Go read this and this and turn that frown upside down.

(Or if you still think you're having a bad day, go read this.)

Scripps board approves split into cable, newspaper companies:

One company, Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., will include the cable networks HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living Network and Great American Country and online comparison shopping sites Shopzilla and uSwitch. The other, E.W. Scripps, will have 10 broadcast television stations and newspapers in 15 U.S. markets, the News Sentinel, Rocky Mountain News in Denver and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

The deal will give E.W. Scripps shareholders one share of the new Scripps Interactive company for each share of E.W. Scripps stock, and there will be a 1-3 reverse split for E.W. Scripps stock.

I'm not real good at math, but does this mean the Scripps board puts the value of their cable/interactive business at three times the value of their broadcast TV and print business?

At any rate, we hope it's not too lonely out there for the newspaper business being pushed out to sea on the ice floe. If Scripps goes, Knoxville will be left with, what, the Journal and Knoxville Voice? Not that there's anything wrong with those fine publications, but still.

Sen. Lamar Alexander announce his "Manhattan Project" energy plan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory today. My commentary at TennViews.

UPDATE: Mike Padgett responds with "Energy 2.0"

In spite of what that email from your buddy says:

Obama, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate, is a Christian, has never been a Muslim, swore his Senate oath on the Bible, says the pledge and generally puts his hand over his heart when he sings the national anthem.

But where do these things come from? From people who dedicate themselves to hateful attacks like that...say, someone like a former CIA operative:

WBIR:

Taxpayers and tax preparers are discovering that anyone who elected to have tax preparation fees deducted from their tax refund will not receive rebate checks via direct deposit.

The problem relates to funds being routed to the tax preparer's third-party bank.

UPDATE: Based on the additional information in comments and thinking about this a little further, the IRS is handling this exactly right.

What it boils down to is that some taxpayers, either by getting a refund loan or having preparation fees deducted from their refund, had the third-party preparer's bank account listed as their direct deposit bank, and the third party is then responsible for disbursing the funds to the taxpayer.

In the case of the "rebate," the third party preparer may not be setup to accept it or disburse it, so the IRS is doing the only other thing they can do which is to mail those taxpayers a check directly instead of depositing it in some tax preparer's bank account.

So this sounds like one of those "that's a feature, not a bug" situations, and the right thing to do.

UPDATE: This and other questions answered in a recently updated IRS Economic Stimulus Payments FAQ.

After anointing Obama as the nominee on Tuesday, the media narrative has shifted to the West Virginia and Kentucky "Appalachian" contests. They are reduced to quaint curiosities in which poor, white, uneducated mountain people from a "bygone era" have been trained to make their way to a school gym and push a button just like real people for the delight and amusement of the media elite.

The dark-eyed junco is my favorite mountain songbird. It's just one beautiful little bird. Their preferred habitat is what you see here, brushy areas on the highest mountaintops in the Smokies and Appalachia. In the winter when the high mountains are covered in ice and snow, they will come down to the valleys and often be seen at bird feeders. This image was taken on the Forney Ridge trail on Clingman's Dome. The rocks you see are the actual trail. When walking the high mountain trails in the warmer months, the rustling you hear in the brush is almost alway a junco. I've been trying to capture a junco for years in their preferred habitat and finally got this one.

RoaneViews notes some changes in their website advertising, and wonders if they are rethinking their business plan.

If it doesn't work out for them over there in Roane County, maybe they should take a look at Rhea County.

UPDATE: KAG has more.

Internet Fraud Loss For 2007 Tops $239 Million

Sounds low to me. I would have guessed ten times that.

I just talked to friend who was one of the 40 or so people purged without warning or severence pay. Apparently IdleAire has hired a "chainsaw Al" to "fix" things but it doesn't look good.

Odd who got terminated...There is some great programmer/IT talent available for hire, all of a sudden.

Kathy at Domestic Psychology is not sure about new Knox County Superintendent Jim McIntyre's choice of residence and school district. Hey, we're all just trying to help Dr. McIntyre fit in.

In related news, Brian Hornback also has advice for Dr. McIntyre, and says the School Board needs an intervention before he arrives.

The City of Knoxville has hired David Massey as the new Neighborhood Coordinator, replacing Jason Woodle who is joining TVA. Massey will report to Community Development Director Madeline Rogero.

More details...

Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee (PPMET) recognizes University School of Nashville counselor and teacher Anita Schmid and the Education Department of Nashville CARES as the 2008 Family Life Educators of the year in recognition of outstanding family life and human sexuality education.

The awards will be presented at PPMET's "Gala in the Garden" at Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville tonight. The featured speaker will be Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Ms. Richards is the former deputy chief of staff for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards.

More details in the press releases after the jump...

Rep. Campfield is criticizing Gov. Bredesen's decision to withdraw support for a bill that requires automatic license revocation for DUI. Campfield employs some interesting math to make his argument, and apparently doesn't read the bills he sponsors.

Geez, I just can't believe what some of these "reporters" report.

The state looks a lot like the America of a bygone era: overwhelmingly white, largely rural, and proudly blue-collar.

Just a quick peek at how this really looks around the US.

Regarding white and rural, what about Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Iowa, Maine, Oregon?

Regarding blue-collar workers, Wyoming has the highest percentage of blue-collar workers (14.8), then West Virginia (12.3). Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, all are within 1 percentage point (11.3 to 11.7) of West Virginia's percentage (12.3) of blue-collar workers. All of these states are pretty darn rural as well.

Is it just because West Virginia is East of the Mississippi and not considered "The South"? Is it because West Virginia is bordered by those oh so sophisticated states of Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania?

Loveable Liberal has a great post at TennViews: High noon in home room

$3.57/gal at the entrance to the Montgomery Village low income housing development.

$3.49/gal (8 cents cheaper) near the middle class Arrowhead Subdivision.

Art Museum Touring.com (Link...) welcomes the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (Link...) to our site.

Table by Ted Lott: from Arrowmont's the Artists-in-Residence Annual Exhibition in the Atrium and Foyer Gallery through May 17.

Located in Gatlinburg, it is a cultural center to the region, Arrowmont’s one and two week workshops taught by top professionals in their field, attract students from across the United States and abroad. Visit the Arrowmont page on Art Museum Touring.com to see a list of their other current and upcoming exhibitions.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

• Monterey Mushrooms - one of East Tennessee's hidden gems, and a great place for the gardener.

East Tennessee is full of discoveries waiting to be discovered, and wife Sally and I found one on Tuesday -- the Monterey Mushrooms Company in Loudon County.

And why go to the Monterey Mushrooms Company? Not for the mushrooms. You can buy those at the local grocery story.

If not mushrooms, then what? Compost.

WBIR.com: The mysterious body from the sky

On September 11, 1985, Fred Myers called authorities to his house in the Island Home neighborhood. The 85-year-old had found the body of a man, tangled in a parachute.

Three months after Thornton plunged to his death, a black bear was found in the north Georgia wilderness, apparently overdosed on cocaine dropped by Thornton.

This WBIR Our Stories episode brought back some memories.

I saw the Shopper so I know what next Monday's Sentinel will look like. While the size is OK for a weekly, I dread having that small of a daily, along with no longer getting a TV guide. I wonder if newspapers are really in such dire shape or if the shrinking is just about more profits at the top. I notice the 10lb magazine skirt! put out by Scripps seems to be doing well. I like skirt! but would rather have a big thick paper about real news.
If the situation for papers is dire it almost seems a self-fulfilling prophecy. Shrink the paper and turn the websistes into mini-cinemas and see which direction people go. Knoxville seems to have no shortage of varying weeklies and monthlies, that I assume do well. I just hope the day doesn't come that papers will eventually be microchips inserted into one's head that are re-activated every day. Websites are fine for headlines and comments but don't have the same fulfilling feeling as something hand-held, same goes for books.

It's finally going to be online.

(See also Tennessee This Week at the WATE website, which has also undergone a recent facelift.)

If you conduct a google search for the phrase “university twit,” what pops up is a photo of me in a T-shirt and mortarboard. It’s a long story involving a fellow Knox County commissioner and the day he called me a university twit, but the incident gives me some “street cred” to write about the difficult task of using one’s intelligence without being dismissed as a wonk (Michael Dukakis), nerd (Al Gore), or elitist (John Kerry).

Thanks to the mythologies built up around Ronald Reagan, Republicans get a pass on these things. All they have to do is munch on some pork rinds, don a cowboy hat, or raise a beer and the matter is settled. If your first reaction is a retort about their prep schools, Ivy League legacy admissions, wealthy contributors, or millionaire-coddling policies, you’ve disqualified yourself from this debate.

More after the break.

Along with all the other new features we have at the redesigned WBIR.com is an online community discussion forum (Which will soon have its own name. Suggestions welcome!).

I am your intrepid moderator for this new community, and I'd like to invite you to visit, to join the discussion, and to share your ideas and suggestions for getting the conversation underway.

Check us out at: Link...

Cheers-

Katie

WBIR.com:

The Federal Highway Administration has now passed on questions about Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's purchase of IdleAire stock to [the Office of the Inspector General].

Ragsdale purchased the stock during the same month he signed a contract to pass federal funds on to the company.

Is losing your ass on an investment a mitigating circumstance?

Right now at WBIR

UPDATE: Guess it's over? Is there an archive?

UPDATE: WSMV liveblog (by way of ACK).

UPDATE: Tom Humphrey: 2000+ layoffs (by way of Michael Silence).

The NY Times Magazine Green Issue (April 20, 2008) has a small article on the walkability of communities.

Check your neighborhood's Walk Score.

A few I checked in KTown:

Wall Avenue = 91

Forest Park at Southerland Ave. = 77

Island Home (one of my old stomping grounds) = 23
(Note: I suspect that years ago it used to have a much higher walking score)

Blount County

Harper Avenue (Downtown Maryville) = 88

Eagleton Village = 42

Alcoa's Springbrook neighborhood = 17

The cost of neighborhood supermarkets may contribute to the decline of walkability in neighborhoods, according to this NY Times article via Atrios.

Present, But Not Voting

In essence, the poll tax ensured that the folks exercising the franchise had a vested interest in good governance, and the low salaries ensured that the men running for office were capble individuals in their fields.

[..]

Maybe it's time we recognize that the franchise is too important to be taken for granted. Maybe it shouldn't be tossed out as freely as beads at Mardi Gras. Maybe, just maybe, voting should be something we earn through demonstrated competence, or by having a net positive effect on America, rather than being a drain.

This long, overwrought piece pines for the good old days of poll taxes, when men were men, black men were three-fifths of a man, and women couldn't vote.

Many share the frustration of ill-informed, apathetic voters voting against their self interest if they vote at all. But guess what? They're citizens, too. And they have to live with the same policies as everyone else. And we all have to live with the apathetic products of our ill-informed policies. In other words, we get the government we deserve.

Instead of restricting the right to vote, maybe we should teach civics. And serve up something besides Fox News to inform the electorate.

Nashville, TN: The Green Party of Tennessee has nominated Chris Lugo as their candidate for US Senate in Tennessee this year at their state nominating convention in Nashville held Saturday. Lugo said that he was excited to be representing the most progressive political party in the state of Tennessee, "The Green Party is the most progressive party in the state, and I am glad to be representing them as a candidate for federal office. My views about the environment, the war, health care and education are highly compatible with the ten key values of the Green Party. I hope to represent them well as a candidate and to promote the cause of peace through my campaign."

OK, then.