I was watching Tennessee This Week and almost hit the floor with Gene Patterson and Frank Cagle commented that "you have a lot of people running in the August election, and you haven't heard a peep out of them [about the charter petition amendments]."

Cough, cough...Yeah, right....(more after the break... link)

So, my brother emails me cra..er, stuff from his favorite conservative blogs every other day, and I spend about 5 minutes doing the quick research necessary to humiliate him (and then my other brother 'piles on' for the fun of it). Today's email cited an American Enterprise (ahem Oil) Institute study showing that non-Kyoto countries had smaller increases in greenhouse gases (GHGs) than Kyoto signatories (21% to 18% for 1997-2004), with the U.S. alone only having increases of 6.6% over that period.

First, I called out the unusual choice of years, since Kyoto always refers to 1990 baselines. If you start with 1990, the U.S. had a 16% overall increase in GHGs, compared to the European Union's 2% ddecrease.

So what about this AEI report? You see, China and India are technically signatories to Kyoto, but without obligation other than monitoring and reporting emisions (no reductions). oth have increases of about 50% over the 1990-2004 period, hence the huge disparity.

The decision was made to allow them growth based on their lower per-capita emissions (e.g., giving them a chance to 'catch up' economically). If you want to look at it as a per capita increase over the time period 1990-2004:

United States: +2600 lbs/person (up to about 40 lbs/person)
China: + 2500 lbs/person (up to about 7.7 lbs/person)
India: + 800 lbs/person (up to only 2.4 lbs/person)
EU: - 300 lbs/person (12.5 lbs/person)

So, China's on a growth curve- so is India (who seems to be managing the growth better), but how do we explain such a huge footprint increase in the United States, especially with the offshoring of manufacturing in the US? It's not like we all started driving cars or just got refrigerators.

What happened? It has to be more vehicle driver miles and/or less efficient cars. Adding 20% vehicle miles on a passenger car alone would net you a 4,000 lb increase. Combining trips and alternate transportation seems like a very effective efficient way to reduce GHG's.

Cutting 250 miles/month off your car trips would bring you on an individual basis back to the 1990 Kyoto baseline!

So, a relative of mine messed up her knee a few weeks ago, possibly a ligament tear. She goes to see one of the "feed lot" orthopedists here in town. I think she's in the office for 2 minutes before he starts handing her brochures about recovering from her surgery. She of course, rebels and demands to discuss other options (physical therapy, cortisone, etc) because the injury doesn't appear to be that bad.

Knee improvement has been slow, and now her shoulder has been acting up, so she decides she'll go ahead and have a follow-up appointment to discuss the knee and the shoulder together, and maybe even have the MRI for both.

"Oh no," the doctor says. "We only see one joint at a time. You have to make two appointments." HUH?

After all, why give up all that additional insurance money?

I used to think that a 'hybrid' government-private approach would be a good solution. Now I think that single payer is the only way to eliminate this kind of greedy double-dipping.

.. I'm a Democrat.

(Link....)

Notice anything missing?

Charlton Heston, banning cellphones, Charter committee, and more!

(Link...)

[Roundtree's] proposal would not only ban the use of cellphones for Commissioners, but the way the resolution is written it would ban the use of cellphones by those in attendance in the Large Assembly Room. It would even ban the use of the phones at the media table that are provided by Knox County and the Public Building Authority.

(Link...)

Interestingly, the article also cites another possible Open Meetings Act violation, but I assume Brian is (again...) wrong and that Elaine is simply citing the something that came up at the regular, scheduled, and public Agenda meeting on April 9.

I know that if I were up there and had to suffer through a few hours of grandstanding, I'd be trading a few SMS messages with the wife and kids. I do understand the intent, but it all wraps up in the same issue of the public records issue. Rather than ban them, we just need a process to make public those communications relating to county business and that are a work product of the elected official.

(Link...)

... I'm not sure yet what the history of how this policy was formed, but it needs to be amended IMMEDIATELY. We must also add specific wording in an ordinance for protection of whistleblowers, protection of private information (SSNs, medical information) that may come in an email to a commissioner, and close the loophole that would allow Commissioners to use private e-mail accounts to send county-related work product that would normally be covered by the Open Records Act.

Right now, the ORA and the Knox County Policy only work to encourage County Officials to use Yahoo, Gmail, or other personal accounts that provide no accountability.

Bill Dunn's bill to use chat rooms to offer "sunshined" discussion between officials covered by the Open Meetings Act is moving forward.

However, it's always good to think out the details. What specifics should this bill include?

1. Archive of all conversations for elected term + 1 year (e.g., 9 years for Knox County Commissioners)
2. All posts must be keyword searchable, with complex queries allowed (e.g., show all posts by Commissioner X, with keyword "TIF" and keyword "Halls" in the same post)

If we choose to allow public comments, I would recommend a blog engine like Scoop, that allows registered users to build rating points based on comments other users find useful or, on the other side, lose points by 'trolling.' Other users can then filter comments from users below a certain rating value (it's not censorship, since it's the choice of each individual user to set the viewing threshold).

I would also suggest how KNS uses "suggest removal" to allow a county administrator to remove potentially libelous posts.

Other thoughts?

Lots of geeky scientific details.... (Link...)

Some initial notes:

1. 1997 standard not adequate to protect public health, based on > 1700 studies. Clinical studies show evidence of adverse respiratory response in HEALTHY adults at old standard (80 ppb).
2. First evidence linking high ozone to mortality (deaths) in sensitive popultions
3. High ozone also reduces crop yields and increases susceptibility to disease and insects (e.g., threatens our food production)

Just got back from the Tedford Fire presentation- what did I miss?

Apparently not much. Since I've been back (30min), Moore has been all over Natural Resources and just tried to renegotiate the contract. I assume this has been going on for the last 90 minutes?

Anything happen in zoning? I caught a little bit of a South Knox zoning discussion.

(Is anybody else's Comcast feed going crazy????)

Come hear a presentation on the still-burning three-month fire in West Knoxville tomorrow (Monday) at the West Knoxville (Bee De Selm) Library (on Golfclub Rd) at 6:00 pm.

(link...)

Could this get any crazier?

(Link...)

In the story, Finch claims the faked receipts were created without her knowledge, and faxed in by the UPS store worker.

Letter from Finch's attorney is here. In it, she also claims:

1. She hasn't responded to resignation story due to 'gag order' from Ragsdale administration
2. Arms handed Finch a Club LeConte application and ordered her to do county business at the club
3. AKA sorority trips were pre-approved by Ragsdale/Arms

I love the part at the end where they ask Ragsdale to seize accrued vacation for the "other white males" who have questionable receipts (Arms, Van DeVate, Ragsdale).

Think your job sucks? How about being a lame duck Law Director and having to deal with all of this?

Update: I found a copy of the faked Kinko's receipts. My goodness, that has to be one of the worst fakes I've ever seen. A Kinko's corporate receipt isn't even close. And I'm pretty sure the City County building isn't in zip 37919, since tht's where I live. It would be nice, though, if they'd move the building for those 1 a.m. meetings.

(link...)

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!!

Madeline Weil will speak to the 4th Tuesday Democratic Club this Tuesday, February 26 about the City of Knoxville's Energy and Sustainability Initiative

(Link for more information...)

Did you know the Knox County Schools only has one person working about half of their time working on grant proposals? A grant writer can generally bring in 15 to 20 times their salary.

If our 19 Commissioners were to surrender 50% of their Discretionary Fund, we could fund another full-time grant writer, probably bringing in another $1 million in for school programs.

Or maybe we could just add it to this round of the budget?

(Link...)

We're getting to the fireworks in First District now, come join the fun.

Link....

I can't wait until we get to the Fifth and Sixth....

Remember when the Bush Administration told us that we couldn't allow imported prescription drugs from Canada to compete with 'good old made in the USA' drugs because it would be dangerous?

I didn't even know our drugs were being made in China by Big Pharm. Turns out- hey, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.

...According to the FDA, that plant has not been inspected by Chinese drug regulators, who sometimes do not visit facilities manufacturing for foreign markets...

..and where the FDA has no jurisdiction either.

Of course, our pharmaceuticals don't have to say "Made in China," we just get to wonder, and worry, and try to figure out how to take back the government that has been selling us out to the highest bidder for the last 7 years.

Does anyone else find it troubling that we will spend more to shoot down a satellite (to prevent 1000 lbs of toxic fuel from maybe (5%) landing near a population center) than we spend on inspecting toys that I kids gnaw on for lead paint and other toxic materials?

The Industrial Development Board (IDB) is requesting developers seeking TIFs to apply to the IDB first, before Commission takes up the issue.

Link...

This is a good thing, as Commission could then vote with some data in hand about the economic benefit and a review of the "but for" standard. And they should SLAP the crap outa IDB if they send something up that doesn't meet that standard.

It's likely this alternate (illegal?) approach was an attempt by those seeking TIFs to signal to IDB what support they had on County Commission, to pressure the IDB for their approval.

(Link... to Hornback for those who want to be warned)

Brian phone interviews Commissioners to find out who is willing to take on the role. Not surprisingly, a lot of "no"s.

Is the public tired of your terrorist threat warnings that turn out to be nothing?

Has your color-coded security levels become a public joke?

Well, just in time for the 2008 election (and to put McCain in the White House), the Bush Administration is bringing you the long-awaited trial of... some people... connected to 9/11 somehow... well, we've heard of one of them, that KSM guy.... (say, whatever happened to that Osama guy?)

And, for some crazy reason, this will be the first and only trial to be PUBLIC!!!. Does that seem odd to anyone else?

Happy Valentine's Day, John. -- SMOOTCH!!! --

Tom Baer, Richard Briggs, and Pam Tracey interviewed. Piehl (?) was a no-show. some supporters spoke for Briggs, one citizen spoke to support Pams thought that Briggs shouldn't be appointed early.

Sproles spoke (not seeking appointment) to the same point, pointing out the voters didn't have a chance to speak out for him yet. Since Lambert was absent, Scott Moore had to embarass commission by asking Sproles what his views on gun control and abortion are. Sproles pointed out those issues aren't relevant to commission. Audience broke out in applause.

sigh...

Other than Scooby's question, questions were good- TIFs, development, budget priorities/education, what they hope to accomplish, as well as background (conflicts of interest, unpaid taxes). The process appears very open.

Political Knoxville (or "PK") is collecting info/resumes on those seeking appointments this month.

Link here to PK, then select "Appointments" on the menu bar. Sorry, no direct hyperlink.

Now what? Commission will be considering appointments. My preference is for Commission to appoint caretakers, and I understand that my August opponent, Ed Shouse, told the News-Sentinel he won't be seeking the appointment either. I'm a little anxious as to who they might select (we want good representation for the Fourth- we've waited too long!!), but going outside of me and Ed is probably best for everyone in the long run.

....

The same issues for the Fourth exist in the 4-A appointment. Finbarr said he won't seek the appointment. I don't know about Ruthie. But Commission may be stuck with a lot of top choices taking themselves out of consideration, the exact point I made in November when they voted (wrongly, I argued then) to delay the appointments until February.

(Link...)

Link...(Brian Hornback, for those who like to be warned)

I haven't heard from anyone about references being called, and I'll add my name to the list. Why take references if you're not going to call them?

As an employer, I depend a lot more on references than what a job candidate tells me about themselves. A really good interviewer will ask for additional references in the interview that aren't part of the "hand picked" list (e.g., "who was your supervisor at XYZ?') and contact them.

If anyone wants to see my questionnaire, I'll post it on my blog (the major essay questions, I didn't scan the hardcopy) at reform4.blogspot.com.

Is the quote in the paper about "doing a better job next time" in reaction to no references being called? Or something else? Thoughts?

Link...

Are they risking a loss because someone might disagree with one of the initiatives, the two most contraversial being the employment vs. disenfranchisement issue and allowing the mayor to appoint the fee offices and law director?

On the latter issue, to me at first glance, we're trading five fiefdoms for one BIG fiefdom, unless we implement some strict personnel policies with pay, raises, overtime, perks, etc. No more "perogative of the officeholder"

-------------------------------------
Steve Drevik
Candidate, County Commission
Fourth District, 4-B

Click Here to read.

Highlights:

[The primary is between]"..forces aligned with County Mayor Mike Ragsdale or the anti-Ragsdale faction."

Um.... not all of us. That's a pretty broad statement to make, but this article doesn't show a lot of depth of research beyond reading the KNS. I can name at least three candidates for the Fourth that aren't aligned with factions, would not align themselves with factions if elected, and would hold everyone's feet to the fire with respect to the law. But apparently, that's not interesting ink.

"The Commission has voted to look at the primary results from Feb. 5 in picking replacements ...Picking a primary winner as a placeholder (bestowing incumbency) means picking between the winners of the Democratic or Republican primary"

Unless they pick a primary non-winner as a caretaker. :)

-Steve Drevik, Candidate 4-B

My wife/campaign manager and I had an interesting discussion driving back from visiting her son in Alabama this weekend. Ed Shouse (a potential future opponent of mine) received $4500 of PAC money and two endorsements. There's been a lot of questions about the Sam Furrow deal on this site, as well as other things. Would it be ethical to "feed" negative stories to Lee Tramel (since he is well-funded, too) so that Lee can tear Ed down to size?

We decided no- such tactics were the exact kind of thing the voters don't want to see. Well, it turns out it's totally unnecessary anyway. Mr. Tramel refers to Mr. Shouse in the Hall Shopper as "a [potential] commissioner with a hinge in his neck, nodding up and down in support of whatever the county mayor wants to do." There's more hits from Sandra, too.

Ouch.

So, all you would-be pundits out there- is there a GOP city/rural (metro/non-metro) divide for county offices as well as the other divides (mayor/sheriff)? Or is this just all the same divide?

I had an interesting discussion at the Candidate Expo with Mr. Victor Jernigan, a well-known developer in Knox County. We discussed growth issues, impact fees, etc. I had mentioned that it would be helpful to look at other areas that have similar geography to Knoxville but have already gone through growth phases, to see what they did, what worked, and what didn't work. I mentioned one area with similar geography is Portland, OR, where they are dramatically limited in the growth of roadways, more so than us. He mentioned that he had read that Oregon had the worst schools in the country and a terrible growth policy.

That was a bit surprising. Portland?