The Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee joined Art Museum Touring.com today (Link...). Their upcoming exhibition, starting May 17, is "Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands"

They join the Fayetteville Museum of Art from Fayetteville, NC who joined yesterday. (Link...)

The Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville opens its "2008 Members Exhibit" The opening reception on Friday, May 2, from 5-9pm, is free and open to the public, and complimentary hors d'oeuvres will be served. A First Friday event.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

This was a great aftenoon for tree beasts.

Anybody know what this one is?

Without one-time charges, GM's overall losses were $350 million for the quarter, with a loss of $812 million in North America. GM's North America market share also dropped from 22.5% to 21.7%.

The biggest hit:

The one-time items included a $1.45 billion charge to reflect a change in the value of GM's 49 percent share in GMAC Financial Services. Young said the company revalued its stake because of losses in GMAC's residential mortgage division.

Maybe GM should stick to their knitting. And start making cars people want.

The good news is that North American losses are attributed to "plummeting" truck and SUV sales as buyers move to lighter vehicles which are less profitable. The bad part of the good news is that GM will cut 3500 jobs as they scale back truck and SUV production.

Speaking of traffic, here's the report on first quarter 2008 revenues from Knoxville red light cameras:

2008 Program Collections 010108-033108
Fines paid to City of Knoxville= 266,685.27
Payment to Redflex= 417,631.54
Program total= 684,316.81

Detailed report here, crash rate analysis after the jump...

In case you've been on vacation to Mars and hadn't heard, a traffic disaster of Biblical proportions is set to begin today when TDOT and local officials close I-40 through Downtown Knoxville.

Why our traffic geniuses decided to have two of the most heavily traveled Interstate Highways in the U.S. intersect on an elevated platform in the middle of Downtown Knoxville is beyond me, but that's neither here nor there.

And neither here nor there is where you will soon be going because the same traffic geniuses have decided that instead of blowing it up with dynamite and rerouting the traffic around town, they are going to close it for a year and rebuild it as part of the most expensive highway project in state history.

From the TDOT SmartFix40.com website, Dolly explains:

Here's some stuff from TDOT's website that might help you navigate the mess:

• I-40 Closure details map.
• I-40 interchange with Hall of Fame Drive map
• Hall of Fame/Neyland Drive map
• Knox Co. Detours map
• Driving directions for selected destinations
• Current traffic conditions
• City of Knoxville TDOT Traffic Cams

Local media has some helpful resources as well:

• KNS SmartFIX40 page
• KNS Navigating SmartFIX40 blog
• WATE Street Wise
• WATE TDOT Traffic Cams
• WBIR TDOT Traffic Tracker
• WVLT TDOT Traffic Cams
• KNS TDOT Traffic Cams
• WBIR Traffic Twitter

Good luck, and be careful out there!

First Friday info around here has been impossible to find. Web sites for the different galleries sometimes aren't updated, even the web site for First Friday by the market square district has zero information, it hasn't been updated in over a year. Being an artist, it's frustrating not to be able to find out who even participates, aside from a few places on Market Square.

So, I took it upon myself to do something. This is the first public announcement of a brand new web site that I've built and launched. Link...

Eventually, it'll have a place for local artists to be listed, as well as the different galleries and businesses that participate.

If there's a business that participates that I don't have listed, please use the contact form Link... and drop me a note with the name, so I can add it. I've googled until I can't see straight, trying to find out who else might be participating, and I find it bizarre that you can't find this info anywhere, so I took it upon myself to put this site together.

Eventually, this town will finally have one place with everything you need to know about First Friday- galleries, as well as artists in the area.

Spread the word- Link...

Congress should pass a "consumer protection disclosure and warning label" law that requires the following:

1. The EPA fuel economy must be prominently displayed on all print and television vehicle advertising in a clearly legible type face that is at least the same size as the name of the vehicle or manufacturer, whichever is larger. For radio ads, the EPA fuel economy must be mentioned at the beginning and end of the spot. (Have you ever noticed how most car ads don't mention it at all?)

2. The EPA fuel economy must be permanently etched onto the bumper of all vehicles sold in the U.S. using a clearly legible type face that is at least the same size as the name of the manufacturer's make and model badge.

Then let peer pressure work its magic.

“The most visited national park, up to 10 million people, offers free entry,” said Keith Bellows, editor-in-chief of National Geographic Traveler. “You’re going to have to kiss that goodbye.”

Link

I don't know if Mr. Bellows is familiar with the history of the Park, why fees are not collected, or the political firestorm that would ensue if a fee proposal were to become serious. My bet is it will never happen. The Park will be allowed to die first which, umm, is pretty much what's happening right now. The image was taken Tuesday morning on the pothole-infested Cades Cove Loop Road.

The new WBIR website is live and on the air.

In addition to the new layout, it sports a new and improved video player, new blogs, a discussion forum, and comments attached directly to articles (replacing that awful Topix thing they were using).

WBIR online producer Katie Allison Granju has more.

As you are probably aware, the Knox Charter Petition group will now take it to the streets. The group is launching an effort to get the 40,000 signatures needed (times two) after County Commission this week voted against sending the proposed amendments directly to the voters.

UPDATE: I asked Knox County Elections Administrator Greg Mackay "who pays the $80,000 cost of verifying the petitions, taxpayers or the petition organizers?" He said "taxpayers." So the County Commission just voted to charge taxpayers $80,000 to have their voice heard. That's a lot of lobster!

If you agree with this line of thinking and would like to see more of it on the Supreme Court for another generation, vote for McCain in 2008.

I got my stimulus package in the first round in perfect timing to pay some bills. For the first time in my adult life, or maybe in 8 years, I'm proud of my government, at least until I saw W blame congress for everything today and put in silly plugs for McCain. But, I'm glad for the cash.

Stunning proof.

I haven't read the story, yet, but thought everyone should be made aware of it. It's written by Jamie Satterfield, and is already drawing all those crazy people over there on the KNS site. Why do they let those people even have computers?

Link...

Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier today issued a ruling barring Knoxville attorney Herbert S. Moncier from practicing law in any federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Collier also reprimanded Moncier for remarks made about "opposing counsel."

Rob Huddleston: Why is the previous Knox County GOP Chairman openly supporting Democrats?

Maybe it has something to do with this? (Scroll down to the bottom...)

As we all know the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA has been shocked, shocked I tell you with the racy Miley Cryus (AKA Hannah Montana) photo shoot!

Well check this out. What are decent people to do? I ask you, what is to be done?!

Link...

A coalition of Tennessee organizations calls on David Fowler to stop misleading the public on the SJR127 anti-abortion bill, and tells the Tennessee House to just say NO. Details at TennViews.

No, seriously. I'm not making that up:

To pay for the tax credit, McCain would eliminate the tax exemption for people whose employers pay a portion of their coverage, raising an estimated $3.6 trillion in revenues, Holtz-Eakin said. Companies that provide coverage to workers still would get tax breaks. McCain would also cut costs by limiting health care lawsuits.

Clinton responds:

"The McCain plan eliminates the policies that hold the employer-based health insurance system together, so while people might have a 'choice' of getting such coverage, employers would have no incentive to provide it. This means 158 million Americans with job-based coverage today could be at risk of losing the insurance they have come to depend upon."

Uh, Hillary, divorcing health insurance from employment is the only sane part of McCain's plan.

Obama says:

McCain is "recycling the same failed policies that didn't work when George Bush first proposed them and won't work now. Instead of taking on the big health insurance companies and requiring them to cover Americans with preexisting conditions, Senator McCain wants to make it easier for them to reject your coverage, drop it, or jack up the price you pay."

I didn't get that part, but maybe it's in the details McCain hasn't provided. And Obama is standing up to the insurance companies how? By not making you buy their product?

According to this report, McCain said that he would "encourage state governments to create guaranteed-access plans" as a safety net for high-risk workers. Sounds like another unfunded mandate. And state Medicaid and SCHIP programs are already stretched to the breaking point.

At any rate, one thing all the candidates agree on is that insurance policies should be portable and available across state lines. We will have to wait for more details of McCain's plan, but it doesn't sound like there's a dimes worth of difference between any of the three proposals. OK, maybe fifteen cents. And the bottom line is that the President can't unilaterally enact any of this anyway.

Nashville Business Journal:

Countrywide Financial Corp., which is being acquired by Bank of America Corp., reports a first-quarter net loss of $893 million, or $1.60 per diluted share.

The report says their provision for bad loans increased 888% to $1.5 billion. Yikes!

Herb Moncier has been banned from practicing in Tennessee Eastern District federal courts for five years. Seems a little harsh to me.

UPDATE: Katie at KT has some interesting analysis, and the KNS has this detailed report.

Doug at Reality Me has the, uh, scoop.

Chris Kromm is tracking reports of robo-calls in NC that may be attempts at identity theft but more likely aimed at voter suppression (see here).

Also, the latest foreclosure reports are out, and the U.S. housing market continues its downward spiral.

Worst Campaign Idea Ever?

(By way of ACK.)

Here's the beta (by way of Jack Lail).

The Daily Telegraph today unveils its list of the 50 most influential political pundits to help readers sort through whose opinions matter. These are the people who make voters sit up and take notice. They are the ones who political candidates and campaigns are constantly seeking to woo and influence. They include television presenters, newspaper columnists, bloggers and talking heads.
...
Many important journalists have been left out because they portray themselves as objective and seek to inform rather than persuade.

Actually, today they list numbers 31-50. They will publish the remaining as the week progresses.

Rachel Maddow makes number 50. She has skyrocketed to fame in the past year on Air America and now MSNBC. Rachel's great. She's able to take what the boys dish out.

Mary Matalin at 49 probably was a bigger force in previous elections.

Dee Dee Myers at number 39? I like her a lot but haven't seen a lot of her this election cycle.

Fox News contributors, Juan Williams (31), William Kristol (32), Newt Gingrich (36), Michael Barone (38), Tony Snow (40), and Fred Barnes (45).

New Clinton supporter is a potent symbol:

"It's an incredibly strong endorsement because Easley is popular among the blue collar 'Bubba' voters who are Democrats," said David "Mudcat" Saunders, a Democratic consultant who advised former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner on winning rural voters.

OK, then.

Well, today I did my final pre-operative visit with my surgeon's office and then went over to the hospital and did the pre-operative testing visit there. Didn't really do much at all the whole day, but totally crashed out when we got home. The funny thing is, there wasn't much at all that was asked of me except to sit still while they drew blood and did an EKG and all that medical stuff; but, man, am I tired. Oh yeah, I did answer more questions than a steroidal baseball player in front of Congress...

And we did fill out about 40 million forms and papers...killing only 5 million trees in the process. Oh well...

This time next week, the whole world changes for me. Goodbye cheesecake......goodbye chocolate...farewell biscuits and gravy...waahhhhhhhhh!

Not really...I don't think I will miss them...they are the bad old friends that got me into all kinds of trouble.

I think I'll be happier with my new friends...

Maybe in a year I'll post some before and after pics. But I'll have to go shopping first.

There is a crisis happening on a global scale, and we here in the United States of America have a moral responsibility to take action to help alleviate global food prices and ensure that millions of people do not suffer the ill effects of hunger and possibly even starvation. We are all complaining about the high cost of oil these days and how it is impinging on our budget, but in the developing world this is having extreme consequences. The stark reality is that three billion people on the planet earth live on less than $2 a day, and a good portion of that money goes specifically to the purchase of basic food grains to survive. As a result of the skyrocketing price of oil, the price of food grains has risen due to commercial production costs and transportation to as much as $800 a ton for rice which has led to food riots in the developing world.

The meeting is stumbling along at the moment setting up the order of the agenda. First will be resolutions honoring various groups. The future of South Knox High also will be early in the agenda. There always can be a surprise flare up on any number of concerns: honoring Charlton Heston, paying the superintendent (automatic by court decree), progress on old News Sentinel Building, unfunded mandates resolution (I think there's a question of federalism here, and I'll explain in the meeting).

Just as I started typing Commissioner Pinkston went into the item of superintendent. He seems to be suggesting the Supreme Court cannot rule on the interpretation of the state constitution, but perhaps I am misunderstanding the claim.

--Mark Harmon

From the City of Knoxville:

What: Unveiling of a historical marker honoring award-winning writer and Knoxville native, Nikki Giovanni. A reception will follow at the Beck Cultural Exchange Center.

When: 3 p.m., Tuesday, April 29

Where: Hall of Fame Drive across the street from the Cal Johnson Recreation Center

Who: Nikki Giovanni, Mayor Bill Haslam, Vice Mayor Mark Brown, Avon Rollins, director and CEO of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center will be among the speakers.

The City of Knoxville and the Beck Cultural Exchange Center are placing the historical marker near where the home of Giovanni’s grandparents, John and Louvenia Watson, once stood. Giovanni, a Knoxville native who later moved to Cincinnati with her family, spent her summers there as a child.