day.  The Senate took up SJR 127 AFTER the governor’s address, so I had to run over and cover that. 
    The budget still has $224.1 million in reductions in it, despite the money the state is getting from the federal stimulus package.  [...]

SJR 127 on Senate Floor March 24, 2009

   I’ll get to the budget address in a later post, but immediately after the Governor’s address, the Senate went into session to take a floor vote on SJR 127.  There is only one amendment, by Senator Doug Jackson, to mandate the legislature must make a provision that a woman can have an abortion in [...]

Gun Bills on the House Floor March 19, 2009

Several bills dealing with firearms are on the House floor today.  So far, the House has passed a bill to make sure gun permit holders are not asked to give up information about what kinds of guns they own to the Department of Safety.  The other bill that passed would allow people to use  force [...]

Income Tax Ban March 18, 2009

  has been rolled in subcommittee for another two weeks.