No WhiteWash!

A red light camera in Kingsport, Tennessee wrongly accused Ray Tolley, 89, of running a red light. According to WJHL-TV, Tolley received a ticket in the mail accusing him of blowing through an intersection on red in a white Ford Mustang. Tolley owns a blue 1990 Ford pickup truck, and the octogenarian rarely drives. His son, David, who was forced to fight the ticket on his father’s behalf, discovered the license plate on the pickup was off by one digit. The Kingsport police, who claim to diligently review every ticket, did not notice that the ticket claimed the Mustang in the photograph was a "pickup" truck.

via California, Tennessee: Bogus Red Light Camera Tickets.

It appears that the Kingsport, TN Police did review the evidence and found that a white Ford Mustang and a black 1990 Ford pickup is close enough. 

89-year old Ray Tolley states that he visited Kingsport about 35 years ago and his pickup has not been started since last fall.

It appears that the Kingsport Police is rubber-stamping the data submitted by camera vender Redflex as the gospel.  The photo on the right is from the Kingsport Police Department web page.

Nate Morabito, a reporter with WJHL has complied the yellow light times for the cities in Sullivan and Washington Counties that have red light revenue cameras.  Go to the following link to read the entire article.  Caution:  Not every yellow light timed the same | TriCities.

Drivers, be aware that you stand a better chance of getting a red light ticket and rear-ended in Kingsport because of their shorter yellow light times.

Go to the link below to access the database to get the yellow light times for Johnson City, Jonesborough, and Kingsport.

Information provided by the City of Kingsport, the City of Johnson City and the Town of Jonesborough.

Read more via Caution:  Not every yellow light timed the same | TriCities.

The 2010 Tennessee Pork Report is out.  Below are some examples of waste that is mentioned in the report.  Click on the link below to see the full report. 

Click here to see the media attention the report has received thus far.

State and local government officials in Tennessee should be scouring their budgets to slash spending in order to help restore some semblance of fiscal sanity. The Pork Report offers dozens of such examples, including:

• $15 million for an aquatics center in Kingsport;
• $3.95 million in excess fees collected by professional regulatory boards;
• $1.6 million washed away on the fairways of the 11 state-run golf courses in 2010;
• $1.5 million to help smokers kick the habit;
• $510,000 for dog parks in Knoxville and Knox County;
• $48,600 in incentives to bring film production to Tennessee; and
• $34,000 to advertise the U.S. Census in Clarksville.

KINGSPORT DROWNS ITSELF IN POOL DEBT (page 7)

In October 2009, the Kingsport City Council made a splash when it authorized $15 million for a new aquatics center. “Bathing suits have been getting moldy waiting on this thing to be built,” noted Alderman Valerie Joh in support of the project.  Kingsport residents should thank their grandkids when they bust out those moldy swimsuits and head to their new government-run swimming pool this summer, because the project was funded as part of a $41.1 million bond issuance by the city. This adds to the city’s enormous debt, which has doubled from $110 million to $218 million over the past five years. Whether they get to take a swim in the pool or not, this debt will undoubtedly be paid off by future generations of Kingsport residents.

Read the entire report at 2010 Tennessee Pork Report

The Kingsport, Tennessee area have gotten themselves more National attention with the recent Gallup-Healthways surveys.

WebMD article below gives (America’s Most Obese Metropolitan Areas) a summary of Gallup’s findings.

Please go to the Gallup link (What America’s Most Obese Metro Areas Have in Common) for more detail.

Do we need more restaurants in the Kingsport area?

America’s Most Obese Metropolitan Areas

March 3, 2010 — A ranking of No. 1 — or being in the Top 10 — isn’t always something to crow about.

The latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index lists the 10 most obese metropolitan areas in the U.S. and finds that adult obesity rates in each are significantly greater than the national average of 26.5%.

Here’s a list of the 10 most obese metro areas, with those ranking highest having the greatest obesity rates.

1. (tie) Montgomery, Ala., and Stockton, Calif.: 34.6%
2. Visalia/Porterville, Calif.: 34.1%
3. York/Hanover, Pa.: 34%
4. Flint, Mich.: 33.9%
5. McAllen/Edinburg/Mission, Texas: 33.7%
6. Bakersfield, Calif.: 33.6%
7. (tie) Lynchburg, Va., and Huntington/Ashland, West Va., Ky., Ohio: 33%
8. Kingsport/Bristol, Tenn., Va.: 32.9%

Eating Fruits and Veggies

The latest Well-Being Index also examines factors that are linked to obesity.

Here’s a look at how metro areas ranked according to the percentage eating fruits and vegetables frequently — listed from worst to best. The nationwide percentage is 56.8%.

1. McAllen/Edinburg/Mission, Texas:  45.7%
2. Montgomery, Ala.: 52.7%
3. Bakersfield, Calif.: 53.1%
4. Stockton, Calif.: 54.8%
5. Flint, Mich.: 56.4%
6. Visalia/Porterville, Calif.: 56.6%
7. Lynchburg, Va.: 56.8%
8. York/Hanover, Pa.: 59.0%
9. Huntington/Ashland/ West Va., Ky., Ohio 60.2 %
10. Kingsport/Bristol Tenn., Va.:  62.2%

Exercising Frequently

Here’s a look at the rankings — from worst to best — of the percentage of people exercising frequently. The percentage nationwide is 49.9%.

1. Montgomery, Ala.:  43.3%
2. Flint, Mich.:  44.5%
3. McAllen/Edinburg/Mission, Texas: 45.8%
4. Lynchburg, Va.: 46.1%
5. Huntington/Ashland, W. Va., Ky., Ohio:   47.7%
6. York/Hanover, Pa.: 47.8%
7. Bakersfield, Calif.:  48.4%
8. Kingsport/Bristol, Tenn., Va.: 48.5%
9. Visalia/Porterville, Calif.:  49.2%
10. Stockton, Calif.:  51%

Gallup-Healthways says in a news release that eight of the 10 most obese areas rank in the bottom two-thirds in terms of having easy access to fruits and vegetables and nine rank in the bottom two-thirds for having a safe place to exercise.

Seven of the 10 most obese metro areas rank among the bottom 25 places where residents say there have been times in the past year when they didn’t have enough money to buy food for themselves or family members.

Obesity’s Link to Health Problems

The researchers note that obesity often is a precursor to chronic health problems, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart attack. These conditions were included in the Gallup-Healthways physical health index.

The report also finds that:

• Each of the 10 most obese metro areas are in the bottom two-thirds of all places in terms of diabetes.
• The Huntington/Ashland areas of West Va., Kentucky, and Ohio, with Montgomery, Ala., and the Kingsport/Bristol area on the Tennessee-Virginia line are in the bottom 10 among all metro areas surveyed in regard to blood pressure, with rates nearly 10 percentage points above the national average.
• Huntington and Kingsport, along with Lynchburg, are in the bottom 10 for high cholesterol.
• Huntington and Kingsport are among the bottom 10 for heart attacks, with rates almost twice the national average.
• Four of the 10 most obese areas are in the top third among all metro areas for not smoking, but the other six rank in the bottom two-thirds.

The Gallup-Wellbeing report is based on telephone interviews with more than 353,000 adults 18 and over between Jan. 2, 2009, and Dec. 29, 2009. It has a margin of sampling error of 0.2 percentage points.

via America’s Most Obese Metropolitan Areas.

Copyright ©2009, WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved

Domtar Corporation (NYSE/TSX: UFS) today reported a net loss of $45 million ($0.09 per share) for the first quarter of 2009 compared to a net loss of $676 million ($1.31 per share) for the fourth quarter of 2008 and net earnings of $36 million ($0.07 per share) for the first quarter of 2008. Sales for the first quarter of 2009 amounted to $1.3 billion. Excluding items(1) listed below, the Company lost $38 million ($0.07 per share(1)) for the first quarter of 2009 compared to a loss of $20 million ($0.04 per share(1)) for the fourth quarter of 2008 and earnings of $25 million ($0.05 per share(1)) for the first quarter of 2008.

Read more via Domtar.

It appears that Kingsport, TN Alderman Ben Mallicote, who is running for re-election, is trying to defend his vote to not give back the regional sales tax back to the property owners in Kingsport. 

The gang of five (Phillips, Mallicote, Joh, Munsey, and Shupe) voted to use the 1/4 percent regional sales tax for a new Convention Center Expansion.   Kingsport citizens back in mid 1990’s voted for the 1/4 percent regional sales tax to build the Meadowview Convention Center.

This became apparent in the Rotary Club debate yesterday when Alderman Shull stated that he voted to give the regional sales tax back to the citizens.  Since the Convention Center debt was paid off, Alderman Shull as well as Alderman Marsh were attempting to return the money back to the citizens via a property tax reduction.

I am not surprised at Ben Mallicote’s position.  He made the following statement in 2008, “I do not believe all of the doom and gloom about the economy”. 

When was the last time you heard someone complain that Kingsport should stop messing around with attracting retailers and restaurants and attract some high-paying manufacturing jobs?

If you haven’t heard it you haven’t been listening. But there’s a problem with that lament.

The sad fact of life is the national, regional and local manufacturing base is decreasing.

During the past decade the United States has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs. And since the current recession began in 2007 1.5 million manufacturing jobs have been slashed.

Many will never return.

Read more via Kingsport, Tri-Cities jobs market reality check – Kingsport Times-News Online.

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Empty seats at a Bristol spring Cup race? It could happen. In ordinary economic times, that is unheard of. Unfortunately, these are not ordinary economic times.

Just days before the Food City 500, there are thousands of tickets still available for purchase at online ticket brokers, shopping websites, and even the Bristol Motor Speedway ticket office itself.
Nearly two weeks ago at Atlanta, an estimated 30,000 seats were vacant during the running of the Kobalt Tools 500.

Faced with the prospect of not having a capacity crowd and as a result of these trying economic times for consumers, the Bristol track and its corporate partners are doing what they can to help alleviate some of the financial burden borne by the race fans who will attend arguably the most popular NASCAR race on the circuit.

In February, a speedway press release announced that Ford is making tickets available to the general public on Ford Fan Friday, which features practice for both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars, as well as qualifying for the Food City 500, for only $5.

Read more via Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV – Bristol, NASCAR dealing with economic woes.

VOLuntarilyConservative blog has got a good point concerning the local economy.  I will have a post soon that will provide some interesting data about the local economy.

There have been several major events related to the local economy here in Knoxville – Goody’s and IPIX going belly-up being at the top of the charts. Blount County has also been hit hard, with Alcoa experiencing lay-offs, the boat manufacturing plants and Denso cutting back hours, and a recent report (along with confirmation to me from anonymous sources familiar with the situation) that Clayton Homes may be in serious trouble.

And while massive lay-offs at The University of Tennessee may create more problems, Knox and Blount Counties are fortunate to have multiple large employers in their municipal boundaries. Other places close to home are not so lucky.

Read more via VOLuntarilyConservative: More Signs of Trouble for the East Tennessee Economy.

Jeff Fleming, Assistant City Manager for Economic Development for the City of Kingsport, TN just posted a post on his blog concerning the January unemployment rates.  Jeff Fleming is paid  $91,898 per year by the taxpayers of Kingsport and he finds time to point out how well other areas are doing or not doing so well in the unemployment area.  Jeff Fleming fails to mention anything about how Kingsport is doing and changes the State data to suit him. 

Below in Red, I have corrected Jeff Flemings post to reflect the State’s report and added data left out by Jeff Fleming for Kingsport, Bristol, and Johnson City. 

See link:  Tennessee – January 2009 Kingsport and Sullivan County Unemployment Rate, and Kingsport Times-News article; Kingsport’s January unemployment rate hits 10.5%, Morristown at 15.2%; Sullivan County has 4th lowest rate in state

Sullivan County has 3rd (4th) lowest unemployment rate in Tennessee

While the unemployment rate rose in all 95 of Tennessee’s counties, Sullivan County has the 3RD (4th) lowest unemployment rate and Washington County is 5th.
8.5% (7.6%) = U.S.
9.3% (8.6%) = State of Tennessee
6.9% = Sullivan County

Counties with lowest unemployment rates (out of 95 counties):

1.  (2.) Knox County (6.6%) – Knoxville
1. (1.) Lincoln County (6.6%) – Fayetteville
2. (3.) Williamson County (6.8%) – Franklin-Brentwood
3. (4.) Sullivan County (6.9%) – Kingsport-Bristol
4. (5.)Davidson County (7.0%) – Nashville
5. (6.) Washington County (7.4%) – Johnson City
5. (7.) Hamilton County (7.4%) – Chattanooga
6. (8.) Montgomery County (7.6%) – Clarksville

Other Cities of interest in the Tri-Cites area
10.5%  Kingsport
7.1%  Bristol
7.0%  Johnson City

Other counties of regional interest:

14.1% = Greene County (Greeneville)
13.8% = Cocke County (Newport)
12.6% = Sevier County (Sevierville-Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge)
12.6% = Hancock County (Sneedville)
12.4% = Johnson County (Mountain City)
12.4% = Grainger County (Rutledge)
11.8% = Jefferson County (Jefferson City-Dandridge)
11.6% = Claiborne County (Tazewell)
11.3% = Campbell County (LaFollette-Jacksboro)
10.8% = Hawkins County (Church Hill-Mount Carmel-Rogersville)
10.4% = Hamblen County (Morristown)
9.5% = Unicoi County (Erwin)
9.5% = Union County (Maynardville)
9.2% = Blount County (Maryville-Alcoa)
9.1% = Carter County (Elizabethton)
8.4% = Anderson County (Oak Ridge-Clinton)

For additional reading, see the following link: Jeff Fleming

What do you think about this type of reporting?  Is it ok to put the political spin on to help the city?  Is this the ethical way of reporting?