A reminder that today is the annual Buy Nothing Day, a protest against excess consumerism/materialism.

...you can now get pop-up notifications in some states if you were close to someone who later tested positive for Covid-19. The alerts come via state health department apps that use Bluetooth technology to detect when you (or more precisely, your phone) has been in close contact with an infected person's phone.

At least 15 states are taking part in this Covid-19 exposure notification system.
They include Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wyoming and the nation's capital, Washington, DC.

Your phone can send you an alert if you were near someone who has coronavirus

I want to thank the thousands of citizens for wearing masks and practicing social distancing to protect themselves, their loved ones, and the rest of us.

I want to thank the first responders, essential workers, grocery/pharmacy/retail workers. I want to thank nurses, doctors, teachers. I want to thank manufacturers, growers, distributors.

Thanks to all of them for helping protect all of us. Thanks to all of them for doing their jobs with little help.

They put themselves in harms way to keep our society afloat.

I've been afraid and all of these people make me strong.

Give thanks to all these people that put their lives on the line for others. Please, respect others.

Thank you. Be safe.

(link...)

Grainger County Mayor Mike Byrd issued an Executive Order where Grainger county residents and visitors must now wear a mask or facial covering in public.

Tennessee's Down syndrome abortion ban can be enforced, appeals court rules

This is just a small cut and paste of a FB post I saw today.

"Tom's (Elvis) last day at UT bc he is being told he can't PRAY for the patients, staff, patients family members anymore".

Just wondering.

Coronavirus cases rising steadily, up 22.1% in the past week.
Coronavirus deaths rising steadily, 18 deaths in the past week.
Over two deaths a day (up from nearly two deaths a day one week ago and one death a day two weeks ago).
Of the 5 Benchmarks sorta, kinda used to determine how Knox County will handle managing the coronavirus, 3 are in the Red and 2 are in the Yellow. It must be getting bad when the "Sustained or increased public health capability" benchmark goes yellow, which I believe is the only benchmark that had always been green up until this past week.

*** Positivity rate = 13% (up from 12%)
*** 7-day average is 12.2% (up from 11%).
Positivity rate preferred to be below 3%.
As of November 15, 2020, Knox County is in the Red Zone and as of November 8, 2020, remains in the red zone.

The Knox County Health Department reports

16,682 coronavirus cases and 928 probable cases.

That's 1,596 new cases in the past week,
That's a 22.1% increase over one week ago.

There are 82 Knox County COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized.
Six more than a week ago.

There have been 146 deaths in Knox County from COVID-19.
Eighteen deaths due to COVID-19 in the past week.
That's a 14.1% increase in deaths in the past week (128 as of November 14).

5 in the 18-44 age group (3%)
25 in the 45-64 age group (17%)
36 in the 65-74 age group (25%)
80 in the 75+ age group (55%)

As of November 17, 2020, ICU Bed availability is at 16.9% (278 ICU beds total with 47 beds available) .
ICU bed availability is down as compared to a week ago.
(Note, the week of 9/1/2020, ICU bed capacity was 278, then the week of 9/8/2020, ICU bed capacity was raised to 374, then the week of Sept. 22 ICU bed capacity has been reduced back down to 278.)
(Note, prior to the 8/4/2020 report, ICU bed capacity was 272. It would appear that Knox County hospitals have increased ICU bed capacity by 6 beds.)

The County Health Department has a map with the number of coronavirus cases per zip code.
On November 19, 2020, these zip codes were reported with the most cases:
(last reported on October 29)

37918 has the most cases with 1,465 cases (population 44,476) (11.5% increase)
37920 with 1,338 cases (population 39,000) (11.0% increase)
37922 with 1,081 cases (population 41,539) (11.0% increase)
37921 with 1,042 cases (population 28,000) (7.1% increase)
37916 with 981 cases (population 12,507) (1.9% increase)
37919 with 959 cases (population 28,000) (13.9% increase)
37923 with 921 cases (population 30,000) (11.9% increase)
37917 with 734 cases (population 27,000) (7.3% increase)

Be careful out there.

** For November 20, 2020, the daily positivity rate was 14.8% (up 3.4% from 11/6) and the positivity rate for the last 7 days was 14% (up 3.2% from 11/6) ***

There has been a steady increase in coronavirus (covid-19) cases in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Department of Health and Tennessee’s Unified Command Group announced the launch of a new website to provide COVID-19 data, additional health information and relevant updates to Tennesseans. Select the DATA option towards the top right for Tennessee and county numbers.

According to the TN Dept. of Health,

335,887 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in TN and
4,211 have died from it.

That is an additional 30,767 cases in one week and
an additional 334 reported deaths.

4,243,912 tests have been given to Tennessee residents.
That is an additional 210,558 tests in the past week.

Hospitalizations have increased. From November 14 to November 21 (7 days) the number of patients hospitalized for the coronavirus has increased by 10.3% (by 192 from 1,868 to 2,060).

7.9% of TN residents tested for the coronavirus have tested positive for the coronavirus.

61.6% of the 6.89 million people estimated to live in TN have been tested for the coronavirus.
However, that may not be true. it is not known how tests are counted when a single person gets tested multiple times. Certain people in certain fields of work (medical, education, sports) or physical ability (nursing home residents, hospital patients) may get tested multiple times.

Be careful out there.

Now that this not-yet-completed, public-subsized, 'affordable' housing project has been rebranded and renamed, I suppose they can raise the rent.

The federal government gave Tennessee about $180 million to help families who benefited from free school lunches but couldn’t get those meals when the pandemic closed schools this spring.

Most states mailed these credits to families immediately but in Tennessee, thousands of families are still trying to get these vital benefits months later.
...
Tennessee was one of 17 states that initially used an application process to avoid potential fraud.
...
there isn’t an application anymore for these credits.

For the second round, she [Tennessee Department of Human Services Commissioner Barnes] said they sent thousands of P-EBT cards directly to school districts that will distribute them to qualifying families.
...
The state said any cards that aren’t picked up after 30 days will be returned to the Department of Human Services for disposal.

If you qualify, go get your P-EBT cards now.

DTV visits KCDP Chair Matt Shears as he moderates a discussion with Knox County Democratic Candidates after the November 3rd.

DTV airs on the Community TV channel on Frdays at 9:30 PM can be seen on the following cable channels:

AT&T Uverse: Channel 99
Comcast NBC Universal: Channel 12
WOW! Channel 6
Charter: Channel 193

CTV also live streams at (here)

On the AFL-CIO’s website, they said, “The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families. These laws make it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.”

The AFL-CIO also points out that federal laws have prohibited union membership from being a condition of employment since 1947, making RTW laws a redundancy

Digging into the history of "Right-to-Work" as Tennessee considers new amendment

"There are several advantages to this approach. First, under current regulation, enforcement of the Board of Health curfew is an issue of criminal law. The proposed ordinances would rely on civil -- rather than criminal -- penalties. Second, the proposed ordinance would more appropriately match the potential enforcement action ---revocation of a beer permit- against the beer permit holder, rather than citations against individuals," she said.

Failure to follow closure could cost Knoxville businesses their beer permit under proposed ordinances

Knox News reports that evidence points to planned Amazon distribution centers in Knoxville & Alcoa.

Alcoa site alone could mean 750 new jobs.

(link...)

Coronavirus cases rising steadily, up 14.8% in the past two weeks.
Coronavirus deaths rising steadily, 23 deaths in the past two weeks.
Nearly two deaths a day (up from one death a day two weeks ago).
Of the 5 Benchmarks sorta, kinda used to determine how Knox County will handle managing the coronavirus, 3 are in the Red, 1 in the Yellow, and one Green (Sustained or increased public health capability, which I believe is the only benchmark that has always been green).

*** Positivity rate = 13% (up from 12%)
*** 7-day average is 12.2% (up from 11%).
Positivity rate preferred to be below 3%.
As of October 25, 2020, Knox County is in the Red Zone and as of November 8, 2020, remains in the red zone.

The Knox County Health Department reports

15,086 coronavirus cases and 823 probable cases.

That's 1,949 new cases in the past two weeks,
That's a 14.8% increase over two weeks ago.

There are 76 Knox County COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized.
Nine more than two weeks ago.

There have been 128 deaths in Knox County from COVID-19.
Twenty-three deaths due to COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
That's a 21.9% increase in deaths in the past two weeks (105 as of October 31).

5 in the 18-44 age group (4%)
23 in the 45-64 age group (18%)
28 in the 65-74 age group (22%)
72 in the 75+ age group (56%)

As of November 9, 2020, ICU Bed availability is at 20.9% (278 ICU beds total with 58 beds available) .
ICU bed availability is up as compared to two weeks ago.
(Note, the week of 9/1/2020, ICU bed capacity was 278, then the week of 9/8/2020, ICU bed capacity was raised to 374, then the week of Sept. 22 ICU bed capacity has been reduced back down to 278.)
(Note, prior to the 8/4/2020 report, ICU bed capacity was 272. It would appear that Knox County hospitals have increased ICU bed capacity by 6 beds.)

The County Health Department has a map with the number of coronavirus cases per zip code.
On October 29, 2020, these zip codes were reported with the most cases:
(last reported on October 16)

37918 has the most cases with 1,314 cases (population 44,476) (15.7% increase)
37920 with 1,205 cases (population 39,000) (16.9% increase)
37922 with 974 cases (population 41,539) (25.7% increase)
37921 with 973 cases (population 28,000) (9.8% increase)
37916 with 963 cases (population 12,507) (5.2% increase)
37919 with 842 cases (population 28,000) (15.5% increase)
37923 with 823 cases (population 30,000) (21.9% increase)
37917 with 684 cases (population 27,000) (9.8% increase)

Be careful out there.

** For November 6, 2020, the daily positivity rate was 11.4% (up 0.8% from 10/30) and the positivity rate for the last 7 days was 10.8% (up 0.6% from 10/30) ***

There has been a steady increase in coronavirus (covid-19) cases in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Department of Health and Tennessee’s Unified Command Group announced the launch of a new website to provide COVID-19 data, additional health information and relevant updates to Tennesseans. The site is now available at COVID19.tn.gov. Select the DATA option towards the top right for Tennessee and county numbers.

According to the TN Dept. of Health,

305,120 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in TN and
3,877 have died from it.

That is an additional 44,448 cases in two weeks and
an additional 524 reported deaths.

4,033,354 tests have been given to Tennessee residents.
That is an additional 376,349 tests in the past two weeks.

Hospitalizations have increased. From October 31 to November 14 (14 days) the number of patients hospitalized for the coronavirus has increased by 33.5% (by 469 from 1,399 to 1,868).

7.5% of TN residents tested for the coronavirus have tested positive for the coronavirus.

58.5% of the 6.89 million people estimated to live in TN have been tested for the coronavirus.
However, that may not be true. it is not known how tests are counted when a single person gets tested multiple times. Certain people in certain fields of work (medical, education, sports) or physical ability (nursing home residents, hospital patients) may get tested multiple times.

Be careful out there.

15 games have been either canceled or postponed so far as the number of coronavirus cases around the country continues to rise. By Friday afternoon, eight of the 10 leagues were facing at least one cancellation or postponement, with the SEC topping the list at four.

Georgia/Missouri, Tennessee/Texas A&M, Auburn/Mississippi State, and Alabama/LSU all postponed.

I just watched the video of the October 6 Knoxville City Council meeting where the Mayor announced the impending demolition (what she calls 'cleaning') of the Blackstock homeless encampment. Only Council Rep Amelia Parker questioned the action. After a meeting lasting over 3 hours, five members of the public were allowed to speak for 5 minutes each. Four spoke against the demolition, one in favor. During these comments, members of Council sat stone-faced, and none saw fit to respond to the harsh condemnation of the City's action, which was in violation of CDC guidelines. A link to the meeting follows. Public comments can be heard at 3:17.

(link...)

The Knoxville Police Department will reimplement its COVID-19 safety measures starting Friday morning.

What this means, is that officers will limit their response to only emergencies that require immediate police presence or intervention; or calls that involve a threat of violence.