From the Daily Kos Political Roundup:

TN-Sen: Andy Ogles, the former head of the state chapter of the Koch Brothers-affiliated group Americans for Prosperity, recently announced he will mount a Republican primary challenge against Sen. Bob Corker, and he has already secured the support of one influential Tennessee Republican. Wealthy businessman Lee Beaman announced that he plans to form a super PAC and raise $4 million to support Ogles' candidacy, meaning Ogles should have plenty of cash if he can capitalize on his connections to the Koch donor network and if Beaman's plan bears fruit.

Beaman had reportedly wanted state Sen. Mark Green to challenge Corker a few months ago, and while Green said in August he wouldn’t run, he stated just last week that he was "seriously considering it." However, Beaman has apparently either decided that Green won’t jump in after all, or he has just moved on to Ogles. Corker himself still hasn't decided on whether to seek a third term in this dark-red state, but said last week that he'll make up his mind "very soon."

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III today expressed in a letter to credit reporting firm Equifax his deep concern that the personal information of over 3 million Tennessee residents has been stolen by unauthorized individuals, leaving consumers vulnerable to identity theft and financial loss. In doing so, he added his voice to those of several other attorneys general who recently wrote to Equifax with similar concerns.

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Tomorrow morning at 6:50 am take the kids outside and tell them to look west. The huge light that flies up from the horizon and across the sky will be the International Space Station.

Time: Tue Sep 19 6:50 AM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 54°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 10° above SSE

Tennessee state and local governments provide more than $2.5 billion in subsidies such as grants, tax breaks and tax credits to businesses each year, but there’s often little public information provided on whether the taxpayer money is working to produce promised jobs.

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Shiver Me Timbers! Tennessee Pirate Fest is on the Horizon!

The second annual Tennessee Pirate Fest is on the horizon. This regional daytime family-friendly costume-play event is being produced by Darkhorse Entertainment, LLC, and will be held at the Tennessee Medieval Faire site in Harriman--just 30 miles west of Turkey Creek. Patrons will feel transported to the fictional town of Port Royale in the Tortugas, circa 1700-1800’s.

The Pirate Fest will be held on October 7 & 8, from 11am-6pm ET--rain or shine. Ticket prices are $16 for ages 13+, $8 for ages 5-12, and will be free for ages 4 and under. Parking is free, and tickets may be purchased with cash or credit at the ticket house on show days. Patrons are encouraged to bring cash for their convenience.

The festival is located at 550 Fiske Road, Harriman, TN (about 1 mile Southeast of Hwy 27). Festival rules exclude sharp weapons or loaded guns (stage weapons must be sheathed and zip-tied), pets (service animals only), outside food or drinks, visibly intoxicated persons, and onsite patron camping. For a list of local accommodations, please visit (link...). For more information, please visit www.TNPirateFest.com, call 865-248-8414, or “Like” them on Facebook.
Get Your Pirate On!

The space craft will be sent to a fiery doom in the atmosphere of Saturn. Left alone it could crash into one of Saturn's moons and possibly contaminate their potentially life bearing surfaces and oceans. The last images will take 86 minutes to beam back to Earth and will take a couple of days to process. Cassini has sent back spectacular images and priceless scientific data about Saturn, the most fascinating planet in our solar system.

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Here is the free e book of Cassini images from NASA: (link...)

I'm ready to be done with Irma, so, Yeah, I'm a science geek. Check out the names scientists have given to places on Jupiter:

Dalmatian Zone/Eye of Odin
Dark Eye/STB Ghost East End
Coolest Place on Jupiter
Renslow/Hurricane Rachel

Now go there: (link...)

Yes, this is long. But, the Southern Environmental Law Center has put together an excellent response to TVA's move to cut the public's right to speak out on significant environmental actions by TVA.

But we have beautiful weather for Muirfest today!

In addition to some great music and ecology walks and talks, we'll release 2600 of these babies. Kids of all sizes can release a fish. We'll start at 2 and be done by 2:45 if all goes well.

Great presentations and music starts at 3 and goes to 7:30:

JASON ESKRIDGE, Jay Clark and the Tennessee Tree Beavers, Outta the Blue!

Bring camp chairs or blankets for the music.

It's all FREE!

Thanks to the Fisheries Division at TWRA for setting up the lake sturgeon release at Muirfest Saturday Sept 9. We'll be at the cove bridge and plan to release all 2600 sturgeon starting at 2 PM. We hope a lot of kids (of all ages) will come out and personally release a sturgeon which could grow to 6 feet long, weigh 200 pounds and live for over half a century in Watts Bar Lake.

Tennessee Uncharted sturgeon release

Previously on RoaneViews

With Harvey on track to be the most expensive natural disaster to ever hit the USA, Hurricane Irma has strengthened faster than observers expected and is already a category 3 hurricane.

(The National Hurricane Center) said it was too early to know what impact Irma could have on the Bahamas and United States, where there are no warnings or watches currently in effect.

"Regardless, everyone in hurricane-prone areas should ensure that they have their hurricane plan in place, as we are now near the peak of the season," the NHC said.

After my first trip to Japan a friend asked me what I saw? The main thing I noticed was the lack of fat people and that the old folks were really active and healthy. They live an average of 7 years longer than we Americans do and then tend to decline for 6 months and pass on. It shouldn't take a study to prove that a healthy lifestyle improves your old age but now we have one. It may not get much play on the corporate media because living healthy does not make money for the healthcare industry.

...Greater distances walked and better-quality diet were associated with a relative compression of the disabled period. Obesity was associated with a relative expansion of the disabled period. Smoking was associated with a shorter life and fewer years of able life.

"We discovered that by improving lifestyle, we can postpone death, but even more so, we can postpone disability -- in fact, it turns out that we're compressing that disabled end-of-life period to a shorter timeframe," said Dr. Anne Newman, senior author of the study. "This clearly demonstrates the value of investing in a healthy lifestyle."

I have to go for a long hike now, because I can't give up bacon.

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Average life span in the wild: Males, 55 years; females, 150 years

Size: 6.5 ft (2 m)

Weight: Up to 200 lbs (90 kg)

Did you know? The lake sturgeon is often called a "living fossil," part of a family of fish that has existed for more than 135 million years.

Check out TWRA's excellent web page on the Lake Sturgeon right HERE

Harvey’s rain and high winds will continue to impact Tennessee today. Areas of West Tennessee have reported up to 9” of rain in some locations. Davidson County in Middle Tennessee indicates 8” to 9” of rain since yesterday. East Tennessee will also experience Harvey’s heavy rains and high winds today. Flash flood watches and high wind advisories are to remain in place today as flash flooding and winds above 35 mph are expected.

Currently, 18,000 people area without power in Davidson, Montgomery, and Shelby counties. Overnight peak power outages across Tennessee totaled 40,000 customers.

More than 20 school systems are closed today due to weather conditions.

Via Humphrey

I haven't had time to really dig into this but TVA wants to drastically cut back the public's ability to have input into its activities that affect our communities. This action was taken at the recommendation of its "business" departments with no input from its environmental sections, a huge red flag to me.

We in Roane County might remember that TVA doesn't have a great track record in letting the business department make environmental decisions. The TVA ash disaster that still holds this county back economically was caused by a decision to "save" 4 million dollars, ultimately costing TVA rate payers $1.4 Billion and the people of Roane County over half a billion in lost property values.

Here's a few links:

http://sierraclub.org/…/tva-proposes-exclude-much-what-they…
http://sierraclub.org/…/2017-07-31_FACT%20SHEET_TVA%20Propo…

Charter schools want the files of kids in public schools so they can recruit them. The state school board has ordered schools to give them information on our kids. Memphis and Nashville are standing up to them.

Anna Shepherd said Nashville’s board has no problem with sharing information for students already enrolled in state-run charter schools. She took issue, however, with operators who use the information to recruit students now zoned to the district’s low-performing schools.

Shelby County leaders concurred, saying that using student information for recruitment goes against the intent of the state law. The Memphis board also authorized its legal team to submit its argument in writing if Nashville’s board opts to file a lawsuit over the issue.

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The front page actually represents Roane County in a way that shows us as a great place to live.

Cheryl Duncan's editorial on Chuck Flieschmann's refusal to hold town meetings is worth the price of the paper. It's quite refreshing to have a thoughtful writer making sense...a good counterpoint to Flo Charles' Republican Jesus blather and nonsense.

Roane County News

“A hurricane in its own right is bad, but a hurricane with five to seven days worth of rain over the same area, I know it’s going to be a significant disaster,” he said. “This is your life. This is your family’s life. This is not a time to gamble with both.”

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Who writes this stuff? Better yet, who believes this stuff?

"This modest rate increase recognizes the need for TVA to continue to build on the financial and operational performance improvements we have made over the past three years...It will allow us to more effectively deal with a rapidly changing industry while lowering debt levels that directly affect our ability to continue to provide energy at the lowest feasible cost.”

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Tom Humphrey notes this gem from the Times Free Press as well:

"With staffing already at its lowest level ever, the Tennessee Valley Authority expects to continue trimming workers and consolidating its headquarters here into a single office as the demand for its power stagnates."

So demand is dropping so TVA needs to raise rates?

I didn't set up any fancy equipment and there are lots better photos out there. I still think this is a fun shot.

The moon shadow rolls across the Tennesee Valley.

This was WhitesCreek's very first post:

August 19, 2007

Be Progressive.

Be Useful.

And be Nice...Or else!

We've done our best to comment on happenings of community interest that help us improve. We've also tried to let folks contribute if they actually have value to add to the conversation. We've tried to be sticklers for truth.

RoaneViews is entirely internally funded with no commercial interests. It would not exist without the stalwart efforts of RNeal at KnoxViews.com, whose calm and reasoned voice we admire immensely and whose technical expertise keeps us alive.

Thank you to you who come here for a part of your day.

WhitesCreek

The white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, showed us that homegrown terrorists are emboldened by the wink and nudge tactics of some legislators. James Alex Fields, 21, drove his car into a crowd of counter-demonstrators — killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Remember this:

In Tennessee, State Sen. Bill Ketron and State Rep. Matthew Hill backed legislation to shield drivers who plow into protesters from civil suits. That was shortly after a driver did just that in Nashville during a Black Lives Matter protest.

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Thank You!

Roane County Schools will be closed on August 21 for the eclipse. Students will be given viewing glasses, courtesy of the Roane County Highway Department, on Friday the 18th for use at home during the event. Students are encouraged to bring five empty aluminum cans to school on Friday to donate to the recycling project between the school system and highway department.

I don;t know what the clouds are going to do but this is awesome, every time I see it!

Time: Fri Aug 11 9:31 PM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 53°, Appears: 23° above NNW, Disappears: 24° above ESE