The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development on Thursday released statistics showing county non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for November decreased in 79 counties and increased in 12 counties, with the number in four counties remaining the same.

Tennessee’s unemployment rate for November fell to 9.1 percent, down from the October revised rate of 9.5. The national unemployment rate for November 2011 was 8.6 percent, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the October rate.



Davidson County’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.3 percent for November, down from 7.8 percent in October.

The parking of four local department stores will soon be home to electric car charging stations that are part of the EV Project. The charger pods containing four stations will go up outside Kohl's locations in Hermitage, Cool Springs, Spring Hill and Murfreesboro.

Mayor Karl Dean this morning threw his weight behind recommendations from consulting firm Parson Brinckerhoff to go with bus rapid transit over streetcars for the busy West End/downtown corridor. The cost of building out a two-lane line through East Nashville's Five Points area would be $136 million, less than half that of a similar streetcar plan.

Metro installed a light BRT system on East Nashville’s Gallatin Avenue in 2009. Under consideration for Broadway-West End is a more sophisticated BRT version in which buses would occupy lanes exclusively.

Paul Skoutelas, transit market director of Parsons Brinckerhoff, said consultants explored four options for the east-west corridor: doing nothing, light rail, a streetcar and BRT. He said consultants emphasized finding an option that could begin operating within a short timeframe.

Syracuse, N.Y.-based Aspen Dental will this week open the doors to a clinic up the street from RiverGate Mall. Aspen Dental, which runs more than 300 locations in 22 states, also has area outposts in Lebanon and Smyrna.