From the Knox County Health Department,

The internet is chock-full of information, especially health information. Most of us have used it to search for health advice or to address concerns we may have for ourselves or our families. And, while there is credible, helpful information, there’s also a lot of misleading, inaccurate information. After all, it’s not as if the internet is checked for accuracy or quality. So, how do you tell the difference? How do you know what’s good, quality information about something as important as your health?

They've "created a guide to help navigate the massive world of online health information." It is not the end all of information on navigating health care on the internet. That might be impossible. It is a starting point to make sure you practice good care when researching healthcare.

It includes a list of "trusted health resources and websites" as well as various frequently asked questions.

One of the most important tips, "talk with your health care provider before making any major health changes."

A planned project on a 1960's era 36-inch water main resulted in an unexpected break, leaving a large portion of Chattanooga with little or no water.
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The outage could last as long as 24 hours for those at higher elevations. Crews are working to restore water, but residents at lower elevations may see the restoration of service in a shorter time span.

Restaurants, schools, government offices, aquarium, and more are closed. Call before you visit.

According to data from "Verra Mobility, the parent company of American Traffic Solutions, which collects data from 2,000 red-light cameras for municipalities throughout the country", westbound Chapman Highway at the Stone Road intersection is the 9th riskiest intersection in the country for people blowing through red lights.

"The number of people killed when someone plowed through a light rose 31% to 939 in 2017, a 10-year high, according to a recent study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety."

A comprehensive 40-page final report summarizing the Chapman Highway Implementation Plan indicates that left-turn lanes will be constructed at the Chapman Hwy/Stone Road intersection. At some point the intersection would become a "protected intersection", separated bike lane and sidewalks, shared-used trails (greenway).The plan also includes the creation of a pedestrian crossing at Stone Road, Might make people a little over confident considering this is a really bad intersection for people running red lights.

If this intersection is a bad as being reported, then there should be something more done to stop people from blowing through the red lights.

Ten candidates qualified for this debate. Thus, it will be a full stage.

3 hours, 8-11 pm, ET
ABC tv network or can be seen online

Klobuchar, Booker, Buttigieg, Sanders, Biden, Warren, Harris, Yang, O'Rourke, Castro

TN State Sen. Kerry Roberts has a radio show on which he said "If there is one thing we can do to save America today it's to get rid of our institutions of higher education right now.... And cut the liberal breeding ground off."

"Every bit of liberal doctrination you can get in a university setting."

The Kerry Roberts Show! comes to you from Springfield, TN, just north of Nashville.

Aren't we proud? He has a college degree but doesn't want those that do not think like him to have a college degree? A man of the people he is not.

Walmart is requesting that customers refrain from openly carrying guns into its stores. In adddition, "Walmart will discontinue sales of short-barrel rifle ammunition, such as .223 and 5.56 caliber rounds that can be used in large-capacity clips on military-stye weapons. The company will also end sales of handgun ammunition."

"Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers." Nine people died as a result of shootings at Kroger stores from 2015 to 2018.

Of course, concealed carry is still allowed, but that may be the law. It's something

Yesterday we noticed Uncle Lem's Outfitters on Sevier Avenue has closed. Hate to see that since it was the only retail store in that area. Not really surprised. Good luck to them at their other locations.

As a result of an officer involved shooting, it has been brought up that Knoxville police still do not have body cameras. I'm a little surprised. I thought it was the norm these days. According to various media reports, it appears Alcoa and Maryville police have body cameras as do Blount County and Knox County sheriff's deputies.

Last November, 2018, WBIR had an article questioning why KPD did not have body cameras. It sounds like it's all about the benjamins. Probably not a good argument.

Shouldn't KPD have body cameras?

"I feel that the United States has tremendous wealth. The wealth is under its feet. I’ve made that wealth come alive," he said. "And I’m not going to lose that wealth. I’m not going to lose it on dreams — on windmills, which frankly aren’t working too well. ”

Hmmmm... Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Watson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk...

We need dreamers, not schemers.

Because of a state law passed last year schools in Tennessee have to test for lead in the water supply. The schools must notify parents if they find lead levels of 20 ppb or greater, which is over the state allowed threshold.

Of the 36 schools tested so far for lead in the drinking water, 14 schools (39%) had water outlets that tested for lead levels of 20 ppb or greater, which is over the state allowed threshold. Of those 14 schools, six are in South Knoxville (9 outlets tested 20 ppb or over). two are in West Knoxville (2 outlets tested 20 ppb or over), three are in North/Northwest Knoxville (6 outlets tested 20 ppb or over), one is in North/Northeast Knoxville (1 outlets tested 20 ppb or over), and two are in East Knoxville (3 outlets tested 20 ppb or over).

There are 72 schools/centers in the Knox County school system. So far half of the schools have been tested and unacceptable lead levels were found in 21 water outlets in nearly 20% of the schools.

For additional information, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a web site with extensive information on lead in drinking water.

From the Wall Street Journal, "Amazon Has Ceded Control of Its Site. The Result: Thousands of Banned, Unsafe or Mislabeled Products."

Amazon has increasingly evolved like a flea market. It exercises limited oversight over items listed by millions of third-party sellers, many of them anonymous, many in China, some offering scant information.
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A Wall Street Journal investigation found 4,152 items for sale on Amazon.com Inc. ’s site that have been declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by federal regulators—items that big-box retailers’ policies would bar from their shelves. Among those items, at least 2,000 listings for toys and medications lacked warnings about health risks to children.
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Amazon’s struggle to police its site adds to the mounting evidence that America’s tech giants have lost control of their massive platforms—or decline to control them. This is emerging as among the companies’ biggest challenges.
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Amazon’s common legal defense in safety disputes over third-party sales is that it is not the seller and so can’t be responsible under state statutes that let consumers sue retailers. Amazon also says that, as a provider of an online forum, it is protected by the law—Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996—that shields internet platforms from liability for what others post there.
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* Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency fined Amazon for letting people sell unregistered pesticides.

* Earlier this year, Washington state’s attorney general and Amazon filed a settlement in state court over state allegations that the company allowed school products on the platform that contained lead and cadmium above federal and state limits.

The article includes a listing of products sold on Amazon that should not be sold, e.g. products falsely listed as FDA approved, products that do not include the appropriate FDA label warnings, prodcuts the FDA says can cause suffocation, products the FDA says contain illegally imported prescription drugs, products falsely claim to be UL certified, etc.

As I've said before, many newer companies, newer tech companies don't feel they need to comply with regulations. The excuse, they're high tech and new, people just don't understand what great things they are are doing for them.

Of course, it all may not matter if the current president continues on the same path. By the time he is done it's possible we won't have any regulations for companies to follow.

New York Times, David Streitfeld:

Over the last few weeks I got a close-up view of this process when I bought a dozen fake and illegitimate Orwell books from Amazon. Some of them were printed in India, where the writer is in the public domain, and sold to me in the United States, where he is under copyright.

Others were straightforward counterfeits, like the edition of his memoir “Down and Out in Paris and London” that was edited for high school students. The author’s estate said it did not give permission for the book, printed by Amazon’s self-publishing subsidiary. Some counterfeiters are going as far as to claim Orwell’s classics as their own property, copyrighting them with their own names.
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all editions of “1984” are the same, right?

Not always, not on Amazon.

Sheesh. Ok, then.

I said it in 2010 when Obama proposed Social Security tax cuts and I will say it now. This is a really bad idea.

Several senior White House officials have begun discussing whether to push for a temporary payroll tax cut as a way to arrest an economic slowdown, three people familiar with the discussions said, revealing growing concerns about the economy among President Trump’s top economic aides.
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Their panicking and flailing is palpable and adding more uncertainly to the economy and making a possible Trump recession more likely,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.).

Obama did it! Wait, that seems like it would mean it would be all wrong.

Besides, on Monday the current President said and tweeted, " “We have the strongest economy, by far, in the world.”

What is wrong in Washington? Oh, right, I forgot the current President is running the government like one of his businesses. Destined to fail?

Through Tuesday, 8/13/2019, 3,383 ballots have been cast in the Knox County election (2,953 early voters, 430 absentee ballots). That is less than 500 early voter ballots a day (6 days).

The Downtown West voting location has the most early voters at 1,234. New Harvest is second with 715 ballots. The South location has the least ballots at 241. The South location may be the worst location of the five.

Let's hope more voters show up for this important election.

Or, is he slyer than a fox?

Donald Trump has insisted that China is “paying for” the tariffs he has placed on their exports: “We’re [currently] collecting 25% on $250 billion [worth of Chinese products], and China is paying for it … Don’t let anyone tell you that we’re paying. We’re not paying.”

...on Tuesday, the White House thought better of it and dropped all those items [i.e. video-game consoles, computer monitors, clothing, footwear, toys, and miscellaneous electronics.] from its list. “We’re doing this for the Christmas season,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “Just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers.”

China's paying the tariffs? We're paying the tariffs? What an idiot. On the other hand, any people privy to his change in policy ahead of the change could make good money in the stock market. It's almost as if.... Nah, couldn't be.

Apparently there are areas in San Francisco where a person has to dodge human waste along the sidewalks. "The city received nearly 27,000 requests for feces removal in the most recent fiscal year, although not all are human."

"San Francisco started its "Pit Stop" program in July 2014 with public toilets in the city's homeless-heavy Tenderloin, after children complained of dodging human waste on their way to school. "

"Advocates say steam cleaning requests have dropped in areas surrounding some of the public toilets. The mayor signed a budget Thursday that includes more than $9 million for the Pit Stop toilets this year, up from $5 million last fiscal year. San Francisco will add seven new bathrooms in a city where a one-night count of homeless people grew 17% in the past two years."

$9 million dollars for public toilets for the homeless?!?!? Yes, it is good that the city is doing something. But, wow, they must really have a homeless problem and it does not appear to be getting any better.

University of Tennessee Assistant Chief Keith Lambert pulls a gun on residents when he went to what he thought was his house, but it was not his house. According to the report KCSO released on Thursday, the resident "told Lambert that he was at the wrong home, at which point she said he pulled a gun from his waistband and told her, 'I'm a cop, get out of my house.'"

A spokesperson for the Knox County District Attorney's Office said in a text message to WVLT News that "We declined prosecution and sent the case file investigating University of Tennessee Police Department assistant chief Keith Lambert back to the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

UTPD told WVLT News that Lambert remains on paid administrative leave and the agency is continuing its internal investigation.

Some neighbors are now on edge in the Hardin Valley neighborhood.

"What if he decides to flip again and hears my dogs bark and decides to shoot them?" Hicks asked. "Or my children screaming because they're 15-months-old and kids cry. Something switches and he pulls his gun and starts shooting?"

Sheesh. Is this one of those cases where the person should not be allowed to own a gun, much less work at a police department?

Brooks claims to provide "a resentment-free assessment of the boomers, conducted by a trained pop sociologist with no ax to grind." Can't say I agree with his entire assessment, but have to like and laugh at some.

He gives Baby Boomer politics a C-. But, then he starts with Bill Clinton. I guess I get it, Clinton was the first Baby Boomer president. But, many of us Baby Boomers have been pretty heavily involved in politics since 1972, way before Clinton's presidency.

He says, "Baby boomers have been unable to match that level of talent." It could be all that early sex, drugs, rock and roll eliminated some of the "talent" because they were afraid of the morality test (Manners and Morals).:)

His overall grade for Baby Boomers is a B. In four out of seven categories he gives a score of A- to A (Social Movements, Popular Culture, Technology and Innovation, Lifestyle), the remaining three are C- to C (Manners and Morals, High Culture, and Politics). A little harsh on some of the Cs, but oh well.

Nine Democratic presidential hopefuls have qualified for the Fall debates, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang.

Beto O'Rourke has fallen behind, maybe he needs to promise that $1,000/month plan Yang is promising.

Qualification for the September debate closes on Aug. 28. Candidates who qualify for the September debate are automatically in the October debate, unless they drop out of the race. And any candidate who misses the September debate has more time to receive new donations or score 2 percent in the polls.

“We are not helpless here,” Obama said in a statement posted on Twitter. “And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.”

The full text of Obama's twitter post,

Michelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shootings. Even if details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true.

First, no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States.