Sandra Clark reports that 1st District School Board member and candidate for reelection Gloria Deathridge has health issues that "might make it difficult for her to serve a four-year term."

Sandra Clark's report...

Our thoughts and best wishes go out to Ms. Deathridge for her peace and wellbeing.

From Yahoo ...

In 2012, California Senate Bill 1234 created the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act, which would be available to private sector employees. This currently is in the study phase.
Also in 2012, Massachusetts passed House Bill 3754, which allowed the state treasurer and receiver general to establish a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), which could be adopted by nonprofit employers for their employees.
In May of this year, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced the creation of a task force to study retirement security for private sector workers.

"States are beginning to recognize that there's a crisis," says Hank Kim, executive director and counsel with the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. They can try to address the challenge now, or wait until millions of baby boomers hit retirement without the resources they need and turn to social service agencies for help, he adds.

State retirement plans for the private sector

From the NY Times …

Banks and private equity firms searching for high-yield investments have fueled a boom in subprime auto loans to buyers who can’t afford them, including those who recently filed for bankruptcy

No Credit? No Problem

For the second quarter, U.S. Senate candidate Terry Adams raised $23,160 (including a $3,600 loan) and spent $31,302. In total, the campaign has raised $88,858 (including $8,100 in loans) and spent $78,454. Adams had $10,507 cash on hand as of June 30.

In comparison, Lamar Alexander raised $917,137 in the second quarter, spent $623,840, and ended the quarter with $3,411,680 cash on hand. His total receipts for this election cycle are $6,051,550, and he has spent $3,810,357 so far.

UPDATE: Notable supporters include Bill Freeman, Sid Gilreath, Walt Grayson, Doug Horne, Victor Jernigan, Gloria Johnson, Mike McWherter, Olan Mills, Cortney Piper, Buzz Goss, Charles Bone, Bill Owen, and Bob Tuke.

You might want to tune in to (link...) 94.3.

Four great kids– Adam Hasan, Thomas Mitchell, Ethan Young and Kenny Ye – who've gotten involved in KCS school issues will be on at 7 a.m. They'll be worth a listen.

Because Gov. Haslam (and Real Gov. Ramsey) will get to appoint their replacements.

Jason Emert is really pulling out the negative stops in his bid to unseat our successful and popular incumbent, Gloria Johnson. We received several of his attack mailings last week and there were two more in the mail today. One of them is totally negative and only tries to whip up enough misdirected hate to vote against Rep. Johnson. The other is equally negative on one side, but presents Mr. Emert on the other, as he is quoted to state, "Obamacare will not come to Tennessee on my watch. ..." (It also states that Emert is "Fighting Medicaid Expansion...")

If I may: OK, then.

This level of negative campaigning should be enough to disqualify anyone, but could he possibly be so misinformed himself as to think that Obamacare is not already our law? Or is Emert just banking on his voters being as ignorant as he claims to be?

If voters think Obamacare is not yet the law here, they must not have a problem with living under it. Who's going to break it to them that Emert takes them for fools?

Knox Co. sent out a press release today saying that a Halls greenway project is being stalled by "state bureaucracy and a complaint by the Tennessee Clean Water Network."

I don't know anything about this, but it sounds like TDEC (suprise!) and the TCWN are doing their job. Also, who is TTC Halls, LLC, and how did they get hold of the land and what was their deal to protect the wetlands involved?

Anyway, it sounds like there is more to this story, and blaming conservation organizations for bureaucratic snafus is not the way to go. Working out the issues and complying with state conservation laws might be a better approach.

Press release from the county after the break...

Today's Knoxville News Sentinel has yet another misleading full page ad for "Vault Bags loaded with rarely seen US. Government issued coins" for only $59 plus shipping and handling.

According to the ad, the bags are "loaded with nearly a quarter pound of rarely seen Indian Head coins dating all the way back to the early 1900s." Because collectors are "hoarding" the vault bags, there's a limit of 10 per customer.

The ad features a photo of a buffalo nickel. A nickel weighs 5 grams. A "vault bag" loaded with "nearly a quarter pound" of buffalo nickels would have about 20 nickels, with a face value of $1.00.

According to this site, the collector value ranges from 25 cents up to $3600 (rare, uncirculated), depending on date, mint, rarity and condition.

I'm guessing most of the coins in this $59 "vault bag" will be closer to the 25 cent value, making it worth about $5.00. But who knows? You might get lucky!

Anyway, I still don't get why the News Sentinel accepts these ads. Moreover, I don't get why state Attorney Generals aren't cracking down on them.

Here's what the BBB has to say about a similar offer from the same outfit.

PREVIOUSLY:

KNS advertising free bags of money!
Amazing breakthrough: Free TV!
Predatory KNS ad targets seniors

Yes, the same dynamic group that had you dancing in the aisles last July, is coming back! C. Vaughn Leslie is bringing his group "Boy's Night Out" back to the Princess for The Tony Mason Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser!

The Blount County Sheriff's Office has created a new website for US 129/The Dragon safety awareness.

The Sheriff's Office began concentrated patrols in this area because of the extremely high number of complaints from citizens and the increasing number of injuries and deaths due to crashes.

Be careful out there. For those of you just wanting to do a little sight-seeing to Fontana, Calderwood, Cheoah, and Santeetlah, be aware of the dangers of a driving on US 129 along with the motorcyclists who think it is a racetrack for their pleasure.

Early voting for the August 7th county general and state primary elections are underway. Here's a recap of actively campaigning Democrats on the ballot:

State Democratic Primary:

Governor: John McKamey (KnoxViews questionnaire)
U.S. Senate: Terry Adams
U.S. Senate: Gordon Ball (KnoxViews questionnaire)
U.S. House 2nd District: Bob Scott
Tennessee Senate 7th District: Cheri Siler (KnoxViews questionnaire)
Tennessee House 13th District: Gloria Johnson
Tennessee House 15th District: Joe Armstrong

Knox County General Election:

Circuit Court Judge, Division Two: Harold Wimberly, Jr.
Circuit Court Judge, Division Four: Daniel Kidd
Chancellor, Division Two: Daryl R. Fansler
Criminal Court Judge, Division Three: Leland Price
County Clerk: Mike Padgett
Trustee: Jim Berrier (KnoxViews questionnaire)
General Sessions Judge, Division Three: George Underwood

State Democratic Party Executive Committee:

Senate District 5 Committeeman: Richard Dawson
Senate District 5 Committeewoman: Dixie Damm
Senate District 5 Committeewoman: Beth Hickman
Senate District 6 Committeeman: Cameron Brooks
Senate District 6 Committeeman: Michael Leon Daugherty
Senate District 6 Committeewoman: Sylvia Woods
Senate District 7 Committeeman: Mark Harmon
Senate District 7 Committeeman: Bill Owen
Senate District 7 Committeewoman: Kim Webber

US states with higher minimum wages gain more jobs

The 13 U.S. states that raised their minimum wages at the beginning of this year are adding jobs at a faster pace than those that did not, providing some counter-intuitive fuel to the debate over what impact a higher minimum has on hiring trends.

As the article notes, "the figures are encouraging, though they acknowledge they don't establish a cause and effect."

I've been trying to decide my favorite Garner role but I gave it up.

We are poorer for his passing.

Via SPEAK - Want to be more informed about which educational requirements are mandated by the state and which ones are under local control?
What: Public meeting to discuss education policy
Where: Central High School
When: Tuesday July 22nd at 6:30pm
Who: Deputy Education Commissioner Kathleen Airhart, State Representatives Gloria Johnson and Harry Brooks

Well Funded Conservative Group’s Secret Game Plan for Williamson County Schools

This decent dig with 15 footnotes and primary doc references was made by "williamson secrets" at medium on an effort to remove the current superintendent of education in Williamson county, Dr. Mike Looney. Williamson county might ring a bell as folks may recall that KCS lost Donna Wright to WCS in 2012 where she was an assistant superintendent. She is currently director of schools in Wilson county.

Writing Tuesday in eery tones, Davis also instructs the group that the “ugly stuff should be done privately and kept out of the press”. Davis is also considering how to involve Breitbart, the infamous conservative action group that was involved in the scandals of Anthony Weiner, Shirley Sherrod, the ACORN group, and the Friends of Hamas.

The core of the activist group includes Rep. Glen Casada, the 6 candidates for the School Board including Susan Curlee and Beth Burgos, Debbie Deaver, Tiffany and Chris Borgelt (an executive for a local company that outsources jobs offshore), as well as Jean Barwick executive director for the Williamson County Republican Party.

Interesting happenings in middle Tennessee with respect to education. This coming Tuesday in Nashville the Charles Koch Institute will hold an education forum "Education Opportunities: A Path Forward for Students in Tennessee".

Panelists are Jonathan Butcher, education director of the Goldwater Institute; Stephanie Linn, state programs and government relations director of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice; Justin Owen, president and CEO of the Beacon Center of Tennessee; and Steve Perry, principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School, a Connecticut-based charter school.

The Federal Election Commission filing deadline for second quarter campaign finance reports was July 15th. I've been waiting for the Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate reports to show up on the FEC website, and waiting and waiting.

I looked at their FAQs and learned that Senate candidates are not required to file electronically. They can file paper reports, which the FEC must manually enter into their database. I did not know this.

According to their map Knoxville, Tn will become like Pharr, Tx

From Yahoo...

A new report spells out precisely what rising temperatures will feel like by century's end in 1,001 U.S. cities—if nothing is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions

This Map Shows Just How Hot Your City Will Become Thanks to Climate Change

Interactive map

From Knox County Election Commission …

Knox County State Primary and County General Election Sample Ballot

What's missing in this picture? Answer in comments...