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...

• 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.

It's finally going to be online.

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

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?

Richmond Indiana Palladium-Item:

Three voter officials from Tennessee toured the centers early today to see how things were going. And what they found is that people here like the concept.

"We want to do this in Tennessee," said Greg Mackay, administrator of elections in Knox County, Tenn. "People think it’s great. That’s what has surprised us. We thought people would not like having lost their neighborhood precinct voting place.

"Everybody I’ve talked to has been positive about the vote centers."

Mackay sat munching a pork tenderloin sandwich at The Country Ribeye on Rich Road in Richmond with David Twigg, deputy administrator in Knox County and Tony Brown, administrator of elections in Roane County, which is adjacent to Knox County.

See here for related news. Thanks to Bill Young for bringing this to our attention.

The next Blogfest is this weekend at VS a new business downtown. Meet other bloggers face to face and play video games! They have 2 Wiis, 2 xboxes, and 2 playstation 3s as well as Rockband and many many games for each system. There are 5 iMacs and wifi so you can blog. Downstairs is a congregating area away from the games with a stage which can feature live performances. Games are free to bloggers from 7pm to 9pm Saturday, May 10. VS is located just two doors down from the old Harold's. See you there!

As a side note, the wifi is free ALL the time so if you are ever downtown, needing a connection and a comfortable place to sit, slip into VS!

The Knoxville News Sentinel is following the Maryville Daily Times lead. Hopefully it won't also lead to this.

As part of Mayor Bill Haslam's budget proposal, the city is proposing an overhaul of its employee compensation plan.

The proposed compensation plan is the result of recommendations by a consulting firm hired to study the city's current system. It is intended to bring salaries in line with "market rates" and minimize "salary compression" where new hires are making close to the same as more senior employees, particularly in the police and fire departments.

Commissioner Scoobie Moore wants County Commission to intervene in a dispute over a friend's $730 county tax bill.

Just over 5 years ago, a group of thoughtful folks got together to discuss an idea that sounded crazy to some...don't improve I-40 through downtown, remove I-40 through downtown. Some folks scoffed at the idea while TDOT said it wouldn't work and that 640 could never handle 40's traffic.

Our idea was to simply to seek additional public input on a possibly more appropriate location for 40 rather than through downtown but increased public input was not a TDOT desire nor one of the Ashe administration.

Personally, I think that eliminating 40 through downtown would have made Knoxville's downtown more livable and visionary. Knox B.L.V.D. (Knoxville, building a livable & visionary downtown). Now that construction has begun, let’s examine what the potential would have been if 640 had been re-named “40” and the connection of 275 to 40 at 640’s western side could have been:

1. Knoxvillians entering downtown from the east would use a non-disconnected Magnolia Ave. which rather than being isolated from the city’s center would have begun to flourish.
2. Those entering downtown from the north and south would have used the same routes that they have now.
3. Those entering downtown from the west, would have followed the “abandoned” 40 spur from 640 which would have dropped down to a tree-lined boulevard making downtown much easier to navigate. (Turn right onto 17th for campus, turn right onto Henley for the Convention Center,t turn right onto Gay for Market Square, turn right onto Central to access the Old City, etc. etc.)
4. The footprint of the abandoned section of 40 from Fourth & Gill through Park Ridge would lead along an urban park to the Knoxville Zoo.
5. Huge amounts of land would be once again placed upon the tax rolls.
6. Through travelers seeking gas, quick dining or motels could purchase these from nearly any exit along the new “40” (Old 640) thereby creating increased tax revenues from the folks that now wait ‘til their through downtown to have their needs met.
7. Huge portions of urban neighborhoods would be reclaimed for appropriate expansion of housing stock thereby thwarting costly suburban sprawl.
8. The denser population might be able to support enhanced mass-transit options helping to relieve some of our air quality issues.
9. Struggling East Towne Mall (like Todd Steed, I can’t say Knoxville Center) would become an outlet mall and destination attraction…also increasing tax revenues.
10. There would be no need for the still un-needed James White Parkway which would be torn out to expose the underlying creek and create a greenway/river walk concept ala’ Greenville, SC.
11. The CBID would be accessible by foot from the contiguous neighborhoods.

Instead, we have the pleasure of a bigger version of something that shouldn't have been where it is in the first place. Since we didn't learn from our past mistakes, let's hope that our children do.

Mayor Bill Haslam presented a $168.5 million budget for FY 2008-2009, up 3.3 percent from last year.

Mayor Haslam said during his budget luncheon address today at the new SYSCO distribution center that the budget includes funding to continue City operations at the current level, escalate redevelopment efforts, and bring city employee salaries in line with market rates in three years.

He also noted that the city's bond rating has recently been upgraded to AA+, the "highest in the city's history," that the reserve fund has increased from $18 million to $42 million and that the city's outstanding debt is 20% lower than it was when he took office.

Some budget highlights...

Hard to say which would be more entertaining: Senator Lumpy or Senator Stacey X.

Speaking of traffic, here's the report on first quarter 2008 revenues from Knoxville red light cameras:

2008 Program Collections 010108-033108
Fines paid to City of Knoxville= 266,685.27
Payment to Redflex= 417,631.54
Program total= 684,316.81

Detailed report here, crash rate analysis after the jump...

In case you've been on vacation to Mars and hadn't heard, a traffic disaster of Biblical proportions is set to begin today when TDOT and local officials close I-40 through Downtown Knoxville.

Why our traffic geniuses decided to have two of the most heavily traveled Interstate Highways in the U.S. intersect on an elevated platform in the middle of Downtown Knoxville is beyond me, but that's neither here nor there.

And neither here nor there is where you will soon be going because the same traffic geniuses have decided that instead of blowing it up with dynamite and rerouting the traffic around town, they are going to close it for a year and rebuild it as part of the most expensive highway project in state history.

From the TDOT SmartFix40.com website, Dolly explains:

Here's some stuff from TDOT's website that might help you navigate the mess:

• I-40 Closure details map.
• I-40 interchange with Hall of Fame Drive map
• Hall of Fame/Neyland Drive map
• Knox Co. Detours map
• Driving directions for selected destinations
• Current traffic conditions
• City of Knoxville TDOT Traffic Cams

Local media has some helpful resources as well:

• KNS SmartFIX40 page
• KNS Navigating SmartFIX40 blog
• WATE Street Wise
• WATE TDOT Traffic Cams
• WBIR TDOT Traffic Tracker
• WVLT TDOT Traffic Cams
• KNS TDOT Traffic Cams
• WBIR Traffic Twitter

Good luck, and be careful out there!

The new WBIR website is live and on the air.

In addition to the new layout, it sports a new and improved video player, new blogs, a discussion forum, and comments attached directly to articles (replacing that awful Topix thing they were using).

WBIR online producer Katie Allison Granju has more.

As you are probably aware, the Knox Charter Petition group will now take it to the streets. The group is launching an effort to get the 40,000 signatures needed (times two) after County Commission this week voted against sending the proposed amendments directly to the voters.

UPDATE: I asked Knox County Elections Administrator Greg Mackay "who pays the $80,000 cost of verifying the petitions, taxpayers or the petition organizers?" He said "taxpayers." So the County Commission just voted to charge taxpayers $80,000 to have their voice heard. That's a lot of lobster!

I haven't read the story, yet, but thought everyone should be made aware of it. It's written by Jamie Satterfield, and is already drawing all those crazy people over there on the KNS site. Why do they let those people even have computers?

Link...

Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier today issued a ruling barring Knoxville attorney Herbert S. Moncier from practicing law in any federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Collier also reprimanded Moncier for remarks made about "opposing counsel."

Rob Huddleston: Why is the previous Knox County GOP Chairman openly supporting Democrats?

Maybe it has something to do with this? (Scroll down to the bottom...)

Herb Moncier has been banned from practicing in Tennessee Eastern District federal courts for five years. Seems a little harsh to me.

UPDATE: Katie at KT has some interesting analysis, and the KNS has this detailed report.

Here's the beta (by way of Jack Lail).

From the City of Knoxville:

What: Unveiling of a historical marker honoring award-winning writer and Knoxville native, Nikki Giovanni. A reception will follow at the Beck Cultural Exchange Center.

When: 3 p.m., Tuesday, April 29

Where: Hall of Fame Drive across the street from the Cal Johnson Recreation Center

Who: Nikki Giovanni, Mayor Bill Haslam, Vice Mayor Mark Brown, Avon Rollins, director and CEO of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center will be among the speakers.

The City of Knoxville and the Beck Cultural Exchange Center are placing the historical marker near where the home of Giovanni’s grandparents, John and Louvenia Watson, once stood. Giovanni, a Knoxville native who later moved to Cincinnati with her family, spent her summers there as a child.

In a Knoxville News Sentinel op-ed yesterday, Sen. Bob Corker says the government should pay for people's health care.

According to Sen. Corker, he only recently learned from speaking to a gentleman in East Tennessee that a lot of people don't have health insurance and end up going to emergency rooms for treatment.

Sen. Corker's solution is to provide every American "cash in hand," $2,160 for individuals or $5,400 for families, to purchase health insurance either through their employer or in the private market. He says it will be revenue neutral, but he doesn't explain how.

He also says that the alternative is "government-sponsored health care," which would "lower the quality of care, limit access to physicians and put a government bureaucrat between a patient and his or her doctor."

A couple of things.

If "government-sponsored health care" is such a bad thing, why he is proposing exactly that?

Second, Sen. Corker seems out of touch with regard to the cost of premiums. The average annual total premium cost in 2007 was $4,479 for single coverage and $12,106 for family coverage (source).

Third, Sen. Corker is apparently unaware that insurance companies in Tennessee aren't required to write anyone an individual policy. So if you're not employed by, say, the Federal Government (like Sen. Corker), good luck. Not only that, but employers aren't required by federal law to offer insurance either. So a big check from the government isn't going to help you if you are unemployed, self-employed, underemployed, or your employer doesn't provide health insurance, especially in Tennessee.

Fourth, Sen. Corker, like many Republicans, believes we can fix anything in the tax code ("we make the tax code treat all Americans equally when it comes to buying health insurance"). Meanwhile, his colleague, senior Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, just recently called for eliminating the tax code and going to a flat tax. So how can we solve all our problems through the tax code if we don't have a tax code? Maybe Sen. Corker's people ought to get with Sen. Alexander's people and schedule lunch?

Finally (I guess that was more than a couple of things), I am not clear on how "government-sponsored health care" (which is ironically what he proposes) would "limit access to physicians" or how it would put a "government bureaucrat between a patient and his or her doctor."

The last time I checked, just about every physician and hospital accepts Medicare. And unlike most private insurance, which requires pre-approval by minimum-wage cubical clerks in call centers (in India?), standard Medicare requires no pre-approval. And study after study shows Medicare is more cost effective and has lower administrative overhead than private insurance. In fact, some studies say we could reduce our overall health care costs (another one of Sen. Corker's goals) by $200 billion to $300 billion per year by opening up Medicare insurance to everyone. In other words, we are already paying for "universal coverage," we're just not getting it.

Sen. Corker should study up on plans such as HR676, which accomplishes everything he says he wants and a lot more for a lot less, before floating more half-baked, recycled GOP talking point "solutions." The problem from Sen. Corker's point of view, though, is that a comprehensive single-payer solution doesn't benefit the corporate insurance company middle men and gatekeepers, who are the real beneficiaries of his plan.

Knoxville's Farmers' Market starts back up today, April 26, 2008.

Market Square in Downtown Knoxville
10 AM to 2 PM.

Get there early for the best selections.

Yesterday, Factchecker brought our attention to Rep. Jimmy Duncan's remarks regarding "abstinence only" education and "elitist" health professionals interfering with parenting.

Also yesterday, the Crone Speaks about the Congressional hearings on whether "abstinence only" education works, and offers some disturbing facts suggesting it doesn't.

Today, Katie Allison Granju over at Knoxville Talks discusses Duncan's remarks and the distinction between parenting and public health strategy.

Coincidentally, just last night the Mrs. and I attended the FYI: Framing Choice graduation party and photo exhibit hosted by the local Planned Parenthood organization.

Jimmy Duncan shows why he is a Repugnicant representing East Tennessee. Via Crooks and Liars:

...the evidence is overwhelming — abstinence-only doesn’t reduce teen pregnancies, doesn’t reduce sexually transmitted diseases, and doesn’t even lead minors to abstain from sex.

Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding.

More on this boondoggle from the "borrow and spend" GOP.

Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee (website) presents FYI: Framing Choice, a photography exhibit by participants of PPMET's FYI peer education program, tonight, 5:30PM at the Emporium Three Flights Up Gallery in Downtown Knoxville. The event is free and the public is invited. Donations will be accepted. Click "read more" for details...

Knox Co. Mayor Mike Ragsdale's office has submitted their formal response to the p-card audit.

Knox County Elections Administrator Greg Mackay advises that financial disclosures for Knox County candidates are now available online at the Election Commission's website. Files are exact PDF copies of the reports as filed. Nice work!

Greg Mackay: "Think of the gas we are saving. It is crazy to have to drive to the Courthouse for a piece of paper."