What do Donna Wright and Hillary Clinton have in common?

How about a lack of respect for their life's work.

Bingelli = Obama

younger, cooler, smoother and totally untested.

For the Knox County school board to look past Wright's record toward a guy who can't even commit to come for his second interview because he may get a better offer someplace else, well, this is a joke.

But the joke's on us. -- s.

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

Link...

Just left County Commission. Tim Graham, accompanied by a small army of advisors, won round one on his TIF. The final vote was 8-2-1. This after Pinkston amended to provide if even one sliver of the land is annexed the whole TIF must be paid off immediately (Graham can just add it to what he charges the city for the "voluntary" annexation); Larry Smith said he hadn't heard from a single Halls resident who opposes the development and/or TIF; and Craig Leuthold viciously amended the $4 million request (which had gone verbally to $6 million) "down" to $5 million.

God's side voters were Mark Harmon and Tony Norman. Scott Moore not only recused himself, but he left the room. -- s.

OK. We got it half right in tomorrow's Shopper-News.

Mayor Ragsdale may or may not be interviewing Knoxville's 100 Most Influential People, but Laurens Tullock is.

Not sure why ... and, sadly, I'm not on his list either. -- s.

Looks like Bill Brock's boy couldn't pull off the win needed to solidify the GOP control of the state senate...

This from the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Hamilton County and 100 percent of precincts in Marion County, Democrat Andy Berke was ahead of Republican Oscar Brock in the special election for the state Senate District 10 race.

Hamilton County
Andy Berke: 7,875, 63.5 percent

Oscar Brock: 4,509, 36.4 percent

Marion County
Andy Berke: 1,915, 60.7 percent

Oscar Brock: 1,238, 39.3 percent

For complete coverage, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Hey, everyone. Bean's son-in-law is interviewed in Playboy!

Amazing! Link...

Lumpy Lambert faxed a letter to various media today, outlining his ideas about reforms for local government. Actually, they aren't bad.

He's proposing 4 monthly meetings of County Commission -- one for agenda and public forum; one for zoning; one for committees and the fourth for the monthly meeting (minus zoning).

It's funny to hear commissioners complain about not being able to discuss potholes.

What if each district's commissioners simply announced that they would meet at Shoney's on the first Sunday night of each month. Sunshine the meeting and show up. Let interested citizens attend. Discuss district business. -- s.

Interesting TV today as Bill Haslam and Isa Infante appeared on both WBIR and WATE. Even more interesting was the "independent research" that led Don Bosch and Gene Patterson to ask Infante indentical questions -- Why does your Web site read so much like the Green Party's?

Infante has failed to give voters a reason to reject Haslam. I figure any votes she gets Tuesday will be from folks who have Haslam confused with Ragsdale and are trying to throw the bum out! -- s.

Tommy Schumpert and Ben Atchley spoke tonight at the West Knox Republican Club. It was a hostile crowd. Going out the door, Schump said, "Wow, I got out alive!"

Atchley is a revered Republican, but he was totally right when he said, "Good government is not a partisan issue. ... It's the people's government, not the party's government."

Tommy and Ben have formed a PAC to raise funds and endorse local candidates -- what they call "good people." -- s.

Reporters Larry Van Guilder and Betty Bean have developed a bombshell story for Monday's Shopper-News (online Sunday evening at Link...) -- problem is, everybody and their dog will know about it before then.

But just to keep your enthusiasm whetted, TYLER HARBER's BAAAAAACK! - s.

Over at Knoxnews.com, Rebecca Ferrar is reporting that Ragsdale is shutting down the "non-taxpayer-funded hospitality account" AKA the liquor fund.

Dwight Van de Vate says it's not been decided yet how the county officials will handle dinners at pricey restaurants and such.

How about they buy their own dinners ... is this asking too much? -- s.

When WBIR-TV tried to contact Cynthia Finch about her frequent travels on the county's dime to sites of sorority events, she was apparently out of town on vacation.

Their story is at Link...

The county's response is lame. Sure, we have a great health department. Credit the director, Mark Jones. We have a great library system. Credit the staff, previous director Patricia Watson and the library board led by Charles Davenport.

Finch and her staff provide a layer of bureaucracy that we've never had before and don't need now.

Is anyone else out there mad about this? -- s.

Knox County commissioners Frank Leuthold and Craig Leuthold have just "sunshined" Father's Day.

They ate lunch today at Edison Park. The media were invited.

check out Link... for info on the highest paid county officials and their supplementary pay, disguised as "travel expense." Remember, many of these employees also drive take-home vehicles. -- s.

Roy Mullins has posted a letter to school board members on the KCS Web site. The letter makes 4 concessions, designed to secure 5 votes for the rezoning plan.

Leaving the Holston Hills kids at Carter should secure support from Jim Williams (worried about a diminished enrollment at Carter) and Sam Anderson (who raised the objection at the April 18 workshop).

Concessions on grandfathering siblings and on the Bearden zone should help solidify support from Karen Carson and Dan Murphy.

There is a strong desire on the board to get this rezoning finished. Sadly, there was no concession for Powell -- the community hardest hit by the plan. -- s.

Johnson City Press is reporting that state Sen. Mike Williams (?-Maynardville) has dropped his Republican Party affiliation to become an independent. That makes the state senate split 16-16-1. -- s.

Interested in the relative "state of the party" when Chad Tindell left as Knox County GOP chair in March 2005 versus when Brian Hornback left last Saturday?

Check out Link...

Short version: Chad left almost $18,000 in the treasury; Brian left $309. -- s.

Great job by Robin Wilhoit and Bill Williams tonight with the 7-8 p.m. show on Term Limits Turmoil. Makes you wonder why real campaigns aren't conducted like this.

Eager to hear from Mark Harmon on his forum at Whittle Springs. -- s.

Salivate you-all.

Betty Bean has snagged an interview with Tyler Harber.

Get Tyler's reaction to the Sheriff's report in Monday's Shopper-News (online tonight by 8 p.m. at Link...) -- s.

Through the efforts of many who shall remain unnamed, the stellar Shopper-News team has scanned and loaded the entire 150+ pages of the Sheriff's report on Tyler Harber online.

See it now at Link...

Scott Moore and R. Larry Smith are holding a "commissioners' night out" Tuesday, Jan. 23, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Halls Senior Center on Crippen Road. Going north on Hwy. 33, turn right at Wendy's.

This is a great chance to talk one-on-one with these two commissioners. -- s.

At tonight's Halls Republican Club, Lumpy Lambert made the case for appointing Democrat Sharon Cawood to replace her husband, the term-limited Mark Cawood, on County Commission.

Lumpy said the outcome of the 2008 Presidential election could hang in the balance. He said Republicans should not be power-grabbing and greedy, lest it reflect poorly on the party in the eyes of the less partisan.

East Tennessee looks to Knox County; the state looks to East Tennessee; and federal elections can be decided by Tennessee (a la Al Gore in 2000).

The Republicans didn't seem to be buying what Lumpy was selling.

I'm sure there's a case for appointing Sharon Cawood ... but it's not to make American safe from Hillary Clinton in '08. - s.

For all you Halls lovers out there...

Tonight is the Halls Has It! Christmas Parade. Starts at 6 p.m. when those rumored to be unnecessary Sheriff's Office helicopters roar south on Maynardville Highway (we start at the high school and end at the Kroger).

The grand marshal is John Vandergriff, TSSAA heavyweight wrestling champion. Next come the Man and Woman of the Year, then the guest band -- Fulton High School. Then about 1,000 small twirlers, Mary Lou Horner on the Shopper float, another bunch of twirlers and the mighty Halls High Marching Band. Then Santa. Then the horses. Then the pooper-scoopers. Yawl come! -- s.

Just caught the end of the school board workshop. The board will NOT vote on Wednesday on rezoning for HVHS. They're going to rethink it, although as one parent pointed out -- they've already had multiple workshops, etc.

Several speakers said the school should be built for 1500, not 2100. Meanwhile, the builders are pouring concrete. -- s.

Went to the Harold Ford Jr. rally this morning.

Never would have bet this mountain woman would be standing at Five Points listening to a Memphis Ford endorse tax cuts for corporations to create jobs.

Times are a'changing.