If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice is your signal to celebrate summer. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, winter starts at this solstice. This 2018 June solstice takes place on June 21 at 10:07 UTC; translate UTC to your time. In North America and U.S. time zones, that’s June 21 at 7:07 a.m. ADT, 6:07 a.m. EDT, 5:07 a.m. CDT, 4:07 a.m. MDT, 3:07 a.m. PDT, 2:07 a.m. AKDT (Alaskan Daylight Time) and 12:07 a.m. HAST (Hawaiian-Aleutian Standard Time). At the instant of this June 2018 solstice, it’s sunrise in the Americas and sunset in Japan and Indonesia. The sun is at zenith (straight overhead) over in South Africa, not far from Polokwane (Pietersburg). The solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth; only our clocks and calendars are different.

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The Roane County Board of Education will meet this Saturday (June 16, 2018) at 9 a.m. at the Williams Building in Kingston in an emergency session to formally accept the resignation letter of Director of Schools Dr. Leah Watkins. Members could appoint an interim director at the meeting. Watkins was offered the director of schools position by the Obion County School Board last night. Watkins steps down as the school system works toward a $66.75 million school-building plan.

from 105.7

But, City Councilmen can't.

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Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, "a former Verizon lawyer, bucked the law, ignored public opinion and twisted the facts to make his ill-advised case for handing control of the internet to the anti-competitive cabal of giant phone and cable companies"... Free Press's Timothy Karr

"Poll after poll after poll after poll shows large majorities of Republican voters in opposition to the FCC's repeal..."

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Overlooking the child labor question, is this some kind of back door statement that Randy is willing to raise the minimum wage? $1 in 1962 when he was 8 is worth $8.20 today, about a 14% increase.

“I never expected the government to take care of me, but today, too many people do. I believe those who can work, should work – not permanently live on welfare,” Boyd touts.

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Here's the entry form...Fixed Link.

The name "chipmunk" comes from the Ottawa word ajidamoonh or the Ojibwe word ajidamoo, which translates literally as "one who descends trees headlong."

Just watched a chipmunk descend a tree head first. As much time as I spend outdoors I didn't know that is how they did it. Apparently they climb trees for tender buds, caterpillars and bird eggs.

These are the cleaner messages my friends the Russians sent this morning. I get a dozen or so every single day. I leve it to you, fine readers, to figure out what some of these are about. They always have a link to click but I never click on any of them. Don;t you do it either.

From vikladex@xxxxx
"Order sleazy sldnfl without remedy"

jacquelynzv60 tells me that:
"My self-controlled protrude"

sandywj2@orbinato.lady-and-lunch.lady-and-lunch)

This one wants to sell me expanded polystyrene:
"пенополистирол экструдированный купить в
самаре"

EverLem sent this one to tell me about the Chevy Volt:
"Это первый в истории автомобиль,
использующий электроэнергию в качестве
основного источника энергии, совершенно
нового класса – с технологией “E-REV”

Somehow I'm thinking the link won't be all that automotive. Ha!

This would be much more fun if it weren't so foreboding of disaster for the State of Tennessee...

An attorney for Diane Black’s gubernatorial campaign is asking TV stations to stop airing a TV ad that declares “Dishonest Diane Black” is “good for illegal immigrants, bad for Tennessee.”

“To permit recirculation of this advertisement would condone the disclosure of plainly false and misleading statements that lack any nexus with the factual citations contained within the advertisement,” wrote Rocklan W. King III, an attorney with Adams and Reese LLP.

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"Black is pushing legislation to establish a dedicated fund where Americans could make donations for the wall, which Trump administration have said will cost at least $20 billion — and which Trump promised Mexico would pay for."

During an appearance on Fox News on Monday, Black — who is running to become the next governor of Tennessee — floated the idea of putting up plaques along the wall to commemorate those who donate.

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This defies basic economic theory. Wages are not supposed to fall in times of rising employment.

Tennessee employers added 45,000 jobs across the state in the past year, lowering the state's seasonally-adjusted jobless rate from 4 percent a year ago to 3.4 percent last month, reports the Times Free Press. But the average hourly wage paid Tennessee workers was lower than a year ago.

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Really interesting poll from Vandy.

Not surprised Bredesen is ahead of Blackburn, especially with her voting record in support of big Pharma and the opiod indusrty tarting to bubble to the surface. More of her pay to play voting record will come out over time.

With an overall favorability score of 67 percent, Democrat and former governor Phil Bredesen is more popular among Tennessee voters than his Republican opponent, Congressman Marsha Blackburn, at 49 percent overall.

Vandy declared the "Governor's Race Wide Open" and really surprised me. Dems have two great candidates running with former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean by far the biggest name. Republicans are running two very rich candidates, with Dianbe Black having some trouble with her sky high unfavorables.

“Diane Black’s unfavorability numbers are a real problem for her in a general election,” said Geer. “Republicans don’t need Democratic votes to win, but they do need votes from independents.”

Dean, the more well-known of the two Democrats, has 47 percent name recognition and a 53 percent overall favorability rating. He’s well-liked by fellow Democrats, with 73 percent favorability, and posts the highest favorability score among independents of all the gubernatorial candidates—60 percent.

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I wondered why TN GOP was so adamant that there NOT be a paper ballot required in TN elections:

Investigators found evidence of a “malicious intrusion” into a Tennessee county’s elections website from a computer in Ukraine during a concerted cyberattack, which likely caused the site to crash just as it was reporting vote totals in this month’s primary.

Cyber-security experts hired by Knox County to analyze the so-called “denial of service” cyberattack, said Friday that “a suspiciously large number of foreign countries” accessed the site as votes were being reported on May 1.

AP Story

A nominating commission Tuesday chose three finalists for appointment as new director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation – former Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble, current TBI Deputy Director Jason Locke and Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch.

I think Danny Wright would have been a good choice for that position.

Blackburn says it's "absurd" to think all that money she got from opioid industry influenced her vote to protect the opioid industry profits.

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn gets a mention in a Washington Post report on political consequences facing members of Congress who supported 2016 legislation “that hampered the Drug Enforcement Administration’s enforcement efforts against the opioid industry."

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Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!

Note to anyone who gets information from Flo: Better fact check it ASAP.

Looking at the actual history, I'd have to say Trump deserves about ZERO credit.

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Donald Trump has failed at everything he's done except get elected. Yet hes somehow has cash to spend. No American Bank will loan him the vast sums required for a business to function, so where does he get his money? Why anyone can think it is a good idea to NOT investigate his Russian connections is beyond me.

Here is a great way to go about your day and learn how we lost our country, and yes, I believe it is not the idealistic America of our childhoods. This is just the cliff notes in who owns Trump.

Josh Marshal podcast:

‘Trump Is A Mob-Friendly Businessman Who Is Now President Of The United States’

Marsha Blackburn sits on the committee that regulates the telecommunication industry. That would be Sprint, AT&T, Comcast, etc...You know, the folks we all love because they charge what they want and still give crappy service. Why is that? They bribe buy contribute to our elected officials. They still can't write a check to Blackburn personally but they can host a fundraiser for her campaign.

This is pretty brazen.

Sprint, of course, announced last week that it’s pursuing a merger with T-Mobile, and Blackburn is the chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on communications and technology, which oversees the wireless industry. Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) wrote to House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Blackburn last week to urge them to hold hearings on the proposed merger.

TVA Chairman Johnson is a Nuke man. A bad actor of a nuke man but a nuke man none the less. Is that why solar is being slowed down in Tennessee? Or is it because TVA can't put a meter between us and the sun?

“Solar is a cost-competitive resource, and Tennessee has immense potential which, if seized, would mean an influx of well-paying solar jobs and economic benefits for the state,” says Sean Gallagher, SEIA’s vice president of state affairs. “Unfortunately, TVA’s Distributed Solar Solutions program and the results of a 2017 utility-scale request for proposal have continuously been delayed without explanation.”

...“TVA’s lack of a coherent solar procurement strategy has created business uncertainty that is hurting Tennessee’s economic development goals, as large industrial customers are looking to other states for access to clean energy.”

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From Fed Register announcement of SMR site Draft Environmental Impact Statement:

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Public Meetings for Comment

The NRC and the USACE staff will hold two identical public meetings to present a brief overview of the DEIS and to accept public comments on the document. The meetings will be held at Noah's Event Venue, 1200 Ladd Landing Blvd., Kingston, Tennessee, on June 5, 2018. The first meeting will convene at 2:00 p.m. and will continue until approximately 4:00 p.m. The second meeting will convene at 7:00 p.m., with a repetition of the overview portions of the first meeting, and will continue until approximately 9:00 p.m.

This should trouble most folks:

“If the weather is nice road troopers should have no less than 30 citations a week no exceptions. If activity does not improve troopers will be reassigned per the Captain.”

… We looked into the law, part of it stating, “A political subdivision or any agency of this state may not require or suggest to a law enforcement officer that the law enforcement officer is required or expected to issue a predetermined or specified number or any type of combination of types of traffic citations within a specified period.”

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When I reach That Point, Please Have the Rough and Tumble Sing to Me

"People with dementia are confronted by a world that is unfamiliar to them, which causes disorientation and anxiety" said Jeff Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Radiology at U of U Health and contributing author on the study. "We believe music will tap into the salience network of the brain that is still relatively functioning."

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When asked about weakening toxic coal ash regulations, Scott Pruitt just testified in a Congressional hearing that he was not aware of the health effects suffered by workers cleaning up the coal ash spill at Kingston and another site in North Carolina.

Via KnoxViews:

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Never before in our nation’s history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the 5th Amend in connection with issues surrounding the President,

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Wonder why that never gets mentioned by the media. Is it because he is a crazy white guy who killed people of color with an AR-15? Being crazy doesn't excuse or separate him out from most other white separatists in my judgement, but he sure does seem to be nuts.

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The DNC has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Campaign, et al, for conspiring with Russian agents to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential campaign:

The Democratic National Committee on Friday sued the Trump campaign, the Russian government, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Roger Stone, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos and Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, his son Emin and others, alleging they conspired to disrupt the 2016 election.

In today's Roane County News Flo Charles says it was God that did it:

...we may not understand all of President Trump’s decisions, nor agree with them, but he is still our president that God saw fit to give us, knowing his imperfections.

My question is why does my subscription have to support such obvious political advertising? Shouldn't the RNC have to pay for Flo's column inches?

This is a scandal. Lobbyists win, taxpayers lose! Teflon Haslam walks away unscathed.

The decision means Tennessee will take a breath as it seeks to fix its broken testing system, which has been snakebit from the outset. In 2016, Education Commissioner Candice McQueen canceled most testing after TNReady’s new online platform collapsed under the weight of statewide testing on newly minted digital devices. The next year, Tennessee reverted to mostly paper-and-pencil tests, but there were scoring and score delivery issues under new vendor Questar.

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