A reader says she received a call last night for a lengthy survey. Topics she could recall include ACA, Medicaid in TN, gay marriage in TN, testing in schools, Hillary Clinton, Haslam, and Alexander. The call originated in Michigan.

Did anyone else get this survey? Wonder who's doing it?

What: Rep. Gloria Johnson education press conference and parent/teacher rally
When: Friday, March 14, 2014 - 4:30pm
Where: The stage at Market Square, downtown Knoxville

Rep. Gloria Johnson is holding a press conference and rally for concerned teachers and parents "opposed to recent efforts by special interest groups to profit and exploit our public school system." Rep. Johnson will discuss the "attacks on public education by special interest groups promoting vouchers, charter authorizers, high stakes testing and expensive corporate consultants." Everyone is invited.

News release after the break...

Continued...

Prominent Knoxville attorney Gordon Ball today formally announced his campaign for U.S. Senate. Ball will face Terry Adams in the August Democratic primary, and the winner will go on to face incumbent Republican Lamar Alexander in the November general election.

Gordon Ball's formal announcement is after the break...

Continued...

Our friend Toby presented a paper at the 2012 annual meeting of the South Eastern Division of the Association of American Geographers. The session was entitled "Progressive Places and Progressive Movements in the South."

The paper looks at the history of Knoxville politics as part of a discussion about urban politics and policy in Appalachian cities.

The paper: Deliberation and the Machine: Knoxville Politics Since 1975

An excerpt:

What on the surface looks like a radical shift is actually the outcome of many steps, some bigger than others, culminating in the Rogero administration declaring an era of inclusiveness in a city where class, gender, and racial tensions long dominated the political discourse. Instead of the forced outcomes of Southern Appalachian political machines, the new progressive landscape in Knoxville is born of increasing practices of deliberate democracy that have removed the specter of power politics and replaced it with pragmatic public policy oriented governance.

There's some interesting analysis. Read the whole thing.

Gordon Ball, who is formally announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate later this morning in Hartford, officially launched his "Tennessee Strong" campaign website today. Give it a look: (link...)

Gloria Johnson will be organizing a press conference/rally on Market Square Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Rally to save our PUBLIC SCHOOLS this Friday at 4;30 on Market Square! It's time to call out the Special Interest groups (Students First, Parthenon, Charter Schools USA, etc) and Privatizers who are trying to destroy public education! Join parents, teachers, students and community members at the stage on Market Square at 4:30. Bring 10 friends!

She'll be posting details tomorrow, but she got the notion to do this Monday when she couldn't be here for the Parthenon presentation.

Using a vacant building in Forks of River. Looks good.

Fresenius Medical Care will invest up to $140 million to locate its new East Coast manufacturing facility in the Panasonic building in the Forks of the River Industrial Park in Knoxville, Tennessee. The company plans to create approximately 665 jobs in Knox County during the next several years.

Fresenius Medical Care Invests $140 Million To Locate Manufacturing Facility In Knoxville, Tennessee

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Background...

Click image for bigger and a couple more

The Mrs. was by there today and took these photos. No explosions, yet anyway. (As she was taking the photos from across the street, she got trespassed off the property by a security guard. Twice.)

PREVIOUSLY: Major Announcement: South Waterfront, Baptist Hospital

What: Books Sandwiched In welcomes Mary Pom Claiborne
When: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - 12:00pm
Where: East Tennessee History Center, 601 South Gay Street

Join Mary Pom Claiborne, Knox County Public Library's own Community Relations Director, for a close look at Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the food giants hooked us by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss, Wednesday, March 19, 12:00-1:00 PM, in the East Tennessee History Center auditorium, 601 South Gay Street.

Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese and seventy pounds of sugar. Every day, we ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt, double the recommended amount, almost none of which comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food, an industry that hauls in $1 trillion in annual sales.

Continued...

The City of Knoxville has released details of the proposed food truck pilot program. There will be a public meeting tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, at the Southern Depot, 318 W. Depot Ave. to discuss. For more info, see the press release after the break, and visit:

MOBILE FOOD VENDOR PILOT PROGRAM FAQs

Continued...

And today, the walls come tumbling down.

TREE TN Voucher Bill Update

So let’s run down who is eligible to get in the voucher lifeboat. You must:

- attend a school in the bottom 10% based on test scores.
- live near, at, or below the poverty level. Unfortunately you can’t be so poor that you don’t have a car to get you to the private school since no transportation is provided.
- meet admission requirements and waive all rights to any support, even if you require special education services or are an English Language Learner.
- have parents who have the ability and motivation to navigate the voucher and private school applications. Our state leaders only want our engaged families who “create a different atmosphere” to use our education tax dollars at private schools.

It is apparent that voucher “lifeboats” are open to those able-bodied go-getters who don’t require support. Our state is contemplating taking 16 million of our state and local tax dollars to put 5,000 kids in private school “lifeboats” while leaving the other 967,600 public students to make do with scraps.

Another family caught in the coverage gap created by Gov. Haslam's refusal to stand up to Lt. (real) Gov. Ramsey and the TNGOP tea partiers on Medicaid expansion.

SACE: FPL is running an experimental reactor in a weak regulatory environment

Independent experts hired by SACE have learned that for six years, FPL has operated one of its two St. Lucie nuclear reactors (Unit 2) with a radically changed design to its steam generators that was never analyzed for its safety by its federal overseer, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Even after inspections showed serious damage to the steam generators during three different outages since 2009, the NRC gave FPL a pass every time.

Today, in the interest of the safety of the more than 1 million people living within 50 miles of FPL’s St. Lucie Unit 2 reactor, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) demanded a hearing by the NRC on design changes that may be at the root of FPL’s growing problem with its steam generators. If the NRC had been doing its job, FPL’s removal and substitutions of major safety components would have been aired six years ago.

What: Cand. Leland Price (Judge) and Jim Berrier (Trustee), 3rd/4th District Democrats Meeting
When: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - 6:00pm
Where: Bearden Branch Library, 100 Golf Club Road Knoxville TN 37919

Come hear more democratic candidates for office:

Leland Price, candidate for Criminal Court Judge Div III (link...)

Jim Berrier, candidate for Trustee (link...) (link...)

for more info:
Chris Foell (foellmc@aol.com)
Rosina Guerra (rosinag@earthlink.net)

Tom Humphrey reports:

The Tennessee Education Association recently filed a lawsuit against the Knox County Board of Education for its unconstitutional use of Tennessee Value Added Assessment System estimates in high-stakes bonus decisions.

At tonight's work session, self-proclaimed edu-business expert The Parthenon Group is to introduce to the school board its interim recommendations to "reallocate resources" within Knox County Schools.

As anticipated, those recommendations are highly objectionable, as follows:

Continued...

(link...)

To conclude, I am writing back to you because I am distressed both by your approach to micromanaging the process of speakers at UT and other universities and your failure to comprehend the consequences of your own bills, which seem to have more in common with a totalitarian nation's approach, rather than a free country's approach, to public discourse. Curiously, you claim the opposite is true, calling the current system "forced speech" and even "tyranny in action." But you, sir, are the one in the governing position. I would suggest you reconsider the language of tyranny and how it reflects on your own position in the legislature.

Sincerely,
Misty G. Anderson