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.

or a kinder, gentler vandalism.

The new Montessori Middle School in Louisville (the Blount Co. TN Louisville) is hosting their 1st Annual Farm Festival on Saturday, May 10, 2008 from 11AM to 4PM at the school, which is located at 3725 Louisville Rd (map). The event is open to the public and there is no charge for admission.

According to Nicole DeBurton, head of the school, Montessori Middle School is a unique and innovative program in that it is located in a farm setting, with plans to include gardening, building, and animal husbandry as part of the curriculum. This is the first school of its kind in the Southeast, and only three other such farm-based Montessori Middle Schools exist in the entire country.

Click read more for a press release with more details...

In looking at the Look Rock web cam Link..., it looks like there may be a fire between the Top of the World community and Rich Mountain. Does anyone have any information on this? I hope the appropriate authorities are aware of the problem.

While thousands were gathering on Market Square, I drove from South Knoxville Bubbaville to Marybubbaville to hear the Carolina Chocolate Drops performance on the Maryville College campus. My third or fourth time to hear them perform. I highly recommend that folks do if they have any interest in African American string and jug band music of the 20’s and 30’s. The Chocolate Drops are not only marvelous entertainers and musicians; they are musical scholars who are collecting and performing a unique form of American Roots music.

As interesting was my walk from downtown to the campus and the discovery of a wonderful chain of parks and greenways. What a wonderful walking city. I also caught glimpses of many interesting older homes. Can’t wait to get back there when I have more time particularly after finding Springbrook Park in Alcoa late last fall.

Did not have a pen with me to write down the phone number, but I did notice there will be a tour of Maryville’s Historic Homes this Sunday, April 20 afternoon from 1:00 to 4:30. Can one of the Maryville Viewers fill us in with the details?

Tonight, 7PM, Music Row of Maryville, 2808 E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy. Details here.

...over at BlountViews

UPDATE: My observations.

Memo to any of you folks over in Knox County or anywhere else in the area who would like to help save Townsend (the "peaceful side of the Smokies") and push back against wealthy land speculators (including Lamar Alexander) who want taxpayers to fund a tourist thruway to their new Blackberry Farm developments...

Come out to the TDOT hearing on the Pellissippi Parkway extension, tomorrow Tuesday Feb. 19, from 5-7pm at Heritage High School. We hope to be there live-blogging it.

More info here, here, here, and some talking points here.

KNS: Voting machines may get replaced

The proposed "Tennessee Voter Confidence Act" calls for replacing the "touch screen" voting machines used in Knox County and 92 others with the new paper-trail devices by "no later than" the 2010 elections.

This is great news, and you can read the article for the details.

There is a glaring inaccuracy, though, in the first paragraph that is repeated several times throughout the article regarding "touch screen" systems. Knox County does NOT use "touch screen" voting machines.

In fact, a recent TACIR report on Tennessee election systems says that all 95 counties in Tennessee use electronic voting in some form. Two use optical scan systems (one by Diebold, one by ES&S), 17 use touch screen DRE systems (by Diebold and ES&S), and the rest (the vast majority) use pushbutton DRE systems (by Hart and Microvote).

So in fact, only 17 counties use "touch screen" systems and Knox County is not one of them, nor is Blount County. The rest (78 counties) use a more reliable system. Knox and Blount counties both use the Hart system.

But all of these need to be replaced with optical scan ballots, which can be read by humans for audits and in the case of recounts or machine failures.

An election day early afternoon report from Blount County over at BlountViews...

Today's KNS local section has an article about a recent feud between the Maryville paper and some local officials.

BlountViews is mentioned, and there's a quote from me taken from the blog. It's the article's only real defense of the local paper, which seems to have trouble resisting outside editorial pressure from local officials sometimes.

Blount Co. Mayor writes a letter of complaint to the Sister City program director:

Additionally, there is a lot of adverse comment about all the Russian kids coming here in the summer. They are competing with out kids for jobs, etc. and I have heard story after story relative to displeasure over the deluge. We need to take care of our kids first when it comes to jobs, The Russians, as far as I am concerned, can do likewise. Enough is enough.

He also has issues with Putin, and brings up Vietnam. Read the story here, and the text of the letter (which was printed on county letterhead) here. I'm told there will be a story about it on WVLT at 5:30PM.

In case you missed it...

(Doesn't seem like the best PR move.)

A few pretty fall colors left in Alcoa and Blount Co. Larger view and a few more photos at BlountViews.

Not wanting to feel left out of local County Commission drama, Blount County is having some drama of its own.

You can read all about it here:

TARGET- Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves

More background here:

Commission Democrats under attack

More on County Commission conflicts

The bottom line is that one of the three Democrats (and, gasp, a woman!) on the 21 member Blount County Commission dared question the Good Old Boys of Blount County and now they're going after her.

And in the latest article referenced in the first link, the Scripps owned and News Sentinel affiliated Blount Today "newspaper" is on the wrong side of this one.

But it's no surprise that they're siding with the GOP Good Old Boys without checking any facts other than what they are spoon fed. It will be amusing to watch the backpedaling commence when the facts come out.

Another case brought to light regarding Judge Young ( Immigrant: Judge told me to go home )

Link...

Apologies for the cross post but I am not sure how to simply say Blount County Progessives could use some help here folks.

This Friday's Blount County Democrats luncheon included a presentation on Blogging 101. Our gracious KnoxViews and BlountViews host was the presenter.

The meeting was quite fascinating. This is the first one we have attended. Fridays are very busy for us. Customers!

Read more here.

I'll be giving a presentation to a group of Blount County Democrats tomorrow at the First Friday luncheon.

It's called "Blogging 101: An introduction to blogs and blogging", and will cover a range of topics from the history of blogging to how to blog, with particular emphasis on hyper-local community blogging.

More details here.

Over on BlountViews is the news of a local Judge who is accused of telling a legal immigrant to go home.

Link...

There's big football excitement in Blount Co. tonight. A preview at BlountViews.

Check out this report with photos from Little River.

The situation is escalating in Blount County.

Our crack team of Truth Squat defectives is tracking down the origin of these materials in order to identify the perpetrator. We are matching brands and lot numbers at area convenience stores and interviewing store clerks. We have some good leads and are closing in on a suspect. There will be "hell" to pay.

(Springbrook Park, about an hour ago.)

Some of y'all might be interested in this report on a presentation we attended this afternoon. There's lots of good stuff to think about.

(The distinguished speaker mentioned the "shell game" of closing one big-box strip center and relocating it somewhere else. He mentioned that strip malls are overbuilt, and that far too many of them are sitting vacant as we keep opening new ones. I didn't address this in my report, but it sounded familiar.)

Under the Maryville ordinance, “when the flow downstream of the withdrawal operations is 40 CFS (cubic feet per second) or less, water supplied to customers of the system shall not be used for nonessential purposes.”

The CFS is the amount of water flowing past the plants. Currently water is running past the Maryville plant at 41 CFS, down from 43 on Monday.

Pay attention. We're running low.

If you're looking for parts for your old VW, or maybe a project, or would just like to visit an old VW graveyard for nostalgia, check out Foothill Imports on 411S in Greenback. It looks like they have one of everything VW related.

We stopped to take a few photos, and Mr. Gerald Miller, the owner, pulled up and stopped to chat. He said they have another location at 5028 Milsaps Dr. in Greenback, with even more VWs. His wife Juanita runs the parts business out of their home at that location.

They acquired the property on 411S about three years ago, and Mr. Miller says they are in the process of getting everything moved over there. He's thinking about a "VW Circus" theme, with old VWs arranged in rings.

He says they spend a lot of time out driving around looking for old VWs in people's yards and at used car lots as far away as Kentucky. He has two running bugs, and the "floor pan's in pretty good shape" on one of them.

More photos after the jump...

Knox Co. seems to be setting a bad example for neighboring communities.

On a clear day...

Today...

Click read more for larger views of both...

Here are some pics from the Maryville Farmers' Market at its new location.

An update on the Maryville High expansion with photos from an endangered neighborhood over at BlountViews...