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The Great Smoky Mountains aren't so great after all, according to National Geographic Traveler magazine. The online version of the publication's sixth annual rating of 133 worldwide travel destinations characterized the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as "a national treasure surrounded by a bathtub ring of ugly, unplanned development."

I just surfed through the websites of the local TV stations and the two main newspapers here, The Tennessean and the Trashville City Paper and not a single one of the TV stations or newspaper websites has one article or story on anything to do with unemployment, let alone the fact that the numbers are now at 10.2%. Its disgusting!

<p>Below is a list of selected Democrats and their positions on the House healthcare reform bill based on media accounts, press releases and spokesmen for the lawmakers.</p>

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Strange things happen to those who enter one Mid-state house. Invisible fire ants bite your feet. Fillings in your teeth throb with pain. Then there's the mysterious light. The invisible field of pure energy in a Clarksville family's backyard can do some shocking things. A fluorescent light bulb was almost fully illuminated with no batteries and no plug. Mike Virtue and his family enjoyed spending time in their backyard, but that was before he said crews removed three large trees. Mike said the trees provided a buffer, and he noticed when they were gone. "Even in sneakers...

Wondering how TN's US House Dems are breaking on the Health Care Reform vote on Saturday? I'm aggregating their office's responses at the blog. Enjoy!

DICKSON, Tenn. -- Tina Young teaches kindergarten at Oakmont Elementary School in Dickson. When she went to Walmart during her lunch break Oct. 20, she was stopped for stealing a $62 wrinkle cream. Video: Dickson Teacher Has 6 Arrests On Record When Dickson police arrived, they discovered there was more there than just a potential shoplifting. Jenkins is still at work at Oakmont Elementary, despite what her arrest revealed: The schoolteacher is also Nashville resident Tina Tope and has at least three DUI convictions. She was also convicted of stealing steaks from the east Nashville Kroger this summer. "You just...

(Memphis 10/22/09) A woman who rescues dogs wants answers from the Memphis Police Department after officers shot at least one of her pets and the other ran away frightened and possibly injured. Anna Bolton calls 7 year-old Violet the timid one, and 3 year-old Bing the playful one. That's why she can't understand why anyone would be scared enough to shoot Bing, let alone trained officers with the Memphis Police Department. Worse yet, when she got the call and rushed home to a swarm of squad cars, "Nobody had told me my animal had been shot... It's shocking and horrifying...

Memphis, TN - The City of Memphis tore down the wrong house and it cost taxpayers $29,000. The duplex used to be located at 1072 Garland Street. Records show Memphis Code Enforcement officers never notified the homeowner the house was scheduled for demolition. Memphis city council member Myron Lowery says “Paying for a $29,000 house is a big hit that never should have happened. Someone made a mistake and they should be disciplined for it.” According to city records, four years ago the city began condemning the property. Then it was sold to the current owner. Records show the owner...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Jim Stevens said he's not particularly religious and is clueless about why an image resembling Jesus Christ keeps appearing on his pickup. Stevens, of Jonesborough, said nearly every morning, an image that looks to him like the face of Jesus Christ has appeared in the condensation on the driver's side window of his Isuzu truck. A Johnson City Press photo of the truck showed a facial image. Stevens said when he first saw the image, he figured it would evaporate and not return. But it kept reappearing for two weeks now.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A killer out on parole has been charged with killing again. Tommy Page was convicted of the murder of a man in Nashville in 1995 and was on parole after serving part of an 18-year sentence. He's been arrested and charged with the March 4 shooting of Wayne Moore at an apartment on Litton Avenue. Metro police said Page and Stephen Lowery killed Moore during a dispute over a debt.

Junk Science: The oracle of climate disaster has a new book out on global warming that should be on the fiction list. He asks us to commit economic suicide while he rakes in millions from his green investments. 'Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," Al Gore's sequel to his 2006 tome "An Inconvenient Truth," came out Tuesday. Printed on recycled paper using low-VOC (volatile organic compound) ink, it will undoubtedly be a best-seller and on the desk of every attendee at next month's climate change conference in Copenhagen. In a press release announcing the book, the Oscar-...

(AP) FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said the state is preparing for an increase in unemployment claims once the General Motors Corp. assembly plant in Spring Hill closes its doors later this month. The governor told reporters Tuesday that the state did its best to try to persuade GM to keep the plant open but that "it was probably always a hopeless quest." The plant was one of three finalists to build a new small car for GM, but the company ultimately chose a plant in Michigan. Auto assembly at Spring Hill is scheduled to cease around Thanksgiving,...

Politician Attends Strangers' Visitations On Office Time Families Of Deceased Say They Don't Know Vic Lineweaver NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Vic Lineweaver is well-known in town as a consummate politician, appearing often in parades and city events. But some families believe the juvenile court clerk's politicking is going too far -- during the time taxpayers pay him to be in the office. Video: Court Clerk Frequents Strangers' Visitations To ease the pain of losing his wife, Arlene, to cancer, Sam Meek looked at the guest book from her visitation to reflect on all of their closest friends and family who attended...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new Nashville organization classifies itself as non-religious, but the group's billboard has stirred up a religious debate. The organization behind the billboard is called Secular Life. Secular Life is a group of about 340 people who consider themselves part of the non-religious community. On Sunday, they began advertising on a billboard in Green Hills, and already Secular Life is getting a lot of attention. "It just absolutely wrong place, wrong town, wrong timing," said Green Hills resident Donnie Cude. Something about the phrase "Not Religious, You're not alone", doesn't sit well with Cude. "It's a slap...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new charge has been issued against a man police describe as a suspected serial rapist. Mauricio Morales is already in jail and charged with raping two Nashville women in separate cases. Metro police believe Morales is the man behind the rape of a 10-year-old girl in her own South Nashville home near Old Hickory Boulevard and Nolensville Pike. The alleged incident happened back in April. Crime Scene investigators collected evidence from her room and the TBI crime lab determined the DNA matched Mauricio Morales. A Grand Jury indicted him Friday on the new charges. Morales had...

More bleak data from the manufacturing sector: Tennessee factories has shed more than 56,000 jobs since September of 2007. The automotive sector accounts for more than 9,000 of those losses and has been laying off workers more quickly than the rest of the industry.

Victim's Family Says Justice System Failed NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Sunday night Percy Thompson was out of the hospital and back in jail. Thompson has a lengthy criminal history behind him, and many are not surprised by the charges now before him: vehicular homicide of a 3-year-old boy. "He should not have been on the road. My baby should still be here," said Paige Buchanon. Her son was killed Saturday in an accident that some say could have been avoided. Courtroom testimony the day before the accident revealed very real fears that Percy Thompson, if let out of jail, could kill someone,...

Travis Childers (MS-1) WASHINGTON D.C. OFFICE • 1708 Longworth HOB • Washington, DC 20515 • p. (202) 225-4306 • f. (202) 225-3549 • View Directions TUPELO OFFICE • 337A East Main Street • Tupelo, MS 38804 • p. (662) 841-8808 • f. (662) 841-8845 • View Directions HERNANDO OFFICE • 2564 HWY 51 S. • Hernando, MS 38632 • p. (662) 449-3090 • f. (662) 449-4836 • View Directions COLUMBUS OFFICE • 523 Main Street • Columbus, MS 39701 • p. (662) 327-0748 • View Directions Contact him https://forms.house.gov/childers/webforms/contact.htm Facebook http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Travis+Childers&init=quick#/pages/Congressman-Travis-W-Childers/206217375056?ref=search&sid=1072359854.907843371..1 Myspace http://www.myspace.com/travischilders Jim Cooper (TN-5) * Please note that,...

Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson had the guts to do what Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and the entire Republican Party would not do. One month ago, Thompson became the first prominent national Republican to endorse Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the New York District 23 Congressional race. Palin made an even bigger impact by endorsing Hoffman a week and a half ago. In doing so, Palin lived up to her penchant for going against the mainstream and taking on powerbrokers inside her own party. For those who have not heard about this race, local and national Republican...

A Williamson County judge last week warned Franklin detectives that the next time they pull a suspect out of bed, put him in a patrol car and keep him at the police station for several hours, they "should get an arrest warrant." http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091101/COUNTY090101/911010313/Judge+chides+Franklin+officers+who+held+suspect+without+arrest+warrant

A Knox County jury delivered the death sentence this afternoon to the ringleader in the torture slayings of a young Knoxville couple following a carjacking. The same panel of seven men and five women who convicted Lemaricus Davidson, 28, in the 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, decided his fate. Davidson was found guilty of more than 30 counts, including felony murder and premeditated murder of each victim. The jury had a choice of a life sentence mandating a minimum of 51 years in prison, life without parole with no...

KNOXVILLE - A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death by lethal injection for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom. “The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee man convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder charges in the fatal carjacking of a couple on a date has been sentenced to death. The defendant, 28-year-old Lemaricus Davidson, showed no reaction Friday as jurors announced the death sentences for the murders of 21-year-old college student Channon Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom. Davidson was found guilty of abducting the couple in Knoxville during a 2007 carjacking by several armed men.

KNOXVILLE - A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death by lethal injection for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom. “The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said. The victims' families gasped at the verdict, but Davidson showed no reaction. Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner admonished those in the courtroom to control any outburst. “The murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,” the foreman said, reading from the verdict form....

This is a statement that was read over the public address system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tenn., by school principal, Jody McLeod: "It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the national anthem, to honor God and country. Due to a ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a prayer is a violation of federal law. "As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it 'an alternate...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Channel 4 I-Team has learned Metro police officers were ordered to be "chauffeurs" for the precinct commander's secretary. Related: Watch This Story The officers were seen picking her up at her house, dropping her off and taking her to get her nails done, among other errands. The officers were on duty, in marked units, being chauffeurs for the secretary of their boss, the commander of the South Precinct. The officers said they picked up and dropped off the woman because their commander told them to. The I-Team's cameras captured the officers' chauffeur duties for days, but...

Copy and paste this link, its from the Tennessean they are too ashamed of their stuff to have it posted here... http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091028/NEWS02/91028067/TN+Attorney+General+says+landlords+can+ban+tenants++guns+

Davidson found guilty Murder One all counts.

Former Memphis Mayor Target of Federal Probe A close friend of Willie Herenton says the former Memphis mayor informed him that he's the target of a federal criminal probe and that he expects to come under fire. The Commercial Appeal on Tuesday received a copy of a letter Herenton sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in which he says he was informed by the local U.S. Attorney's Office that he is the target of an investigation involving "personal business transactions" he participated in while mayor. Herenton is running for the 9th Congressional District seat held by fellow Democrat Steve...

KNOXVILLE - A federal trial began today to determine if school students can read and discuss the Bible during recess time. The Knox County Schools system is being sued in U.S. District Court by Samuel and Tina Whitson, who contend their son, Luke, was barred from the activity when he was a fourth-grader at Karns Elementary School more than four years ago. After opening statements this morning, the Whitsons' lawyers opened their case with stipulations from school officials that no adults were involved in the Bible reading and discuss that occurred on the school playground.

AP article, no text. A huge rock slide has closed I-40 in both directions at the NC/TN line. The clean up is going to take months. Traffic is being re-routed via I-81 to I-26, Johnson City, TN to Asheville,NC.

A Nashville judge is in hot water with the court that regulates Tennessee judges. That court, the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, announced Monday that it has filed formal charges against General Sessions Judge Gloria Dumas. At the center of the complaint are questions about Dumas' persistent tardiness -- a problem first exposed by NewsChannel 5 Investigates. The nine-page complaint lays out what we discovered: a judge who had great difficulty being on-time and, according to the charges, didn't seem to care when she was told she wasn't following state law.

Brigitte Gabriel, founder & president of ACT! for America, will discuss the threat of Islamic terrorism here and around the world at the First Assembly Of God Church, 8650 Walnut Grove Road, Cordova, TN 38018. The presentation is free and open to the public. BRIGITTE GABRIEL, the founder and President of ACT! for America (www.actforamerica.org), is a US-based journalist and news producer who started her career as an anchor for World News, an evening Arabic news program. As a terrorism expert, Brigitte Gabriel travels widely and speaks regularly on topics related to the Middle East. She has addressed audiences at...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- A study shows Tennessee's average 9.4 cent tax on every $1 spent is the highest sales tax rate in America. Opponents of the sales tax say it's most unfair to those least able to pay but others favor the sales tax over a state income tax. The author of the tax comparison study, Tax Foundation staff economist Kail Padgitt, said an increasing number of states are raising so-called "millionaire taxes" on income of the wealthiest taxpayers and so-called "sin taxes" on cigarettes or beer. Padgitt told the Chattanooga Times Free Press the foundation is "definitely seeing more...

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- Cameras don't lie, so how do you argue with a picture that shows you breaking the law? A Clarksville attorney is going to try. A Redflex camera caught Mark Burton running a red light, and for the first time in middle Tennessee, the issue is being taken to court. At around 5:30 a.m., Burton ran a red light and a Redflex camera caught him the act. Still, Burton's attorney Greg D. Smith said there's no way his client should receive a ticket. "If you're on the road in the middle of the night, and you're not hurting...

Years ago, National Geographic published a remarkable photograph of a polystrate fossil, a fossilized tree that extended stratigraphically upward through several layers of rock in Tennessee. Its roots were in a coal seam, and the overlying deposits included bedded shale and thin carbon-rich layers. An advocate of any form of uniformitarianism would believe that it took many, many years to deposit this sequence of layers (much longer than it takes for a tree to grow and eventually die and decay), yet one vertical fossil extends through them all. This one fossilized tree offered a direct contradiction to the evolutionary mantra...

Parents Of Kids Who Died Not Mentally Competent To Have Custody McMINNVILLE, Tenn. -- An attorney in McMinnville said this week that the Department of Children's Services should be charged with murder, not the parents of two children killed in a fire earlier this year. Mitchell and Rose Stone are accused of leaving their 3-year-old and 1-year-old home alone the night they died in an apartment fire in May. The couple's attorney, Larry Bryant, told the Southern Standard Newspaper neither of the Stones is mentally competent, and he thinks DCS should be held accountable for putting the kids in their...

WINCHESTER, Tenn. -- A young girl was found wandering near a busy road eating wood, said Franklin County police. Now her mother, Sheena Trull, is charged with child abuse, neglect and endangerment. She told police she put her two children in bed, then fell asleep. Police said the 2½-year-old girl climbed out an open window and fell about 5 feet on top of two bicycles. Witnesses said she was cold, wet, wearing a dirty diaper and chewing on a piece of wood. Trull's two children are in state custody.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper has issued a legal opinion that said people who have received pardons for their felony drug convictions can own any type of firearm except handguns. Cooper wrote in the opinion released Wednesday that Tennessee's firearms ban for felons has exceptions for those who have been pardoned, had their convictions expunged or have had their civil rights restored. He said the law doesn't provide those exceptions for handgun ownership by people convicted of certain violent crimes and drug felonies. The opinion was requested by House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada of Franklin. Legal...

The third-ranking Senate Republican said Wednesday the Obama administration appears to be launching a Richard Nixon-like political strategy of making an "enemies list" of people who disagree with the president. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who once worked in President Nixon's administration, warned the White House that such a "street brawl" approach of attacking political opponents "can get you in a lot of trouble." Alexander offered no evidence that Obama is developing an actual list, as Nixon famously created for his opponents. But, he said, "I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into this new administration that we're beginning...

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER: "Based upon that experience and my forty years since then in and out of public life I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: don’t create an enemies list."

Senator urges Obama: Don't start enemies list 25 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Republican invoked the memory of the scandal-marred Nixon administration on Wednesday to urge U.S. President Barack Obama to "back up" and not "start an enemies list." Senator Lamar Alexander told Reuters he has begun to see the Obama White House adopting an attitude similar to that of the Richard Nixon White House four decades ago, that "everybody is against us and we are going to get them." Alexander cited as examples the Obama administration's suggestion that it may support stripping the insurance industry of its...

The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday anonymous tips are sufficient cause for police to stop suspected drunken drivers. In the case, an anonymous caller to police reported the reckless driving of an 18-wheeler on Interstate 75 in Loudon County. A police officer then found the truck parked on an exit ramp and, after administering field sobriety tests to the driver, arrested him for driving under the influence. In his argument to the Supreme Court, the driver, Jerry Lee Hanning, contended the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to make his 2003 arrest because he didn’t personally see reckless driving. In her...

OCTOBER 20--In the market for a set of used grills once worn by a perp? Well, Tennessee cops may have some gold for your cash. The Nashville Police Department is auctioning a confiscated "set of custom made teeth grills," with the proceeds of the sale earmarked for the Police State Drug Fund. As seen in the photos on the following pages, the mouth ornament is adorned with six topaz stones and two citrine stones. The grill is made of 10 karat yellow gold and carries an appraised value of $349. It is unclear in whose mouth the item previously resided,...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Metro Nashville Police Department is standing by its investigation into the deaths of former Titans' quarterback Steve McNair and girlfriend Sahel Kazemi after a national report case study out Monday raises questions about the murder-suicide. Metro police have maintained almost from the start that McNair was shot by 20-year-old Kazemi, who then turned the gun on herself. In a story aired Monday on CBS's The Early Show, reporter Armen Keteyian interviewed friends and a former boyfriend of Kazemi, who claimed they did not believe that she killed McNair and then herself. The report shows never before...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A former Nashville Cub Scout leader who confessed to strangling a prostitute and was released by the Tennessee Supreme Court on a legal issue has been rearrested on murder charges. The rearrest comes with some unusual consequences based on what happened the first time he went to jail on a charge of murder. Parents of Cub Scouts couldn't believe that their leader, Kenneth Dailey, strangled a woman and left her in the trunk of a car where he worked at Tommy's Wrecker Service. Detective Mike Roland couldn't believe it, either, when Dailey blurted out a confession at...

You'll have to cop and paste the link, Nashville's version of Pravda don't like Free Republic.

It was the kind of crime that strikes terror into the hearts of parents everywhere. A bright young couple were carjacked after a Saturday night date and murdered in the most brutal way imaginable. Christopher Newsom, 23, was tied up and raped, shot in the back of the head and then dragged to a railway track and set on fire. His girlfriend, 21-year-old University of Tennessee student Channon Christian’s fate was even more horrific. Her death came only after hours of torture, during which time she was raped and savaged with a broken chair leg. She was beaten in the...