Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stefan-sirucek/did-palin-use-crib-notes_b_452458.html

That Sarah Palin is so much more polished than POTUS. SHE doesn’t even have to use a teleprompter!

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/04/govt-pay-half-health-costs/

Gov’t to Pay More Than Half of U.S. Health Costs

For all the hue and cry over a government takeover of health care, it’s happening anyway.

Federal and state programs will pay slightly more than half the tab for health care purchased in the United States by 2012, says a report by Medicare number crunchers released Thursday.

That’s even if President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul wastes away in congressional limbo. Long in coming, the shift to a health care sector dominated by government is being speeded up by the deep economic recession and the aging of the Baby Boomers, millions of whom will soon start signing up for Medicare.

“This does mark a pretty stark jump in the data,” said Christopher Truffer of Medicare’s Office of the Actuary, which prepared the analysis published in the journal Health Affairs.

The tipping point is likely to come next year, Truffer said. For technical reasons, the report assumes that Congress is going to allow Medicare to cut doctor fees by 20 percent later this year, as required by a 1990s budget law. But lawmakers have routinely waived such cuts, and they’re not likely to allow them in an election year. So government probably will end up picking up most of the nation’s medical costs in 2011, instead of 2012.

More detail here: http://www.usnews.com/mobile/articles_mobile/government-to-pay-for-more-than-half-of-us-health-care-costs/index.html

As jobless Americans lost private health insurance coverage and joined the Medicaid rolls during the recession, U.S. health spending jumped 5.7 percent to $2.5 trillion in 2009, government projections show.

That means that American taxpayers will foot the bill for more than half of U.S. health care expenditure by 2012, the report’s authors said.

Overall, health care’s share of the gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of the value of goods and services produced in the United States – climbed 1.1 percentage points to 17.3 percent in 2009.

That’s the largest one-year increase since 1960, when officials began tracking total U.S. health care spending, analysts noted in a report published online Feb. 4 by the journal Health Affairs.

From the Wall Street Journal:

What is newsworthy, however, is another figure reported by the BLS: 52 percent of all union members work for the federal or state and local governments, a sharp increase from the 49 percent in 2008.[5] A majority of American union members are now employed by the government; three times more union members now work in the Post Office than in the auto industry.[6]
While the fact that the majority of union members are government employees is historic, the growth of government employee unions is hardly a recent development. Union membership has steadily grown in government and shrunk in the private sector since the 1970s.

Read the rest of a very interesting study here; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704509704575019552907349936.html

I’m not sure how the forum is supposed to work or how a discussion is started, but thus far there seems to be little activity.

http://blounttn.org/forum/

As citizens, maybe we aren’t prompting proper discussions.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From WVLT:

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Law enforcement in Blount County created a program to fight crime through a teen’s love of texting.

Starting Monday, students at William Blount, Alcoa, Maryville and Heritage high schools can send anonymous crime tips via text.

Students will text their school code to 274-637 or “CRIMES.” Once the 911 center receives the alert, they will type a message back and ask the tipster questions regarding the situation.

The program is already getting positive feedback from students.

“We have a lot of drug use going on at school and a lot of students know about it and they’re afraid to tell,” Oliva Crowe, a William Blount High School senior, said. “A lot of students are really concerned about other students home lives. And that’s helpful too, because you don’t want to get parents involved.”

The Sheriff’s Department plans to extend the program to Blount Co. middle schools later in the year.

Link to WVLT : http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/83281202.html#

CNN Money has put out a list of “America’s Biggest Rip-offs". Number one is text messaging with a 6,500% markup. LINK

Didn’t the County Commission fund the SRO program an additional $1.2 million so they could be on all campuses? Don’t the county schools have shop classes?

Would it not be cheaper to make an anonymous drop box, one that could be checked frequently by the SRO we’ve paid to be there?

This would not only save parents money, it would also help kids who want to tell on somebody but don’t have a cell phone or text package.

Not to mention what could be saved to the taxpayer. After all, we are getting the bill for this program.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, have made an amazing new discovery in Mathematics. In his final State of the State Address in Nashville, last night, Governor Phil Bredesen announced the exciting new breakthrough discovered by Scientists at UT & ORNL.

By applying the formulas these entrepreneurs have designed, the University of Tennessee will be able to create 200 brand new tenured track full-tyme Faculty positions, by cutting their budget by over 6%! These new Faculty positions will remain on ORNL Federal soil, yet be funded by State monies!

When asked for comment, Governor Bredesen said, “Well, at least I ran as a Democrat.”

Here are a few constructive suggestions for the mayoral candidates to adopt in their platforms:

1 Greet people when you meet them: Bill Crisp was excellent at speaking to people and greeting them properly. A fine example to be followed.

2)Some people (like myself) have health problems (mine is thyroid) that make drinking floridated water hazardous to their health. About 50% of places now leave out the floride. We should consider this when making decisions. Everyone cannot afford to buy bottled water.

3)Let responsible groups use the courthouse at night. Every excuse I have heard does not hold water for not allowing us to use the courthouse. We paid for it and have used it responsibly for years. This action was clearly to keep Ms. King’s group out and she just moved her meetings elsewhere so Rep. Women, AA, the beekeepers, etc. have to pay and what has anyone accomplished except to deny us the use of the courthouse (which we have used responsibly for years).

4)Don’t get up and walk out on the commission meeting. It is your job to tolerate people whom you don’t agree with.

What constructive suggestions would you like to make to the mayoral candidates?