Nashville pop voice Mat Kearney will follow up his 2006 major-label debut, Nothing Left to Lose, with a new collection called City of Black & White, due via Aware/Columbia Records on May 19.

State employees would maintain certain key protections under an administration bill aimed at helping Gov. Phil Bredesen minimize the number of potential layoffs.

Enrollment at Nashville State Community College is up with many incoming students saying they have been recently unemployed.

Dove- and Stellar Award-winning singer-songwriter Tonex is readying a new album, Unspoken, for release via a new label, RCA/Jive imprint Battery Records, on March 17.

TDOT has put together an $850 million list of projects, even though it expects to get just $572 million for roads and bridges.

Kentucky slapped UT with a devastating 77-58 victory on Saturday at Rupp Arena, costing the Vols a share of the lead in the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division.

Florida led by 25 points in the second half en route to an 82-68 victory over visiting Vanderbilt.

NASHVILLE — Two years ago the Pope John Paul II hockey team made it to the GNASH finals, but fell short, finishing runner-up on its way to their first of two state championships.
The Knights are hoping to take that same route after Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss to Centennial to finish runner-up for the second time in three years.
“Since we’re the two time defending state champions, and the defending GNASH champion we know we have a huge bullseye painted on our backs every time we take the ice,” said JPII Coach Bjorn Svedin. “We have to come out every night and surpass or at least match the other team’s intensity, and we didn’t do that tonight; I think that disappoints me more than anything else.”
The game was not without its share of controversy however, as a JPII game-tying goal with just 8.9 seconds left in the game was disallowed.
After three unsuccessful shots on goal in the final 30 seconds of play, Clark Henson pulled the puck out of the air and knocked it home amidst a crowd just in front of the net.
Jubilation turned to stunned disbelief moments after the goal however as referees skated in to waive off the goal.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Henson. “I know it hit off of their goalie, and that’s all we needed it to do.”
According to the rules of hockey, if a puck is pulled out of the air and then is hit into the net without making contact with someone from the other team the goal is disallowed.
“I’ve never seen a referee change his mind as long as I’ve been doing this,” said Svedin. “I didn’t really see what happened, but these guys do a pretty good job of making the calls overall; they don’t miss much, so it was probably the right call.”
Centennial came out and put up two quick points in the first period, the first by Porter Horecka, and the second by Blake Williams, to take a 2-0 lead.
JPII answered in the second period as Jacob Bourget made it 2-1 just minutes into the period.
With five minutes left in the second period Bourget made his presence felt for the second time of the night as he and Anthony Golio got credit for the assist to Clay Brewer to knot the game at two a piece.
“This was a great atmosphere to play in tonight,” said Bourget. “Both sides brought lots of fans and it was the loudest I’ve ever heard it in here, but I don’t think we came out as hungry as they did tonight.
“I think we came in with the attitude that we don’t let anyone beat us twice in the same year, so we just felt like we were going to win, but that didn’t happen tonight. We have to play them again Sunday, and I guarantee things will be different then.”
Both teams picked up the defensive pressure in the third period, but Williams was able to sneak his second goal of the night past to put Centennial up 3-2.
Centennial just tried to keep the puck on the opposite end of the ice for the final five minutes of the game, but the Knights managed a flurry of shots in the final minute of the game ending with Henson’s waived off goal.
“There was a lot of guys around the goal, and it was hard to get any kind of shot off, but as many guys as there were around I know it had to hit someone on its way in,” said Henson. “We’re not going to make any kind of excuses though, they just beat us tonight, but make no mistake, we’re more motivated than we’ve been in a long time, so people are going to see our best hockey from here on out.”
The round-robin portion of the state tournament begins Saturday at Southern Ice in Franklin where a field of eight will be cut in half, and then the four will play the semifinal round and the state championship in two weeks.
Both Hendersonville and JPII qualified for the state tournament along with Centennial and Father Ryan from the midstate area.