TNGOP: Another Successful Legislative Session Comes to a Close

Tennessee’s Republican leaders “presided over another successful legislative session that made state better, stronger”

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I had posted a response on my Facebook page to the KNS endorsement of my opponent, Terry Hill, in my race and sent that out some days ago to just a few media outlets, doubtful they'd care to report it anywhere.

Thanks to Mike Donilla, who did post it at Screams from the Porch earlier today, here.

(Apologies for the dorky homemade picture, heh. He grabbed that one off my LinkedIn page, where I'd been meaning to replace it with one of somebody who doesn't look like me.)

The 108th General Assembly has adjourned "sine die," meaning they are outta there and won't be back this year.

It also means Rep. Gloria Johnson can start taking campaign donations again...

The first year I covered state government, I used to go to Sen. Carl Koella's office pretty frequently just to shoot the shit. He was a fabulous storyteller and an interesting political study. Son of a very wealthy Blount County family, he was so far to the right that he sometimes went plumb round the bend and agreed with some of his most left-leaning colleagues, like his support for spending more money in inner city schools. Before it was fashionable to do so. Usually, though, I guess he was a libertarian. I believe he provided the seed money for the start up of the Tennessee Conservative Union.

Anyhow, one day I went by his office toward the end of the week, and he had a big card game going with a bunch of lobbyists. They were smoking cigars and drinking whisky and cracking on each another, and having way too good a time, when a bunch of preachers came in to see the senator.

Irritated, Carl went out into his outer office to see what they wanted.

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Local media is reporting on a man falling down a cliff near the 1000 block of Cherokee Trail in South Knoxville around 4:30AM. This is up the road from UT Hospital. Very sad and scary.

As of right now, there are three different stories as to why the man was near the cliff and fell.

WATE: "Officials at the scene say the man was camping with friends when he fell."

WVLT: The Knoxville Fire Department rescued a man Wednesday morning after he lost control while rappelling, breaking his rope and falling off an overlook.

WBIR: According to KFD Spokesman DJ Corcoran, the man and his friend had come to a lookout area near Cherokee Bluff overlooking the Tennessee River after finishing work at a west Knoxville restaurant.
As the men were standing there, one of them turned around momentarily. When he turned back around, the other man was gone.

KNS: A man is in serious condition Thursday after falling about 150 yards off Cherokee Trail where he and a co-worker had gone to see the city lights.

Best wishes that the man recovers.

Say it's temporary to get it passed then renew it indefinitely.

MSNBC ...

When the Senate comes back after its April recess, it’s slated to take up legislation that would extend $85 billion in tax breaks that would benefit everyone from NASCAR track owners and Hollywood studios to corporate multinationals. The bill includes more than 50 provisions known as “tax extenders”—tax breaks that were originally intended to be temporary, but which Congress has extended annually. It’s poised to go through the motions again and pass yet another extenders bill with strong bipartisan support, without offsetting any of the cost.

Senate clears path for corporate tax giveaways

Anyone that has attended a music show at both the Biltmore Concert venue in Asheville and the Ryman Theatre in Nashville and can offer a comparison of the two as a place to see/hear a show?

What: Knoxville Comedy Cruise
When: Friday, April 18, 2014 - 10:00pm
Where: Star of Knoxville

The monthly Knoxville Comedy Cruise in April features national touring comic Jarrod Harris from Atlanta (as seen on Comedy Central and TBS and featured online in Action Figure Therapy). Among the local opening acts will be Shane Rhyne, known to KnoxViews readers as Tennessee Values Authority.

Tickets are $15 at the dock, but can be purchased directly from Shane for $10 before the show. Contact Shane at shanerhyne@gmail.com for tickets if interested.

What: 5th District Democrats - State Sen. Candidate Cheri Siler to speak
When: Monday, April 21, 2014 - 6:00pm
Where: Farragut Library - 417 N. Campbell Station Road, Knoxville 37934

Dem State Senate District #7 candidate Cheri Siler (Campfield opponent) will speak

(link...)
(link...)

for info: Jerome Miller (millerjq@charter.net)

Elvis is back on the Princess stage April 19th (this Saturday) at 6PM.

See flier on the Princess Blog for details!

I've just received a very big honor, the national Sigma Delta Chi award for General Column Writing (small to medium size newspapers)

(link...)

In a couple months I'll be headed to the National Press Club for the awards ceremony. Wow.

From MSNBC …

The Congressional Budget Office this week lowered both the short- and long-term costs of Obamacare by billions of dollars.

A new report released Monday estimated the Affordable Care Act’s net cost for 2014 at $36 billion, $5 billion less than the past figure for the year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation and CBO. Additionally, officials anticipate an overall price tag of $1,383 billion between 2015 and 2024, $104 billion less than previous projections. Premiums through an exchange marketplace will likely be lower than first expected.

CBO lowers costs of Obamacare by billions

CBO Updated Estimates of Affordable Care Act April 2014

(link...)

Founded by Pierre Omidyar, the organization will pursue original, independent journalism that is deeply reported and researched, thoroughly fact checked, and beautifully told. We are driven above all by a belief that democracy depends on a citizenry that is not just highly informed, but deeply engaged. In all our work, we are committed to strict standards of accuracy and honesty, a willingness to report our own errors and inconsistencies as well as those of others, and a deep respect for the transformative power of true stories.

Heading to California...

Bruce Poston arrested on drug charges. TBI press release after the break...

Continued...

Tom Humphrey reports...

Knoxville attorney Gordon Ball is running for U.S. Senate in the August Democratic primary. The winner will face presumptive GOP nominee and incumbent Sen. Lamar Alexander in the November general election.

Mr. Ball was kind enough to responded to a (rather lengthy) KnoxViews questionnaire covering a wide range of issues. The questions and his responses after the break.

(Note: We also invited the Terry Adams campaign to respond. They at first expressed interest in participating, but later declined.)

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The US is an oligarchy.

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.

Walking by Hodges Library a couple of weeks ago, I noticed some progressive student activism on the promenade. Two students, representing Sex Week, were handing out condoms (made in Malaysia). Another was petitioning to have UT divest from the fossil fuel industry. That issue made news last week when Harvard students and faculty called for divestment.

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The recent debate about allowing for-profit charter operations to set up shop in Tennessee has been a heated one, but the reality is that they're already here.

“There’s not much difference in profit and nonprofits,” says Gary Miron, an education professor at Western Michigan University and a member of the National Education Policy Center in Colorado who studies and monitors charter schools...

“It’s really a scam,” Miron says of the many different scenarios that can be used. “To really follow the money, you would have to really understand the facilities companies.”

Miron is particularly wary of the real estate deals like those currently being seen in Nashville and Memphis.

Note to local journalists: The NEPC at the University of Colorado is a wonderful resource to find quality research about education policy that is not funded by the usual suspects. It is particularly good at pushing back against the excrement that flows out of think tanks and state houses.