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I will need to talk with a solar power producer to see what this means, but:

With 2014 incentives, TVA will pay 14 cents per kilowatt for solar energy through Green Power Providers and 10 cents per kilowatt through the Solar Solutions Initiative, a price reduction of 26 percent and 17 percent, respectively, from 2013.

The headline reads: "TVA Moves to Increase Solar"

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Blue dog apologist and current Democratic Party Chair, Roy Herron, may have eliminated the last vestige of Progressive Democrats in our state. Brandon Puttbrese (Who was the keynote speaker at the Democratic Labor Day Picnic in Roane County) has turned in his resignation.

Here's lots of Tennessee news and opinions of the day:

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Inside Higher Ed has an informative article (Link...) about concussions and school sports--"not just football."

The irony is…the largely rural districts that vaulted them and their Republican colleagues into power…are the ones that will suffer most.

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Go read this... Link...

Sixty 4th-grade students in Midtown Elementary are hoping for 5 microscopes to use in science classes. They have a project at DonorsChoose.org, but there are only 18 days before the request times out, and there is $900.24 remaining to be raised.

Please consider donating to help these kids realize their dream: Link.... Even small donations can add up.

-- OneTahiti

Haslam cut taxes $127 million for corporations and rich folks and now the state is in the red. Want to bet he cuts service to everybody BUT rich folks and corporations to make up the difference?

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My grandma had a term for these people, "Boresome!" Great descriptive word for people who simply will not open their mind and won't their mouth.

A group called the 9.12 Project (I think) has a list of inaccuracies in an American Government and Politics textbook:

• The book says “early colonists were intolerant of religious beliefs that did not quite conform to (their own).” She says the early colonists risked their lives to come to the new world for religious freedom and tolerance.

• She claims that capitalism is portrayed as unfair and the wealthy as greedy.

• She alleges that white, Protestant, conservative and Southern people are described negatively, pointing to the phrase “The White South” to describe the South and objecting to this passage: “The Democratic Party (after the 1950s) … advocated racial integration and other civil rights policies that drove white, Protestant, Southern voters who opposed these initiatives away.”

Anybody who thinks the Puritans were tolerant of differing religious viewpoints needs to ask themselves why they chose the name "Puritans" to describe themselves.

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Crockett Policy News roundup.

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TVA by the numbers:

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Gotta check it every 30 minutes or so for hours on end but it will be worth it. You folks have a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for all of you who care about Roane County and Tennessee and want to help make it a better community for everyone. Cheers to you!

"If it don't rain, it's perfect. If it rains, it don't work."

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Mike Huckabee, the guy who had all the computer hard drives smashed with sledge hammers when he left the Arkansas Governor's mansion, wants to move the nation's capital to Nashville because Washington is too crooked.

Haslam's posturing could wipe out Federal funds for TN.

And some other stuff at CPI:

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TVA has done such a stupendous job that it will pay its employees bonuses averaging $3,600 today. The median TVA pay is around $73,000 a year. That's the point at which half the employes make less and half make more.

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Both of the people who use that road are now free to move between Roane and Morgan Counties.

Nashville Channel 5 may be the only investigative news operation left in Tennessee. Phil Williams is a TN treasure, the Nashville reporter not the Knoxville talkshow wannabe.

Some of the exchanges between Tennessee lawmakers and personnel from the local drug task forces were downright surreal....

Not just "not true," but a preposterous, feeble attempt to justify an unjust practice by appealing to fear.

Task force director David Hicks then conceded that because the agents are funded by the money and property they seize from motorists and drug suspects, his cops "know that if the money dries up, then they don't have job."

I encourage you to read the whole piece and the original reporting.

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Right here at Whites Creek Global headquarters it is sleeting. Temp says its 38F so no worries at the moment, but wouldn't it be really cool for Mrs Creek to have a snow day before Thanksgiving?

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"Jingle Bells", contrary to what is often assumed, is a Thanksgiving song...

A STRONG UPPER-LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AND SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY. THE INITIAL IMPACTS FROM THIS SYSTEM WILL BE LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND PERHAPS SOME LOCALIZED FLOODING DUE TO THE PERSISTENT RAINS EXPECTED ON TUESDAY. COLDER AIR WILL MOVE INTO THE REGION TUESDAY NIGHT...CHANGING THE RAIN OVER TO SNOW...RESULTING IN SOME LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS ACROSS THE HIGHER TERRAIN OF THE SMOKIES...THE CUMBERLAND PLATEAU...CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS...AND PORTIONS OF FAR NORTHEAST TENNESSEE AND SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA.

In the reverse direction of every other developed nation and while the public comment period that TVA is supposed to take under consideration was still open, TVA says damn the torpedoes, full nuclear steam:

(TVA CEO Bill)Johnson outlined a vision to the TVA board last week to generate 40 percent of TVA's power using nuclear power, 20 percent with coal, 20 percent using natural gas with the rest a combination of hydroelectric and renewable energy. Currently, the agency produces closer to 30 percent of its power from nuclear sources, with coal taking the lead at 38 percent, natural gas in third place with 15 to 20 percent, with the rest coming from hydro and renewable sources.

TFP article

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I'm having trouble digesting this one.

Kenneth E. King had spent the night in the Anderson County Detention Facility after being arrested for driving on a suspended license – a charge that ultimately was in error. His release was ordered at 11:30 a.m., but it took more than three hours for the pretrial release officer to process the paperwork. During that time, Mr. King was severely beaten, causing permanent injuries to his eye.

The problem of improper arrest seems to be common. For a municipality to be held not responsible for keeping people safe in its care is hard to fathom.

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I had the privilege to listen to and then meet Ben Bullington last May. He passed away this week of pancreatic cancer. He had left his job as doctor at a small Montana clinic to tour and play his songs as much as he could in the time he had left. I posted his Americana anthem "Country Music I'm Talking To You" as soon as I got back home from Hippie Jack's Farm. When it comes my time I hope I go with a fraction of his grace. I'm not posting a video today. Instead it's alink to Ben's Reverb Nation page. It will play a bunch of songs as you go about other stuff, many of them sad, some funny, all of them word paintings set to the music of a finger picked guitar.

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It's official.

Judge Simmons is over Roane, Meigs, Morgan, and Loudon Counties. Several candidates are already emerging including Roane County folks Tom McFarland, Kim Nelson, and Mike Pemberton.

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I don't have a smart phone so you folks will have to tell me what you think about this one. Do you think this mobile app tells folks what they should see in Roane County?

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The Buzz from Crockett Policy Institute