Morning Links: 26 November 2008

How the economy is making us sick, Pinnacle will get its Treasury cash, the nitty gritty on CBRL's debt load, locals keep up fight for U.S. Sugar, and more...

Email | Print By Geert De Lombaerde

Healthways and Gallup show how the financial crisis and recession are putting stresses on our health. Tennessee ranks around 30th for most measures of the Well-Being Index. For the index's Web site, click here.

Pinnacle Financial Partners, the biggest bank based in Nashville, has been approved to sell $95 million in stock (Ticker: PNFP) to the Treasury. 

On their conference call Monday, CBRL Group (Ticker: CBRL) executives wouldn't disclose – despite being pressed by analysts – the numbers behind the debt covenant ratios they said they are complying with. A day and a half later, they changed their minds and showed that, at its current level, one of those ratios will be too high come May 1.

Mario Gabelli continues to pile into Gaylord Entertainment. In the past six days, the New York money manager's GAMCO Investors spent another $2.8 million to lift his stake in the hotel company (Ticker: GET) to 13.5 percent.

Genesco CEO Bob Dennis finds a small silver lining during his company's (Ticker: GCO) third-quarter conference call: Rents will drop in '09. Search for 'one positive.'

The locally based Lawrence Group said Tuesday it is moving ahead with a formal offer to buy U.S. Sugar despite the company's agreement and Dec. 16 deadline to sell its land to Florida officials.

Informatics Corp. of America, the Vanderbilt-generated company playing in the electronic health record market, recently won two awards at an industry summit.

The President's decision last week to extend for a second time unemploymen benefits will support about 26,000 Tennesseans.

And finally, our sister pub BusinessTN writes about a team of Healthways employees taking part in the annual Battle of the Corporate Bands.