I’m pleased to hear that Kroger and Out and About Newspaper have arrived at a reasonable compromise. The City Paper reports:

“Nashville is a diverse city, similar to Atlanta, Dallas and other major metropolitan areas,” said Lynn Marmer, Kroger’s Group Vice President of Corporate Affairs, in a statement today. “Having free special interest publications, for example for seniors, families with young children or the GLBT community, is a way of serving local interests.”

I’m not expecting that people who think homosexuality is morally wrong, a population I admit likely constitutes the majority of Nashvillians, will give up their points of view. I do think that allowing other voices to be heard, however, is a worthy aim.

This won’t happen, but I’d still like to hear Kroger explain why Out and About was more offensive than the back pages of the Scene, which are much racier. I have no desire to see the Scene (which I read weekly) leave local grocery stores, but there seems to be some consistency lacking here.

While we’re at it, the City Paper points out that Harris Teeter has not made a decision about whether to welcome back the publication at its local stores. What’s the holdup?

Every time news breaks regarding the Predators’ future, it brings as many questions as answers. This time, I’m especially curious: Who else is in on the local ownership group? Did some of the rumored people, such as Martha Ingram, Al Gore and Tommy Frist, contribute? How much is the offer? How much of it is being borrowed? Who would be the majority owner, and what would the terms of the ownership group be? Here’s hoping we hear soon, but not so soon that it jeopardizes the offer.

To Chase Cole, David Freeman, Herb Fritch and others to be disclosed later, thank you for putting your money where your mouths are when it comes to Nashville and to the Preds. Best wishes for your bid.

Ken Whitehouse, delivering another scoop on the ongoing Predators ownership sweepstakes, reports that a local group has made an offer.

It finally happened. NashvillePost.com has learned that after weeks of circling the Nashville Predators, a local investor group landed on Craig Leipold’s doorstep yesterday morning and made him a formal offer for the team. Multiple sources have confirmed this news on the condition of anominity [sic]…

Predators fans have been rooting for the local ownership group to step forward, and NashvillePost.com has reported that Leipold wanted to see the local group step up, even being open to offer something of a Nashville discount. That may mean the price the group would pay is somewhere below the $220 million or more Balsillie offered.

Craig, assuming that this offer is even remotely legitimate, I hope you’ll take it. I sense that you’ve washed your hands of the Preds after lots of hard work and frustration in trying to make the team work here, but I know you care about this community, too. Please do what you can to give the team a fair shot at staying in town. Thanks for all you’ve done along the way to bring the NHL to Nashville. I’m sure glad you did.