NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE) -- Mayor John Cooper is offering up a $41 million fix for the city’s current out of balance budget, but Nashville’s long-term financial problems remain.

Cooper’s plan includes cuts to the city’s public housing fund. It also calls on Metro departments to further trim their budgets.

If the council approves, the fix will at least temporarily fore-stall threats by the state to take control of the city’s finances.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (OSBORNE) -- Tennessee exports are down for the second quarter in a row and will likely fall during the current quarter as well.

Middle Tennessee State University Economist Steven Livingston says 3Q exports fell a whopping $500 million, a six percent decline over the same quarter last year.

Livingston says every nearly every export category was off badly, including Tennessee’s signature whiskeys.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE) -- If you’re having trouble getting in the holiday spirit, WMOT and our friends at Nashvillefunforfamilies.com has some mid-state activity and event ideas that might help.

Bring the kids ages 4 to 11 to your local Lowe’s store this Saturday and build a holiday train together. The DIY workshops kick off at 9 a.m. See a store location near you for the details and registration.

Vote for your favorite Americana and Roots albums released in 2019! Voting is open until December 17 at Noon when we will tally your votes and announce your favorite albums of the year.

  Vanderbilt University has named renowned scholar Daniel Diermeier as its ninth chancellor.

The school in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a statement Wednesday that Diermeier will take over the position on July 1, 2020. He currently serves as provost at the University of Chicago.

Vanderbilt Board of Trust Chairman Bruce R. Evans says Diermeier has the vision, the leadership experience and the commitment to trans-institutional research and teaching that officials were seeking.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE)  --  Tennessee is set to put a blind prisoner to death in the electric chair for his conviction in the 1991 killing of his estranged girlfriend.

The planned execution Thursday evening of 53-year-old inmate Lee Hall would be only the second of a blind person since the U.S. reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

Authorities say Hall killed Traci Crozier by setting her car ablaze while she was inside it and giving her fatal burns over most of her body.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Tennessee is mentioned 13 times in a new report on the state of the nation’s rural schools, and that’s not good.

The Rural School and Community Trust study says Tennessee has just over 293,000 students attending rural schools. That's the country’s fifth largest rural student population.