Live blogging:

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A personal observation: How awful would it be to plan to delay some of these items to the 2010 ballot, to take effect in 2014? We could salvage anti-nepotism, conflict of interest policies (I want to see a stronger proposal here!), returning the petition to earlier rules, Board of Education alignment, and even getting an Inspector General. Likely the 2008 petition drive for the others would fail, but we'd get a break-out vote of the most urgent reforms.

I am trying to update, but city county bldg network keeps hijjacking my browser to city of knoxville page!!

$840K cleared. More after the jump...

Contrary to local talk show, p-card audit not yet received by the Mayor's office. More after the jump...

As Mark was switching his university hat for his commission binder I managed to get a summary from him of what we can expect of this evenings county commission meeting. We have a bet on how long this meeting will go tonight. I say it will go on past 10:00 and he says they will be done by 8:30.

(I take full responsibility for any editorializing contained in thisentry.)

Zoning starts at 4:00 pm and will include a request by Butler Homes for a zoning change to 6.5 units per acre/area. The Briarglen Homeowners Association is opposing this change. Apparently there is also some slope protection also at issue.

Commission will be electing a new Chair and Vice Chair. The local Sunday shows and the KNS have all predicted this to go to Tank Strickland, especially after the outstanding job he did during the appointment process. Apparently there have already been Committee assignments because I found this on the Commission website: Link...

The Commission agenda is here,
Link..., and the zonings are the last 4 pages. The biggest issue on the agenda is the Knox County, One Question, charter amendments listed under ordinances. Expect at least one commissioner (guess who?) to offer many ways to re-word some of them which may water them down to nothing or introduce the “poison pill” in order to insure their demise.

There may be an attempt to add some items to the agenda and there may be discussion on the pending audits.

The City and UT will officially open the new Second Creek greenway on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 2 p.m. The ceremony will take place near the Bridgeview Grill on Neyland Drive. I don't know how many of you have had a chance to see this, but it is very nice and provides an important connector between World's Fair Park and the Tennessee River. The City and UT worked together on this and it, along with the improved Third Creek Greenway, The James White and Morningside Greenway provides important improved connectivity in the core of the city. It is worth a bike ride when you have the chance.

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The Knoxville News Sentinel had a bold headline on the front page of today's local section proclaiming "Electronic exchange of patient info close" with the sub heading "AT&T and Tenn. create system for accessing, sharing medical records." The opening paragraphs state:

AT&T Inc. is partnering with Tennessee to provide the country's first statewide system to electronically exchange patient medical information, the telecommunications company will announce today.

The system is designed to securely transmit detailed patient information between medical professionals.

It will allow doctors to access medical histories, prescribe medicines over the Internet and transfer images like X-rays, MRIs and CT scans.

The problem is that the system is not a medical records system and it does not manage patient histories or medical imaging as one might conclude from reading the article.

Instead, if you read closely it says that the system allows "exchange" and "access" and is designed to "securely transmit" information. That's all it does, as far as I can tell. But what do you expect from a cut and paste wire report rewrite of an AT&T press release?

It's like the cable guy coming in to your home or office and setting up a broadband modem and a VPN ("virtual private network") for you and then giving you an 800 number to call if you have a problem. That's what they're selling.

Betty Bean has a retrospective about her friend and mentor Ron McMahan.

I once thought I wanted to be a journalist (until I found out how underpaid they are for how much work they do). Ron McMahan sounds like the kind of news man I would have wanted to work for.

CBS 60 Minutes ran their story last night about the alleged political persecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The Bush Administration had pressured CBS to kill it. Residents of Huntsville, Alabama, missed it completely.

WHNT-TV apologized and blamed the dark screen on a "techincal (sic) problem with CBS out of New York." CBS News denies any such problem.

WHNT is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners. Oak Hill is owned by the Bass Brothers, 'Pioneer Level' fund raisers for both Bush campaigns.

In related news, Pakistan has blocked access to You Tube. One or more videos on the site were deemed blasphemous.