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Investment in automotive manufacturing in the Chattanooga area continues to climb.

Gestamp Corp. today announced plans to invest $90 million to build an auto parts stamping plant in Chattanooga’s Enterprise South Industrial Park that could create 230 jobs within three years.

Read more via Auto parts maker to build $90M Chattanooga plant : Business : Knoxville News Sentinel.

Sperling’s Best Places have ranked over 400 cities that looked at economy and jobs,cost of living, climate, education, health and healthcare, crime, transportation, leisure, arts and culture, and quality of life to determine a ranking for every metro area in the U.S., plus 27 Canadian cities.

Below are Tennessee cities that show the 2007 rank as compared to its 2004 rank.  Knoxville, TN is the only Tennessee city that showed an improvement in rank, while all other Tennessee cities in the table below lost rank.  You can see other cities by clicking on the link below.

Analyzing more than 400 metro areas in the U.S. and Canada using dozens of variables, the newly published, second edition of Cities Ranked and Rated written by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander and published by Frommer’s, is the ultimate sourcebook for anyone looking to find the best place to live – or who’s hungry to know how their hometown compares.

Where magazine surveys only show the big picture, Cities Ranked and Rated, 2nd Edition, lets you drill way down to find the percentage of white- versus blue-collar jobs, the number of annual days below zero degrees Fahrenheit, the cost for an average doctor visit and even the number of Starbucks in a given metro area. Extensive tables show you America’s most literate cities, the best states for long summer evenings, and the places with the cheapest car insurance.

Cities Ranked and Rated, 2nd Edition, finally boils down all the variables into an overall city rating.

1. Gainesville, FL
2. Bellingham, WA
3. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
4. Colorado Springs, CO
5. Ann Arbor, MI
6. Ogden-Clearfield, UT
7. Asheville, NC
8. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
9. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
10. Boise City-Nampa, ID

See complete rankings

Gainesville, home to the University of Florida, has "gained popularity among northern migrants seeking a Florida climate and intellectual stimulation without the high prices, tourist bustle, and stigma most commonly associated with the state," according to the authors. The book also highlights Gainesville’s recreational opportunities, arts venues, opportunities for small businesses and small-town Southern feel.

The nation’s least desirable place to live, meanwhile, is Modesto, CA, which scored a 0 on the book’s 100-point scale. Modesto’s lack of things to do, high cost of living and high unemployment rate contributed to this ranking, according to the book. In addition, "crime continues to be a real as well as an image problem," and "it was recently noted as having the highest auto theft rate in the nation," the authors note.

Davidson County sheriff says arrests will continue

The federal government will no longer detain illegal immigrants caught driving without a license in Nashville.

Read more via ICE won’t detain non-U.S. drivers in Nashville : State and Regional News : Knoxville News Sentinel.

Tennessee today was recognized as one of the top five most improved states in routing prescriptions electronically.

Read more via State among most improved in e-prescriptions : Business : Knoxville News Sentinel.

The real estate house prices in the Kingsport area appears to have stopped its rising trend.

Kingsport area had one of the largest 1st quarter 2009 house price decrease of all of the cities in United States that are listed in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (HPI report.

Kingsport’s first quarter house prices were down –2.9 percent.  This gave Kingsport a rank of 288 out of 294 MSA’s ranked on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (HPI report. There were six other MSA’s that had a lower 2009 first quarter than Kingsport and they are:

Much has been said about the housing values in the Kingsport area. It seem that Kingsport is not doing as well despite what the local politicians have stated.  While it is true that Kingsport did beat other Tennessee areas with its one year growth of 1.27 percent, but, one needs also to look at what has happened in the first quarter of 2009 and also look at the 5-year growth.

There are other areas of Tennessee that did not experience the loss that Kingsport had in the first quarter of 2009 and the other areas have an equal or better 5-year growth.

The table below show other Tennessee areas that are not ranked in the home price index report.

(Estimates above use all-transactions HPI which includes purchase and refinance mortgages)

**Note: Rankings based on annual percentage change, for all MSAs containing at least 15,000 transactions over the last 10 years.

The graph below shows the last nine quarters for the Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA MSA.

Data below is used for above graph.

++ 28700 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area
Principal Cities: Kingsport, TN; Bristol, TN; Bristol, VA
Hawkins County, TN; Sullivan County, TN; Scott County, VA; Washington County, VA; Bristol city, VA

Older workers spend more time unemployed between jobs than younger workers, labor data show. For someone who is 45 or older, it takes an average of 22 weeks to land a job, compared with 16 weeks for younger job hunters, according to an analysis of 2008 statistics by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read more via Positions eluding older job seekers : Business : Knoxville News Sentinel.

Tennessee Court of Appeals issues a second opinion affirming its support for red light camera ticketing.

Tennessee Court of AppealsThe Tennessee Court of Appeals reiterated yesterday that constitutional protections do not apply to anyone mailed a red light camera citation. In a three-page decision, a three-judge panel unanimously rejected the challenge mounted by Joshua D. Kimsey, the recipient of a $50 ticket from the Australian company, Redflex Traffic Systems. Redflex accused Kimsey of a violation that took place in Knoxville, but Kimsey refused to pay the fine and instead filed motions to have the case transferred to a criminal court. A municipal court denied the motions. A circuit judge declared the photo ticket a valid “quasi-civil matter.” The appeals court agreed, summarily dismissing the idea that all constitutional guarantees should apply to photo tickets.

Read more via Tennessee Appeals Court Reiterates Its Support for Red Light Cameras.

Four Tennessee cities made the list for Allergy Capitals.

There is no place safe from allergies in America, and some cities are more problematic than others. The Allergy Capitals is an annual research project of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) to identify “the 100 most challenging places to live with allergies” in the spring and fall seasons. The rankings are based on scientific analysis of 3 factors for 100 metro areas. The data measured and compared each year includes:

• Pollen scores (airborne grass/tree/weed pollen and mold spores)*

• Number of allergy medications used per patient

• Number of allergy specialists per patient

Top 5 Spring Capitals for 2009:

1. Louisville, KY
2. Knoxville, TN
3. Charlotte, NC
4. Madison, WI
5. Wichita, KS

Click here for the complete rankings of the new 100 Spring Allergy Capitals!

Read more via Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America

New ingredients and methods speed production of drug

Tennessee drug agents are witnessing an alarming comeback in the production of methamphetamine.

Police call it the poor man’s drug, appealing because it is cheap to make with household ingredients and turns a lucrative profit on the streets. Also, the drug elicits an almost immediate, long-term high that outlasts more expensive drugs. But it can destroy the human body in a matter of months.

Read more via Meth labs make a comeback in Tennessee : State and Regional News : Knoxville News Sentinel.

Tennessee health officials expect to find cases of swine flu in the state in coming days, but they see no cause for alarm and say prevention and treatment are the same as for seasonal flu.

Local companies that offer medical care to long-haul truck drivers are on alert to monitor for spread of the disease, and doctors say they’re getting calls, although patients don’t seem to be overly alarmed.

Read more via Tennessee preparing for, not panicking about, swine flu : Local News : Knoxville News Sentinel.