Seven years later the war quietly continues. Action has ebbed in Irag, being replaced with action in Afghanistan.

There have been 4,385 recorded deaths of US military personnel as a result of the Iraq War. The numbers are going down. However, the deaths as a result of the war in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom?) are increasing to equal the numbers from the Iraq War.

Isn't it time to bring our soldiers home?

Bank failures for 2010 have surpassed the number of failures (20) for this period in 2009 (through 3/20). Seven banks failed Friday, 3/19/2010. A total of 140 banks failed in 2009.

Florida and Georgia are tied for the most bank failures in 2010 with 5 each. Tennessee still has had no bank failures during this economic crisis. However, the FDIC is increasing staff in Tennessee, a total of 24 temporary employees will be hired in Tennessee this year, including nine in Memphis and 10 in Nashville, and 5 in Knoxville. "... when asked if the moves indicate the FDIC anticipates failures, Hernandez (FDIC spokesman) said no."

Note, most of these are what would be considered small, community banks.

The Candy Factory, the Victorian houses, and the World's Fair Park could have been a wonderful destination for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

But, alas, the City of Knoxville did not see fit to keep these facilities as assets to the community.

What a waste of civic potential and a complete failure of vision. What a boon to have Arrowmont based there instead.

Thanks, David. If only we had more people with long term vision in the community.

Haslam isn't a fan of health care reform, judging from this open letter to the Tennessee Congressional delegation.

P.S. Haslam says "unfunded mandates" will cost the state "$750 million over the next five years." Presumably he's referring to last year's GOP talking points re. Medicaid expansion. First of all, the expansion doesn't take place until 2014. Second of all, the reconciliation bill fully funds it for the first five years.

Or maybe I'm mistaken about all that and someone knows what $750 million he's talking about?

The Public=Online, Government in Real Time website went live yesterday at 2pm to kick off a non-partisan national campaign for government transparency. The first two pieces of legislation being pushed are the Public Online Information Act (kinda like the Freedom of Information Act, but for the 21st Century) and Read the Bill. The new website has a community blog, and the first member post is about the obfuscation of student loan reform by the senior Senator from Tennessee. It may look familiar to KnoxViewers.

Josh Flory with the latest...

A graduate student and I are doing some survey research on local television news, so let me encourage you to take our survey linked below.

We know web surveys do not meet strict criteria for random sampling, but we are hoping for a large number of responses from a good cross-section of people, using a "snowball" technique.

That's a long way of saying, "Please feel free to forward the survey link to other persons and groups in the greater Knoxville area."
--Dr. Mark D. Harmon

http://survey.utk.edu/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=NEWSSOURCESURVEY

Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship (LEAF) organizer Dawn Coppock's tireless work on a Tennessee mountaintop removal ban continues with a legislative alert.

The final meeting of the State Senate Environment Committee is next week and it will be the last chance in this session to get the bill out of committee. Ms. Coppock has the rundown on likely votes and how you can help in a communication that follows after the jump...

Apparently feeling threatened by the possibility of health-insurance reform, the Blue Cross corporation has entered the restaurant business. Some acquaintances and I stopped by their new bistro in Western Plaza last night, and now I humbly submit the following review.

Tennessee's unemployment rate for February was 10.7%, unchanged from January. The national rate is 9.7%, also unchanged from January. Tennessee's rate a year ago was 9.6%.

Compared to January, jobs were added in government, health care, and professional services. Net losses occurred in mining and construction, transportation and warehousing, and clothing stores.

Source: TN Dept. of Labor

Media Matters has the skinny...

RELATED:

Physicians for a National Health Program

AMA Physicians Work for Health Care Reform

AMA Vision for Health System Reform

Tom Humphrey:

...a count by The Associated Press shows that nearly half that many jobs were added to the Knoxville-based company's payroll through mergers and acquisitions of other truck stop chains.

UPDATE: AP report

FedEx CEO Fred Smith says things are looking up at FedEx, which means good news for the economy.

On a related note, Smith's Forbes 400 profile says the idea for FedEx was his senior thesis in college. The company now has 80,000 vehicles and 658 planes, handles more than 7.5 million shipments daily, and operates its own air traffic control system and weather service.

Tennessee Democratic Caucus:

Under the bill (SB2983), community organizations like school clubs, church youth groups and neighborhood associations can request permission from the county to clean up overgrown properties. Property owners will have to pay the community organizations for the services, just as they would if the county cleaned up.

The State Senate passed the bill 29-0, and the House version is in committee.

CBO report to the House:

CBO and JCT estimate that enacting both pieces of legislation — H.R. 3590 and the reconciliation proposal — would produce a net reduction in federal deficits of $138 billion over the 2010–2019 period as result of changes in direct spending and revenue.

Four Tennesseans on the Forbes 400 list...

As an update on Greg Lonas' post yesterday about the Knox County Democratic Party scholarship fund, we've added a thermometer over on the right to track their progress. You can click on it to make a donation of any size small or large to help the KCDP reach their goal of $5000 for the fund. Tell your friends and neighbors, too, and send them this link:

KCDP Scholarship Fund

A company in Texas installs GPS devices on cars they sell in order to more easily repossess when necessary. A disgruntled ex-employee used the Internet and access to the GPS devices to harass customers of the Texas company. He was able to "remotely disable ignitions and set off car horns of more than 100 vehicles sold at his old workplace".

Ain't technology grand?

The Tennessee House Elections Subcommittee has approved legislation to allow a candidate for state representive to file as an independent candidate & also run as a write-in candidate in a Party primary.If this legislation were to become law and a candidate were to utilize this method..if that candidate were nominated by their Party,in the primary,that candidate would withdrawl as a independent candidate.

According to a ruling,in a challenge to the Democratic National Committee's decision to strip Florida of delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, by the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals:"political parties have a constitutionally protected right to conduct & manage their own affairs."

If this legislation,approved in subcommittee,became law,would the political parties have a right,per the appeals court ruling,to declare a Party nominee selected in the manner proscribed..void?