The U.S. Postal Service announced today they are closing up to 229 facilities and reducing their workforce by 28,000 employees. The first phase of 140 consolidations is underway and will be completed by February 2013. Another 89 facilities will be affected "unless circumstances change." They are also scaling back overnight delivery of first-class mail.

Here's the announcement...

List of first 140 facilities...

(The three Tennessee facilities on the list are in Clinton, Jackson and Memphis.)

The League of Women Voters of Knoxville/Knox County released a statement endorsing the Knox County Schools budget increase. Their statement lists the reasons for their support based on facts sourced from Knox Co. Schools, Metro Pulse, and the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. Press release after the jump...

Josh Stearns: Hindsight Journalism

Some of the blame for the rise in hindsight journalism can be laid at the feet of journalists who have gotten too cozy with the the powerful, or too embedded within the industries they are supposed to be covering. In these cases, the hard questions aren't being asked ahead of time because doing so would risk a journalist’s access or imperil some sense of false objectivity.

In reality though, we should look at the overall culture of newsrooms, not at individual journalists. A key factor in the rise of hindsight journalism is structural, rooted in job cuts and budget cuts. ... It is risky for a newsroom to invest in a story that might go nowhere. There are no page views in the hypothetical. The FCC Information Needs of Communities report touches on how this has "shifted power away from citizens to government and other powerful institutions, which can more often set the news agenda." Instead of breaking news, our newsrooms are too often waiting for news to happen and then trying to explain it.

Or worse, waiting for the perpetrators to issue an easily copied and pasted press release that explains it. Thousands of lonely voices in the dark around the internet aren't going to be of much help either, when the perpetrators also own the front page and the airwaves.

There's a lot of proactive journalism that could be happening but isn't. Corporate special interests and their corrupt government enablers are making social and economic justice, environmental protection and basic fair dealing in business and government quaint notions of the past. Where are the watchdogs to sound the alarm?

(By way of @bobstep)

You know we can see you, right?

Sanctioning Corruption in the US Senate
Lisa Rosenberg, Sunlight Foundation

Turning logic on its head, the Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act of 2011 embodies the theory that maintaining the secrecy of dark money political contributions made by those seeking huge federal contracts somehow protects the integrity of the contracting process.

Too add to the absurdity of the vote, the bill is a response to a phantom. The bill blocks disclosure that would result from an Executive Order mandating transparency by federal contractors. An Executive Order that was never issued. Ever fearful of disclosure, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Independent Business and their ilk flexed their muscles to preempt any transparency of dark money that has resulted from the Citizens United case.

Gartner reports that while first quarter worldwide mobile device sales declined by 2% as compared to a year ago, sales topped a whopping 419 million units.

Samsung (86.5 million units sold) claimed the top manufacturer spot from Nokia (83.1 million units), which had held the lead since 1998. Apple (33.1 million) rounded out the top three. Motorola came in 8th at only 8.3 million units, behind RIM with 9.9 million.

Android dominated mobile OS sales with 81 million units, or 56% of the market. iOS was a distant second at 33.1 million, and increased its market share from 17% to 22%. Microsoft is a footnote.

Click here for the report with tables and some interesting analysis...

Tom Humphrey reports that Haslam has declined to sign the anti-Agenda 21 resolution.

According to his staff, "The governor doesn't support Agenda 21, but he didn't feel compelled to and isn't required to take any action on the resolution."

So I guess it isn't really a meaningless gesture. It's hypocritical.

Facebook is expected to make their IPO debut on NASDAQ tomorrow (symbol FB) at a price of up to $38. Depending on the final price (and how they cook their books), their P/E will be somewhere in the range of 80 to 100. They hope to raise $15 billion on a float of approx. 400 million shares.

This puts Facebook's market cap at approx. $100 billion or more. To put that in perspective, Facebook is:

• Bigger than McDonald's
• Two and a half times bigger than Ford
• Bigger than FedEx and UPS combined
• Bigger than Kraft Foods and General Mills combined
• Bigger than Boeing and Lockheed Martin combined

This is insanity. Bonus: Zuckerberg will control 57.3% of shareholder votes, meaning he's answerable to nobody.

Chicken lovers camp out for Bearden Chick-Fil-A grand opening

After getting gerrymandered out of his seat and considering a run in Washington State, Dennis Kucinich is throwing in the towel. In a statement just released, he says:

"After careful consideration and discussions with Elizabeth and my closest friends, I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress. My commitments to peace, to workers' rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office.

I will complete my service in the U.S. House on January 2, 2013, with the same passion and devotion to duty with which I began it on January 3, 1997. And when I do, I shall think of you and all those who have given me encouragement to continue to be of service, and I will smile, knowing that we shall meet again in our celebration of the potential of citizen activists to change the world."

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME MORE PRINCESS MUSIC?

Take the Staples reading speed test and compare your reading speed to national averages.

Ijams Nature Center is hosting Moving into Nature Saturday, May 19 from 1PM to 4PM. The family event features free bike and canoe rentals, nature hikes with Ijams naturalists, wildlife sanctuary programs, the Fairy House and Gnome Home Building Competition, music and more. The Ijams Nature Center is located at 2915 Island Home Avenue in South Knoxville. The event is free and open to the public ($10 construction fee for the Fairy House and Gnome Home Building Competition).

I've read Knox County's brief in the Breeding case and find it a little disturbing, given what I saw and heard at the last Election Commission meeting when that body voted NOT to decide the issue themselves, but to send it on to a judge for a declaratory judgment. There were to be no arguments, with as many stipulated facts as possible.

At the time, I spoke to both Joe Jarret and David Buuck, and Buuck gave me a copy of a 1994 annexation lawsuit he had argued (successfully) before the state Supreme Court. One of the issues in the case was residency, and the judge went to some length to say that curtilage is to be considered when determining residency -- i.e. the yard, driveway, garage, mailbox, chicken coop, outhouse, etc -- NOT just the footprint of the actual house. It struck me as interesting and ironic that Buuck, the newly-appointed deputy law director, believed that Breeding would prevail. Jarret agreed, as did several other attorneys I spoke with that day. Buuck, who is an exceedingly nice guy, had a copy of the case in his hand, which he very kindly let me have.

Imagine my surprise today when I read the Knox County Election Commission's brief, which argues that the Topside Road case (Buuck's annexation case) isn't relevaant. It also argues against Breeding's being a resident of Knox County.

What the hay?

I called Buuck and he said that he and Jarret were being instructed in this matter by Cliff Rodgers and state election coordinator Mark Goins. I said I found that odd, since neither of them are members of the Knox County Election Commission, and not parties to the case. Rodgers has also proclaimed repeatedly that he is neutral in this matter.

Buuck said that as a practical matter, they cannot convene a meeting of the EC every time they have a question, and that since the EC was merely following Goins' recommendation when they voted (on a party line, 3-2 vote) to send the case on chancery court, Goins was who they should talk to. Not sure of Rodgers' role in this.

He also said that the law director was obliged to find something to argue about or else the judge would just throw out the case because there is no dispute.

His arguments are reasonable, I guess, and as I said above, David Buuck is a helluva decent guy. But it still seems weird to me. Weird from the get-go.

Breeding's going to get screwed.

Lots and lots about clashes erupting in TN.

(The TN chapter of StudentsFirst, which claims to have provided "a political firewall of support for legislators who have continued to back a controversial 2010 law (on)...teachers' and administrators' evaluations," has as many lobbyists on the Plaza these days as TEA has? Didn't know that...)

Released last month and online at the Department of Education's site just last week, the Tennessee Charter Schools Annual Report 2011 gives the starkest look yet at how a growing number of charter schools statewide is fueling economic resegregation within the state's public school system.

A two-page list of the state's 40 existing charter schools broken down by school system (pdf pages 19 and 20) reveals that the resegregation trend is most evident within the school system to have hosted the largest number of charter schools for the longest period, namely Memphis.

I had to call AT&T to change something on our business phone lines the other day. Normally I refuse to listen to their pitches for this or that or the other, but I wasn't busy so I did. They convinced me to sign up for a flat rate long distance plan on a one year renewable contract that will save us 50% or more some months, plus lower the monthly per-line fee.

Yesterday I called Charter to drop some premium channels we never watch. They went over my bill, and discovered I was paying too much for internet service. Their new pricing is $10 less per month for 20% more bandwidth. Not sure why they don't just automatically upgrade you. Then I let them talk me into a two year contract bundle that reduced our total cable+internet bill by nearly half (counting the dropped channels, so it's probably more like 35% to 40%, but you can't really figure out how they charge for anything.)

With all the competition (like IP phones for AT&T, satellite TV for Charter), it appears both companies are concerned about customer retention and wanting to lock you in for a longer term at a better price.

I also switched our provider for virtual auto-attendant and voicemail on our business lines. Our long-time provider charged a lot but was reliable. Unfortunately they had been going downhill, including a recent massive outage and poor response. I shopped around and got a new service (VirtualPBX.com) that has more features and appears to save us about 80% per month (we'll see if there are any hidden charges and gotchas). Hopefully they won't be too flaky.

The Internet Society in the first Internet Hall of Fame induction recognized Internet leaders from nine different countries, including one Nobel Prize Winner, one Royal Knight and two Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. Vint Cerf, Leonard Kleinrock, Lawrence Roberts, and Robert Kahn are some of the Internet founders included in the Internet Society Pioneers Circle.

RoaneViews:

"Because of the mild winter our forecasts for costs were higher than we initially planned and we credited some of those savings to the monthly fuel cost adjustment charges in February, March and April," Brooks said. "The fee for our fuel costs in June is more reflective of our actual costs."

By way of Tom Humphrey, the state has launched a new online jobs database at www.jobs4tn.gov. Look pretty good. According to the press release, it lists job openings "placed directly by Tennessee employers, from corporate Internet sites, and from major job search engines."

ALEC held a national conference in Charlotte last week. Common Cause obtained thousands of documents outlining ALEC's agenda, including state legislation they plan to promote across the country.

Needless to say, there's some interesting stuff.

For example, under "education," there's a model bill ("District and School Freedom Act") that would require states to exempt local school districts, including charter schools, from state regulations if it would help the local schools "operate more efficiently."

Under "environment," there's a model bill ("Intrastate Coal and Use Act") that would exempt coal mining operations within a state from federal regulations.