Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Olin Chlor Alkali Products broke ground Friday on a state-of-the-art membrane cell manufacturing facility at its Charleston plant. The $160 million facility is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012. The new plant will have a production capacity of 200,000 tons. It will produce chlorine, caustic soda, potassium hydroxide and related productsTennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said in a press release, Olin is a well-respected corporate citizen in Bradley County, and we appreciate the companys continued commitment to and investment in the community. Established Tennessee companies such as Olin provide a solid foundation on which our states economy will continue to grow. Tennessee Economic Community Development Assistant Commissioner of Existing Industry Kingsley Brock described Olin as a magnet. http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/14799787/article-Ground-broken-for--160M-Olin-facility? instance=homesecondleft
slogan
still
going
strong
(Chattanooga
Times
Free-
This summer is the 25th anniversary of the Tennessee Department of Agricultures Pick Tennessee marketing slogan. The phrase, seen on banners and stickers across the region wherever local produce is on sale, is a reminder to support local growers and eat well, too. To celebrate the anniversary, the state agriculture departments marketers are touring some farmers markets. Last week they were in Athens, Tenn., where a new downtown market is now open. The Athens market was approved through the Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Programs Farmers Market Capital Development Grant to receive cost-share funding in the amount of $100,000. That money is for an open-air, covered pavilion. Athens also has received another grant for $2,500 for signs and a community tree planting grant for $9,661. Twenty-five years ago the marketing division was new and looking for a way to brand Tennessee products, said spokeswoman Casey Mahoney. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jul/24/pick-tennessee-slogan-still-going-strong/?local
Parole over the past 19 months has shifted nearly 3,500 felons to the telephone supervision system. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110724/NEWS03/307240093/3-500-TN-felons-even-killers-phonedoversight?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
Rules
change
but
lobbyists
still
treat
TN
legislators
Lobbyist-linked companies and organizations have spent more than $558,000 on events providing food and drink to state legislators this year, a record since enactment of a law requiring disclosure of free wining and dining for lawmakers. But that total is possibly a pittance compared to lobbyist spending in bygone days when expensive meals and free-flowing liquor were a routine part of the legislative lifestyle. At least until 1975, for example, legislators could drop by a liquor store near the state Capitol, collect all the alcoholic beverages they wanted and have the bill automatically charged to the account of liquor lobbyist Tom "Golden Goose" Hensley, according to multiple reports at the time. Asked about that recently, Hensley, now senior member of the state's lobbyist corps, said: "I don't remember that." But he did recall that Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, senior member of today's General Assembly, was a lobbyist for an insurance company that owned the Grand Ole Opry before he became a senator in 1971. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/jul/23/wining-dining-rules-change-but-lobbyists-still/
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110724/NEWS0202/307240066/Arriola-s-wedding-cash-off-book? odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
welfare, said Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt, a group that argues against wasteful government spending. But some local leaders who courted the IQT call center and headquarters operations shrug off the fact that the company collapsed just five weeks after announcing it would move here; create 100 jobs as soon as Aug. 1; and bring along Apple, the high-tech giant, as a potential client. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110724/BUSINESS01/307220099/IQT-s-demise-brings-review? odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
Despite Mem. schools spat, kids, family come for pre-K orientation (CA/Patterson)
There may be no group of students more devastated by a delayed school start than the 4,000-plus 4-year-olds entering prekindergarten this year in the Memphis City Schools system. And Saturday, thousands of them toddled into Memphis Cook Convention Center for their orientation, a jamboree of face painting, balloon animals, carousels and moon bounces. Including the parents, grandparents and siblings at the event, Downtown easily saw 15,000 Memphians anticipating the new school term. "We had parents here at 5:45 this morning. We had some here on June 23 instead of July -- it's been unbelievable," said Dr. Caroline Harvey, MCS pre-K director. Harvey provided folks with information about curriculum and class size, but she wasn't able to tell the masses when to drop their children off for the first day of classes. The MCS board is deadlocked with the City Council over funding for the 2011-12 academic year, and a threatened postponement has yet to be resolved. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jul/24/rarin-to-go/
stores and seized the drugs and charged the business owners and clerks for selling the illegal substances. At the end of the day, three stores were raided and the illegal product and any items deemed as drug paraphernalia were confiscated. http://www.stategazette.com/story/1746494.html
Gibson Co. authorities share meth lab cleanup resources (Jackson Sun)
Several law enforcement agencies in West Tennessee have pooled their resources to handle cleanup of methamphetamine labs after federal funding that had been used for cleanup was depleted suddenly in February. Weakley County Sheriff Mike Wilson and Obion County Sheriff Jerry Vastbinder purchased a hazardous materials container and drafted a memorandum of understanding to allow other law enforcement agencies to make use of it. Under the memorandum, participating agencies were required to send officers to hazardous material handling training to be able to use and process meth labs with a container program. After the training was completed, Dave McGriff, director of the West Tennessee Drug Task Force, met with Gibson County Sheriff Chuck Arnold and the chiefs of police for Milan, Trenton and Humboldt. All agreed to use assets from their drug seizure funds to maintain the supplies needed to process meth labs. In June, all agents and officers of the task force resumed efforts on meth lab enforcement and cleanup, according to a news release. http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20110724/NEWS01/107240341/Gibson-Co-authorities-share-meth-labcleanup-resources
OPINION Guest columnist: Teacher evaluations will raise the bar (Commercial Appeal)
This month the National Education Association approved a policy statement on teacher evaluation that is a vital departure from its previous position. Highlighting the importance of teacher evaluations in ensuring teaching quality and student success, the NEA -- of which the Memphis Education Association is an affiliate -- called for thorough, consequential teacher evaluations and cracked open the door to measurements of teachers' impact on student learning. Memphis City Schools is already well on its way. As new, more rigorous evaluation plans are negotiated across the country, districts would be wise to follow its lead. MCS is in the process of implementing a bold new Teacher Effectiveness Measurement -- a plan that was created with teacher involvement in every step of the process. I love teaching, and I hold myself to standards that are as high as my expectations for my students at Craigmont High School. But under Memphis' old evaluation system, I have been observed as part of the evaluation process only once since I earned tenure six years ago. And no one has ever included a measure of my students' learning in my evaluation. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jul/24/my-thoughts-teacher-evaluations-will-raise-the/
Rules. W e refer to them all the time to straighten out problems and to set common standards. Mostly, that's good. We all need to obey signs that tell us when to walk, when to stop or when to take shelter in a storm. Kids stay out too late? Impose the home-by-12 rule, no exceptions. Employee slacking on the job? Instill quotas, check-ins and quarterly evaluations. It all sounds good. Except when the rules don't work. The limitations of rule obedience stand at the center of the messy issue of whether three so-called "failing" Memphis charter schools truly are failing and therefore should be closed in the next three weeks, with the result of putting 1,475 students out of their classrooms and headed God knows where. Let's get one thing straight. The three charter schools aren't failing. In truth, the Promise Academy in North Memphis, the Memphis Business Academy in Frayser and the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering in the city's Medical Center are getting higher achievement out of their students than dozens of other public schools in Memphis. Three examples: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jul/24/inside-the-newsroom-rules-skew-charter-schools/
Editorial: Addressing unemployment should be job No. 1 for Haslam admin. (J. Sun)
Two things are up in Tennessee in recent months; one is tax revenue, the other is unemployment. The first is good news, the second is disappointing. The relationship between the two statistics is that the Haslam administration should go slow when it comes to spending the extra revenue and work harder to get the governor's Jobs4TN program to generate new jobs. State tax revenue has been above projections for several months. The extra income has attracted interested parties like ants to a summer picnic. Several groups already are looking for ways to spend the extra cash. A group of Democrats submitted a bill for consideration in next year's General Assembly to use the extra funds to increase college scholarships and reduce the state's sales tax on food. Now is not the time to look for more ways for the state to spend money. The economy remains fragile and the latest unemployment numbers are discouraging. We urge lawmakers and the Haslam administration to resist the temptation to spend any extra funds. Instead, they should be added to the state's rainy day fund. The state nearly ran out of unemployment funds last year. The latest unemployment numbers don't reassure us that couldn't happen again. http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20110724/OPINION01/107240315/Addressing-unemployment-should-job-No1-Haslam-administration
Guest columnist: Transform rural Tenn. by improving public education (J. Sun)
The recession has hit hard in rural Tennessee. While statewide unemployment hovers at 9.8 percent, in the past year a few of our rural counties have faced jobless rates near 20 percent. Additionally, rural poverty in Tennessee is well above the national median. In today's global economy, Bell Buckle is competing with Shanghai for the jobs of the future. The question is: what can rural communities do to improve their economic outlook and ensure job opportunities and success for their citizens? It all boils down to public education. Strategies to improve K-12 schools and boost student achievement are the key to building thriving communities. And improvement can't stop with high school. Seven of the ten fastest-growing occupations in Tennessee require some form of postsecondary education. Having an educated, skilled, and productive workforce will make it more likely that a new company will invest in Tennessee or an existing business will choose to expand its presence in our state. Yet the connection between education and rural economic health has not received the attention it 9
deserves. One-third of Tennessee's K-12 students attend schools in rural communities. These schools face different challenges than those in Nashville, Memphis, or Knoxville. http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20110724/OPINION02/107240314/Transform-rural-Tennessee-by-improvingpublic-education
Craig Fitzhugh: GOP, not Dems, off mark on key issues (Daily News Journal)
While I have the utmost respect for my fellow Eagle Scout and Air Force veteran, Rep. Rick Womick, RRockvale, I have to disagree with his accusation that Tennessee Democrats have developed "amnesia." To the contrary, it seems to me that Republicans are the ones who have forgotten last years campaign, choosing instead to focus on four areas: more government mandates, attacking teachers, government salary increases and ignoring the jobs crisis. Republicans say they cut the size of government, but nothing could be further from the truth. On multiple occasions Republicans increased the size of state government through a series of big government mandates. Republicans overruled local ordinances, placed costly mandates on local law enforcement, interfered in local school consolidation efforts, dictated verdicts to juries, took local control of education from school boards, restricted associations to which professional can belong, forced gun policy on college campuses and placed a huge, unfunded burden on senior citizen voters. As you can see, Republican rhetoric simply doesn't mesh with the facts. http://www.dnj.com/article/20110724/OPINION02/107240312/Rep-Fitzhugh-GOP-not-Dems-off-mark-key-issues
in debt thanks to the stimulus, but many people are still unable to get the jobs they need. Gov. Bill Haslam previously noted the ineffectiveness of the stimulus to boost employment. He is clearly correct, since one of Washingtons broken promises about the stimulus was that it would hold down unemployment. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jul/24/from-dc-to-tennessee/?opinionfreepress
11