Monday, Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon in Johnson City’s Roane Centre closed abruptly, without notifying its employees. The move caught most employees completely off guard. Some of the employees we spoke with told us Sunday night, they stayed late to clean up after management told them the owners were visiting Monday. When one employee showed up for work Monday, he says there was a sign on the door indicating the business was closed for good. He also says a month earlier, he asked the general manager about rumors he had heard that the restaurant was going to close. Former cook Joel Tester says when he asked that question, the general manager told him there was no truth to it, it was just a rumor.

A Lone Star spokesperson told us restaurants don’t ever give notice when they close. Rick Van Warner says it’s impractical to give two weeks notice.  He says that leaves the restaurant wondering if employees will show up to work during that time. He also says all 50 employees were provided separation pay and all managers were offered transfer opportunities.

What do you think?  Should restaurants give their employees a warning before they close up shop?

Despite efforts to slow down the production of methamphetamine, drug dealers and addicts are still finding ways to get their fix. In 2005, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen signed into law the Meth-Free Tennessee Act. It prohibited pharmacies from selling products containing psuedoephedring over the counter. It also required them to keep logs of who bought products like Sudafed and only allowed them to sell three boxes of the product to a customer every 30 days.

Although the law has made a difference, the Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force says drug addicts are still getting the ingredients they need to make their meth. In fact, statewide, the agency says it has seen an increase in the number of meth labs it has found so far this year.

Find out why tonight on News Channel 11 at 5 and 6pm.

Several months ago, residents of the West Davis Park neighborhood in Johnson City shared their frustration over the opening of Morgan Counseling on West Unaka Avenue. The business treats substance abusers and prescribes Suboxone. Under current city code, Morgan Counseling is not violating any zoning ordinances and can legally set up shop in a residential neighborhood. However, after hearing neighbors concerns about increased traffic in their community, Johnson City leaders began working on changing the city’s zoning code so future clinics like Morgan Counseling would not be able to open in residential neighborhoods.

Now, people who live in a Kingsport neighborhood are sharing a similar concern. Find out why tonight on News Channel 11 at 5pm and 6pm.

Earlier this week, the Jeep got a full tank, and I started on this assignment. 

To recap, the fill up cost me 33 bucks for 8 and a half gallons of what must be gold.  That was on Monday.  Today, I have 3/4 of a tank left and traveled nearly 69 miles keeping the roads hot from Monday afternoon to Friday afternoon.

That’s probably about average for me.  I don’t live far from work, and I don’t do a lot of unnecessary running during the week.  Same old routine nearly every day.  Consistency is good, right?

I won’t be able to do all the math to see how much it cost me burning all that fuel to get around until my next fill up.  I plan to do that this evening on the way home.
But, you should now that’s important because one week very soon I have to survive a work week on a gallon of gas, yes gallon, no not tank, a gallon of gas.  You can bet I will likely be hitching rides and paying for public transportation.  So, I’ll be tallying the cost of my gas for a week and the cost of trying to find another way to get around.

So, you ask, hitching for sure? 
Here’s how I know, and here’s what I’m starting to panic about now.

The Jeep gets less than 20 miles per gallon I’m sure. (Yes, more math I need to do.) Hello?  I traveled 68.7 miles this work week from Monday at 1pm to Friday at the time of this posting. 
I mean let’s face it, the first gallon was gone from my jeep days ago.
There’s just no way to squeeze 69 miles out of a gallon of gas is there? 

Blood?  Turnip? 

That’s what I thought.

Again, if you have suggestions on how I’m going to make it, feel free to pass them along.  (I don’t think calling in sick for a week and never leaving my house is an option, by the way.)

Have a good gas guzzling weekend, everyone! 

Photojournalist Dana Carfuel and I are working on a very interesting story today. Overnight, Johnson City police arrested four people in connection with what they call a prostitution ring. However, they say this was by no means your average prostitution ring.  Instead of working the corner, police say three women posed as escorts. In fact, investigators say the women who worked for the internet-based “Cupid’s Comfort Zone” and “Sexy Sweethearts” escort services, were recruiting local females and relocating women from Florida for prostitution purposes.

According to “Sexy Sweethearts” website, “Sexy Sweethearts are independent escorts providing Johnson City and the Tri Cities area. Money exchanged is for time and companionship ONLY. Anything else that may or may not happen is a matter of personal choices between two or more consenting adults of legal age. Services have not been contracted for, nor is it requested to be contracted for, or compensated for in any manner for sex. We reserve the right to decline appointments for any purpose other than non sexual companionship.  Time spent togehter may include nightclubing, dinner dates, modeling, dancing, business functions, etc.”

Police say that is all a front. Tune in tonight at 5pm and 6pm to find out what police discovered when they set undercover officers up with some of the escorts.

The goal?  To see what it’s going to cost me, or save me, when at some point in the future I try to survive on a gallon of gas for a week.  What?  Yeah.  I know.  Impossible in Johnson City, Tennessee especially since I don’t live in the building where I work.  Oh, and Wednesday night Bible study sure doesn’t take place at my house either.

I sure wish I still had my motorcycle.  But, since I don’t I start with the Jeep.

I guess to find out how far I can get during the week of gas budgeting, I have to see how far I normally go when I irresponsibly flush dollars down my tank and out my exhaust just to keep the motor running and the roads hot.

So, at 1:55 pm today, I filled up the Jeep.  I was at 21, 211 miles at the time of fill-up.
8.597 gallons, $3.83 a gallon. 
That cost me $33.00.

Am I being reimbursed for this?  Oh, and to the woman waiting at the gas pump behind me while I was pumping, writing numbers, and taking cell phone pictures, I’m sorry.  I know the five minute fill-up felt more like fifty minutes.

Truly, it was the thought of all the calculating and math I’m going to have to do in the process of this story that somehow slowed my mind, and inevitably my actions, while trying to accomplish what’s normally a quick and easy task at the local fuel station. 

I’ll keep you posted.
And, if you have ideas for me when I start my week of gas fasting, let me know.

For instance, a News Channel 11 viewer from Southwest Virginia recently told me no other mayonnaise will do in her household.  It’s Hellmann’s, hands down.

In a survey of the WJHL newsroom Good Friday afternoon, (yes, when the NCAA tournament was hogging all of our air time, and I wasn’t busy watching because WVU played the night before) I found there’s at least one thing most of us won’t compromise on just to save money. 

That comes with one exception.  One manager said, “I’m the cheapest man in the world. I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t buy the generic of....” I should’ve asked his wife.

StarKist Tuna is the only way to go for one of our reporters.  Anything else must be too fishy.

One producer gave me a list as long as her arm.  There’s no skimping on everything from mayo to soup.  Her “must haves” include Kraft Mayonnaise, Heinz Ketchup, A1 Steak Sauce, StarKist Tuna, Cap’n Crunch Cereal, Tyson frozen chicken, Diet Coke, and Campbell’s Soup. 

The tuna of choice for another producer?  StarKist.  But, that’s not all.  She prefers Pepsi and Pepsi only.  You won’t be disappointed if you ask to use her wash room either.  She runs a “Charmin only” household.  NILLA wafers and only name brand cereals are in her pantry.

There must be something about that popular breakfast food.  Another reporter told me “Any kind of generic cereal is banned from (his) diet!!”

My best friend once made fun of me during our college days when I bought something that was named like “buttery butter”.  It was so ridiculous, and cheap, I can’t remember the name.  I’ve opted for fewer generic items these days partly because I’m only slightly as poor as I once was.  But, I’m a big fan of Miracle Whip.  And, Kool-Aid can’t be replaced with anything else.  I could think of more, but you get the idea.

So, all of that to get to this:  HAVE YOUR NAME BRAND KITCHEN STAPLES CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?  I hear Hellmann’s isn’t the same as it used to be in color, texture and taste.  I haven’t noticed a difference in Miracle Whip over the last two decades or so.  And, my newsroom friends say their favorite products are the same, too.  Tell me about your “must haves”, and reflect a little on what it used to be and what it is now.

This weekend, I did two noteworthy things. I received congratulations for winning Virginia Press Association awards; I also spent some early-morning hours rolling newspapers and helping deliver them to the campgrounds around Bristol Motor Speedway.

With all the fans in town during race week, newspaper circulation jumps, and it means a lot more people get involved in distributing the paper. It’s a week of excitement and exhaustion. It also gives those of us in the newsroom an opportunity to see all the things that must happen to get out the news.

As we celebrate the many awards announced this weekend, won by the folks in the newsroom, I think it’s also important to recognize the other people who helped to get us there. If it weren’t for them, there would be no Bristol Herald Courier and there would be no awards.

Late at night, after most of the reporters have gone to sleep, there are folks working down at the production plant on Highway 394, where thousands of newspapers roll off the press each night. They go to the newspaper carriers, who roll and deliver them in the wee hours of the morning.

For example, there’s somebody out there driving newspapers from Blountville, Tenn., to Grundy, Va.—a distance of more than 100 miles—every morning.

When you shiver in your pajamas as you walk out to get your newspaper, it means someone has been out in the frigid pre-dawn hours to put it there.

And then there are the other full-time activities that are necessary for the running of a newspaper. Someone has to sell the advertising that pays our salaries. Someone has to sell newspapers. Someone has to answer the phone and handle customer service calls. Someone has to run this Web site.

For every reporter whose byline appears on the front page, there are dozens of other folks working behind the scenes, and their jobs are just as important as ours.

I had just a small taste of their efforts in the wee hours this weekend—and they were still a step ahead. On both of the nights I helped roll papers, my newspaper actually arrived at my home in Abingdon before I did.

It was a week ago tonight, about this time, that I was sharing dinner with a younger crowd.  Yes, they thought they just might like to share an hour or two with me.  I’m talking about high school juniors and seniors. 
Surprised?  Yes, me too.  It’s been a decade, (okay, a little more), since I was in their shoes thinking just of myself, I’m sure.  But, not these kids.  Chris Holley, Amanda Stanley, Logan White and Brandi Cole are Health Occupation Students of America at David Crockett High School in Washington County, TN. 
How did I get to know them?  Through the Autism Walk they helped spearhead in February.  That was the first sign I was dealing with kids who are thinking more about how to help the world around them than they are of themselves.  I followed the progression of the planning of their walk.  They made more than one appearance on News Channel 11 trying to get YOU, our viewers, to think more about the struggle of others. 
After weeks of coverage of the planning and the event itself, which brought in more than 25 hundred dollars for Autismspeaks.org, I got an invitiation.  Selena, please come to dinner with us.  We want to thank you.  Thank me?  We should be thanking these kids for a lesson in generosity.  So, it was dinner at Cheddars and a gift card. 
Five years covering events in the Tri-Cites, involving children and adults, and a thank you comes from an unlikely source.  It is unexpected.  I’m just doing my job.  I love it.  But, it’s not one you do for thanks.  Doing the right thing doesn’t mean doing it for thanks.  I tried to explain that to them.  It was thrown right back in my face.  “We’re not thanking you to get something in return,” they said. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
I tried to spend the evening picking their brains.  What do you want to do?  Where are you going to school?  You know, asking quesitons like reporters do.  Guess where the conversation led?  “Selena, how can we do something to thank our teacher, Mrs. Lori Grabner?” Yes, it truly was an evening of thinking of others. 
At News Channel 11, we have not run our Educator of the Week segment this school year.  But, I can pass the message on here.
Mrs. Grabner, your students appreciate you so much they’re willing to spend part of their evening speaking of your greatness and your dedication to students.  They’ve been worried about your health.  They credit you for helping them hold it together as they stressed out over their Autism Walk, the first of it’s kind in our region.  They think you deserve more respect than you get.  And, they want it said out loud. 
Mrs. Grabner, you are clearly one of the adults who have guided these impressive students, these young adults, down the right path.  Lucky for me I was able to cross paths with them, too.