November 2008 Archives

From the Seymour Herald: 

Several reports Wednesday evening cited sources close to the University of Tennessee football coaching search as having confirmed that former Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin will be introduced at a 1 p.m. news conference as the new Vols' head coach on Monday, December 1.

...

UT athletic director Mike Hamilton is believed to have been busy negotiating a deal with Kiffin this week. Former Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron, who coached with Kiffin at Southern Cal, is rumored to be set to accompany Kiffin to Knoxville as one of his top assistants. 

There's some big changes coming to the Knoxville News Sentinel, writes editor Jack McElroy in his knoxnews.com blog, the Upfront Page:

A week ago, the News Sentinel was forced to reduce its workforce because of the economic situation. Next week, readers will see changes in the newspaper itself.

Some of these change, too, are intended to reduce costs. Like other newspapers, we have been affected by sharply rising expenses, altered advertising patterns and the overall slowdown in the economy. During this time of transition, we want to do everything we can to produce a newspaper that is affordable as well as readable.

...

The biggest change will be in Monday's paper. The start of the week will feature a quick-read edition in two sections, News and Sports, as well as classified advertising.

The "A" section will combine national and local news, with emphasis on local. The weather charts will move to Page A2, and the obituaries will appear in the back of the section. The section also will include our editorials and letters to the editor.

The "B" section will be Sports, including comprehensive reports on the weekend's games. At the back of the section will be the movie ads, TV listings, comics and puzzles.

I just got an alert on this protest of California's anti-gay marriage amendment tomorrow in World's Fair Park at 1:15 (or 1:30ish) p.m., part of a nationwide effort. It's been very underreported (at least in the general interest media) so I figured why not post it here.

From the Nashville Post: 

One of the many jokes heard around the State Capitol last Tuesday night when the Republican Party took control of the Tennessee House of Representatives was how many lobbyists would now quietly saddle up next to GOP lawmakers and say, "I was with you all along."

...

Several attorneys at some of Nashville's biggest law firms have told NashvillePost.com that their firms will be registering some partners as new lobbyists this year simply because they are Republican.

Following some more Minvilla Manor Message Board hijinx, courtesy of newly elected 2nd District Commissioner Amy Broyles (who, in her post, estimates the current cost of the project at $7.5 million, $3 million more than originally projected), the city has announced a joint council-commission workshop to discuss Minvilla and other Ten-Year Plan projects. 

If you are like 6.5 percent (and growing) of Americans today, you're looking for work. Well, there's good news for you--if you happen to have (at least) a Master's degree in international affairs or economics, or if you are a wealthy hotel heiress--the Obama administration may be looking for someone like you. Here are some tips from very smart politicos Heather Hurlbut and Dan Drezner, video link via Brainiac. 

As a new first family prepares to replace the drapes in the White House, their Washington neighbors are abuzz about the changes coming to what has become a sleepy social scene.

Observers expect the new first couple, who are young, intellectually curious and multicultural, to welcome world leaders, great thinkers, musicians and artists, as well as to populate Washington with energetic new people.

"Washington has been in a deep freeze for eight years," says David Adler, CEO and founder of BizBash Media Inc., publisher of a New York-based event industry trade magazine, and founder of the late Washington Dossier, which followed the Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush I administrations. "All of a sudden, every major brand and icon in the world will want to come to D.C. and go to the White House. A state dinner will be the No. 1 ticket in the world."

From the News Sentinel: 

Knox County Health Department announced today that it will cut hours at two community clinics -- Hardy Clinic, in East Knoxville, and Teague Clinic, in North Knox County -- to use those resources at busier clinics elsewhere.

Effective Dec. 1, Teague Clinic, 405 Dante School Road, will be open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.

Hardy Clinic, 2202 Martin Luther King Ave., will accept patients 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Both clinics had been open Monday-Friday.

According to the story, there will be no departmental staff reductions. 

CNN released a chart showing presidential "disapproval" ratings in CNN or Gallup polls for each president dating back to Harry Truman. This list shows the percentage of Americans who disapproved of the way each president was handling his job.

G.W. Bush 76% Now

Clinton 54% September, 1994

G.H.W. Bush 60% July, 1992

Reagan 56% January, 1983

Carter 59% June, 1979

Ford 46% April, 1975; November, 1975; December, 1975

Nixon 66% August, 1974

Johnson 52% March, 1968 and August, 1968

Kennedy 30% November, 1963

Eisenhower 36% March, 1958

Truman 67% January, 1952

And "Mission Accomplished" becomes the new "I am not a crook."

From the press release: 

State-level results show Tennessee met federal achievement benchmarks in all but one category, improved achievement in reading/language arts at the

elementary level and increased the state's graduation rate to 82.2

percent. 

Full results here. 

Here's how Knox County measures up:
According to the state report card, Knox County is a "good standing" system under federal No Child Left Behind Act standards, with 50 of 86 KCS schools in good standing. Knox County's weakest category was its graduation rate--79.2 percent, compared to an 82.2 percent statewide average. The state goal is 90 percent. 

So, there's been an awful lot of noise lately about the Minvilla Manor project in Downtown Knoxville's so-called "Mission District." In its October meeting, County Commission passed $250,000 worth of funding for the project, but tacked on an amendment that would bar government funding for similar projects within a 2-mile radius of Minvilla. On Oct. 29, County Law Director Bill Lockett sent Mayor Mike Ragsdale a memo explaining that the radius amendment violated the Fair Housing Act. Ragsdale subsequently vetoed the amendment. 

In 2003 the American Planning Association lamented, but also recognized the reality of, proximity restrictions as related to housing projects for the homeless.

...

So how is it that the APA is lamenting the fact of proximity restrictions, restrictions the Knox County Law Director claims can't exist under the Fair Housing Act? The answer, based on the following extensive review, is that the Law Director's interpretation is wrong.

This review explains four major reasons why this is so: 1) incorrect statement of the terms of the effect of the "radius amendment," 2) confusion of homelessness and disability, a mixing of those terms at odds with several court cases, 3) incorrect interpretation of the only court case cited in the Law Director's memo, and 4) failure to cite relevant law from other rulings.

Hey! It's Downtown Knoxville's first-ever traffic jam!

From WBIR: 

Eric McLean has been sentenced to 47 days in jail and 12 years of probation for his reckless homicide conviction in the death of Sean Powell.

McLean was taken into custody immediately following Friday's hearing. The defense's motion for bond was denied.

Also, Dollhouse Ep. 7 script pages leaked!

The Labor Department reports 1.2 million jobs lost so far in 2008, 240,000 in October alone. 

According to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, the unemployment rate rose to 6.5% from 6.1% in September and higher than economists' forecast of 6.3%. It was the highest unemployment rate since March 1994.

"There is so much bad in this report that it is hard to find any silver lining," said Morgan Keegan analyst Kevin Giddis.

Come on 2008, let's see if we can beat out 1994 by the end of the year.

President-elect Obama's new website. Come on, CHANGE.gov? Since when do vague, lofty concepts merit dot gov domain names? Perhaps he's proposing a department of change, complete with a cabinet member, the secretary of change. In that case, I have some more suggestions. 

Word has it this morning that these hilarious leaks about Sarah Palin are coming from McCain campaign staffers who started out on the Mitt Romney campaign. 

From Wonkette: 

A whole truckload of these Romney people were hired by the McCain campaign after their guy bowed out of the primaries, and they spent the rest of the race watching sadly as the yokel and the angry old Panamanian failed to say a single intelligent thing about the economy.

Ha! This election has been--continues to be--the highest-quality and most intellectually stimulating show since VH1's Rock of Love. 

From the News Sentinel: 

President-elect Barack Obama beat Sen. John McCain at city of Knoxville polling places but was trounced almost 3-to-1 outside the city limits, according to unofficial results that include absentee ballots that election officials released late Wednesday night.

McCain won 112,999 votes in Knox County to Obama's 70,203, giving the Arizona Republican a 60.73-percent majority overall.

Didn't Jack Neely write something about our local political divide a while back? 

From the Huffington Post: 

...the crowd was a-buzz. "She's so nice!" "Isn't it amazing how she can speak off the cuff like that?! And she's so good at it!" And my favorite exchange from off to my right somewhere:
Woman 1: I wonder what she's telling the media?
Woman 2: She's probably telling them to lay off her clothes!
Woman 1: Yeah. And she looked really good in those clothes.
Woman 2: She looks good in anything, doesn't she?
Woman 1 : Yes. She. Does.

Then, a bit later:

At this point I was ready to stick a shiv in my temple. We were packed in like sardines, and I dared not move or I would lose my reasonably good picture-taking spot so I stayed put.

That's what Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had to say about President-Elect Barack Obama. 

Ahmadinejad congratulates Obama on his election. Let the vitriolic punditry begin!

Crack down on "Erotic Services" listings on Craigslist. From AP, via knoxnews.com.

We've known for weeks now that there's been some tension between Sarah Palin and the McCain campaign. In late October, just over a week before the election, McCain aides, in a highly publicized coup, called her a "diva" and accusing her of going rogue. 

From the Washington Post: 

President Bush said today that he will meet with President-elect Barack Obama at the White House early next week to discuss issues including the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, part of the rapidly accelerating transition process leading up to January's inauguration.

Bush is pledging to "sprint to the finish." Is this what he means?

From the AP: 

Two white supremacists have pleaded not guilty in an alleged plot to kill President-elect Barack Obama and dozens of other black people.

Twenty-year-old Daniel Cowart of Tennessee and 18-year-old Paul Schlesselman of Arkansas spoke only to give their pleas Thursday morning in a Memphis courtroom.

And my favorite part:

Court records indicate their scheme fell apart quickly.

Calling it a "scheme" is giving it a bit more than it deserves, isn't it? I'd say it was more a "blunder," or a "blooper," some "hijinx," maybe. Or just a "tragic and unrepresentative invitation for people living in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast to make stupid jokes."

And planes, too. [HuffPo interview with Jean-Claude Van Damme on his new arty "comeback" film, JCVD, which has been a festival hit and has garnered the Muscles from Brussels some major critical acclaim.]

President-Elect Barack Obama is concentrating on putting his team together beginning today. Already in the headlines was his choice of Chief of Staff, former Illinois Rep. and Clinton Administration aide Rahm Emanuel.