"Snark Bites" 06/28-07/04

7/3
TVA Tries Sending Inspection Reports Directly to Landfills
Field notes, press releases to go immediately to dump, too

From APB reports. KNOXVILLE - The Tennessee Department of Environment Oversight, in the Sense of Overlooking, Not Overseeing (TDEOSONO) has approved test runs of four area landfills for the disposal of inspection reports, public-information documents and other materials related to the Dec. 22 coal fly-ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant.

In a statement issued Wednesday, TDEOSONO spokeswoman Trisha Cabrini-Green said TVA would be permitted to send five to 10 truckloads of reports and public-access documents - as well as any investigative journalism stories TVA successfully stonewalls - to each landfill under the agreement. The failure of a coal-ash disposal pond at the Kingston power plant dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of reports, memos and press releases - enough to fill 450,000 dump trucks - into the surrounding communities.

Cabrini-Green said that after the revelation that the field notes of the inspector who was the last to scrutinize the coal-ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant disappeared from his desk, TDEOSONO decided to bow to reality and start allowing TVA to begin sending materials relevant to the disaster directly to landfills.

Cliff Buttersquash, a Tennessee Valley Authority engineer, said in a deposition that his Oct. 22, 2008, inspection of the fly ash pond was the first he'd ever conducted, and while he responded to the Dec. 22 collapse at the facility, the notes disappeared. He specifically and emphatically stated in his deposition testimony that he had not taken the notes with invisible ink...
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/mcnutt/2009/07/tva-tries-sending-inspection-r.html

7/1
City Ordinance Would Force Hopeless Politicians Out of Knoxville
Policy primarily aimed at keeping county politicians from asking for handouts

From APB reports. KNOXVILLE - A proposed city ordinance ostensibly aimed at improving access to developers in the downtown and Downtown North corridor could soon force Knox County's hopeless politicians outside the city limits for most of the day.

Knoxville City Council members gave unanimous approval to the draft ordinance on first reading without discussion Tuesday. It would prohibit any county politician from sitting down to lunch with developers or lying down with dogs, metaphorically speaking, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. throughout the downtown core and along lower Broadway and North Central Street.

City officials have targeted the Broadway-Central corridors as a redevelopment area, hoping to draw skittish developers there to invest in making the district a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use residential and commercial area just north of downtown. And they say they don't need hopelessly handout-addicted county politicians scaring away those mercurial yet money-hungry development-seeking creatures by pestering them for favors.

Bob Whetsel, the city's director of developer attraction, said developer access is an integral part of that.

"In order to have good developer connections, you need good, open-air interactions, with lots of sunshine and far away from dimly lit back rooms," he said...
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/mcnutt/2009/07/city-ordinance-would-force-hop.html

6/30
Group seeks 'Double-Super' Ouster of Lockett
In other news, local attorney Herb Moncier aims for suit-filing world record

From APB reports. KNOXVILLE - County Law Director Bill Lockett, already beleaguered by multiple efforts seeking his removal, faces yet another, as a half-dozen people said Monday they'll begin working to file a "double-super" ouster complaint against him. The group hopes to file a complaint in Chancery or Circuit Court and ask for an immediate hearing to seek Lockett's ouster, said an organizer of Monday's meeting, General Sun Tzu.

"It is the rule in war, if ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if five times, attack them; we have the strength to attack and hold the momentum to start collecting signatures, and the time to strike is now," Tzu said. "We will go to each commissioner and ask for a representative from each district, for when torrential water tosses boulders, it is because of its momentum. When the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is because of timing."

Tamara Shepherd, an organizer of the Lockett Recall Initiative that aims to put Lockett's recall before voters next year, is interested in being a plaintiff in an ouster suit too. "I would be willing to join the suit," said Shepherd. "Because if something is the right thing to do once, isn't it equally right to do it twice? Didn't Sun Tzu say something like that?"

"No," replied Tzu.

"But you did say 'opportunities multiply when they are seized,' didn't you?" insisted Shepherd.

"Well, yes..." admitted Tzu.

"Same difference," said Shepherd.

Two of the four commissioners who attended the meeting - Mark Harmon and Ed Shouse - said they would join the ouster suit if needed.

However, Commissioner Colonel Doctor Richard M. Briggs, M.D., said elected officials suing elected officials becomes "politicized - of course, admittedly, it's hard to say how an office-holder committing malfeasance isn't already 'politicized' - but I guess I mean there's politicized and then there's double-super politicized..."
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/mcnutt/2009/06/group-seeks-double-super-ouste.html