To you and yours.

Colin Powell and Jenna Bush have both recently said on interviews that they didn't know who they were voting for for pres. Jenna may be a liberal, she was cooking with Rachel Ray recently and talked about her concern for the environment and that she doesn't eat red meat, weird for a Texan. Myabe she's just on a mission to soften daddy's image. I think Laura has had Botox. Anyway, a big wedding day shout out to Jenna and Henry.

First time I ever heard of this place..

McCarthy beat RFK.

May 20th will the Oregon primary???

Put Obama over the top????

America faces a housing crisis that it has not seen the likes of since the great depression. Hundreds of thousands of families have lost their homes due to the mortgage crisis in the past year and more are at risk if we don't act now. That is why the US Senate must support some version of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which passed this past week in the US House. This legislation, which is on its way to the Senate next week has been threatened with veto by President Bush.

Surgery went well and I am home again. Getting used to the routines. Not gonna be easy, but it is something I cannot afford to fail at.

Calls Blount Democrats "far-left loons" and refers to three county commissioners as "monkeys." Sen. Lamar Alexander was in attendance and apparently concurs because there is no report that he objected. Read all about it at BlountViews.

In a recent Newsweek, The Last Word, column George Will wrote:

You [Obama] favor eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax, which now covers only the first $102,000. A Chicago police officer married to a Chicago public-school teacher, each with 20 years on the job, have a household income of $147,501, so you would take another $5,642 from them. Are they undertaxed? Are they rich?

Doesn't George know that social security is not paid jointly?

Looking for fresh strawberries and/or humanely-raised local meat? If you're interested in learning more about local food (and the people who produce it), the Market Square Farmers' Market is launching a monthly series of farm tours. The "To the Source Farm Tour" series kicks off on Sunday, May 18, with a visit to three farms in Meigs, Rhea, and Monroe counties.

The tour will visit Tidwell's Berry Farm, a family-owned "ready pick" berry farm in Spring City, Tennessee. The next stop on the tour is River Ridge Farm in Ten Mile, Tennessee, to tour the farm where Dave Waters and his family raise beef, pork, chickens, and other goodies. Regulars to the Market Square Farmers' Market are familiar with Dave as the market's "meat guy." The tour will conclude with an opportunity to pick your own strawberries at Strawberry Knob Farm in Madisonville.

"Eleanor" and I will be going as we continue to explore our local food options. Cost of the tour is $20 per person and shuttle vans (provided by CAC) will depart from Market Square at noon on Sunday, 18 May. The shuttles will return approximately 6:30 p.m. Advance registration is required by Wednesday and space is limited. So, contact Charlotte Tolley at the Farmers' Market booth on Market Days (today or Wednesday) or visit the new MSFM web site at www.marketsquarefarmersmarket.org for additional information in the "Special Events and Programs" section. "Eleanor" and I will be manning a booth for the MSFM this morning at the Beardsley Community Farm's Farm Fest and we'll also be signing interested people up. Other volunteers will be at the farm fest booth in the afternoon to get you signed up, also.

See you on the farm!

• Margaret Truman, Eliot Roosevelt, Steve Allen - mystery writers? Did they really take the time out of their celebrityhood to craft, write and rewrite those mystery novels you see on the bookshelf?

We all know that politicians don't write their own speeches.

But novelists? Mystery novelists, in particular?

Surely no "novelist" would lend a name to a book that he or she hadn't written. Well, if you think that (as I did for a long time), you are most naive. This kind of intellectual dishonesty goes on more than you would think.

WBIR:

Because the suspect is dead, no charges will be filed.

OK, then.

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

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

Knoxville News Sentinel:

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, minus 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 newspapers 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.