Free Republic

NASHVILLE — Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is among more than 30 governors who have received a letter saying if they don't leave office within three days they will be removed. Spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said Friday that the state Department of Safety and the Office of Homeland Security are working with the FBI on an investigation. The letter came from an anti-government group called the Guardians of the Free Republics, which on its Web site says it wants to "restore America" by peacefully dismantling parts of the government. The FBI is warning police across the country that the group's call could...

NASHVILLE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen congratulated President Barack Obama Monday on the passage of the federal health care overhaul, but he cautioned the Medicaid expansion envisioned by the bill will cost the state $1.1 billion and pose financial "challenges" down the road. The bill will add 250,000 lower-income Tennesseans to TennCare when Medicaid provisions of the bill take effect from 2014 to 2019, according to state estimates. A Democrat who last year called the bill the "mother of all unfunded mandates," Gov. Bredesen told reporters he still thinks the bill that passed Sunday in the U.S. House remains a "huge...

..."With regard to President Obama's plans to use savings from Medicare waste, fraud and abuse, Gov. Bredesen noted similar arguments were made with regard to TennCare, an effort in 1994 to expand the state's version of Medicaid to cover many more people. "Tennessee has been there and done that," said Gov. Bredesen, who became governor in 2003. "That's exactly the argument for TennCare and it didn't turn out that way. Maybe they (federal government) will do a better job ... than we did in managing TennCare in the 1990s and the early part of the 2000s. I had a sense...

This week, Tennesse Governor Phil Bredesen signed House Joint Resolution 108 (HJR0108), authored by State Rep. Susan Lynn. The resolution “Urges Congress to recognize Tennessee’s sovereignty under the tenth amendment to the Constitution.” The House passed the resolution on 05/26 by a vote of 85-2 and the Senate passed it on 06/12 by a vote of 31-0. Six other states have had both houses of their legislature pass similar resolutions - Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Louisiana - but Tennessee is the first to have such a resolution signed by the Governor. A GROWING MOVEMENT Passage of...

Good for Governor Spunk. Phil Bredesen on Thursday vetoed the guns-in-bars bill which had passed both houses of the legislature by wide margins. With the backing of law enforcement and restaurant owners, he said allowing gun owners to take concealed weapons into places that serve alcohol “crosses the line” of responsible gun ownership. A hunter and gun owner himself, Bredesen said he supports Second Amendment rights, but pointed out that those rights carry a responsibility. “Americans have also understood for more than two centuries that there are sensible rules to be applied to the exercise of those rights,” he said....

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Statement From Chris W. Cox, Executive Director NRA - Institute for Legislative Action On Governor Bredesen’s Veto Of House Bill 962 Thursday, May 28, 2009 Along with more than 200,000 law-abiding Right-to-Carry permit holders in Tennessee, I am disappointed Governor Phil Bredesen vetoed House Bill 962. This bill would extend self-defense rights of permit holders to restaurants. This is a shock and a major disappointment to gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment because Governor Bredesen had committed to supporting this legislation. 36 other states, including seven states that border Tennessee,...

Statement From Chris W. Cox, Executive Director NRA - Institute for Legislative Action On Governor Bredesen's Veto Of House Bill 962 Along with more than 200,000 law-abiding Right-to-Carry permit holders in Tennessee, I am disappointed Governor Phil Bredesen vetoed House Bill 962. This bill would extend self-defense rights of permit holders to restaurants. This is a shock and a major disappointment to gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment because Governor Bredesen had committed to supporting this legislation. 36 other states, including seven states that border Tennessee, provide this protection to law-abiding citizens. During the 2006 campaign, Governor Bredesen...

When Tom Daschle's highly publicized tax problems derailed his bid to become secretary of health and human services two weeks ago, it slammed the breaks on the momentum of one of President Obama's biggest campaign promises — health care coverage for all Americans. No potential HHS candidate has emerged yet who has inspired the excitement and passion many health care reform advocates — both on and off Capitol Hill — expressed for Mr. Daschle. When Mr. Obama nominated Mr. Daschle for the HHS post in November, Ron Pollack, executive director of the liberal health care advocacy group Families USA, called...

Unable to post text from a Gannett newspaper. To summarize, Moveon.org is trying to derail Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen's consideration for Health and Human Services Secretary. They claim Bredesen gutted TennCare, the state insurance program for the uninsured. Bredesen did cut services in TennCare to keep it solvent. He's a democrat who leans more towards fiscal conservatism than your typical beltway Dem. He has repeatedly refused to get on the "we need an income tax" bandwagon and simply said we need to live within our means. Link to Story

Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen spoke publicly this afternoon for the first time since his party lost a numerical majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives and said "the people have spoken." Bredesen first congratulated Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on his presidential victory and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on his win. He then spoke of how much he admired the service and character of Alexander's Democratic opponent, Bob Tuke. Turning his attention to the state legislature, Bredesen said, "The people have spoken and now we need to get to work." Bredesen said he has spoken to Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and...

Gov. Phil Bredesen said he doesn't believe the information was part of a bigger political plot. "I think it's just somebody who has some time on their hands, which is a problem in its self, who is doing this kind of thing to show that he had access or to answer a question about somebody," said Bredesen. However, Republican Party Chair Robin Smith is skeptical of the governor's response. "The facts that are involved could impact very drastically the outcome of this November's election, so we're not talking about an internal affairs matter of impropriety. We're talking about strong allegations...

NASHVILLE — From Fox News to C-SPAN, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has been blitzing national media this week in an effort to sell his idea of a “primary” of Democratic superdelegates to break a potential logjam in the party’s presidential nomination battle. “It’s been interesting, and you don’t know what will happen,” Gov. Bredesen told Tennessee reporters Thursday. The governor was in Washington on Monday and part of Tuesday. He has been interviewed by at least 27 national outlets this week. The interest started with a March 19 op-ed piece in The New York Times in which he pitched his...

NASHVILLE - In two draft opinions released today, the Tennessee Ethics Commission's staff suggests that a former top aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen and a prominent Nashville public relations firm have both violated state laws by failing to register as lobbyists. One case involves Robert Gowan, who resigned last November as a senior advisor, then went to work for Southern Strategies Group, a lobbying firm. The other involves Siegenthaler Public Relations, which operates a Web site - www.stopteendrinkingtn.org - that urges citizens to contact legislators in opposition to bills that would allow the sale of wine in grocery stores and...

NASHVILLE — Tennessee isn’t likely to execute any prisoners on death row until next summer, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday. Bredesen, a Democrat, said the state will wait until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case of two Kentucky death row inmates who argue the method amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Bredesen said he doesn’t expect the high court to rule until May or June. “And that’s going to give a huge amount of guidance to governors, and to federal judges and district attorneys, and to an awful lot of people involved in this process,” he said. U.S....

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen on Thursday said that House Judiciary Chairman Rob Briley should resign from his leadership post following a weekend drunken-driving arrest. Bredesen said his fellow Nashville Democrat is “a good man who’s obviously got himself in a lot of trouble.” Briley, 40, was arrested Saturday after police said he took them on a 100 mph chase and failed a roadside sobriety test. Police said they found an empty bottle of whisky in Briley’s car and later charged him with vandalism for damage done to the back of a police cruiser. “Stepping back from the leadership positions...

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen suggested himself as a model for Democratic presidential nominees Monday, though disavowing any interest in a national position and declining to state a preference for any of his party’s presidential candidates. “If one of those presidential candidates who chose not to come here today can sell themselves in Tennessee, they can sell themselves in mainstream America,” Bredesen told the Democratic Leadership Council. None of the Democratic presidential candidates spoke at the DLC gathering, though they were invited. Still, presidential politics was a topic in speeches by former President Clinton, Bredesen and three other Democratic governors...

NASHVILLE - Gov. Phil Bredesen asked the Legislature on Monday to raise Tennessee's cigarette tax by 40 cents per pack and spend most of the resulting $220 million in new revenue on education. "The argument for a cigarette tax is straightforward: Our schools need more money," said Bredesen, adding that 90 percent of the new annual tax revenue would go to local schools or state colleges and universities. The biggest portion of the new money, almost $120 million, would be distributed to local school systems on the basis of how many "at risk" students they have. Currently, the state covers...

NASHVILLE - As he embarks on a second term as governor, Phil Bredesen says he expects to advocate some tax increases and a bigger state role in school funding while opposing a "general xenophobia" toward immigrants. He said he also wants to change the system for selecting the state's top judges, establish a procedure for dealing with incapacitated governors, and be "aggressively bipartisan" in dealing with the new Republican leadership of the state Senate. On the other hand, Democrat Bredesen indicated in an interview with the News Sentinel that he has considerable skepticism toward one key goal of Lt. Gov....

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen said he would rather the Supreme Court wait for the fifth and final justice to be appointed to the bench before selecting a new attorney general, but he acknowledged Wednesday that there was nothing he could to stop the high court from acting sooner. The selection of a new attorney general has already been delayed by a month because of a squabble between Bredesen and the state Judicial Selection Commission over the appointment needed to fill out the five-member Supreme Court. Public hearings with applicants for the eight-year appointment were rescheduled for next week, and...

Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and his Republican opponent, state Sen. Jim Bryson, staked out their positions Tuesday on issues during the campaigns first televised debate, focusing on immigration, education, TennCare and budgeting. At the West High School debate, the two made clear their differences and some issues they agree on. Bredesen said a re-election is a referendum on his first four years as governor, during which he cut the budget, did not raise taxes and put discipline into the out-of-control TennCare program, a health insurance program for the poor and uninsured. He also noted that his administration sent Tennessee National...

NASHVILLE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen leads Republican challenger Jim Bryson almost 3 to 1 in the race for governor, a new Mason-Dixon Tennessee Poll indicates. The poll, released Monday, also indicates that the proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-gender marriage will win overwhelming approval, with 73 percent of respondents in favor, 20 percent opposed and only 7 percent undecided. The constitutional referendum will appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. Advertisement The poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday of last week for The Commercial Appeal, the Chattanooga Times-Free Press and MSNBC. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington surveyed...

NASHVILLE - In the first TV ad of his gubernatorial campaign, a giant-sized Jim Bryson is shown holding a diminutive and stumbling Phil Bredesen in the palm of his outstretched hand as a narrator denounces the incumbent governor. The ad comes with Republican Bryson far behind Democrat Bredesen in polls and fund raising and the election just six weeks away - though Bryson's campaign manager, Gregory Gleaves, said Tennesseans are just beginning to pay attention to the race. "This is the kind of thing that's going to break through the clutter of everything else that's going on (in campaign advertising),"...

If the election were held today, Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen would coast to re-election - with 90 percent of Democrats backing him and a third of Republicans crossing over to vote for him, a new poll suggests. Meanwhile, the SurveyUSA poll shows Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Harold Ford Jr. leading Republican nominee Bob Corker, 48 percent of likely voters to Corker's 45 percent. SurveyUSA polled 1,200 Tennessee adults from Sept. 9-11, then culled the responses to 638 judged to be "likely voters." The poll was conducted exclusively for WBIR-TV, Channel 10. In the gubernatorial race, the poll showed 61 percent...

The war of words between Democrats and Republicans has escalated to include laser beams and physical confrontation in gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson's bus tour of East Tennessee, according to somewhat conflicting accounts from campaigners. Members of Republican Bryson's staff stand accused of directing beams from pocket laser-pointers into the eyes of Democrats who have been following the Bryson bus, making videotapes of the candidate and distributing pamphlets. Bryson spokesman Lance Frizzell denied that Democratic eyes were targeted by lasers and, in turn, accused the Democratic team of "shoving" a Republican and other "unruly behavior," including "defacing" the bus with Bredesen...

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen remained hospitalized Thursday to allow doctors to control a recurring fever they believe may have been caused by a tick bite, his office said. Bredesen, 62, has been at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville since Monday night after becoming ill with a severe headache and high fever. The governor said in a statement issued by his office that doctors are "awaiting test results to determine, conclusively, whether the cause of my symptoms was a tick bite." "In the meantime, I’m working to beat back a stubborn fever that comes and goes," he said. "Until that...

NASHVILLE (AP) -- Federal immigration officials here say they simply do not have enough agents to process every person assumed to be in the country illegally. At the request of Gov. Phil Bredesen, representatives of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, met Friday with state and local law enforcement officials to improve communication among all agencies in handling illegal immigration. "Our biggest issue is manpower," said Katherine Molyneux, who represented ICE. "It would be impossible to handle every single (illegal immigrant)." Bredesen said he wants to determine what kinds of criminal offenses need to take priority with immigration officials...

Gov. Phil Bredesen has an overwhelming lead in his race for re-election, with a probable Republican opponent, Jim Bryson, remaining largely unknown among members of his own party, according to the latest University of Tennessee poll. The UT poll found Bredesen backed by 49 percent of the registered voters surveyed in a mock matchup against Bryson, a state senator from Franklin supported by just 8 percent. Thirty percent said they were "not sure" which of the two to support while 13 percent said they would favor another candidate. "It would be foolhardy to declare a contest over three and one-half...

PINEY FLATS, Tenn. — Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen kicked off his re-election campaign in traditionally Republican East Tennessee on Tuesday, promising improved access to health care and education in a second term. Bredesen also emphasized his record of fiscal responsibility, arguing that state spending priorities would be thwarted without a balanced budget. The governor said his reception at the initial campaign rally at the Pardner's Bar B Que & Steak restaurant in Piney Flats early Tuesday was a far cry from his early stops in the 1994 and 2002 gubernatorial campaigns. "This is a lot better than my first stop...

NASHVILLE - Gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson led fellow Republican senators Monday night in a vote depicted by supporters of Gov. Phil Bredesen as killing his "Cover Tennessee" plan for state-subsidized health insurance. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 17-14 along party lines for Bryson's amendment, which declares that insurance companies would bear all risk of financial losses in operating the program. "It kills Cover Tennessee," said Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz after the vote. "Insurance companies will not bid and will not participate if they have to cover all the risk." In other action, a scheduled vote to establish a state minimum wage...

Massachusetts will likely soon become the first state in the nation to force everyone living within its borders to buy health insurance or pay a tax for walking around uninsured. Gov. Romney says by signing such a mass mandate into law, he will achieve the Democrats' goal of universal health coverage on Republican market-oriented principles. Uh-huh. After HillaryCare was defeated a decade ago, the fight for "universal care" moved to the states, where lawmakers are pushing for it piecemeal in two ways: broad new government mandates, and incentives for employers to cover more people. It's now clear which approach Mr....

Not since the late Frank Clement upset the late Gordon Browning in the 1952 Democratic primary has an incumbent Tennessee governor lost a race for re-election. That simple historical fact explains why Tennessee Republicans last week preferred to talk about Georgia when the topic of Jim Bryson's prospects of unseating Gov. Phil Bredesen arose. In our sister state to the south, Republican challenger Sonny Perdue defeated Democrat incumbent Roy Barnes in 2002, gathering 52 percent of the vote, even though the Democrat spent far more money. The "far more money" part is surely an apt comparison to today's lay of...

Democratic fund-raiser Harold Eugene Grooms of Cocke County has imported more than 400 kilograms of cocaine into East Tennessee and moved as much as $500,000 in cash at a time through one of his car lots in Newport, according to federal court records. Those stories - and more - from as many as seven confidential informants working with state and federal authorities helped trigger a recent string of search warrants that led to the identification of Grooms as a target in a long-running corruption probe centered in Cocke County, according to records made public in federal court. Grooms, 58, is...

WASHINGTON — Although speculation about Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee as a 2008 presidential candidate has faded in the last year, the governor on Monday declined to rule out a run for the White House if he is re-elected this year. Asked if he could look Tennessee voters in the eye and tell them he would not run for president in 2008 if they vote for him in November, Bredesen said, “I believe I can today ... I honestly believe today that there’s no place in there for me for that.” But Bredesen, 61, stopped short of completely closing the...

NASHVILLE - While acknowledging a need to "be careful" about sources of campaign money, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Tuesday that a refund was the appropriate way to handle funds from those involved in a Cocke County corruption probe. State Republican Chairman Bob Davis, meanwhile, said the questioned contributions accepted by Bredesen indicate "an interesting circle of friends" and repeated a call for the governor to return donations from Highway Patrol officers. Bredesen was asked at a news conference about a decision to refund $22,300 in campaign donations from Harold Eugene Grooms, Kenneth Frazier and a Cocke County business, H-1 Auto...

Gov. Phil Bredesen's campaign announced Monday it will return $22,300 in contributions given since 2001 by individuals caught up in a sweeping probe into public corruption in Cocke County. Campaign spokesman Will Pinkston said all money given to Bredesen by Harold Eugene Grooms, Kenneth Frazier and in the name of a Cocke County business called H-1 Auto Parts will be immediately refunded. "We're not trying to cast aspersions on anyone, but from an abundance of caution, we feel it's appropriate to return those dollars," Pinkston said. "At the time of the contributions, we weren't aware of any legal issues of...

NEWPORT, Tenn. - A convicted chop-shop operator and prolific Democratic fund-raiser who played a key role in winning Cocke County for Gov. Phil Bredesen in 2002 has emerged as a target in a long-running federal corruption probe. Although Harold Eugene Grooms, 58, isn't allowed to vote because he's a felon, he and his family have channeled at least $64,500 into Bredesen's campaign coffers since 2001 through personal gifts and fund-raisers, records show. Grooms' involvement in Democratic politics has won him a measure of clout in Nashville, and his son, Jason Grooms, was given a state job guiding economic development in...

The district attorney, the TBI and the Election Commission haven't talked to the first witness, yet Harold Ford Sr. says his own probe of Shelby County's dead voter scandal is done. The former congressman said he's talked to several poll workers and voters and can link the scandal back to a 71-year-old Republican election judge and a plot to sabotage son Harold Ford Jr.'s bid for the U.S. Senate. Local Republicans quickly labeled Ford's allegations as "smoke and mirrors" and slanderous. Following reports that two dead voters cast ballots in the September state Senate race that sister Ophelia Ford won...

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen was repeatedly warned about problems within the Tennessee Highway Patrol, but was preoccupied with other issues.

E-mail: dstuart@wsmv.com The hiring scandal at the Tennessee Highway Patrol is now reaching all the way to the U.S. Congress. It has been uncovered that a trooper still working on the force was recommended by Congressman Lincoln Davis -- even though the trooper had a long criminal history. Officials at the Tennessee Highway Patrol hired Martin Estel Brown as a trooper in 2004 even though their own investigator recommended that he not be hired. In trooper Brown's personnel file, that investigator documented the following information about Brown's criminal history: * In 1996 he was arrested for assault and theft --...

NASHVILLE - TennCare will resume accepting some of the state's sickest patients earlier than expected and will offer more generous eligibility guidelines, Gov. Phil Bredesen announced Tuesday. The governor has cut 191,000 people from the TennCare rolls and reduced benefits for thousands of others to control costs in the $8.7 billion program. He earlier said he would keep 97,000 "medically needy" adults on the program if the state got relief from a 1999 agreement with legal advocates for Tenn-Care patients. A federal judge has granted most of that relief. On Tuesday, Bredesen said the TennCare reforms mean the medically needy...

NASHVILLE - The head of Tennessee's leading anti-abortion group says the extent of the organization's effort to unseat three state Supreme Court justices next year will depend on whether there is a credible challenger to Gov. Phil Bredesen. Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life, said the group "at the least will be educating our members" about the justices' role in a 2000 Supreme Court decision that found Tennessee's state constitution grants women greater rights to an abortion than the U.S. Constitution. Bredesen is up for re-election next year and so are incumbent Supreme Court justices. In the case...

WASHINGTON - Tennessee Congressional Democrats are backing Gov. Phil Bredesen in his lawsuit to stop the Defense Department from moving a Nashville-based airlift wing's planes to bases elsewhere in the country. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee won't join them, saying a Bredesen victory would undermine the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure process. At issue is the Pentagon's recommendation to strip the 118th Airlift Wing of equipment and personnel, including its C-130 transport planes, which would be relocated to Kentucky, Illinois and Texas. Bredesen's suit argues it is against federal law for an Air National Guard unit to...

CHATTANOOGA — A federal court order expanding the state's power to restrict TennCare pharmacy benefits likely means all 97,000 medically needy enrollees can stay on the health care program, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday. "It looks positive to being able to keep all the most medically needy people on the rolls," the governor said during a stop here to promote his prekindergarten program. Bredesen said he expected to decide the fate of the medically needy, among the sickest patients with high medical bill, early next week after administration officials finish evaluating a ruling clarification issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court...

Politically speaking, Gov. Phil Bredesen faces conflicting options in picking a new state Supreme Court justice from three nominees recently submitted by the Judicial Selection Commission. Maybe they're not as interesting as the options President Bush faced this summer in picking a U.S. Supreme Court nominee to push through the U.S. Senate amid much ballyhooed howling, hooting and a generally politicized media melee. Still, when our governor sits down to silently select a new Supreme Court justice, you've got to figure that politics is a factor. He is up for re-election next year, and so are all five Supreme Court...

COVINGTON, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen put a halt Friday to document shredding in the state personnel department after learning that files were destroyed involving sexual harassment investigations of two men he appointed. The governor ordered the move until a new law can be passed to address the handling of such documents. The order requires the agency "to retain all investigative records, including those related to workplace harassment," said his spokeswoman, Lydia Lenker. The state's previous practice was meant to "protect people who would come forward," the governor said during an appearance in Covington, explaining that department investigators...

NASHVILLE - Republicans say there is a growing chance that Tennesseans will break a decades-old tradition of re-electing governors next year because of Gov. Phil Bredesen's problems with TennCare and an ethics controversy. Democrats dispute the prospects of Bredesen being successfully challenged in his re-election campaign, though they say they will be prepared for a fight. That includes Bredesen himself. "Certainly, the world is full of the carcasses of people who took things for granted," the governor said last week when asked about Republicans deeming him vulnerable in 2006. "I take these things seriously and will work hard to earn...

The recent flurry of speculation about Phil Bredesen becoming a presidential candidate - the next Bubba, as a Wall Street Journal headline suggested - is both understandable and sheer fantasy. Yes, the New Republic may report that he is "quietly reaching out through his surrogates to potential allies in the event he decides to run" for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Bredesen says that is totally incorrect and "nobody who is aligned with me" has done anything along those lines. He has no intent. He has no plans. Then again, a politician never says never about a future presidential possibility....

Tennessee's Gov. Phil Bredesen may be presidential material--unless fellow Democrats stop him. The Democrats have noticed that senators and Northeasterners don't do especially well in presidential elections. That has led to some talk of running a governor from the South in 2008, but Southern Democratic governors are in short supply. Of those who remain, my governor, Phil Bredesen, is starting to get some attention. A while back, The Economist called him a governor with a CEO approach. And The New Republic recently made him the subject of a cover story focusing on his ability to win over the opposition. But...

Trap-shooting rarely qualifies a candidate for public office, but, in 2002, it helped decide the Tennessee governor's race. Sometime that summer, a range owner in eastern Tennessee got wind that both candidates--former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Representative Van Hilleary, a Republican--were avid hunters. As a way to bring his range a little publicity, he challenged the candidates to what he called the Great Tennessee Trap Shoot, to be held over the Labor Day weekend. A souped-up version of skeet, trap involves shotgunning clay pigeons from a variety of positions as they hurtle through the air. In other...

TennCare advocates back off court wins in effort to save program Bredesen says he wants to examine "good-faith" offer By COLIN FLY Associated Press Writer November 15, 2004 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Gov. Phil Bredesen said Monday it appears the advocates for TennCare enrollees have made a good-faith effort to save the health care program, but he wants to scrutinize the details of their offer. The Tennessee Justice Center filed papers to put off for two years the effects of a series of federal court settlements so Bredesen can implement his reform proposal to control sharply rising costs in the expanded...