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I'm having trouble figuring out who the good guys are in this one. A grant funded project was generated that would go on already owned land but was switched to buy a privately owned building. Funds were spent to purchase materials before the grant period expired but the work was not completed and some of the materials were stored and some were not even picked up. Having said all that, the Visitors Center is a lovely space. I have yet to see it open.

James Watts, mayor at the time, said “...it doesn’t matter to me as mayor that they changed locations without letting anyone know and apparently not getting preapproval from the state,” Watts wrote. “What does bother me is that tax dollars from the taxpayers of the city of Rockwood and tax dollars from the state of Tennessee were used to not only improve private property at the current location but to pay down on land and design for the second piece they chose, when if they had stayed with the city, the land would have been free.”

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The BEP formula drew data from Roane's property assessment values. The data showed the county was wealthier than it truly was thereby, alotting Roane Schools fewer State dollars. Why is this fact still being overlooked in the school funding debate?

The Denny Building once housed the Miller and Brewer Department store. Mystery: There was no power or gas to the building at the time it burned.

Only two lanes are open through Harriman at this time.

WATE Story

The stupid hurts. It really hurts.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has introduced legislation (H.R. 543) to "repeal title I of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for cooperative governing of individual health insurance coverage offered in interstate commerce."

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Gee, I wonder why that is?

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Tennessee’s GIS Services, part of the Office for Information Resources in the Department of Finance and Administration, received a $670,000 grant to respond to the growing needs for three-dimensional mapping data in the state. The data collection will utilize LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a remote sensing detection system that works on the principle of radar, but uses light from a laser.

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You know...Roane County is actually a pretty good place to live and raise kids. We have a lovely environment outside of the small part trashed by TVA and a couple of other spots, but then so does every other county everywhere. We have a lot of good things happening in music, arts, and athletics, and we have some of the best lakefront living anywhere. But you would never know it if all you knew about us was from our local newspaper. I finally found a happy story on page 5 of today's paper. It was about the Kingston Library.

Hey folks help us start the Super Bowl weekend off right with some good time music.

Forward this to anybody and everybody who loves a good time with good music and good people.

Devan Jones and the Uptown Stomp

Ladd Landing Listening Room

Friday Jan 30 Doors open 7:00 PM Family Friendly BYOB

$10 No Reservations Required

If you are thinking about not seeing Devan Jones and the Uptown Stomp this Friday night you had better take time to listen to this:

Rock This House

and this:

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It helps to know how many are planning to join us so email me if you have time. If not just show up anyway.

More info directions and upcoming shows right here!

Questions? email stevescarb@aol.com

Steve

There are no winners here and it is a very sensitive subject. We have to have these talks with our children, however, as uncomfortable as that may be at the time. These kids are forever damaged.

(Since all the Tennessee newspapers are behind the paywall on this, I went with a San Francisco newspaper)

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I would like to see this case of illegal dumping draw a serious enough penalty that is isn't ever repeated. Then can we work on the illegal tire dumping problem?

...Kingston city officials say they received a call from someone in the community who said there was a build-up of sludge in a nearby creek. With the coal ash spill still fresh in many's minds, officials say another environmental problem came as unwelcome news.

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There is absolutely nothing in building this pipeline that benefits Tennessee, except that we will have to help pay for any spills that happen. Of course Chuck Fleischmann voted to build it, but he is Speaker John Boehner's boy and no one should expect any actions from Fleischmann on behalf of his constituents when it conflicts with Boehneer's personal financial investments. Boehner has roughly a quarter of a million dollars invested in Canadian oil interests that will benefit from this pipeline, just so you know.

So I expect this kind of thing from REpublicans. I want Jim Cooper to do better. (Thank You Congressman Cohen. Yoo da Man!)

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According to the CDC:

1 in 6 Americans contracts a foodborne illness annually; 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Pathogens from meat kill more people than those from any other food group. A CDC study found that between 1998 and 2008, contaminated meat was responsible for 29 percent of all deaths from foodborne illness (23 percent of deaths were from produce, 15 percent from dairy and eggs, and 6.4 percent from fish and shellfish).

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Always read Tom Humphrey. Tom recounts a conversation with a lobbyist who claims stifling his ability to call and text legislators in committee meeting stifles his constitutional rights.

Yes, but legislators already hear from you guys a lot more than from average folks. You meet with them in their offices, chat in the hallways, have your clients hold receptions, line up campaign contributions and so on. The proposition here is just to say that, while a debate is underway, you can’t text or phone instructions to a legislator on how to vote or what to say.

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An asteroid a third of a mile wide will fly by earth on Monday. NASA says it will be the closest by any known space rock this large until 2027.

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This is quite the story...

"Tuesday we checked the immediate area again, we exhausted all leads throughout Tuesday," said Officer Jared Hall, with the Rockwood Police Department.

But when they came back Wednesday, Officer Hall decided to search a different area of woods - this one with thick brush:

"I noticed his knee sticking out of the brush - literally you could have walked within 15 feet and not seen Mr. West.

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Channel 6 News says they will stay on top of this issue for us.

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I would like to see more enforcement actions like this until it all gets stopped. Dumping waste may seem like no big deal but it can greatly harm the environment, property values, and even have health ramifications.

Kingston police said a concerned citizen contacted them last week and reported seeing a truck back into a lot at Peachtree Lane and Patton Ferry Road and dump some type of liquid.

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If you have fast internet I suggest you go follow the YouTube link and watch this in full screen HD. The acceleration of glacial melting is really scary.

From the WBIR web site:

In Roane County, for example, this new report shows every public dollar spent on drug abuse prevention saves taxpayers more than 14 times that much later.

The new report comes from a team of anti-drug advocates in East Tennessee, including Roane County Anti-Drug Coalition Executive Director Sarah Harrison; Stephanie Armbrister Strutner, executive director of Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) of Anderson County; and ASAP project coordinator Stacey Pratt. The team worked with an economist to compile the data comparing the public costs of prevention to what taxpayers foot when people abuse prescription drugs.

WBIR Story

This is different!

Roane County Director of Schools Gary Aytes said because it’s a domestic issue in another county, he doesn’t feel like Jones puts students in any danger. Additionally, since Jones hasn’t been convicted, Aytes says he’s going to wait and see what happens before he considers taking Jones out of the classroom.

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First-graders at Ridge View Elementary in Rockwood have raised most of the funds they want for LED writing tablets, but still have $145 $138 $132 $0 to go. Help these students by donating at DonorsChoose.org ((link...)). Every little bit can make a difference!

-- OneTahiti

Via the Roane County Post:

Yesterday, Roane County Road Superintendent Dennis Ferguson received official notification from the Tennessee Department of Transportation informing him that Roane County would receive a grant to upgrade the Mountain View Road and NS Railroad crossing.

This is just plain nuts. I have to agree with the Sheriff.

The Morgan County Sheriff Glen Freytag has stepped down as head of security for the county courthouse, disagreeing with the county commission's vote re-opening all of the doors to the courthouse, bringing metal detectors upstairs and allowing those with gun permits to carry firearms in the building. Commissioners found previous security a huge aggravation and voted to open all the courthouse doors, do away with the security guard position and move the metal detectors. The only people who will now be screened heading to the main courtroom.

I suspect lighting is a major line item in the County budget. I realize the electric utilities will squeal but this is the right thing to do.

The first major league baseball stadium is moving forward. Replacing existing lights at stadiums can reduce operation expenses by over 60% and last up to 50 years.

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Our experience at home is that the latest versions of LED light bulbs are instant on, warm light, and destroy our electric bill. And the light is directed to areas where it is needed so we wind up being able to see better.

Update: Presentation to the TN Conservation Commission is attached (David Fields put this together)

“At this level of spending, the county may not have the necessary operating cash or working capital to sustain the operations of these funds,” Thompson added.

This is complicated stuff and the state uses a blunt instrument instead of a scalpel, as witnessed by the letters to the Property Assessor's office.

RCN Story

Here's a snip:

Gordan Evren Ellis, then 34, bludgeoned his mother, a renowned Oak Ridge physicist, to death in 2004, loaded her body into the trunk of her car, hauled it halfway across the state and set it afire. CNN Anchor Paula Zahn told him to do it.

the kicker came when the state’s only psych ward, which has fewer than 20 beds, wanted to free him on meds, which he WOULD NOT TAKE ON HIS OWN BECAUSE HE’S NOT CRAZY. Under the law, there was not a single thing a judge or the state could do about it. Mr. Ellis had been acquitted – not guilty. Publicity kept Mr. Ellis locked down in the psych ward for a while. Privacy laws bar me from knowing where he is now. Maybe he’s still there. Maybe not. (And that’s crazy scary). It is also the dilemma with an insanity defense, too insane to be guilty, too insane to be safe in society.

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Apparently, the ability to no longer receive a federal subsidy to help pay your insurance premiums is a "benefit" the TNGOP wishes to generously bestow upon the citizens of Tennessee.

RNeal

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I am becoming a follower of Jamie Satterfield's work. This is a prime example of why...

Whodunnits in the courtroom are rare, especially when it comes to murder. The question almost always is not the who but the why. That’s because the law grades, if you will, the crime of murder by degrees.

At the top of the list is first-degree murder, the worst of the worst. The simplistic definition is that of a cold-blooded killer who makes a conscious decision to take someone’s life. But as the case currently on trial in Knox County Criminal Court shows, it is anything but simple.

Read the whole piece...

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