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.

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).

By a 94-2 vote, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed HB3687 to establish a convenience voting pilot program.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on it tomorrow. Knox, Anderson, and Loudon counties have been mentioned as candidates. Background on the pilot program can be found here.

Nashville is Talking:

One of the backers of the proposed Bible Theme Park USA in Murfreesboro is a very successful businessman but was once more known for his photographs of cover girls and "Pets of the Month" for Penthouse Magazine.

You can't make this stuff up.

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

A coalition of Tennessee organizations calls on David Fowler to stop misleading the public on the SJR127 anti-abortion bill, and tells the Tennessee House to just say NO. Details at TennViews.

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.

You could plant a garden, or you could buy futures in local farm produce according to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

"Right now is the time for people who care about locally grown foods to buy their produce for the coming season," says Tennessee Department of Agriculture marketing specialist Jon Frady.

With Community Supported Agriculture, a farmer contracts with other people in the community to provide those individuals with a portion of the farmer’s harvest. CSA's not only help consumers save money, they also help farmers plan their crops and buy the necessary seed and fertilizer.

Depending on the arrangement, you might go out to the farm to get your produce, or meet the farmer at a community drop-off site.

Consumers typically purchase a share or a half share of a producer's harvest in advance. A full share averages about $25 per week depending on the type of produce, and will usually get you a half-bushel box of produce per week, or once every two weeks for a half share.

A spring-summer CSA share typically lasts about 25 weeks, from late May until early November. The type of produce will vary depending on the season.

Some customers can also request farm fresh eggs, milk, and other local foods to be included with their share. Some area farmers pool their products to provide customers with a complete range of local foods.

To locate a CSA near you, visit the CSA farms directory at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture's Market Development website.

The nearest one to the Knoxville area is Green Man Farm in Grainger Co.

Your Voice Is Key to Improving Healthcare
The Tennessee Health Care Campaign (Link...) is holding a town hall meeting This Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

Your Voice Is Key to Improving Healthcare
The Tennessee Health Care Campaign (Link...) is holding a town hall meeting This Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. It will be held at the Cherokee Health Systems corporate office - 2018 Western Ave. Knoxville

Confirmed Legislators:
Sen. Tim Burchett, Rep. Stacy Campfield, Rep Doug Overby, Rep Harry Tindell.

Sen. Jamie Woodson had confirmed but is now stating she has can't attend.

From thcc:
Your Help is Needed NOW.

Sen. Jamie Woodson had confirmed several days ago that she would attend our forum.

Now she says another event has come up and she can’t come to our forum.

We want to respectfully ask her to keep her commitment to us.

Sen. Woodson needs to hear from YOU, her constituent.
Call her office in Nashville TODAY.
Toll-free:
1-800-449-8366, ext. 11648
It's OK to leave a message. Please make sure to state that you are her constituent.

In a respectful way, please do the following:

CALL Sen. Woodson and tell her – in your own words -- that you would like her to:
A) PLEASE keep her commitment to attend our Constituent Health Care Forum at Cherokee Health Systems Corp. Office in Knoxville on Friday, April 18th at 6:30 pm.

B) Help you and others avoid state policies that will create up to 200,000 new uninsured this year;

C) Help you and others increase the number of children who have health coverage;

Tell her that you and others have been looking forward to sharing your concerns and discussing solutions that she, as your elected representative, can help with.

Let her know that YOU and others are RELYING on her to care and help avoid another mass creation of uninsured. Together, we can avoid crisis.

Sen. Woodson needs to hear from you.
Call her office in Nashville TODAY: 1-800-449-8366, ext. 11648
It's OK to leave a message.

Visit Thcc2.org for more info.
I hope to see some of you there. I will be the nerdy guy with the unruly 5 year old.

The Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission voted against issuing a permit and rezoning plan for Bible Park USA.

The ACLU has been watching the project proposal amid concerns about public government funding for a private religious enterprise.

Fundraising, endorsements, and more.

Democrats in the Tennessee Senate will introduce a family medical leave bill tomorrow. Read more about it here.

The intermittently weekly Tennessee progressive blog roundup is here.

Knoxville News Sentinel:

In Tennessee between 2000-2006, the report said, more than 3,600 people 25-64 years of age died as the result of a lack of health insurance. Uninsured people are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private insurance.

This is a disgrace.

What can you say, except congratulations!

The Tennessee Clean Water Network has launched a new blog. The blog will cover water quality issues, legislation, stories from local communities, and updates on TCWN's activities.

According to this Knoxville News Sentinel report, a state audit of the publicly funded "Sportsman's Wildlife Foundation" found numerous problems, but says steps are being taken to correct them. H.E. Bittle, head of the foundation, says "not a single penny was misspent."

The foundation is funded by sales of a specialty license plate. You may recall previous discussion about this here. Apparently, most of the funds have gone to build a luxury hunting lodge and payment of Bittle's salary. (Bittle sponsored the bill that created the specialty license plate and directed the proceeds to his foundation while he was a member of the Tennessee House.) The state audit recommends changes to state law to require better accounting of how such funds are spent.

Earlier this year, legislation was introduced to discontinue funding for the Sportsman's Wildlife Federation and instead allocate proceeds from the specialty license plate to TWRA for hunter education. Another bill would require the Secretary of State to verify the non-profit status of any organizations receiving funds from specialty license plate sales. More on those bills can be found at TennViews.

Here's a database of every candidate for the Tennessee August state and federal primaries:

http://www.tennviews.com/tn08aug

You can filter the list by office, district, and/or party. Candidate listings include links to district maps, campaign websites, emails, and campaign finance disclosures that we could find, along with links to search Google news, websites, and blogs.

We will be updating it over the next few weeks. If you have any updates, additions or corrections please submit them to rneal@rviews.com.

UPDATED:

Harry Tindell (D) State Rep. 13th District
Ryan A. Haynes (R) State Rep. 14th District
Thomas S. Baer (R) State Rep. 14th District
Rachel L. Ray (R) State Rep. 15th District
Joe Armstrong (D) State Rep. 15th District
Bill Dunn (R) State Rep. 16th District
Barbara Nicodemus (D) State Rep. 16th District
Charlotte Meyer (D) State Rep. 16th District
Stacey Campfield (R) State Rep. 18th District
Jonathan A. Katsiros (R) State Rep. 18th District
Ronald Leadbetter (R) State Rep. 18th District
Harry Brooks (R) State Rep. 19th District
Jamie Woodson (R) State Senate 6th District
Gary Farmer (D) State Senate 6th District

The House Environment subcommittee voted against HB3348 that would ban mountaintop removal mining in Tennessee.

The Senate Environment, Conservation, and Tourism committee is scheduled to hear companion bill SB3822 a second time today.Today's KNS has an editorial on issue.

UPDATE: Sen. Tommy Kilby has blocked a vote on the bill in the Senate committee. Kilby is bullying committee members, and they don't like it. Notes taking during live video stream after the jump...

UPDATE: Tom Humphrey files this report on the House subcommittee vote. Voting against the bill were William Baird, R-Jacksboro; George Fraley, D-Winchester; Joe McCord, R-Maryville; Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains; and John Tidwell, D-New Johnsonville.

Unless the Tennessee General Assembly takes action before the end of this legislative session to preserve the Tennessee Plan, the state could lose the unique arrangement that helps assure the quality and independence of the highest courts in Tennessee's judicial system.

Some 30 years ago, Tennessee adopted a major reform in the selection of judges, called the "Tennessee Plan." Under this arrangement, state appellate judges are no longer elected by the people. Instead, judges for the Supreme Court and other appeals courts are initially selected by the governor from candidates recommended on the basis of merit, but sitting judges periodically are subject to retention votes in which people vote "yes" or "no" on the retention of each judge.

Judge selection and retention under the Tennessee Plan is a bewildering process for citizens, but it has been successful in depoliticizing the state's judiciary. Today I learned that the Tennessee Plan is subject to a sunset law -- the two commissions that make the process work are scheduled to "sunset" on July 1 unless the legislature acts to continue their existence. Two sets of bills to continue the Judicial Selection Commission (which makes recommendations on candidates for judgeships) and Judicial Evaluation Commission (which evaluates the performance of each sitting judge and publishes its findings before a retention election is held) have been introduced in the General Assembly, where they are awaiting consideration by the House and Senate Government Operations committees. HB2141/SB2013 (introduced last year) would extend both sunset dates until 2014, and the combination of HB3216/SB2432 and HB3225/SB2433 (introduced this year) would keep the commissions around until 2012.

The Tennessee Plan has its opponents, who say that it takes power away from the public and gives it to lawyers' organizations. That's effective rhetoric, but the fact of the matter is that in other states the selection of judges by popular vote results in selections based on money, ideology, and campaign promises, not on legal ability and impartiality.

To protect the independence of our judiciary, the Tennessee Plan shouldn't be allowed to quietly disappear.

If so, your financial info may have been compromised.

(Click for bigger)

A reader sends this page from the latest Tennessee Blue Book, noting that it's a "slice of East Tennessee people, and elected officials." Note the political party affiliation: "Independent NASCAR Fan". (Here's a better photo of Sen. Williams' NASCAR getup.) Coincidentally, there's some news from the TN 4th Senate District today.

The Tennessee Senate Environment and Conservation Committee had a somewhat confrontational hearing Wednesday on the bill to ban mountaintop removal. Chair Tommy Kilby blocked a vote on the measure.

There was some good news, though. See the LEAF update after the jump. Also see this report at Facing South.

(Cross-posted at TennViews.)

Today is the last day to for you to call or e-mail Governor Bredesen directly so that he can help push LEAF's state bills through subcommittee in order to halt mountain top removal (MTR) practices in Tennessee. The governor is said to already support the legislation, but our Attorney General publicly spoke negatively toward it, citing constitutionality concerns over potential conflict with federal mining laws that supersede the state's.

Fortunately, the wording in the bills has since been tweaked, as I understand it, to emphasize the critical water quality protections needed by the state which should overcome those objections and give teeth to the legislation.

However, the first of the bills (senate version) goes to subcommittee vote tomorrow and in order to survive the subcommittee, a critical push is needed from the Governor himself. It would also help to call and write the Senators in the subcommittee (via here) and urge them to attend and to vote in favor of the bill. The coal lobby is pressuring senators from even showing up, which is equivalent to flipping their votes from Yes to No. Don't let them get away with it.

Here is the latest Urgent Action Alert, copied in its entirety:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It is critical that Governor Bredesen gets phone calls (615-741-2001 or 615-532-4562) and e-mails (phil.bredesen@state.tn.us) IMMEDIATELY from everyone who cares about Tennessee's mountains.

All you need to say is`: My name is ---, and I'm from ---- county. I'm calling to ask the Governor to publicly support the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act and help facilitate its passage. The bill numbers are Senate Bill 3822 and House Bill 3348. Thank you.

The few minutes it takes you to call could help save Tennessee's mountains forever! If you'd like to review the bill or read supporting arguments for ending mountain top removal (also called cross-ridge mining) in Tennessee, go to Link....

LEAF has attached a double copy of this alert so you can easily print it out, cut it apart, and post it or pass it on to friends. If each LEAF action team member will call the Governor, and then prompt 5 friends or family members to call, we will have a big impact. Please forward this alert to your e-mail address book. We need as many calls as possible. Today [is the last chance critical] time-frame for this action.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Please also read the details in this update posted here by Betty Bean. More info. and background is here.

Thanks for your immediate attention to this.

There's buzz going around that Knox Co. DA Randy Nichols (D) will challenge Jamie Woodson (R) for State Senate.

I am almost at a loss for words to describe the story on the cover of today's News-Sentinel, so I'll link it:
Link...

Note that this story says that the trees being planted will die.

Then please take a look at this story from the Tennessean, which also features Zeb Mountain, but in a very different light.

Link...

Have you seen a story about Dawn Coppock's bill in the NS, except a recent brief saying that the AG has opined that it's not constitutional?
No
You've seen it in Metro Pulse and in the Shopper. The Sentinel has ignored Coppock's efforts, despite the fact that she is a Knoxvillian, and the church that is supporting her efforts is in Knoxville.

Fred Brown has been punked by Big Coal. I am embarrassed for him.

Was just checking in from vacation land and learned the sad news that Volunteer Voters is no more. Today was apparently Kleinheider's last day.