Hurricane Milton was upgraded back to a Category 5 storm as it churns toward Florida’s west coast. The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, faced the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century.

"Eleven Florida counties, home to about 5.9 million people, were under mandatory evacuation orders as of Tuesday afternoon. Officials are warning residents not to bank on the storm weakening.

Let's welcome evacuees to the area as they may join the North Carolina evacuees.

Do not vote illegally! It is a Federal crime and you could do prison time.

Similar to the 1,500 + people who listened to Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, and then got arrested for doing that thing Trump encouraged them to do, you could go to prison. Just because Trump or his minions tell you to do something doesn't mean you should.

Elon Musk's mother tweeted over the weekend,

"The Democrats have given us another option. You don’t have to register to vote,” she wrote on the app Saturday. “On Election Day, have 10 fake names, go to 10 polling booths and vote 10 times. That’s 100 votes, and it’s not illegal. Maybe we should work the system too.”

Don't do it. You are family. You are a good friend. Please don't get arrested for voter fraud.

Under pressure to control housing costs, Republican lawmakers rejected standards meant to protect against disasters, experts say.

Chris Millis, director of regulatory affairs for the North Carolina Home Builders Association,... said statewide rules are unnecessary because local governments have rules about building on hillsides."
...
"The legislature passed a law that blocked the state from adopting new building codes until 2031."
...
"The new law has made it harder for North Carolina to qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to fund climate-resilient construction projects, which prioritize states with up-to-date building codes. The governor’s office has estimated that North Carolina has lost $70 million in grants because of the 2023 law."

JD Vance said in the recent debate, "And we're not going to stop it by listening to experts. We're going to stop it by listening to common sense wisdom, which is what Donald Trump governed on."

It goes on and on. We don't need any stinking rules, experts, or science. Until, of course, you do.

I'm pretty sure there is plenty of non-Federal land available for development, but...

What can be said about the Republican ideas? They have no clue plus they have no compassion plus they don't care about the law.

I wonder how much compassion I will have if the Republican candidate gets elected by my neighbors who need the Democratic candidate more than they either know or will admit.

H/T Eschaton

Carter's life's work was one of promoting peace and human rights.

Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 100th birthday on Tuesday, marking another milestone for the former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian.

Carter, who served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981, is the longest-lived former chief executive in U.S. history.

NPR - Photos: As Jimmy Carter celebrates his 100th birthday, a look through the decades

A great man and an Allman Brothers fan.

The Georgia-based group, Allman Brothers, provided crucial early support for his 1976 White House run, creating a bond that lasted for decades.

Patients and staff at Unicoi County Hospital are trapped on the roof Friday due to flooding caused by Tropical Storm Helene.

The Nolichucky River is out of its banks. The flow is faster than ever experienced in the area, nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second. Normal is 500 to 4,500 cfs.

I pray for these people. It was on CNN not long ago. Very scary. They are using helicopters from the Virginia State Police to get people off the building.

There are reports Blackhawk helicopters are being sent from McGhee Tyson Air National Guard base.

Update: reports indicate everyone has been rescued.

September has been a busy month for law enforcement in Blount County Schools. On Sept. 12, BCSO announced it had charged three students with making threats of mass violence on school property. The newly designated Class E felony carries a weightier sentence than before, and law enforcement across the state is cracking down on the threats.

In addition, an elementary school went on lockdown when someone was carrying a gun on the grounds.

The someone carrying a Glock 19 gun on school grounds turned out to be a bus driver.

"...officials said the incident presented no threat and students were never in danger." He was charged "with a misdemeanor count of carrying weapons on school property."

I'm not sure I would feel safe after this incident. How many times had this person carried a gun while not getting caught? How many other school workers are carrying guns?

Order Your 4 Free At-⁠home COVID-⁠19 Tests
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Call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489).

From the Maryville Daily Times,

Residents from Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Knox, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Union counties are invited to complete an online survey to share their perspective on climate change, energy efficiency, transportation and other topics in order to inform the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s (TPO) upcoming public engagement strategies related to climate change.

The survey is available at Shape Knoxville's Green Future now through Sept. 30, 2024.

Use option 2 to complete the survey. Option 1 is for those who received a survey in the mail with a 9 digit code.

Wow! Is Burchett afraid of his constituents? Does Burchett believe he needs to demonstrate his love for guns to win an election? What is Burchett selling? Disturbing.

The fall equinox and the first day of autumn arrives on Sunday, September 22, 2024, at 08:44 A.M. EDT in the Northern Hemisphere.

After the autumnal equinox, days become shorter than nights as the Sun continues to rise later and nightfall arrives earlier. This ends with the winter solstice, after which days start to grow longer once again.

In the November election, the U.S. faces two futures. In one, the new president offers the country better prospects, relying on science, solid evidence and the willingness to learn from experience. She pushes policies that boost good jobs nationwide by embracing technology and clean energy. She supports education, public health and reproductive rights. She treats the climate crisis as the emergency it is and seeks to mitigate its catastrophic storms, fires and droughts.

In the other future, the new president endangers public health and safety and rejects evidence, preferring instead nonsensical conspiracy fantasies. He ignores the climate crisis in favor of more pollution. He requires that federal officials show personal loyalty to him rather than upholding U.S. laws. He fills positions in federal science and other agencies with unqualified ideologues. He goads people into hate and division, and he inspires extremists at state and local levels to pass laws that disrupt education and make it harder to earn a living.

This is the magazine’s second endorsement in its 179-year history. The first endorsement was in 2020 for Joe Biden.

If we could convince the Republicans how important it is to vote for Harris in 2024.

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are fighting a proposal by an Ohio power company to significantly increase the upfront energy costs they’ll pay for their data centers...

American Electric Power Ohio said in filings that the tariff increase was needed to prevent new infrastructure costs from being passed on to other customers such as households and businesses if the tech industry should fail to follow through on its ambitious, energy-intensive plans.

The power company said projected energy demand in central Ohio forced it to stop approving new data center deals there last year while it figured out how to pay for the new transmission lines and additional infrastructure they would require.

The energy demands of data centers have created similar concerns in other hot spots such as Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Maricopa County, Ariz., leaving experts concerned that the U.S. power grid may not be capable of dealing with the combined needs of the green energy transition and the computing boom that artificial intelligence companies say is coming.

As has been said here before, "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an energy hog. "Should the Bitcoin and AI companies be allowed to use so much of our energy resources? Will our electricity rates go up in order to support these efforts?"

From Gabby Giffords, It’s the Guns. It’s Always the Guns.

After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly. I know, because I was shot in the head at a 2011 congressional event near my home in Tucson, Ariz. Eighteen other people were shot at that event, six of whom died. In the weeks that followed, there were all kinds of arguments as to why and how that could have happened. To me, only one rang true: Someone dangerous had access to a gun.

We are a country weary of repetitive gun violence. When that happens, you have a school shooting on a Wednesday and the country’s attention has moved on by Friday.

What percentage of our country are controlling the gun argument? Why can't they see the problem? Rhetorical questions, I know.

Right now, Knoxville City Council primary voters in a specific district select their top two city council candidates, who then move on to the general election. From there, all Knoxville voters get a say on who wins the job for each district.

The new law mandates only voters in each district can elect their city council representatives.
...
Before the state law, changing Knoxville's elections was up to local voters.

...city council chose to present an at-large for all system before voters this November.

In Knoxville City Council ballot question number 2,
Voters can elect to 1) let voters cast ballots in primary and general elections for all city council seats. OR, 2) voters would only be able to elect the city council representative in their district for both the primary and general elections.

What voters will see on the ballot,

Voters can choose a "yes" or "no" option to this question:

Shall Article IV, Sections 401, and 402, and Article VII, Sections 704 and 707 of the charter of the city of Knoxville be amended to elect six regional at-large councilmembers using regional residency as a qualification for regional candidates and three citywide at-large councilmembers and setting a process for primary and regular elections of council members consistent with Public Chapter 391, Acts of 2023. If more than one candidate receives the highest number of votes in the primary election, then only those candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be placed on the regular election ballot. If proceeding the regular election and only one candidate receives the second highest number of votes in the primary election, then the candidate receiving the highest number of votes and those candidates receiving the second highest number of votes shall be placed on the regular election ballot all as more fully set forth in ordinance No. __ of the city of Knoxville as duly published?

With dozens of school threats made over the last two weeks, law enforcement said at least 12 students have been arrested for threats of mass violence.

Six more arrests made on or around September 10 2024. Students aged 12-14 from 4 different schools were arrested.

A report from September 12, 2024, indicates 3 more students were arrested.

It's a sad state of affairs. Kids that age should not be afraid of getting shot to death in school. It would be terrifying to have to return to school where your friends and/or teachers were shot and/or murdered. We need to keep the children safe. There needs to be some mass counseling done to protect the children.

Scam reports are coming in more frequently in the Maryville Daily Times newspaper, September 14, 2024 and September 7, 2024 . People are losing thousands of dollars.

Don't respond to emails, texts, and phone calls unless you are 100% confident they are valid. I got a phone call last night that said it was from Verizon and they wanted me to approve the two new purchases on the account. I hung up immediately. Even if you want to decline the request, don't do it in the email, text, or phone call. Hang up and call the company using the phone number on their bill or the number on the back of the credit card. If accessible, you can look up your account on the company website to see what is going on.

Place a credit freeze so scam creditors can't get access to your credit information. From the U.S. Government, How to place or lift a security freeze on your credit report. You will have to remember to unfreeze your credit reports if you need to apply for credit (e.g. buy a car, open a credit card, buy a home, etc.)

Be careful out there.

Tonight, Kamala Harris will debate the liar-in-chief.

The debate is hosted by ABC News from Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center, 9pm. It should be on most major new networks. Good thing since we have Direct TV and they have been cut off from ABC by Disney in a contract dispute.

Has the ex-president ever read the Constitution? He certainly doesn't seem to care about forming "a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

"Tuesday night's debate isn't just the first matchup between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Harris. It's their first time meeting in person."

Lyrics
Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand (Shake your hand)
Maybe I'll be there to share the land (Share the land)
That they'll be givin' away
When we all live together, we're talkin' 'bout together, now
...