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Phil Bredesen took office as Tennessee’s 48th governor on January 18, 2003, delivering on a promise to leave stale political debates behind and focus on achieving real results for families. In November 2006, he was re-elected in a landslide victory reportedly becoming the first governor in over a century to win all 95 counties in Tennessee.

Now, Bredesen begins his second term as Governor with a focus on raising high school and college graduation rates, boosting the economies of Tennessees smaller and mid-sized communities, strengthening public education at every level and promoting access to health care and healthier lifestyles for all citizens, especially young Tennesseans.

Before serving as Tennessee’s governor, Bredesen served as mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999, working with community leaders to chart a course that made Music City U.S.A. one of the best places in America to live, work and raise a family.

Before entering public service, Bredesen worked in the health care industry. Between research trips to the public library, he drafted a business plan at his kitchen table that led to the creation in 1980 of HealthAmerica Corp., a Nashville-based health care management company that eventually grew to more than 6,000 employees and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was sold in 1986.

Bredesen and his wife, First Lady Andrea Conte, are active members in the community, locally and statewide. He is a founding member of Nashville’s Table, a nonprofit group that collects discarded food from local restaurants and distributes it to the city’s homeless population. He also founded the Land Trust for Tennessee, a nonprofit organization that works statewide to preserve open space and traditional family farms.

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President-elect Barack Obama is calling for Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to resign. That’s according to an Obama spokesperson. Earlier this week, Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges. He’s accused of conspiring to sell or trade the Senate seat vacated by Obama in exchange for financial benefits for himself and his wife. At a news conference, the President-elect said he had no contact with the Governor about selling his Senate seat and added that he’s saddened by the news. Blagojevich is free on bail.

Obama told reporters this week that it’s time to deal with the issue of climate change in a serious way. With former Vice President Al Gore at his side, he said the time for denial is over. Gore, Obama and Vice-President Elect Joe Biden met privately in Chicago to discuss energy and climate change. A spokeswoman for Gore said he wasn’t seeking an official position in the new administration, but the meeting prompted speculation about what the former Vice President’s exact role in an Obama White House might be. The President-Elect said the purpose of the meeting was to learn how new environmental policies can spur job creation and jumpstart the economy.

Former Senator Tom Daschle is Obama’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The President-elect made the official announcement earlier today. The former Senate majority leader from South Dakota said he plans to write the health care proposal that Obama will submit to Congress next year. Daschle said he hopes to have the plan enacted by next year, but added that it will take several years to implement. The former senator is currently on the health care advisory group of Obama’s transition team.

As Obama continues to fill out his Cabinet, Democratic sources say the President-elect is close to naming his pick for energy secretary. Steven Chu, who’s a physicist and runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is reportedly Obama’s choice. Sources say Obama will also name Carol Browner to be the newly created climate director inside the White House. Browner was the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration.

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