The fall equinox and the first day of autumn arrives today, Monday, September 22, 2024, at 02:20 P.M. EDT in the Northern Hemisphere.

"We experience two equinoxes each year, one in March and one in September, when the tilt of Earth is such that the sun shines equally on the north and south hemispheres. During an equinox day and night boast a roughly even 12-hour duration."

"Look, I would just love it if democracy were easy."

"I believe in an America where I can change jobs and not have to worry about whether or not I could lose my health care. I believe in an America where I can have a baby and know that I won’t have to quit work to stay home, and that I will actually be able to get high-quality child care. I believe in an America that works not for a handful at the top, but that works for all of us. If you can just feel the tiniest little spark of that belief, keep it alive, get in the fight and we actually could make this happen."

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would have ordered flags lowered to half-staff following the assassination of a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker this summer had he been asked by the state’s governor. But Trump at the time refused to even call Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to express his condolences, saying it would only “waste time.”

Trump wouldn't call Minnesota governor after Democrat was slain but now blames him for raised flags

DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee celebrates 35 years in Maryville, TN, with the unveiling of a new 1,500 sq ft pavilion and arboretum in Maryville's Bicentennial Park.

Bicentennial Park is located in downtown Maryville behind the library, between Cusick St. and McCammon Ave. The arboretum will include 35 cherry trees.

Effective Jan. 1, 2026, original/traditional Medicare is testing prior approvals on selected procedures. The test is supposed to last six years.

"The federal government plans to hire private companies to use artificial intelligence to determine whether patients would be covered for some procedures, like certain spine surgeries or steroid injections."
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"Medicare plans to pay the A.I. companies a share of the savings generated from rejections."
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"The program, called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model (Wiser), is already drawing opposition from Democratic lawmakers, former Medicare officials, physician groups and others."

Residents in the following six states will be included in the initial rollout: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington.

"New Medicare Changes in 2026: Prior Approval Required for These 17 Services", but not limited to.

From Clevelan.com How to prepare for Medicare’s new prior authorization program in Ohio. The article includes "Places to contact for help."

"The new Medicare initiative would apply to claims for procedures such as steroid injections for pain management, electrical nerve stimulator implants, skin and tissue substitutes, devices for incontinence control, cervical fusion, knee arthroscopy, and treatment for impotence", but not limited to.

On Friday, August 8, 2025, a man with multiple weapons shot 500 rounds at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was murdered that day as he bravely responded to the shooting. Officer Rose was 33 years old and had only been on the DeKalb Police force one year. He was a Marine.

Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey said 500 shell casings were recovered from the scene, while its believed 200 rounds hit six buildings in the CDC complex. Five firearms were also recovered
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DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was fatally shot when he responded to reports of an active shooter at the CDC precinct shortly before 17:00 local time on Friday. Rose, a former Marine who had served in Afghanistan, died in hospital after he was wounded.

The shooter had expressed his "distrust of the COVID-19 vaccine."

The CDC Director [at the time] Susan Monarez said at a Senate committee hearing Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not call her after a gunman opened fire at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.

Some CDC employees "feel the shooting has slipped into the background without even a public statement from the president about the attack on federal property or a sufficient denouncement from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC and has peddled vaccine skepticism throughout his career."

‘Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, except in one’s political or financial self-interest,’” Michael Eisner, ex-CEO of The Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC wrote.

The aircraft, a single-engine Cirrus SR22T, went down Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, around 3 p.m. in Franklin, a town in Western North Carolina, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

"Grammy-winning songwriter reportedly among 3 dead after small plane from Nashville crashes near North Carolina elementary school. FlightAware data shows the the Cirrus SR22T plane took off from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville at 12:41 p.m. (CDT) before it crashed in North Carolina."

It is reported the plane was registered to Brett James [Cornelius], American singer-songwriter and Hall of Fame member, known for hit songs like "Jesus Take the Wheel" and "When the Sun Goes Down." He was 57.

At least two other Cirrus planes have crashed in the past 4 years. Or more... On July 7, 2025, about 1330 eastern daylight time, a Cirrus SR22T, N5656M, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Sanford, North Carolina. The private pilot and three passengers were fatally injured.

Cirrus has a training facility at the Tyson McGhee Airport.

9/22/2025

Food industry analyst Phil Lempert, editor of SupermarketGuru "believes the Trump administration's tariffs are one of three primary reasons that Americans are seeing a rise in grocery prices, with the others being climate change and labor shortages."
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He also says the U.S. should brace for shrinkflation — when food and product manufacturers keep prices the same, but reduce the size of items, meaning consumers are ultimately paying more for the same amount.

A September 2024 analysis from Lending Tree found that about one-third of approximately 100 common consumer products had shrunk in size or servings since the start of the pandemic.

"What they're doing is they're trying to put less in the package, hoping that you and I are not going to observe that, and keep that price either stable or just slightly increased," Lempert explained.

Size of food items has not been something I track. I guess I'll give it a try.

Knoxville SOUP will hear 4 excellent proposals at the dinner on Tuesday, September 3rd, 2025. Doors open at 5:30 PM and presentations start at 6:00. The dinner will be held at the Kerbela Temple in South Knoxville, 315 Mimosa Avenue. $5 gets you soup, salad AND a vote!

1. 9th Annual Cattywampus Parade & Block Party: A free community arts event and associated programming.
2. "Urban Outposts" Series (Inside of Knoxville): spotlighting small businesses and neighborhood gems beyond downtown
3. Bashun's Bridge (Knox County Red Book of Resources): to break the stigma surrounding addiction and share the grief over overdose losses by creating a space for education, advocacy, and connection.
4. After-School Healthy Cooking Program (Little Chefs, Big Change): Our after-school cooking classes will help South Knox kids

Read more about these proposals and learn more about Knoxville SOUP on their website at KnoxvilleSOUP.org

Check out the Knoxville SOUP Facebook page for raffle items that have been donated by local businesses and additional information.

‘Farmageddon’: Many US farmers are warning they are at a breaking point

If approved, 3.8 miles of railroad tracks from stretching from Kerns Food Hall to Ijams Nature Center would be converted into a greenway and 1.5-mile art walk. Gulf and Ohio Railways applied to abandon the tracks in December 2024 and donate the property to Legacy Parks Foundation.

City Council set to vote on South Knoxville rail-to-trail proposal

The president was questioned about the legality of attacking and killing 11 Venezuelans this month in allegedly defending against drug runners.

"What’s illegal are the drugs that were on the boat, and the drugs that are being sent into our country.”

“And the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs. That’s what’s illegal.”

That would be nearly 90% of the U.S. population. Heh.

A couple moved from California to the Nashville area in Tennessee to save money and slow down. It hasn't worked out as expected.

In our experience, the housing market in the greater Nashville area didn't feel much different from our previous area in California. Generally, the house prices were about the same in the most desirable areas with the standard conveniences.
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we sat in a one-hour commute of gridlock traffic just to drop my son off at his school. For us, this was another reality check.
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Sure, gas is cheaper — close to $3 a gallon instead of over $4 — but when we're driving more and sitting in traffic, we're filling up the tank more often. All in all, we spend about the same amount on gas as we did in California.
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one of the most unexpected day-to-day costs we've encountered since the move is the grocery tax... we pay a 6% total added tax on our groceries...
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the experience taught us that financial peace isn't just about numbers — it's about fit. In the long term, it's important to consider quality of life over just dollars.

And, the pay differential is large. Then there is the culture shock.

With the explosive growth of Big Tech’s data centers threatening to overload U.S. electricity grids, policymakers are taking a hard look at a tough-love solution: bumping the energy-hungry data centers off grids during power emergencies.
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Grid operators in Texas, the Great Plains states and the mid-Atlantic region have produced eye-popping projections showing that electricity demand in the coming years will spike, largely due to data centers.
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The proposals are cropping up at a time when electricity bills nationally are rising fast — twice the rate of inflation, according to federal data — and growing evidence suggests that the bills of some regular Americans are rising to subsidize the gargantuan energy needs of Big Tech.
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“Data center load has the potential to overwhelm the grid, and I think it is on its way to doing that,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid.

70% of rising electricity cost from data centers
Tennessee in top 10 states with electricity rate increases

Our government representatives are not doing a good of representing/protecting citizens. Be more informed when it comes time to vote.

President Donald Trump announced that the National Guard is coming to Memphis during an interview with Fox and Friends on Friday morning.

Trump says he’s sending National Guard to Memphis

Female monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed plants since monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed. I checked, we have no monarch larvae on our milkweed plants.

While Tennessee's population, jobs and economic output have risen quickly in the past decade, it's still hard for many residents to make ends meet and find attainable housing, the report from nonprofit Think Tennessee said.
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Major costs including housing, transportation, child care, health care and food since 2020 are still rising faster than wages for most Tennesseans
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For research and development, Tennessee is more reliant on government and nonprofit money than the U.S. as a whole, the report said. While nationally, 6.8% of R&D funding comes from nonprofits and 7.8% from the government sector, it's 32.2% and 13.5%, respectively, in Tennessee
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Those dollars are being scaled back
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The median price to buy a home has more than doubled since 2014 in six of Tennessee's counties
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Costs for renters are also up by over 50% statewide

Whatta ya gonna do? It certainly is hard to tell if Gov. Bill cares about the little guy. We pretty much know the U.S. president doesn't, but some how he gets the little guy's votes.

I checked out some local hotels for room rates Friday night before UT Knoxville football game against Georgia.

Yowza, the Hampton downtown on Main Street has a few rooms available at $1,078 and up. You could save a lot of money by staying at the Hampton in Alcoa near the airport for only $366 and up a night.

Yikes!