"We don't need the federal government mandating additional taxes on Tennessee families and businesses. The American people have been taxed enough."

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

He hates to increase taxes on anyone; but on the other hand, he hates to give an advantage to big out-of-state companies that we don't give to local small businesses."

an aide to Rep. John Duncan

This is just too weird. Can't these people find better lackeys than Rep. John Ragan to dismantle our public school system?

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Howie Rose is leaving as Roane County Director of Emergency Services. He is going to TVA and will be replaced on an interim basis by his former deputy, Scott Stout. From the RCN...

Rose’s tenure wasn’t without controversy. A few years ago he was accused of wasteful spending....

“We gave him a whole lot more guidance, unlike the prior administration that just let him do what he wanted to,” Woody said.

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State Sen. Ken Yager of Harriman said the recent exchange of gunfire by a security guard and unknown assailant at Watts Bar nuclear facility near Spring City shows the need for a law he sponsored in 2012 that allows security officers to carry firearms.

How is that statement going to look if the incident turns out to be a fabrication as is suspected?

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Where is the outrage over closing the very agencies that help people find jobs in a time when jobs are scarce and the state has a budget surplus?

Roane County residents will have to go outside the county now for help with much of their career services.
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development is pulling out of 34 career centers in June “in order to continue job placement activities with fewer federal dollars,” Acting Commissioner Burns Phillips announced this week in a news release.

You know, I think that if there is any place ever that truth should be the gold standard , it would be in political campaigns. Not so, says the judge...

"Politics are politics, and it's a big boys and big girls game. That's just the way it is." says the judge...

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Let's hope the Governor vetoes this one. That and more from the Daily Buzz...

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Lame duck Congressman Scott DesJarlais says that Obamacare is collapsing and a new legal challenge will end it.

DesJarlais’ is peddling “absolute nonsense,” said Ron Pollack, head of Families USA.

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Do we need our tax money going to hired guns in our schools?

Market Street Bistro has their first edition the website up and running. If you weren't hungry already there are a bunch of pictures they posted of their excellent food.

Good food, good people.

Did these supposed "fiscal conservatives" believe that taxpayers wouldn't realize that they just passed the biggest, most bloated budget in the 217-year history of the Volunteer State?

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The Beer tax has been frozen.

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Either way TWRA seems to be saying we probably don't have have a mountain lion and probably do have a bear in the Roane State Community College area. This should be fairly easy to determine if the right person gets a look at the "crime scene". I know it's grusome to some but I would like to see photos of the wounds these animals suffered. Here's a mountain lion track to give you something to compare to the track they show. I would think there would have to be a number of other tracks as well.

The video is here:

The new issue is out.

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Every corner of the TVA closet we look in turns up more dust monsters...

TVA spent much of the five-hour Atlanta meeting with NRC acknowledging the utility's mistakes in making flooding calculations and owning up to a culture of complacency about potential natural disasters.

But hey, everything is fixed now so you can trust us to keep you safe...Really!
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Tara ran the marathon and was a half mile from the finish when the first bomb went off. Jack was a few blocks away as well.

WATE

Three Roane Countians had applied. Anyone know who made the cut?

...the next city manager would receive a salary of about $75,000, depending on experience and background. Expertise in engineering and overseeing utilities would be a plus in the selection process, (Mayor Beets) said.

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This is weird but I hope it gets the attention it deserves until it is resolved. I have to wonder if there are no security cameras at that spot? It is a nuclear facility after all.

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The Daily Buzz

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Perp not caught.

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Senator Corker, R- Rationalization

Snark Bites

On Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 6:00pm, the Kingston Public Library will host a book reading and signing with Dr. James B. Hunt, author of the book Restless Fires: Young John Muir’s Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf in 1867–68. Muir passed through Roane County on his journey. This event is free and open to the public. More information at the Kingston Public Library.

Incidentally this board seems to focus on the exact area of expertise of ousted TVA Board Member Dr. Marilyn Brown.

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Gerald Largen has a decent write up in the RCN on the silly and unconstitutional Ag Gag bill but Bruce VanWyngarden makes a good point as well. With a $200 million budget surplus already in the bank, why are we cutting $2.3 million from Meals on Wheels? How heartless has this state become?

The Daily Buzz

Tonight at Market Street. This is going to be fun and good.

An interview and a link to their newest cd after the click...

Historian Dan Pierce will discuss his upcoming book “Corn from a Jar: Moonshining in the Great Smoky Mountains” from 3:30-5 p.m. April 24 in the City Room at Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge campus, 701 Briarcliff Ave.

Presented by Roane State’s Arts and Lectures Committee, the event is free and open to the public.

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