Tagged: Capitol Hill Conversation

 A plan to overhaul the way workers’ compensation claims are handled will be debated in the Tennessee General Assembly this week. Under the current system, if there is a dispute between an employer and an employee over how much money is owed, the disagreement is usually settled by a judge.

“Only Tennessee and Alabama involve the courts like this,” said Blake Farmer who covers the state Capitol for WPLN.

The state could soon decide which charter schools can open up in Memphis and Nashville. A proposed bill in the Tennessee General Assembly aims to wrest control of that process away from the school boards in the state’s two largest cities.

In its first test, a House subcommittee passed the bill Tuesday, but there was one Republican lawmaker who voted no. Representative John Forgety is a retired educator from Athens.

Like last year, some Republicans in the state Legislature want to pass a bill that would allow people to store guns in their cars. The House sponsor of the legislation, State Representative Jeremy Faison says he doesn’t have a gun carry permit, but nevertheless he keeps a gun in his car while it is parked in the state Capitol parking lot, “I’m not ashamed of it, I’ll tell anybody that. I’ll tell the highway patrol,” Faison said. “Let’s be honest, there’s not a parking lot in Tennessee today that doesn’t have a gun inside [a] car.”