Knoxville Tennessee Blog

Last week it was reported by the News Sentinel that the University of Tennessee is ranked fourth in the nation for illegal downloads. The latest news, as reported by yahoo.com, is that the RIAA is going to send out settlement offers to University of Tennessee students before they are sued.

This is yet another example of the RIAA wasting time and money harassing individuals. You remember the report a few years back of a 12 year old girl being sued by the RIAA. Since then the RIAA has realized that it probably isn’t getting good publicity targeting minors so they decided to hit up that devious college crowd. Plus they have an added insurance policy if the university is a government institution. Worse case, they are probably figuring for a big settlement from the government (ie tax money).

The reality is that suing individuals does not fix the problem. There are an abundance of anonymous ways to transfer music across the Internet. Consider Filetopia, an old but slick software package that offers anonymous file transfer and servers that are overseas outside of US jurisdiction. If the RIAA is serious about curbing the p2p file transfer scene (which I am doubtful is even possible) they need to find ways to encourage people to buy music legitimately rather than trying to discourage them through lawsuits.

If you couldn’t make it to the UT Vols game tonight and didn’t get to watch it on TV, here is the ESPN coverage (with terrible announcing) of Pat Summit Cheerleading for Bruce Pearl’s Vols Basketball Team in their 86 - 76 win over the Florida Gators.

Thompson Boling Arena seats 24,535 and was nearly full. Notable personalities included Peyton Manning and Volunteers football coach Phillip Fulmer.

I have been keeping up with the recent “Exclusive Hussein Uranium News” from TerryFrank.net and I thought it would be a good time to weigh in after more details have surfaced with regards to Frank’s source. If you haven’t been following this story let me get you up to speed with these links. It all started with this post claiming documents that proved Saddam had over 1 million pounds of Uranium. And then there was this follow up post. Next was her appearance on Tennessee This Week and finally her most recent post which can be read here.

If I cared about how much, if any, Uranium Saddam had in Iraq (which I don’t) I would have a few questions for Terry. The first would be why bring this about through your blog as opposed to traditional media? If you really only cared about bringing this to the attention of the public, why would you not contact the Knox News Sentinel or WBIR and report your findings through traditional media which has a much broader audience then your blog.

My next question would be, why would you dedicate an entire post to calling another person rude and incompetent simply because he questioned the authenticity of your claims, even though you provided no supporting evidence? My thought is that any person who would be willing to accept your claim without requesting further evidence would be the incompetent person.

Now for those who don’t believe Frank’s claims I would only suggest that we do live in the Oak Ridge area and after hearing the interview on Tennessee This Week it sounds as though this information is available due to some training that has taken place, which was intended to help safely remove the material from Iraq. This seems like a very plausible story since folks in Oak Ridge would be very familiar with how to handle Uranium.

Terry’s claims are believable but you won’t find me repeating them unless I saw the documents first hand. Even if the claims are true it seems like a mute point this late in the game.

Here are this weeks collection of the best of Knoxville Tennessee links. If you didn’t have time to keep up with all of the fun stuff going on in Knoxville this week these should catch you up.

From Knox Trivia: Abby Ham Truth Straight From Heart
In all my days of blogging, I’ve never seen such careless and callous remarks made, as the ones concerning recent events surrounding the local news coverage of the McClung fire in Knoxville.

From Brian Hornback: Mark Cawood and Diane Jordan Continue to Serve
This morning following the special called meeting. The County Commission re-organized . That means that the 8 new Commissioners were appointed to each respective Committee (Intergovernmental and Finance) Also see New Committee Members

From TNPoliticsBlog.com: A Daily Dose
Bredesen Calls Sales Tax Cut on Food “Voodoo”, Corker Returns from Iraq, Knox Co. Commission Rejects Settlement of News-Sentinel Lawsuit

From Voluntarily Conservative: Cleaning House
OK, he’s already been indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges and now has been formally been charged with DUI in a case that easily could have killed innocent citizens. So, can someone explain to me why the Democrats haven’t demanded for Jerry Cooper to resign his seat in the Tennessee Senate?

From Michael Silence (On Frank Cagle): How many wives have the GOP candidates had?
Of three major Republican contenders for president–John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich–they have eight wives or ex-es between them. If the public record is to be believed, they have all committed adultery.

From KnoxNews.com: Haslam: Turmoil ‘hurts us’
Knox County government’s continued bickering over political appointments could damage the region’s economic development effort, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam warned Tuesday. Haslam fears the political infighting over appointments to Knox County Commission will create the perception nationally that the Knoxville area is a place businesses should avoid.

From Michael Silence: On Knox County commissioners
Moore said he’d only received one phone call at home complaining about the appointment process and that the commission office only got 57 calls, “not all of them negative.” (Moore’s home phone is 865-922-7926, and the commission office is 865-215-2534, in case anyone has a complaint or comment.) Read more from Silence on this subject here and here.

From TennesseeThisWeek.com: Sunshine Law and Ethics; Uranium in Iraq
Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy talks about a lawsuit he and his newspaper have filed against Knox County Commission and Terry Frank raised eyebrows and questions recently when she reported on her blog about uranium stockpiles discovered Iraq.

From KnoxNews.com: Vines: Gray out along with computers
Jim Gray, the former Knox County Democratic Party chairman who resigned last year because he couldn’t support term-limited officials, is the first casualty of former Knox County Commissioner Billy Tindell’s selection as county clerk.

From KnoxNews.com: What ET bloggers are saying this weekend
This is KnoxNews.com “Best Of” links.

Normally I stick to strictly Knoxville related information but because I heard this from several people this week and it was reported by a Knoxville blogger it makes the list.

From ClarkStooksbury: A New Kid in Pedia Town
There’s a new kid in pedia town. A while back, I noted the complaints from Newsbusters about “liberal bias” at Wikipedia. To counter the dreaded bias, we now have Conservapedia.

He also says this: “Other than being a liberal source of fun and laughter, Conservapedia doesn’t appear to have much value.” I would argue that there could be one other highly effective use for this new pedia. I expect it will gain a high PR during the next pass from Google in a few months. If I am correct in this assumption it could be retribution for the recent “nofollow” wikipedia incident.

Did I miss a link? Add your favorite stories for the week in the comments to this post.

This is a reminder of tomorrow’s Knoxville MPC meeting for the Cumberland Avenue Corridor Study. The public meetings are held at the University Center which is located at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and James Agee Street/Phillip Fulmer Way with free parking in the parking garage adjacent to the building. (Enter the parking garage from Phillip Fulmer Way, the top level has direct access to the University Center.)

* Thursday, February 22. Public Meeting # 5. 6:00 pm, University Center Ballroom.

As noted on knoxmpc.org, this will be the final meeting for public input. I am not sure if there will be any media coverage on this besides the mostly useless excerpts from WBIR. Does anybody plan on attending the meeting tomorrow?

For one of those excerpts from WBIR see this post on the previously held Knoxville MPC meeting.

The video of the Knoxville City Council Meeting from February 13, 2007 can be viewed on Google Video here. The main discussion includes the South Water Front Development plans.

This video is 3+ hours and does not include the public forum at the end of the meeting.

Vice Mayor Brown picture at left.

So you are thinking about or already in the process of moving to Knoxville Tennessee and you’re not sure where to even begin looking for homes. In my last post on Knoxville Real Estate I listed a few websites that you could visit to help you track down the house of your dreams, but I didn’t give you any guidence as to what part of Knoxville would be a good place to buy or build that home.

The Knoxville News Sentinel does a wonderful job in creating highly effective web diagrams, charts and multimedia. A prime example is this flash driven demographic of Knoxville’s 20 wealthiest zip codes.

The diagram names the following zip codes as the wealthiest:

37922, 37932, 37938, 37772, 37931
37923, 37803, 37849, 37737, 37830
37919, 37774, 37742, 37865, 37721
37705, 37924, 37754, 37918, 37764

The chart also lists the housing costs of the Knox County, Anderson County, Sevier County, Loudon County, and Blount County zip codes and additional home data as well as the ethnic makeup of the zip codes and the education levels per zip code. This is great information for folks looking to buy homes in Knoxville. It is also interesting data for those folks who are already home owners in one of these zip codes.

Here are this weeks collection of the best of Knoxville Tennessee links. If you didn’t have time to keep up with all of the fun stuff going on in Knoxville this week these should catch you up.

From GenePatterson.com: Ragsdale Shows Off His Legendary Temper
Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale shows off his legendary temper Sunday on Tennessee This Week.

From MetroPulse.com: Commentary On County Commission Appoitments
It would be nice if the voters turned these people out and paid attention to their outrageous conduct. But since the voters returned most term limited officeholders back to office last year and continue to elect people like Steve Hall, you have to wonder whether Knox County voters haven’t been getting what they deserve of late.

From KnoxViews.com: Preview of Upcoming County Commission Meetings
From the blog of Mark Harmon: Here’s a likely timeline of upcoming topics and activities, Knox County Commission

From KnoxNews.com: Testing planned on McClung fire debris
The probe into how a fire erupted at the McClung warehouses was stalled today after state officials halted the removal of debris until it is tested for hazardous chemicals.

From CityOfKnoxville.org: New Knoxville Station Transit Center
Mayor Bill Haslam announced today that the city will make a recommendation to the Federal Transit Administration that the new Knoxville Station Transit Center be located at a site on the east end of the Church Avenue Viaduct.

From HallsNews.com: The rapid rise of Scott “Scoobie” Moore
What Moore’s hyperbolic ghost writer calls “zest and enthusiasm” is described in less flattering terms by critics who take issue with his role in the recent appointments. Moore is being widely accused of orchestrating “backroom” deals and violations of the state’s open meetings laws.

From KnoxNews.com: Jonathan Wimmer Speaks Out
During this recess, I was approached by Commissioner Greg “Lumpy” Lambert and offered a deal whereby I would receive the appointment to Seat 2B if I would be sworn into office secretly and come back to commission, take my seat and vote for Tramel in the 4th District.

From KnoxNews.com: Council supports S. Knox changes
Knoxville City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to “support the process” and uphold an oversight committee’s rezoning code recommendations for a massive South Knoxville re-development area.

From KnoxNews.com: Proposal: Close 2 elementary schools
Some Knox County school board members question a suggestion, contained in a recent facilities study designed to help school and county officials in their capital budget planning, to close two elementary schools.

From Instapundit.com: Blogger Meet-Up Blogroll
JUST GOT BACK from the area Bloggers’ Bash. Lots of local bloggers were there

Did I miss a link? Add your favorite stories for the week in the comments to this post.

I have started that hunt for a new (or used) vehicle. I have heard that Toyota vehicles are very reliable. Anyways, I compiled this list of Toyota Knoxville Tennessee Dealerships.

If you are looking for a new or used Toyota in Knoxville you are probably going to end up at one of these locations. If you’ve had a good or bad experience with one of these dealerships please leave your comments below.

http://www.toyotaofknoxville.com/
10415 Parkside Drive
Knoxville, TN 37922.
888-432-0894

http://www.airporttoyota.com/en_US/
3145 Airport HWY
Alcoa, TN 37701
800-496-1587

http://www.foxtoyotaclinton.com/
224 South Main Street
Clinton, TN 37716
800-654-7576

http://www.rustywallacetoyota.com/
5944 West Andrew Johnson Highway
Morristown, TN 37814
866-357-6523

The “Bag Of Crap” category is a phrase borrowed from woot.com or if you prefer wine.woot.com. Posts that you find in this category will be random and could contain good, bad, or otherwise useless information.

Coach Bruce Pearl pulled off an exciting victory over the Kentucky Wildcats tonight with the final score 89 - 85. Chris Loften was clutch scoring 23 points in the game and making 5-of-6 free throws in the final 29.5 seconds of the game. The freshman combo of Duke Crews (18 points) and Wayne Chism (16 points) aided Loften in the victory over Kentucky.

It was a great evening to be at a University of Tennessee Basketball game with the “Paint the Town Orange” promotion and a halftime ceremony to retire No. 53 worn by former All-American and NBA All-Star Bernard King. The fans showed up to fill the stadium and show tremendous support for the UT Basketball team. The Tennessee team took the lead early and never looked back. The next game is Saturday at 7 PM against South Carolina.