Jamie Satterfield has two, count'em, two pieces on divorce. Tennessee has the sixth highest divorce rate in the country. How can this be when we're in the Bible Belt? We also learn of plans to impose courses for divorcing parents so as to make divorces smoother and easier on the children. Laudable goals, but wouldn't a 12-hour course before marriage do more good than a 12-hour course on how to be divorced? (Another topic, good for a followup, would be the way state family court judges typically ignore existing law on divorce. Sourcing would be easy -- just ask any lawyer who practices in the area and you'll get an earful).

We also learn that Lt. Gov. and Senate Speaker John Wilder was working both sides of the street on the income tax issue, and helping the GOP defeat members of his own party. Say, do you think this kind of thing has anything to do with why Tennesseans don't trust the state's promises on income tax? The story, by the Commercial Appeal's Paula Wade, is probably the biggest scoop on the legislature in the past ten years, so it's kind of surprising that it runs below the fold. Maybe the Sentinel is embarrassed that it has contracted out so much of its coverage to the Commercial Appeal. On the other hand, it has gotten some excellent stories from Wade.

An interesting AP story on A15 talks about FBI computer-snooping techniques, which so far are largely avoiding legal scrutiny. The other story on the page "CIA back, enjoys new clout with White House" (Wash. Post) doesn't add to the comfort level.

The State/Local section leads with a J.J. Stambaugh story (with Bryan Mitchell, we're told in fine print at the end; why no shared byline on this one?) on the assimilation of Latinos into the area. Reporting on stories like this isn't easy -- illegal immigrants aren't jumping to talk to the press, and the language barrier is significant. Even if you speak pretty good Castilian Spanish, it's often hard to communicate with Central American peasants, who speak a very different variety. The risk here is that the interlocutors take over the story. Stambaugh seems to have avoided that here. Though there is a lot of talk about police harassment, etc., the real story seems to be how relatively smooth the process of assimilation has been.

The Perspective section has a fawning story on Katie Graham by Bob Woodward. A local item on the 1919 race riots by Matthew Lakin is worth reading, though. It's been hard to get anyone to talk about those riots, as Jack Neely has pointed out from time to time. Lakin's in-progress book on the subject is likely to be interesting. The Sentinel seems to be running more local opinion pieces, after running almost none for years. This is a good thing.