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Nominations For TVA Board
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President Obama has nominated Mike McWherter, the 2010 Democratic nominee for Tennessee governor, to fill one of five current vacancies on the TVA Board of Directors.
Obama also nominated V. Lynn Evans, a Memphis accountant, and Joe H. Ritch, a Huntsville, Ala., attorney, as new members of the board while proposing to give Marilyn A. Brown, a current board member whose term has expired, a new term on the nine-member panel.
The president in February had nominated Peter Mahurin of Bowling Green, Ky., to a TVA board seat, but Mahurin's nomination has not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The four nominations announced Friday in a White House news release are also subject to Senate confirmation.
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State Control Over Local Government
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This is not the first step toward stronger centralized control recently. The most prominent case was also an override of Nashville's lesser government by the big state government. The Legislature declared void the city's enactment of an ordinance declaring that those contracting with the city cannot discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation.
But there are lots of other examples. Several bills providing for state override of local zoning ordinances in certain circumstances failed in the past legislative session, the political climate not being quite right.
One that passed says cities, counties and "political subdivisions" of the state cannot ban beekeeping. That law was cited last week by a Spring Hill apiarist told by a homeowners association that his hives must go. There's now a dispute about whether a homeowners association is a "political subdivision."
But there's no dispute about who's boss over cities and counties, formally designated as "creatures of the state" with no rights beyond what state government grants them. The big government has been pretty liberal about granting authority over the past two or three decades.
But the political climate appears to have changed. At least when the little governments decide something contrary to instructions of the big government guys.
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