The deadline for News Sentinel Person of the Year nominations is today. The qualification is "their actions must have had an impact this year."

I nominate Maribel Perez Wadsworth, the President of USA TODAY NETWORK for Gannett. She's had a tremendous impact on Knoxville by destroying its once great local newspaper of record.

In her previous posts at Gannett, she "led digital strategy for local newsrooms" and "architected the digital subscription strategy."

How's that working out for Gannett and the News Sentinel?

She recently told employees during a company-wide conference call that "digital revenue is not replacing declining print revenues, and some belt-tightening will be coming in the new year." By belt-tightening, she means more layoffs and gutting of newsrooms.

by Dana Milbank, Washington Post.

Find a therapist.
Don’t quit your day job.
Get married, or join a celibate religious order.
Open Uber Eats and Instacart accounts (under a pseudonym).
Get a lawyer.
Above all: Have fun!

To me, most important are Don't quit your day job and Get a lawyer.
Do you think whoever is next will heed this advice? Nah.

Tune in on Friday, December 14 @ 7:30 PM to Democratic TV (here!) to hear a candid discussion between Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini and TNDP Executive Committee member Dr. Mark Harmon discussing the role the TNDP played in the campaign leading up to the November 6th election.

Democratic TV will air on your cable service channels:

Comcast Channel 12
Charter Channel 193
Wow! Channel 6
ATT U-verse Channel 99

I haven’t yet received an answer to the letter I addressed to Mayor Rogero on October 28, 2018, regarding the whereabouts of the homeless evicted from the I-40/Broadway encampment. As an ordinary citizen, even I can answer that question: they are scattered throughout the inner neighborhoods, and can be seen pushing carts filled with their belongings on N. Broadway, N. Central, Chapman Highway, and elsewhere. In fact, I am attaching a photo taken today of two on my block in a residential neighborhood in South Knoxville.

I have also stopped by the day courtyard constructed at the I-40/Broadway site and rarely see more than a half dozen persons. Why would anyone choose to sit on cold metal furniture when they can sit on the sidewalk in the sun?

As I’ve said previously, the problem of the growing homeless population requires an emergency solution, something I don’t yet see being profferred by the city administration.

In this News Sentinel op-ed, deputy to the mayor and chief operating officer David Brace explains the city's decision to appeal a recent ruling that they must reinstate a former engineering staff member who left his civil service position for a job in the Haslam administration.

When his $155,900-a-year job was eliminated during a reorganization, Steve King (who is eligible for a $79,902 per year pension) requested a hearing to be reinstated to his former civil service job. The hearing officer agreed and ordered the reinstatement, which would result in demotion for two current civil service employees.

Victor Ashe's recent columns criticizing Mayor Rogero regarding the controversy are written "inaccurately and vindictively – in a destructive pot-stirring manner so common in Victor’s gossip column" according to Brace, who says the News Sentinel has "failed to report the facts" about the situation.

Brace also says it's ironic that Ashe is "the only Knoxville mayor to be found guilty in a federal employment rights lawsuit for retaliation and willful discrimination."

Column: Victor Ashe's 'pot-stirring' columns don't tell true story of Steve King removal

Taken in its entirety, the new waiver guidance appears to lay out a path for state officials to pursue, via waivers, changes to the ACA that Congress has not been able to achieve through legislation. Whether and how states respond to the new waiver guidance remains to be seen.

New rules

Stealth attack preexisting conditions

Did you feel it? Two earthquakes hit East Tennessee minutes apart:

There was a 4.4 earthquake around 4:15 a.m. and a 3.3 earthquake around 4:30 a.m.

I felt it. It felt like a tractor trailer had hit a building close by.

Individual 1 says he will shut down the Federal government if Congress doesn't give him money to build his stupid wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

OK, then. Whatever.

But what is a Federal government shutdown? Best I can tell from previous shutdowns is that National Parks are closed. VA paperwork might get slowed down or something, too, not sure. Mostly it causes aggravation for a lot of innocent bystanders. Congress still gets paid, though. Soldiers don't.

If the crybaby in chief wants a real government shutdown he should go all in. Otherwise he's weak.

If he were an authentic tough guy, he would shut off power at the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court. He would furlough all Secret Service and Capitol Police. Ground Air Force One and Marine One. Shut down the Pentagon, order all military to stand down and recall all troops from overseas posts. Ground all military aircraft and order all ships to port. Turn off all government computers. Shutdown the DOJ, FBI, ATF, DEA, Border Patrol, federal marshals, federal courts, etc. Suspend food and drug inspections. Shut down all federal health and scientific research programs. Suspend all federal road building funds. Furlough air traffic controllers and TSA. Turn off all GPS satellites. Recall all NASA astronauts back to Earth from the ISS. Suspend VA, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payment processing. Etc.

But that would be silly. And people would be pretty pissed off and vote all these doofuses out at the next opportunity.

Which is why threatening a government shutdown is a stupid, idle threat.

This place seemed to have some odd business hours from my observation.

What is an average commercial rent per square foot for Market Square?

I Love Juice Bar, another Market Square business, has closed

The Tennessean reports that "Gov.-elect Bill Lee said Monday he is open to promoting a school voucher program as part of his upcoming legislative agenda and committed himself to being an advocate for school choice in Tennessee."

Lee cites his own anecdotal evidence of mentoring an at-risk youth and getting him placed in a charter school. The kid's grades improved and now he's going to college, which is proof that school choice works according to Lee. Is it possible that Lee provided a positive influence in the kid's home life and that was the difference?

Anyway, with a new boss more open to the idea and new leadership in the legislature, school vouchers have a better chance than ever of advancing in the next session.

The News Sentinel, in its review of the downtown Christmas parade, noted, "A man portraying Santa..."

I can only hope the children didn't read that. It was Santa!!

Possibly the most common trigger of profane language in America

But there was a time when cities were signal-free and traffic was directed by police officers — or not at all. That changed 150 years ago on Monday when the world’s first traffic light was installed in London. Towering 20 feet above the street, the gas-powered signal was placed at the busy intersection outside the Houses of Parliament.

150 years of seeing red: The traffic light marks a milestone

Do you care?

From a New York Times report, in about four months of data they found a woman's location was tracked 8,600 times, on average, once every 21 minutes. The apps tracked her to work, to the doctor's office (and how long she was there), to the gym, to Weight Watchers, while walking her dog, to her ex-boyfriend's home, to name a few locations.

"At least 75 companies receive anonymous, precise location data from apps whose users enable location services to get local news and weather or other information, The Times found. Several of those businesses claim to track up to 200 million mobile devices in the United States — about half those in use last year. The database reviewed by The Times — a sample of information gathered in 2017 and held by one company — reveals people’s travels in startling detail, accurate to within a few yards and in some cases updated more than 14,000 times a day."

"These companies sell, use or analyze the data to cater to advertisers, retail outlets and even hedge funds seeking insights into consumer behavior. "

“We look to understand who a person is, based on where they’ve been and where they’re going, in order to influence what they’re going to do next,” Ms. Greenstein [an executive at the location company GroundTruth] said.

“The book ‘1984,’ we’re kind of living it in a lot of ways,” said Bill Kakis, a managing partner at Tell All [Digital, a Long Island advertising firm that is a client of a location company]."

"More than 1,000 popular apps contain location-sharing code from such companies, according to 2018 data from MightySignal, a mobile analysis firm. Google’s Android system was found to have about 1,200 apps with such code, compared with about 200 on Apple’s iOS."

Are we letting too much intrusion into our private lives? All those discount/loyalty cards, Amazon's facial recognition technology, and more.

I always say no when an app requests my location. However, if I use my Android phone GPS feature it pretty much has to know my location. Also, if I do a Google search for a particular store "near me", then obviously Google has to know my location. Many times I try to do searches by city and not "near me". That's a little hard when your in a bigger city.

The New York Times has another article on "How to Stop Apps From Tracking Your Location" for both Android and iOS.

"All of us should use every breath we have to make sure the lies stop on January 20, 2021," Comey told an audience at the 92nd Street Y on New York City's Upper East Side. He all but begged Democrats to set aside their ideological differences and nominate the person best suited to defeating Trump in an election.

"I understand the Democrats have important debates now over who their candidate should be," Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, "but they have to win. They have to win."

Comey calls on Americans to 'use every breath we have' to oust Trump in 2020

The #9 Lady Vols persevered over #12 Texas to remain undefeated.

The #7 men's team knocked off #1 Gonzaga. Schofield played lights out. Williams was big too.

A good day for Tennessee sports.

...A STRONG EARLY SEASON SYSTEM WILL BRING THE POTENTIAL FOR A SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL ACROSS PARTS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS LATE TODAY THROUGH MONDAY...

Widespread precipitation will move into the area today as a strong low pressure system approaches the area. Temperatures will be cold enough across northeast Tennessee, northern Plateau, southwest Virginia, and southwest North Carolina for precipitation to begin as a mixture of rain, snow, and sleet in lower elevations, with mainly snow in the mountains. The best lift and moisture will arrive late tonight and continue through Sunday morning, with significant snow accumulations possible, especially across the far east Tennessee Mountains. Snow will begin to taper off on Monday.

Total snow accumulations of up to 15 inches expected in higher elevations, with mainly 3 to 6 inches expected in the foothills.

* WHERE...Southeast Greene, Cocke Smoky Mountains, Sevier Smoky Mountains and Blount Smoky Mountains Counties.

* WHEN...From noon today to noon EST Monday.

From Trump's new Ambassador to the United Nations:

“When you talk about Germany, we have a very strong relationship with the government of Germany,” Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokeswoman, said in June. She added: “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany, and we have a strong relationship with the government.”

Her qualifications include being a former Fox News anchor.

"My favorite fiction of 2018 was anything from Tesla Inc."

From David Moon's otherwise (mostly) serious book recommendations.

New laws for the State of Tennessee effective January 1, 2019.

Retail grocery stores will be able to sell wine on Sundays starting January 1, 2019, between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Local boards of education will have to develop a policy and implement a program to reduce potential sources of lead contamination in drinking water at public schools.

Women seeking an abortion in the state to get an ultrasound as part of their examination prior to the abortion. The person who performs the ultrasound will also need to offer the woman the "opportunity to learn the results of the ultrasound." Also, the report of abortion must indicate if a heartbeat was detected or not during the ultrasound.

Tennessee Department of Health must establish and maintain a public toll-free telephone line and web-based hotline for citizens to report potential opioid abuse or diversion.

Require public schools and public charter schools used as polling places for regular November election to be closed for instruction on election day.

Handgun permits - exempts from the firing range and classroom hours requirements to obtain a handgun carry permit anyone who in the five years preceding the date of application has successfully completed a department of correction firearms
qualification

Here is a summary of the laws enacted for January 1, 2019.