I guess we now have to ask, what else is in all these Chinese products Wal*Mart imports that aren't being inspected?

Sandra Clark has some over at the Halls Shopper, in which she runs down the 2008 elections from top to bottom, plus an interesting prediction re. Knox Co. Mayor Mike Ragsdale. (I predict she is wrong about John Owings, but what do I know?)

Bonus: Betty Bean names her Person of the Year. Extra: Larry Van Guilder has an accounting lesson.

So, what are your predictions for 2008? Post them in comments...

This might possibly solve some problems. Being rezoned and accompanying headaches, expenses tied to bricks/mortar schools. Less need for buses, etc. Less traffic in general through week.

There would be some face time needed but could be accomplished with shift like rotation.

Link...

Maybe school systems should check with universities in state about how online classes managed. The teachers graduating recently have significant experience in online classes via their own coursework.

Storm of Controversy, Firestorm, Firestorm of Controversy, Media Storm, Media Firestorm.

Happy New Year.

The workers say their paychecks are two weeks late. The company responds they will pay the workers next week (now Jan 2.).

Later, a manager did call 6 News back and said the company promised to pay the workers no later than next Wednesday.

Employers really should not do this to their employees, contractors, etc. Back in August, 2006, they said, "Estimated at more than $30 million, the property has already sold half of its 122 units and is being touted as the cornerstone of change for South Knoxville. "

I hope this is not the foundation of what is to come for the SoKno waterfront.

Unsightly water towers, unpaid workers. What next?

As most of us remember in addition to the Market Square properties there was other “West” property that were seized by the Fed’s during the money laundering and Drug Sting’s causing the collapse of the (West Market Square Empire). There was James West’s Home Just this side of Asheville, NC a nice 4 BR 3 BA 2 Kitchen Rancher sitting on 2.25 acres purchased April 2004 for 267,000. And there was the close to 100 acres in Hawaii on the BIG Island.

It has come time that both of these properties are now up for auction.
Auction Dates:
North Carolina 176 Ridge Road Candler, NC February 12th
Hawaii Upper Maulua Homestead Road, Ninole, HI Date TBD in March

Copper, water, now trees. I never thought about having to make a record of trees on your property just in case...

"...hire an expert to place a value on the timber lost."

Link...

Here is a somber report on how the bird population is rapidly and dramatically diminishing.

Go Knights!

Cowbells and bulldogs? Pffttt... Who needs em?

How embarrassing.

Hope the victims will be okay.

UPDATE: One victim dies at UT Hospital.

UPDATE: Suspect shot and killed by KPD in Western Plaza parking lot.

UPDATE: Tests link suspect's gun to Hooters killing

The list of the projects in which the City of Knoxville is participating through Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) is now available. It can be accessed through the “City Tax Increment Financing Projects” link (PDF) in the “Development” section of the City’s Policy and Communications web page. Information is provided on the yearly city taxes before the TIF, yearly taxes collected during the TIF period, and yearly taxes that will be collected following the end of the TIF period. There is a lot of new information on the page, by the way, including links to the energy and sustainability project. Thanks for the suggestion that we include this.

Link...

From an interesting article in Mother Earth News.

Global non-renewable energy resources in terawatt/hours:

• Coal: 6,000,000
• Natural Gas: 1,500,000
• Uranium 235: 1,500,000
• Oil: 1,000,000
• Tar Sands: 800,000
• Total: 10,800,000

Global annual renewable energy sources in terawatt/hours:

• Direct Solar Radiation: 350,000,000
• Wind: 200,000
• Ocean/Thermal: 100,000
• Biofuels: 50,000
• Geothermal: 10,000
• Tidal/Wave: 5,000

According to the article, total world energy consumption in 2004 was 130,971 terawatt hours, and is projected to grow to 205,686 terawatt hours by 2030.

The article also says:

• "The total amount of energy produced by burning all the coal on the planet would only be equivalent to the solar energy that strikes the Earth every six days."

• "The entire recoverable world oil reserve is equivalent to the solar energy that strikes the Earth in one day."

• "The recoverable world reserve of fissionable uranium is equivalent to less than 1 1/2 days of the energy striking the Earth from the nuclear reaction of the sun."

I haven't been able to verify any of the author's numbers, but if they are even close it boggles the mind. You should read the whole article, and ask why we aren't seriously pursuing a distributed solar economy.

In response to an incredible outpouring of public displeasure and disgust concerning the water tower that has blighted our beautiful South Knoxville landscape, I have called a public meeting for Thrusday, January 3 at 7:00 PM. The meeting will be held at South Doyle Middle School, which is located close to the current terminus of the James White Parkway on Galbraith School Road. The meeting will be held in the library, and will go until at least 8:30 (I told the school we would be out by 9:00 at the latest). If you have any interest in this issue, or the realted problem of how to protect our ridges and hilltops from further desecration, please plan to attend.

Joe Hultquist
Knoxville City Councilman, 1st District

The first primaries are a week away. Where do the Democratic candidates stand on health care? Find out at TennViews...

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said.

Never saw this in the local news, doesn't mean it wasn't reported. The Sweetwater Valley Farms recall was on Nov. 28th. I don't know if this is the type of cheese people buy ahead for Christmas. I do know a lot of folks like to buy Sweetwater cheese because it is local.

Sweetwater Valley Farms, Inc. of Philadelphia, TN is recalling its Tennessee Aged Southern Mild Cheddar Cheese (yellow) and Tennessee Aged Southern Sharp Cheddar Cheese (yellow) because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.
...
These products were distributed between October 18, 2007 and November 26, 2007.

They had a recall just 7 days earlier for Southern Cheddar Jack Volunteer Special Cheese. Hope they get their act together.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a convincing editorial on the Fair Tax concept:

Link...

The only arguments which I have heard against the concept is that it is very regressive and harmful to those at the lowest rungs of society's economic ladder but the referenced article discusses the idea of "pre-bate" to protect the neediest.

So what are the pragmatic, rather than the ideological, arguments against the concept of the "fair tax"?

That would be interesting. I assume one entity keeps those records. Who it went to, how much, what project applied to, etc. Anyone know where that would be found?

"Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it."

That's what graduates of Idaho's Police Officer Standards and Training Academy (POST) were encouraged to do by the slogan on their graduation program.

Several new state laws go into effect next week, including the Johnia Berry act. More at TennViews...

I guess we may need the funding source in order to hand out things like $6 million TIFs.

Link...

Pupster says Season's Greetings from Grandma's house

After about 23 years, our clothes dryer has finally gone on to the big laundromat in the sky.

Our washer is only a little over 10 years old, but it is starting to show its age and grumbles about it every now and then. We were thinking of replacing the whole shebang with one of these newfangled energy efficient front loading washers and a matching dryer.

I think we've narrowed it down to LG or Whirlpool. Frigidaire is a possibility, mainly because it will fit better in our laundry room. We looked at the new energy efficient top loaders, but they aren't nearly as energy efficient and cost about the same as a front loader.

Anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?

Yoga instructor tasered in a Daytona Beach Best Buy store for cursing and yelling.

A store clerk suspects the customer is using a stolen credit card, the police are called, the customer gets quite agitated for the accusation, she is then tasered. The credit card was hers, not stolen.

Check out the video. The customer is backing up with her hands in the air. I'm beginning to believe they need to take tasers away from the police. Where's Andy Griffith when you need him?

Be careful out there.

Merry Christmas!

Post a Favorite of yours.

Mine will be in the comments

Kay Watson and news director Bill Shory worked this weekend. The result of their analysis of the HUD grant investigation is here. -- s.

Link...

Message to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy from American Lawyers Defending the Constitution

We are lawyers in the United States of America. As such, we have all taken an oath obligating us to defend the Constitution and the rule of law from those who would violate and subvert them, and to hold wrongdoers accountable.

Protect and Defend

Looks as if Derrick and Rob's FunHouseRock.com domain expired yesterday. That's the site that hosts KnoxBlab.com. Good luck getting back up and running, guys.
~m.

A TennViews "Jingle Bells" edition of the weekly sampling from some of Tennessee's best and brightest bloggers.

Two Republican candidates have cancer. The spouse of one Democratic candidate has cancer. Which has gotten the most pundit and press attention?

Elizabeth Edwards's recurrence of cancer was conventionally supposed to spell the end of her husband's candidacy, but the Edwardses decided to live the rest of her life to the fullest and hopefully for years, rather than settling down to wait for her to die.

Fred Thompson has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but the press has basically said ho-hum. I happened to channel-surf past "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" last night, and the contrast between his appearance there - playing himself only with better lines - and his skeletal appearance now was a hell of a lot more than better make-up.

Rudy spent the night in the hospital with those ubiquitous "flu-like symptoms". His spokeswoman said afterward (my emphasis):

After precautionary tests the doctors found nothing of concern at this time...

Will the press herd question this? My bet: nope.

Cross-posted from my home

Update: There's more.