KNS: Business park scrapped

Lyons said the proposal was a good one and was located in a blighted area, but said it didn't necessarily have blighted structures on it "so there's not quite the immediacy in dealing with it that there would otherwise be."

They have a profile on the sheriff's race between J.J. Jones and Randy Tyree. This time could be even more interesting than last time, when Tyree almost beat Hutchison.

Election day is Aug. 7th, and features local races to elect temporarily permanent replacements for the replacements who replaced the Black Wednesday term limit replacements. Oh, and there are also state and federal primaries.

Early voting starts in less than two weeks, on Jan. 18. The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, July 8th. Better do it in person if you haven't already.

Here's the sample ballot. Here are financial disclosures for local candidates.

Here's the KnoxViews database/directory of all local candidates. Here's the TennViews database/directory of all state and federal primary candidates.

WATE reports that Knoxville City Councilman Steve Hall suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident on his way to a family event yesterday. He was taken to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga where he was to undergo surgery. Send your good thoughts his way.

UPDATE: WVLT has more details and an update from the family.

UPDATE: Statement from the City of Knoxville:

Councilman Steve Hall was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident on Friday, July 4. He is being treated at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.

Mayor Bill Haslam and Vice Mayor Mark Brown, on behalf of City Council, wish to express their concern and wishes for a speedy recovery to Councilman Hall.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Steve and his family.

Following is a transcript of a letter from Thomas Jefferson on the occasion of the fiftieth birthday of our nation. The letter was written only ten days before his death on July 4, 1826.

Thomas Jefferson
to Roger Weightman
Monticello June 24. 26

Respected Sir

By way of Josh Flory's Property Scope blog, here's an online "we want Costco in Knoxville" petition at wewantcostco.com.

We concur. It really should be in Blount Co. though. West Knox already has Sam's.

(The Mrs. and I were just talking this morning about how we wished we had a Costco.)

• Fourth of July Independence Day celebrations kick off at midnight tonight (12AM July 4th) in Gatlinburg with the nation's first parade. 100,000 people are expected to attend. Fireworks are scheduled for Friday, July 4th at 10PM, and will be visible along the Parkway through downtown Gatlinburg.

• The City of Knoxville presents Festival on the 4th at the Worlds Fair Park. Opening ceremonies are at 2PM in the Amphitheater. There will be live entertainment beginning at 3PM on the WDVX Stage. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will present their 24th Annual Free Independence Day Concert on the south lawn main stage at 8PM, and fireworks begin at 9:35PM.

• Kingston Parks and Recreation over in Roane Co. will be "Smokin' the Water" beginning at noon with drag boat races, followed by a parade, a car show at Roane County High School, a homemade raft race, a home run derby at Byrd Field, live music at City Park by Tall Paul, vendors at the Gravel Pit and City Park, and finishing off with fireworks over Watts Bar Lake at 9:30PM.

• In case you don't get enough fireworks, Lenoir City will be Rockin' the Docks, Saturday July 5th at the Lenoir City Park-Cove on the banks of Fort Loudoun Lake, with live music starting at 3PM, food, children's play area, and fireworks at 10PM.

NOTE: Please be careful with fireworks. Ongoing drought conditions plus fireworks equals a big fire hazard. There's also the safety risk to yourself and others, and fireworks are illegal in most jurisdictions. Be safe, leave the fireworks to the pros.

SEE ALSO: Event roundups at the Knoxville News Sentinel and WBIR (including local fireworks regulations).

Metro Pulse takes a look at the ethics controversy surrounding the Knoxville News Sentinel's charter petition advocacy.

In the wake of the recent split of Scripps cable/online and newspaper/broadcast units, KNS Editor Jack McElroy announces some changes. There will be expanded coverage of regional news, and news operations will be organized around a 24 hour "Continuous News Desk" with Tom Chester at the helm. Jack Lail has the cool new job title "director of innovation."

In a another post, McElroy relates a message from the newspaper division's new CEO. Noting that national and international news are now commodities, E.W. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne says their mission is "Local. The opportunity to be uniquely and passionately local. To be so woven into the fabric of a community that there's no way we can't be the information marketmaker of choice," adding that they will "ooze into every crack of the markets we serve."

KNS: Fulmer gets raise to $2.4 million; Pearl to $1.6 million

U.T. President John Petersen said they are "two of the best coaches in America."

No mention of the best coach, Pat Summitt. Other reports say UT is still negotiating with her.

At any rate, maybe the hearing and speech pathology department should put together a football squad or something.

McCain in Columbia:

"The free trade is an important issue, not only for Colombia but I believe for the economy of the world and, as you know, for the United States economy."

Tennessean: Authorities found 747 live animals and 12 dead ones at Pine Bluff "Kennels."

Compare and contrast.

Sounds like they ought to add fraud to the list of charges.

The City of Knoxville’s Parks and Recreation Division is accepting applications for its 2008/09 Challenge Grant Program, which offers grants to nonprofit projects associated with public parks or recreation facilities within the City limits.

A total of $25,000 is available this year to community groups, homeowner associations, schools, Scout troops and other organizations. The City will reimburse 50 percent of the cost of a single project, up to $2,500.

Previously, the grants have been used for playground equipment, water fountains, benches and landscaping materials.

Applications and grant parameters are available as of July 1, 2008 at www.cityofknoxville.org/recreation or at 865-215-2017. The deadline for applications is Sept. 14.

Kroger has expanded a recent beef recall to include packaged ground beef sold at Kroger stores in Knoxville...

The EPA has issued an air quality "Orange Alert" (unhealthy for sensitive groups) for East Tennessee today.

The primary pollutant is ozone. The health message is "Active children and adults, and people with lung disease, such as asthma, should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors." The particulate matter secondary pollutant is rated "Moderate."

The 2009 edition NAVTEQ map updates for Garmin GPS devices are now available at the Garmin website.

Also, Garmin has added some new models to the Nuvi lineup. The Nuvi 255W has a lot of features for a reasonable price. The higher end 700 and 800 models have been updated to provide route planning and trip logging of up to 10,000 visited points.

A new MSN Direct option is available on some units for automatic, real time updates on local traffic, weather, gas prices and more (plug-in receiver and subscription required). There's also a new feature* on some models that lets you download addresses from Google Maps and Mapquest.

UPDATE: *The Google and Mapquest point of interest download feature works with any Garmin USB attached GPS. I just tried it out with my Nuvi 650 and it works great. First you install the Garmin Commmunicator browser plugin from here. (Have your GPS hooked up via USB so it can verify correct installation.) Then when looking at a Google map, you can click "send", select GPS, select "Garmin", add an optional note (and title if there isn't one) and click "send". The Garmin Communicator screen opens for confirmation, click "send to gps" and you're done. It adds the address entry to the "Favorites" folder on my Nuvi 650.

Video-sharing gets local twist

Dane Baker is the creator of knoxtube.com, a video-sharing Web site that works something like YouTube. Users can post their own videos or view, rank and comment on videos posted by others.

Knoxtube recently hit 700 videos uploaded to the site, clips as diverse as performances by local bands and video of County Commission meetings.

WATE:: Independent prosecutor to investigate Knox Co. finances

MORE: WBIR, KNS, SnM...

Katie at Knoxville Talks notes a new poll showing "more people now say expanding oil drilling and building new power plants is a bigger priority than energy conservation."

WATE reports they have stopped all non-emergency inpatient admissions and plan to stop all admissions by the end of July.

Trust me, this is the funniest thing you will see today.

(By way of fortsanders.net)

KNS: Closing of sign-making plant due to strong sales

The closing of a Columbia, S.C., sign-making plant owned by ImagePoint is more because of strong sales and efficient operations than a weak economy, according to the Knoxville-based company.

OK, then.

Details at BlountViews...

McCain: "Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits."

Here's the video, courtesy of the DNC.

(Memo to the GOP: We already have "voluntary private retirement savings accounts." They're called 401Ks, IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, etc. Why not raise limits so people can put away meaningful tax-deferred savings for retirement?)

We're all thrilled with the surge in voter turnout during the Democratic primary, and all the new registrations and young voters coming out.

But keep in mind that Obama got 18 million votes. More than 121 million people voted int he 2004 general election, which Bush won 62 million to Kerry's 59 million. Even if you add in Clinton's primary votes and all the others, we're still only looking at about 37 million votes.

There's lots of work to be done. Now is not the time to get cocky.

OK, then. Carry on.

According to the KNS, not very:

Three state legislators sponsored no bills that successfully passed during the 105th General Assembly. They were Reps. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, and Parkey Strader, R-Knoxville. All represent parts of Knox County.

According to the article, Campfield has not sponsored a single bill that passed during his entire three terms. We'll always have mixed martial arts, though.

(Unfortunately, Democrats are not running candidates in any of these districts. Guess they are satisfied with do-nothing representation.)

Four former Abu Ghraib detainees who were wrongly imprisoned, tortured and later released without charge are suing two U.S. military contractor corporations and three individual contractors, according to four separate lawsuits being filed today by their U.S. legal team.

Winston Rand, a Tennessee blogger at Nobody Asked, passed away unexpectedly Saturday.

He was a hell of a good writer whose "stream of consciousness" style of observation was sometimes amusing, sometimes enlightening, and always entertaining. After reading him for a while, you felt like you knew him even if you never met him.

Here's "Roomie's" announcement and tribute: Voice, Stilled

SEE ALSO: The styrofoam cup post.

Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee is having a "Teen Lock-In Live Action Camp."

According to PPMET:

The first day will be packed full of human sexuality education and overnight will be movies, games, baking and other educational fun activities.

The second day we will be organizing advocacy efforts with the teens. Students will participate in letter writing, voter registration, a comprehensive sex ed petition drive, and more.

The lock-in will be July 24th and 25th and the cost is free. High school juniors, seniors, and 2008 grads are invited. Under 18 requires parental notification and approval. Registration must be received by Friday, July 4th.

For more information or to register, contact PPMET Community Health Educator Ginny Winter at 865-385-3333 or ginnyw@ppmet.org

Starting this Saturday, July 5th, the City of Knoxville Parks and Recreation department is offering canoe tours of the Tennessee River. Tours will put in at the Holston River Park and navigate down the Holston River to the Tennessee River and Downtown Knoxville.

This is a great opportunity for family fun on the river. Parks and Rec Aquatic staff will conduct the tours, and Ijams Park will provide nature guides.

All ages and skill levels can participate. All equipment is provided, including transportation to the put-in location. There is also a safety demonstration. Just bring a lunch in a waterproof container.

The cost is $20 per person and group rates are available. Tours will be held at 8 a.m. on Saturdays during the month of July. There are 16 canoes available for the tours. Reservations must be made by the Wednesday before the desired Saturday tour date by calling 311. More info at the city's website.

Press release after the jump...

• The Bucket List (*** out of ****): Two great actors in the twilight of their careers show how it's done in this humorous and poignant take on the road trip/buddy movie for geezers. Somewhat predictable, but I liked it a lot better than I thought I would.

• Juno (***): We kept skipping over this one, but I'm glad we finally watched it (on Tivo/Amazon Unbox download). It's a thought-provoking, modern day take on a complicated teen/family problem, with some great acting as a bonus. I really liked some of the simple, fun, but strangely compelling songs from the soundtrack, too.

• Nanking (**1/2): A (sort of) docudrama about atrocities committed in the Chinese city of Nanking by the invading Japanese army during the early days of WWII before Pearl Harbor, and a group of missionaries who saved 200,000 residents of the city by setting up a "safe zone" in defiance. Original film, newsreels, photos, and current day eyewitness testimony from survivors and Japanese soldiers are historically significant, shocking, and heartbreaking accounts of a story I had never heard. Points off for having contemporary (and inappropriately cast in at least one case) actors reading the diaries and journals of the missionaries, which detracted from the story in my opinion. Professional voice overs would have been more effective, I think. I suppose the "star power" was intended to raise awareness, but the eyewitness accounts are far more compelling.

• Mad Money (**1/2): Some great performances by three outstanding female leads in this highly unlikely but entertaining and slickly produced crime caper. (Guys, this one counts as a "chick flick," just don't admit you enjoyed it even though you will.)

• The Grand (**1/2): If you like gambling, casinos, poker, etc. you'll like this. Better than expected, but I wasn't expecting much. Some highly entertaining performances by some great comedy actors who are better than this script, especially Cheryl Hines who rocks this one. The Spinal Tap of poker?

• The Darjeeling Limited (**): Three great young actors in a reconciliation road trip movie that doesn't quite click. Bonus points for exotic locations and beautiful cinematography, plus droll humor and a tragic but touching episode. Tip: skip the alternate opening hotel scene. It's a movie maker's indulgence that doesn't add much, and instead makes you wonder if you should bother with the rest. You should.

• Rambo (**): Go ahead. You know you want to see it. Warning: extreme violence, off-the-shelf characters, and stupefying plot devices. Be sure to check out the DVD extras on the situation in Burma. Also, the alternate outtakes of Rambo attempting sensitive dialogue illustrate why they were left out in favor of the strong, silent performance. (Ladies, this one counts as two "chick flick" credits.)

SEE ALSO: Domestic Psychology's weekend movie reviews. (Was Steve Carell born to play Max Smart, or what?)