This is dedicated to all those folks who are harmed by the TVA Ash Disaster.

To the Roane County Community Advisory Group

July 30, 2010

· Barges to be Used in Cool Water Intake Channel

Barges are in place inside the Kingston Fossil Plant cool water intake channel to block debris and warm surface water from entering the Plant system. Cool water is needed for the Plant’s power generating process. The barges will be used for about a month while a skimmer wall is being constructed to replace the original skimmer wall that was destroyed by the ash spill.

I will NOT support a water rate increase by Rockwood's Water Gas and Sewer Department until I am completely satisfied about how the money is spent. A workshop is being held Tuesday, Aug. 03 at 6:30pm in the City Council chambers in the City Hall. It would be nice to have some showing about how the rate payers feel about this. For every 1% increase in water, there is a 1 1/2 % increase in the sewer rates. I don't see how this SMALL increase can generate $200,000 a year as we were told. City Council does not set rates and rate increases, but we do vote on them...Thanks, Ray

I have to view the Tea Party as a political farce in the classic sense of that word. For Zach Wamp to join with loopy Congressperson Michelle Bachman in forming a Tea Party political caucus speaks of a certain understanding of Zach's bad internal poll numbers. This looks to this observer as a cynical move to pick off Ramsey supporters in hopes of not getting crushed in the GOP primary. Frankly, I like Zach personally but I can't see him as governor for reasons exactly such as this.

Weather for Costa Rica, El Salvador
- Add to iGoogle
77°F | °C
Current: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: S at 7 mph
Humidity: 83%
Thu
Chance of Storm
84°F | 69°F
Fri
Chance of Storm
84°F | 69°F
Sat
Chance of Storm
84°F | 69°F
Sun
Chance of Storm
84°F | 69°F

Compare that to this: Link...

This is irritating. If you speak with local bankers you'll hear them complaining about the lack of liquidity in the current market. This is a strong reason why the economy has been slow to recover. Here's a straight forward bill to ease liquidity for small businesses and Republicans filibuster it. Why? Because the Dems won't allow amendments on border security, estate taxes, and a move to ease restrictions on Insurance companies. Link...

Like I said, "'Tis the Season."

I keep thinking of the tax revenue lost and the number of law enforcement and incarceration dollars spent on pot and wonder if we'll ever have a rational policy in this regard? Until then, it is not worth the legal hassle and I don't understand folks taking the chances of getting busted.

Rikki gets it right:

The U.S. Fourth District overturned a federal indictment against TVA because it claimed nuisance laws, rather than decade-old Clean Air Act deadlines constituted the force of North Carolina's argument. The court said "the injunction would encourage courts to use vague public nuisance standards to scuttle the nation's carefully created" clean-air laws, so TVA need not obey those carefully created laws. Such logic is the hallmark of corporate ownership of government.

Link...

July 27, 2010

To Members of the Roane County CAG:

Due to coal trains coming into the rail yard, an ash train will need to be built across Swan Pond Road this evening beginning at around 7 p.m. It is anticipated that there will be only 6 - 8 rail crossings (3 - 4 over and back) to build the train, and the arms should not be down for more than a few minutes each time. We apologize for the inconvenience, but with the excessive heat and power demands on the system, we need to ensure an adequate supply of coal is on hand.

Roane County motorists should avoid a sinkhole on I-40 West at mile marker 344.5 just west of the Harriman exit. One lane is closed to traffic.

For more information on travel conditions across Tennessee, call 5-1-1.
Link...

Why not? We have "Blackberry Winter" don't we? It sounds better than "Global warming is going to kill us all Summer" and it tastes better too. We just did the pick your own organic blueberries at our friend's farm in Ozone and will have blue tongues for the foreseeable furture.

Want to pick your own? Email Joe and Rita at o3trail@usit.net to get info. It is totally worth it.

Even after President Obama gave the monumental concession to bipartisanship by reappointing Bill Sansom, TVA Chair during the catastrophic coal waste disaster and implicated by the Inspector General for actions during the aftermath, Republican Senators are filbustering the appointments using the "secret hold". (The secret Republicans are aparently the Senators from Alabama. Why?) This is a disgusting tactic that should be ended immediately. Republicans simply do not play well with others. They do, however, seem to follow orders very well. If only they took orders from the American people instead of corporations and lobbyists. It disgusts me even more that one of the five remaining TVA board members is Mike Duncan, whose bank is overseen by coal company executives and who is running a fifty million dollar slush fund for the Republican party.

Link...

Maybe she picks up the mantle of Daniel Schoor and others like him that have already passed on. Nah, probably not. Because she speaks truth to power and she is a woman and doesn't work for faux news.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hoping to beat the competition, he rushed to the air with Nixon's famous "enemies list" and began reading the list of 20 to viewers before previewing it. As he got to No. 17, he discovered his name.

Corker - trying to act like he's all "middle of the road":

'Whoever gets the job will have enormous power shaping the future path of the agency and what it will regulate. That's why Republicans who say they'd like to see a more "balanced" candidate are warning against "naming an activist to this position," as Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee has said.'

Balanced meaning center-right-right. The agency is named "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" after all, not the Banking Protection Bureau". That is what we have had for the previous eight years.

Elena Kagan is far more qualified than any of the Supreme Court nominees that Alexander voted for and the "personal agenda" line is offensively hypocritical, given Alexander's support for George W. Bush's personal lawyer who ramrodded the decision that overturned the recount of the 2000 vote in Florida and put Bush in the White House. What Lamar is really saying is that Kagan will actually uphold the Constitution rather than stepping to the false one Lamar has sold his soul to.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said Friday he will not support Solicitor General Elena Kagan's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying he fears she would use the federal bench to advance her own agenda instead of merely interpreting the law.

Link...

Tell me you didn't love Mamma Cass...

Swan Pond Road Opens to Traffic

Ahead of schedule, at approximately 2:30 p.m. today, Swan Pond Road was reopened to traffic. The road has been closed for utility restoration and enhancement work since July 6. We appreciate the patience of Swan Pond community residents while this work was being performed.
If you have any questions, please call Katie Kline or me at 717-1645.

Jane Greenwalt

Project Manager, Community Outreach
Tennessee Valley Authority
Kingston Ash Recovery Project
Office: 865.717.1645
Cell: 865.806.7688
jmgreenwalt@tva.gov

To the Roane County Community Advisory Group

July 22, 2010

The Roane County Sheriff's Office has created an online inmate database, which is available on the Sheriff's Office Website.

I haven't yet conclusively determined that this database is complete and fully up-to-date. Maybe someone who knows can give us that information. However, assuming it is, it will save my office time calling the jail to see whether a particular inmate has been released. I imagine I wasn't the only one calling the jail for that type of information, and that the jailers are happy to be able to refer callers to the website.

Our website has been updated check it out Link...

We are still in need of vendors (craft,church,civic groups, political parties or candidates etc...) We are also still seeking sponsors.

We are also in the process of inviting all candidates that will be on the November ballot to give stump speeches.

Any one that would like to set up a booth or be a sponsor contact Randy Ellis at:

865-335-7981

Randy Ellis
randyellis@gmail.com
865-335-7981
Link...

The storm came by Whites Creek but we didn't get much of the wind. Apparently it was stronger than we knew, flipping two big floating marina docks at the Arrowhead marina and Resort just over the Roane and Rhea County line on Watts Bar lake.

Link...

(Failing to collect sales tax on out of state sales) translates into a sizable advantage for out-of-state retailers over their in-state, brick-and-mortar competitors. A Nintendo Wii has the same base price at Amazon or Best Buy, $199.99. But buying it at a Target in San Jose, Calif., (or on the company's Web site, which Amazon happens to run) means paying Santa Clara County's 9.25 percent sales tax — an extra $18.50.

Exactly what I've been saying.

Looking for Something Different to do with the Kids?

July 30 - at 10:00am and 7:00pm, the Creative Arts Co-op is having a live Children's Mystery Theatre presentation of 'The Case of the Haunted Theate'. This 'Scooby-Doo' style performance gets everyone involved - from searching for clues to questioning the characters.

The show is at:
Creative Arts Co-op Visual & Performing Arts Center
426 Ruritan Road
Harriman

Tickets are $5.00 per person at the door.

For more information, contact th Creative Arts Co-op at 865/765-1129 or visit Link....

This is incredibly strange to me since there is no actual membership in political parties in Tennessee:

Tennessee law allows, however, for poll watchers to challenge voters if they are "not a bona fide member of political party" they are seeking to vote in.

Link...

If voters uphold the referendum passed by commissioners, the constables office will cease to exist.

I'm mixed on this one. If there were a reasonable and effective oversight of the Constable office I would be solid in the Constable's side. As it is, with no effective way to deal with rogue actors, I have to be against. This hurts me, as I know several of these people and think the world of them and their service to our county. I hope the oversight question can be resolved in the future and we return to the Constable system. What say you folks?

This is certainly not local but it does make me wonder, given the uproar regarding voting machines and the Election Supervisors lately...

Investigators are tight lipped, rumors are flying and a community is in shock by the discovery Saturday of a body that is widely believed to be Monroe County Election Commission Chairman Jim Miller, stuffed in the trunk of a burning car.

Link...

"Their secular devotion to the Constitution is an abomination of true American values," said NATIF spokesperson Sela Otts. "This nation is not founded on the Constitution; it's founded on the Constitution's Creator."

wink wink nudge nudge...

Link...