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05
What’s on your mind?
May 31, 2007Looks like the long, hot summer is already upon us. The news seems to invariably slow down this time of year. Perhaps its the vacations or the heat.
Here’s some of what’s on my mind this week: Fred Thompson’s coy game with the electorate. Will he run? Looks likely.
Tennessee’s General Assembly is still in action with plenty of significant work to do before its all over. Odds are looking better that a cigarette tax increase and some form of smoking ban will pass. I support both of these concepts. Anything that keeps kids from smoking (as a high tax per pack will do) is wonderful. My children are already vigilant little anti-smokers. Let’s hope that never changes.
Switching gears to Congress, the Farm Bill is up for debate and, hopefully, significant alteration that favors local, small farmers rather than corporate conglomerates that mostly produce raw materials (think high fructose corn syrup and soy flour) for Cheetos and Twinkies.
What other issues are on your mind? Feel free to discuss.
Posted by Andrea Hopkins About those gas prices
May 16, 2007Just the other day, my Dad said I should write something about the record-high gas prices and the (not coincidentally) record-high oil company profits. Dad wasn’t pleased. Neither am I.
But what to do? At least three readers sent me e-mails about the nationwide gas boycott (which was supposed to have occurred yesterday, May 15). If it made the oil companies say uncle, I see no signs.
Instead, this morning as I checked out the national news, I found this story on MSNBC, “Zen and the art of dealing with high gas prices.”
The gist of the article is this: For all their complaining as they pay $3 a gallon or more to fill up their cars, few American drivers have yet to reach the point of cutting back.
That’s the message from government statistics showing that demand for gasoline is only just starting to level off even as refinery outages and tight supplies have sent pump prices soaring by 43 percent since the end of January.
And brace yourself: experts say with gas already closing in on $4 a gallon in Chicago and San Francisco ahead of the peak summer driving season, higher prices could be in the cards.
Of course, we haven’t cut back on driving. Most folks I know are only driving to work and school as it is. What’s left to cut? But this does tend to explain the drop in retail sales last month. With gas prices so high, whether or not to purchase a $10 pair of sneakers for the kid at Wal-Mart has become a make-or-break financial decision.
If the prices of gas, groceries and housing continue to climb, it’s going to tank the economy.
And the winners are …
May 16, 2007Fred Testa, Jim Messimer and Kent Hales. But you probably already knew that. I’m curious. What do you think it means?
Are voters pleased with the relative calm in Bristol after the recall fiasco? Do they even care? Just under 11 percent actually bothered to make it to the polls, even though early voting gave them extra time to do so.
Salvation or boondoggle?
May 08, 2007The Washington Post raises troubling questions in a package of stories Sunday on the Grundy relocation project. Chief among them: Was it worth the cost?
In an article headlined, ”Counting on a Big Box Bailout,” the Post reports:
GRUNDY, Va.—With loads of dynamite and government dollars, the leaders of this struggling coal town in southwest Virginia set to work years ago on a bold project to engineer their way out of poverty and the flood path of the Levisa Fork River.
The “New Grundy” of planners’ sketches was an Appalachian version of an upscale urban village, with distinctive shops, apartments and high-tech businesses that would spark an economic revival of the town.
This grand vision didn’t fit in the canyon-like confines of the old Grundy (population 1,100). So with a miner’s disdain for the incommodities of geology, town leaders recruited the Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Transportation. They demolished dozens of buildings along Main Street and, to make room for the new town, blasted away a mountainside.
The $196 million project—costing more than $175,000 for every man, woman and child in Grundy—was scheduled to deliver the new town this year.
But it hasn’t worked out that way. Many owners of the razed businesses pocketed their government payouts and don’t plan to reopen. The original goal of a revived small-town community morphed into something quite different—a future now heralded by an empty lot with a solitary blue sign sticking up from the barren expanse.
“Wal-Mart Supercenter Coming Soon!” it proclaims—the punctuation a comfort to some and a needle to others. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring.
At a time when many communities are shunning the retail colossus, isolated Grundy has hitched its dreams of renewal to the big-box giant. It lobbied hard to convince Wal-Mart that the town has enough space, people and promise for a store—even offering to place it on a pedestal of sorts, atop a two-story, 500-space parking garage above the new downtown on the other side of the river.
The rest of it
May 01, 2007Election-related editorials dominate the week’s rundown. However, some other topics that are on our plates include the search for a Bristol Virginia City Council replacement, the pet food contamination (which now appears deliberate) and the proposed property tax increase in Bristol Tennessee.
Please share your thoughts on these and other topics. Raise a new topic if you like. It’s time to wake up the sleeping blog again.
