M*Modal announced that Parkland Hospital, a 775-bed complex in Dallas, has selected the company to provide cloud-based coding technology services via a new service called Fluency for Coding, which combines computer-assisted coding and workflow management tools to minimize physicians’ coding errors. Chairman and CEO Vern Davenport says Fluency for Coding “offers a smarter path to quality documentation that is resulting in fewer denials and expedited code-to-bill processing.”

Wunderlich Securities is feasting on the fallout from Raymond James' acquisition of Morgan Keegan. The Memphis-based company has recruited three senior VPs in Memphis and another in Dallas. News of their moves comes less than a week after another six people in Memphis and New York made the move.

BE Music & Entertainment has announced the addition of former Rocketown Records President Don Donahue as the company’s vice president of live events and program development.

A 20-year veteran of the Nashville music industry, Donahue launched the boutique artist label Rocketown Records in 1996, selling more than 6 million albums while working with a roster that included artists Chris Rice, Ginny Owens, Shaun Groves and Wayne Kirkpatrick, among others. Previously, he served as VP/artist development at Intero Alliance, where he co-executive produced the global Avon Voices campaign.

“This is a bit of a ‘full circle’ moment for me in my career, as [BE Music & Entertainment President] Michael Blanton was the first person to hire me in the industry more than 20 years ago,” Donahue said in a release.  “It feels like a wonderful homecoming.”

With offices located in Dallas and Nashville, BE Music & Entertainment provides client services and support in management, production and publishing in all music genres.  The agency operates as a subsidiary of Dallas-based parent company London Broadcasting.

Sure, law school is tough, by most standards anyway.

There's Harvard, Yale, Vanderbilt, Stanford and even the University of Texas — slightly less known sitting there in proximity to Big D, baking under the Austin sun, but known to many as a particularly strenuous place to study the law. So imagine taking home an assignment from one of these schools. No problem, really. One would expect the work to be tough, doable, even challenging perhaps.

But what if you’re a well-known Department of Justice attorney having just argued a critical health care case before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, specifically before Judge Jerry Smith. Homework? Did you say homework?

The LegalTimes blog last week wrote in fascinating detail about Judge Smith assigning Dana Kaersvang a treatise on the Department of Justice's stance on federal review. The ordered came a day after President Obama had that if the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Affordable Care Act, it would be an unprecedented example of "judicial activism" by "an unelected group of people."

Judge Jerry Smith’s assignment: It must be no less than three pages, single-spaced, and must address Obama’s statements specifically. And it's due by noon on Thursday.

[...]

“I want to be sure that you’re telling us that the attorney general and the Department of Justice do recognize the authority of the federal courts through unelected judges to strike acts of Congress or portions thereof in appropriate cases,” Smith said.

"Marbury v. Madison is the law, your honor," she replied. "But it would not make sense in this circumstance to strike down this statute because there's no..."

The judge then cut her off: “I would like to have from you on noon on Thursday, a letter stating what is the position of the attorney general and the Department of Justice in regard to the recent statements by the President stating specifically and in detail, in reference to those statements, what the authority is of the federal courts in this regard in terms of judicial review.”

American Airlines has cancelled its remaining flights from Nashville International Airport to Dallas/Fort Worth Internatonal Aiport the remainder of Tuesday due to severe tornadoes that ripped through north Texas earlier today. 

Details of the damage can be found here. 

Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments' recent purchase from Crosland of approximately 32 acres of North Gulch property does not represent the first time the global financial giant has invested in urban real estate to be developed.

Northwestern has a stake in a major mixed-use project in Bethesda, Md. The company is teaming with StonebridgeCarras and PN Hoffman, which have been working with Montgomery County officials since 2005 to redevelop two county-owned surface parking lots with 250 residential units and 40,000 square feet of street retail space above a public parking garage.

The approximately $200 million development, to be located adjacent to the popular Bethesda Row, is  expected to break ground in January 2012.

In addition, Northwestern Mutual is part of a joint venture that will develop 77 12th St. in Atlanta. The 330-unit, 23-story building is to include about 20,000 square feet of retail space.

Other markets in which Northwestern Mutual has financial interests in urban infill mixed-use projects include Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Seattle. 

The company that owns downtown’s Nashville City Center is still considering placing office space atop a structured parking garage it plans to build adjacent to the skyscraper.

At least according to its website.

Parmenter Realty Partners — which has offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Miami and owns some of the South’s most high-profile office towers — is looking to build what likely will be a multi-story parking garage (the firm previously noted a 570-car facility) that could be accessed, depending upon orientation, via Sixth Avenue North and/or Church Street.

The firm’s website notes under a “Value-Added Activities” header the following regarding the office component:

“May also construct build-to-suit above garage to fulfill expanding tenant needs.”

Adriana Cruz, Parmenter director of investor relations and corporate communications, said the company is not ready to offers details regarding the garage. As to an office element, Cruz said this: 

“We have no commitment to building office space at this time.”

Nashville’s central business district offers few structures that combine above-ground parking and office space. A well-recognized example of a “pedestal building” is Viridian (with residential space atop parking).

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis announced in September it would renew its lease in Nashville City Center for 15 years, presumably giving Parmenter all the more incentive to move forward on the parking garage. However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee Waller having some of its team work within a garage-top office.  

Parmenter bought Nashville City Center in July 2008 for $87.96 million.