I think I’ll call it “Only In Knoxville”
Rob 6 7 banks and we can’t apprehended you, but shoot just one red light camera…
I love this town.
Can You Define Conflict of Interests Again?
From the KNS:
Cynthia Finch, Knox County’s senior director of Community Services, will give up control of the county’s grants programs so she can continue serving on the boards of nonprofits that receive grant funding, the mayor’s office announced today.
The remarkable thing about this story is that she actually had to be told by her superiors that it was inappropriate to represent entities seeking funds while having control or influence over the funds they were seeking!
A memo sent Friday notified Finch and her subordinates in the Community Development Department they would no longer be allowed to serve on the boards of nonprofits that seek federal or locally funded grants issued by the county.
The new policy comes in the aftermath of a U.S. Housing and Urban Development report that found the county distributed $840,000 in “questionable” federal grants to nonprofits with connections to Finch and other county grants officials.
Only in Louisiana Knoxville. What would happen at your job if you did that? Hell, my company canned a guy (rightfully so) a couple of years ago for taking a $125 Best Buy gift card from a supplier. I guess they could have just given him less work and let him keep his salary along with the gift card as punishment, but what kind of message would that have sent?
Hopefully some of that investigative reporting I posted about earlier today is in the works.
Sooner Or Later They Catch On
A little over two weeks ago, Ron Paul made a morning appearance on Fox and Friends and made a slightly controversial statement that was talked about (a little bit) in the blogosphere well into the next evening. Pretty sticky story, huh?
Now, as far as newspapers go, our local New Sentinel is pretty forward thinking and aware when it comes to blogs and online media. I’d wager to say they are ahead of the curve. So why did they wait until January 3 to publish an editorial on Dr. Paul’s comments? Did it take that long to pen an opinion? I mean, it may be better than I could do, but it isn’t that well written. Countless people wrote about this within a couple of hours.
I realize Mr. Korda doesn’t have editorials posted very often, which actually makes this column even more disappointing. If you’re going to have me sit on the edge of my seat for two weeks waiting on an editorial, at least give me something timely.
I’m a little embarrassed for all of the Ron Paul supporters who bothered writing responses defending him over a story this ancient. The fact that the entire column is based on a comment taken out of context is nothing when you consider that George Korda must have spent most of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays carving it into a slab of stone with hammer and chisel.
If you’re wondering why the newspaper industry is having problems…
My 2007 Year in Review
Unlike everyone else, I slacked off and waited until 2008 was officially here to do my review. 2007 was my first year of full on blogging. I’d messed around here and there with different blogs before, but 2007 was the year I drank the Kool Aid and went at it for real. I’ll keep this list confined to what occurred on this blog. You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m somewhat guarded about the personal life. Enough about me…here are my thoughts on my 10 most notable posts of 2007:
Ron Paul’s Presidential Run
At times it seemed to me that Ron Paul news was taking over this blog. On one hand I feel like I need to apologize for that, but on the other hand, it’s my blog and that’s what I was interested in. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one who was excited by Dr. Paul’s message, and I hopefully played a small part in helping him get elected. More on that later this year, as I have some thoughts on what is realistic, and what is for the best.
Knox County Scandals
There were more in 2007 than I can even count. That makes you wonder how much stuff is going on that we haven’t even heard about yet. Last week I saw a t-shirt that read, “Miami: A sunny place for shady people.” Knox County seems to have the market cornered on shadiness this year.
Steroids in Sports (and Non-Sports)
My bottom line–WHO CARES? Next topic.
People Getting Nekkid and Almost Nekkid
I got a ton of traffic this year writing articles about Vanessa Hudgens, along with a couple of articles about the Inskip teacher who had arguably inappropriate photos on MySpace. I don’t really care who gets naked and takes photos of it, I just wonder how people can do that and not retain ALL digital copies of the material. Idiots.
Barbie Cummings and the Highway Patrol
This was just a funny local story that ended up causing me to exceed my bandwidth when it went national and I ended up ranking #3 on Google for “Barbie Cummings Blog”. Since then, Ms. Cummings life has apparently changed dramatically, much for the better. How do I know that? I’m resourceful, and it didn’t take much digging anyway. Nevertheless, it seems like she wants to leave that part of her life behind her, so I think it’s time this story finally died and went away, never to be mentioned here again.
Tennessee Smoking Ban
Thank you to our state’s elected leaders for writing and enforcing personal choice laws on private property. If you really want to look out for me and mine, stop wasting our tax dollars on this crap. Next thing you know we’re going to have to provide health care for people who would’ve otherwise died if you’d not spent millions trying to keep them from smoking.
Buddies Blogging
Some people I know IRL also started blogs this year. It’s funny that you can go months or years without talking or emailing with someone, and this medium puts you in the position to “converse” with them every day. Even when it isn’t dialog, you read what they write and they read what you write. Very cool. Not to mention the countless other blogs I’ve begun to read that I never would have learned about if I’d not started blogging for real this year.
The War On Education
Also known as the public school system. I feel like I don’t spend enough time or energy talking about this because I think it’s the number one problem facing our country. Solutions are anything but clear and simple, but one thing I’m very excited about for this coming year is that I’ve got an idea that may help a little, at least for individuals. I’m finishing up some other projects, and then I’m going at it full force.
Blogging About Blogging
As I said, 2007 was my first year blogging full throttle, and boy did I learn a lot. I posted a ton of stuff about monetizing, driving traffic, building networks, linking to other people, and I’m sure lots of other stuff that annoys people. I can’t help it…my interest is peaked. Another project I want to tackle for this year is keeping that stuff off of this site and directing it to a different blog that is dedicated to that subject.
The One I Wish Was More Popular
Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about The Wire. I really wished more people watched this show, especially the season that starts next week which will address the media. I’ve had several great conversations with people who watch The Wire, and I’d love to bring more of them to this venue. In fact, I think I’m going to, despite the fact that most people don’t know about the show. At least I’ll have the bragging rights that a couple of people heard about it from me when they are finally turned on to it.
No Place Like Home
We had a great time on our trip to Miami, but it is great to be home again and back into our regular schedule. I couldn’t believe the story about the shooting at Hooter’s here in Knoxville–how tragic. I actually found out about it while reading Total Diatribe…thanks Billy Mac!
With a week of almost nonstop non-posting, I have several things in the works. I’ll be working the next few days to finish up my half written posts and complete my half thunk thoughts. I’ll start by popping over to twitter and writing some notes.  All of this before I even get a chance to catch up on everything I haven’t read in the last few days.
It’s crazy how the world keeps turning, huh?
Headed for Fairer Weather
Round 1 of Christmas is over…at least the Knoxville portion.
Headed to Miami and 80 degree weather for the next week. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some posts up between eating and…eating. 🙂
South Knoxville Water Tower — Some Real Solutions
Lots of people, at least 65 based on the comments on this article, are pretty upset about the huge new water tower being constructed in South Knoxville. Apparently, many folks feel this new structure will ruin the Knoxville skyline. No, I’m not kidding. Their complaint is that it will ruin the Knoxville skyline.
“The bottom line is we have this horrendous, industrial-scale water tower, just blighting and defiling the view, not just from the South Waterfront, but from downtown also,” said Joe Hultquist, a Knoxville City Council member who represents South Knoxville.
As always, there are a couple of obvious solutions to this problem that will make everyone happy:
Either paint it orange with a big white “T”, or plate it with shiny gold panels. Then it will fit right in with the rest of Knoxville’s “skyline”.
Dream Connection Radiothon
If you are feeling more like Bob Cratchit and less like Ebenezer Scrooge Tuesday morning, I’ll be manning the phones with the Knoxville Rugby Club at Dream Connection’s annual Radiothon on WIVK–call in and make a pledge from 7am to 10 am!
If you aren’t familiar with Dream Connection, it is an East Tennessee charity that makes dreams come true for local kids with life threatening or chronically debilitating illnesses. Our club just started working with them last year when we did a golf tournament for their benefit, and they are a top notch organization. My favorite thing about this organization is that 100% of the funds they receive goes directly to making dreams come true for kids.
No overhead costs–printed materials and the like are donated. No paid positions–everyone involved works as a volunteer solely to help the kids.
Call in Tuesday morning and help this great cause!
Knoxville Mans Shares Love For Jesus With Prostitute
Unfortunately for him, she wasn’t feeling it.
“I ain’t saying what I did was smart, but I don’t think I did anything wrong,” Bohannon said. “I just saved an infant’s life, and maybe helped spread the love of Jesus a little bit.”
You have to give it to the guy. Only a true optimist could find the silver lining in getting carjacked by a hooker and her “friend” at knife point in her hotel room. It gets better:
Bohannon says he picked up Stephanie Rae Starcher, 30, early Tuesday morning to share his Christian testimony. He said he didn’t know she was what police call an admitted prostitute or that he’d end up losing his car to the man in her motel room.
“Early” here probably means 2:00am, not 7:30 am. Of course, I’m speculating.
This is, by far, the best excuse I’ve heard so far for picking up a prostitute and taking her to a motel room. Usually on Cops they give some lame excuse like, “She’s my cousin and I’m taking her to work” or the like. But this guy got super creative. Bonus points for that.
Ready For The Majors?
Political operatives employed in public positions, no-bid contracts awarded to friends, e-mail theft, nepotism and cronyism (the KNS is full of links on this), renaming of positions to stay on the payroll, lobster for lunch, trips paid for with misdirected funds, secret meetings to determine public policy, providing funds to apparently fake entities, strongarming the citizens to vote for one tax to avoid another, etc.
Who says government isn’t efficient? Knox County was able to accomplish all of this (and who knows what else)  in just a few years!
My question is, what are these guys doing messing around in little ol’ Knox County? They should skip over state level gov’ment and head straight to the Federal level where they can do some real damage. I haven’t commented on this in a while, but geesh…will it ever end?
