Recently, I was asked by a man I respect who’s worked hard for several Democrats – ranging from local candidates, to Harold Ford, Jr., and to Barack Obama – about the perception among new, fresh-faced Obama volunteers that they have not been totally accepted by me and other veteran Democrats. ...

But, curiously, the mayor's staff didn't have a hard copy of the response available for the media, so the story is about what was in the draft audit and the fact that the response will eventually be available on the county Web site. Sort of a scoopless scoop. KnoxViews...

Weird events at Halls Republican Club tonight. Andrew Graybeal showed up and sat in the back corner. Former county chair Gerald Turner called him out, challenging him as a Democrat basically to sign a loyalty oath or leave the meeting. Graybeal said he had resigned in writing from the Democratic Par...

Larry Van Guilder wrote a very good column about the aftermath of County Commission's attempt to appoint David Creekmore to be a judicial commissioner. Lumpy was pissed: "Commissioner Greg “Lumpy� Lambert has donned a new hat – judge parking monitor. Lambert felt compelled to provide this serv...

Last year, some government watchdog types went hard core over some allegedly missing Blount Co. Sheriff's Office vehicles. Now, Knox County Commission can't get a straight answer from the Sheriff's Office regarding take-home vehicles. Every time something like this comes up I am puzzled by the super...

A sign of our hard economic times: I've had two reports this week of people from the same grocery store (the Bearden Kroger's) who forgot for a moment that they requested cashback, and the teller didn't offer it. They left (being busy/absentminded), and returned moments later to claim their cash. Th...

I can't say too very much about this right now, because I am writing about it for next week and don't want to 'scoop' myself, but I really feel compelled to commend Commissioner Mark Harmon for the yeoman's work he did as acting chair of the BZA Thursday. The odds were stacked heavily against him, b...

Here's one for the ages. After lunching with a friend today, I had just walked outside the restaurant when my cell phone rang. "Is this Larry?" a woman asked (and rather imperiously, I might add.) I confessed to my identity, my first mistake. Without further ado, the woman said she was "tired of tha...

Start: Jan 20 2009 - 19:30 Timezone: Etc/GMT-5 The Democratic Party of Knox County hosts: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 7:30 p.m. – Midnight Rothchild Center, 8807 Kingston Pike Celebrate coming together for the inauguration of President Barack Obama With food, music, dancing and live links to the Ina...

Interim County Commissioner Daniels suggests that KDC, with $11M in the bank (and that gave us the Midway Business park and its related scandal), doesn't need $900,000 of taxpayer dollars out of the community grant budget. Mike Edwards says KDC would cease to exist without the taxpayer funding. Will...