Times Opinion from TimesFreePress.com | http://timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/times2 http://timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/times2 Most Americans, following a custom in vogue for more than 200 years, will take a bit of time from the pursuit of fun and sun today to commemorate the most patriotic of the nation's holidays. July 4th is an occasion to celebrate the independence of the United States and the individual freedoms we enjoy. This year Independence Day should be noted with a special fervor. That is fitting, for we are a people and a nation under siege. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/04/t1-july-4-2009/ Army, judicial and political officials in Honduras continue to insist that their coup d'etat to depose President Manuel Zelaya was not actually a coup. They describe it as a legal arrest under a valid warrant, a calculated move to defend the country's constitution from a power-hungry leader who, they decided at the last moment, had to be expelled from Honduras rather than judicially detained to prevent violence in the politically divided country. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/03/t1-the-coup-in-honduras/ Notice that Tennessee has joined the pocket of southern states with obesity rates above 30 percent is depressing news. Given the deluge of media coverage in recent years of the personal and societal consequences of obesity, public warnings obviously have failed to reach or motivate personal changes to control caloric intake and observe healthier habits, especially exercise. The trend now seems likely to worsen unless better preventive and public education programs can be devised. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/03/t2-our-obese-state/ Minnesota Senator-elect Al Franken has been uniquely trapped in "senator-elect" limbo status the entire eight months since his presumed election in an exceedingly tight race last November. Until Tuesday, his defeated opponent, former senator Norm Coleman, went along with national Republicans who wanted to stall Mr. Franken's installation: He refused to concede that he lost the election by the 312 votes determined by a state-wide recount. The seemingly interminable standoff, extended through appeals and legal challenges, finally ended Tuesday with the Minnesota Supreme Court's ringing, unanimous judgment in Mr. Franken's favor. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/02/t1-al-franken-the-new-senator/ The sentencing of Bernard Madoff to 150 years in federal prison for perpetrating the biggest Ponzi scheme in history concludes one part of the government's investigation into his activities, but it should not close the case. Investigators should continue to work. Mr. Madoff's victims and the public deserve an explanation of how the multibillion-dollar fraud was perpetrated as well as a full accounting of the money involved. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/02/t2-madoff-probe-should-continue/ In yet another narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of an appeal by 18 white Connecticut firefighters who claimed they were wrongly denied promotions in 2003 because none of the black firemen who took the promotion test with them h http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/01/t1-discrimination-war-goes-on/ By the end of today in Iraq's time zone -- Baghdad is seven hours ahead of us -- American troops will have finished their pull-back from Iraqi cities to secure bases, as agreed last December by former President Bush in the new Status of Forces agreement. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/30/t1-pulling-back-in-iraq/ Hamilton County students, like those elsewhere, have major health problems. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/29/6-29-t1-student-health-and-junk-food/ It's always difficult for school officials to carry out the twin directives to provide a safe environment for students while honoring the privacy rights of the youngsters in their charge. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/29/6-29-t2-school-kids-have-rights-too/ In the battle over health care reform, it's wise to look beyond the opposition's slanted rhetoric about "government-run health care taking over the system." More interesting is how much money leading congressional opponents get from the medical industry's lobbying and PAC-fund octopus. In a word, it's megabucks. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/28/6-28-t1-reform-follow-the-money/ Though light on specifics, Mayor Ron Littlefield's annual "state of the city" address Thursday got the main theme right: preparing for the city's future and the growth that now seems inevitable. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/27/t1-the-state-of-the-city/ The forensic report commissioned by TVA to determine the cause of the agency's billion-gallon ash spill at the Kingston coal-fired electric plant purposely does not lay blame for the circumstances that caused the spill. But it doesn't have to. Its report appears to provide prima facie evidence of the cause. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/27/t2-lessons-in-tvas-ash-spill/ It will take time for South Carolinians to deal with the fallout from Gov. Mark Sanford's confession that he had an extra-marital affair with an Argentine woman. The revelation is personally harmful and short-circuits a promising political career. The harm, while significant, is not limited to South Carolina. Mr. Sanford's actions expose the national Republican Party to considerable harm -- and ridicule -- as well. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/26/t1-hypocrisy-political-style/ Debate over health care reform was destined to knot up over proposals for a public insurance plan that would provide cost-lowering competition with profit-driven private health insurance plans. With congressional committees working this week trying to meld competing proposals into a coherent reform bill, the issue of a public plan, and its exaggerated relative cost, have risen to the top of opponents’ wrath and target-shooting. But complaints are deliberately distorted. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/25/health-reform-scare/ Ford, Nissan and Tesla Motors will receive the first $8 billion from a $25 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan program designed to promote development of more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Nissan promptly announced that it will use its share -- $1.6 billion -- of the loan to build all-electric, zero emission cars and the battery packs that will power them at its Smyrna manufacturing complex. That's exceptionally good news for Tennessee and, eventually, for the environment. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/25/t1-nissan-tennessee-and-the-future/ When the Legislature passed the law allowing people with gun-carry permits to go armed in state and local parks, lawmakers wrongly put local governing bodies under the burden of officially opting out of inclusion under the law to keep their parks gun-free http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/24/t1-close-local-parks-to-guns/ A pair of unmanned NASA space probes achieved moon orbit on Tuesday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/24/t2-positive-step-for-us-space-program-takes/ The Iranian regime's harsh weekend crackdown on demonstrators protesting the apparently rigged presidential election reveals a government afraid of the democratic process it purports to embrace -- and, worse, a regime coldly willing to violently oppress i http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/23/t1-irrevocable-fracture-in-iran/ Eastman Kodak's decision, revealed Monday, that it will stop manufacturing Kodachrome is based on the iron rules of economics, but the announcement prompts more than the usual amount of public emotion that accompanies such news. Kodachrome, after all, is http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/23/t2-kodachromes-been-taken-away/ Tennessee is hardly alone in its budget plight. Forty one other states have slashed budgets for the current fiscal year, and cut their budgets for the new fiscal year even more. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/23/t2-state-budgets-counter-stimulus/ Those opposed to President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system are already arguing that while some change might be needed, it is not necessary to bring possible harm to consumers, to the overall economy or to financial fi http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/22/6-22-t1-regulation-that-makes-sense/ It is difficult to tell whether the grass is greener on the Tennessee or Georgia side of the states' shared border. Later in the summer, though, it won't be too hard to determine where that border is located. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/22/6-22-t2-cutting-grass-and-costs-in-georgia/ Having incurred black eyes for the massive Kingston ash spill and its recent decision to appeal a federal court order to slash air pollution at four of its dirtiest coal-fired plants, TVA's image has taken another hit. The venerable New Deal agency still seems anchored in a past heavily dependent on old coal plants that yet remain heavy air polluters and hazardous waste sites. And it's still burdened by enormous debt from its failed, but once grandiose vision, to build a slew of nuclear plants all around the Tennessee Valley. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/21/6-21-t1-a-new-tva-energy-strategy/ Reaching agreement in the Legislature on a new state budget wasn't an easy process. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/20/t1-a-grim-state-budget-at-last/ Tennessee is hardly alone in its budget plight. Forty one other states have slashed budgets for the current fiscal year, and cut their budgets for the new fiscal year even more. Their fiscal troubles pose a serious problem not just for their own states, but also for the economy as a whole, and for Washington's effort to stimulate the economy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/20/t2-state-budgets-counter-stimulus/ The giant daily protests that have rocked Iran in the wake of its implausible presidential election returns last week represent such persistent fury that Iran's ruling clerics seem intimidated. Despite baton-wielding police who are breaking heads, shooting deaths of at least seven protesters, and orders to end the demonstrations, the protests continue. And the regime has appeared reluctant to unleash sufficient force and tactics to suppress them. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/19/t1-irans-political-crisis/ North Korea's nuclear arsenal is reason enough for neighboring nations and world leaders to worry. That's not the only major threat posed by the rogue nation, if experts are to be believed. North Korea, they say, also has a large cache of chemical weapons that poses a threat to global stability. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/19/t2-chemicals-north-koreas-latest-threat/ A new report by TVA's inspector general confirms what was blatantly apparent in the aftermath of the massive Kingston power plant ash spill: That TVA deliberately and wrongly underplayed the catastrophic dimensions and toxicity of the spill which cascaded out of a decades-old retention pond when an earthen berm ruptured. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/18/poor-response-to-ash-spill/ The Veterans Administration is charged with providing life-long health care services to eligible veterans. Doing so honors a promise the nation makes to those who serve in the military. Fulfilling that pledge is sometimes difficult, but on the whole the VA works diligently to meet its mandate. A new grant initiative on hospice and palliative care demonstrates that commitment. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/18/veterans-and-end-of-life-care/ Congress' resurgent effort to authorize the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products cleared its final legislative hurdle Tuesday, putting the bill on track for President Obama's promised signature. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/17/t1-tobacco-regulation-at-last/ Though dogs can accompany their owners in almost all of Chattanooga's 60-plus public parks, it is the few that they are not permitted to enter that are the subject of concern for pet owners. Dogs currently are not allowed in Coolidge Park, Ross's Landing http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/17/t2-pets-parks-not-mutually-exclusive/ Iran’s presidential election held hope for badly needed change, but now appears to have been rigged in favor of the hostile status quo. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/16/irans-controversial-election/ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state on Sunday, but his support seems more coerced than firmly held. Indeed, his approval includes so many conditions that its value as a building block for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is, at best, questionable. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/16/netanyahus-tepid-blessing/ Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, takes an exceptionally dim view of the thin, single-use plastic bags that have become a staple of contemporary life in almost every corner of the globe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/15/end-plague-plastic/ Tennesseans are justly proud of their state’s history and work diligently to preserve and commemorate it. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/15/markers-denote-tennessee-history/ It has long been apparent from international tests that most American high school graduates — and the schools that teach them — badly lag the levels of achievement in other industrialized nations in the critical categories of math, science and language arts. All the hand-wringing aside, the problem has not been a lack of testing in American schools. Rather, it’s the lack of more rigorous academic criteria and the absence of a single, uniform, comprehensible standard by which all students, all schools and all states can be judged together on the same terms and held accountable for their deficiencies. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/14/uniform-school-standards/ Fixing a state budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins next month is hard enough in normal economic times. It’s admittedly harder in the grip of the worst recession in 70 years. But that doesn’t excuse the mind-boggling, slash-and-burn cuts that Republican state senators have proposed for the governor’s already minimalist budget. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/13/reckless-state-budget-cuts/ The World Health Organization decreed a swine flu pandemic on Thursday, raising the global alert to its highest level. The announcement created jitters in some places around the globe, but many public health officials cautioned against over-reaction. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/12/pandemic-and-precaution/ Navy Week, a community outreach and recruiting mission that coincides with the Riverbend Festival, is winding down, but it already is possible to measure the impact of the observance on the community. It has been a uniformly positive experience that has allowed the venerable branch of the nation’s military service to renew and to create strong ties to residents of the city and the surrounding area. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/12/busy-week-here-navy-personnel/ Just a few months ago, many members of Congress were elbowing their way to the microphones to bemoan the nation’s high foreclosure rate and to promise to fix it. Yet the problem remains an unsolved crisis — a crisis that is bound to worsen as the recession’s rising crest of laid-off workers and involuntary foreclosures tightens its grip on homeowners who can’t find a new job. In this environment Congress’ lame response, and especially its refusal to allow bankruptcy courts authority to modify mortgage obligations, would be mystifying if it wasn’t for the money trail. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/11/bankers-lobby-money-talks/ President Barack Obama pledged to work equitably and expeditiously to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians in a speech in Egypt last week. He’s kept his promise, but has been unable to make even incremental progress in moving toward his admirable goal. Others vital to the process he clearly defined remain recalcitrant. Without them, no advance is possible. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/11/still-stalemated-mideast/ Few rights in this nation are as important as the due process of law. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/10/keeping-judges-honest/ The Federal Aviation Administration order Tuesday that its inspectors increase inspections of training at regional airlines to make sure it conforms with federal standards is the proper response to questions prompted by a February crash in New York. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/10/regional-air-carriers-and-safety/ The Obama administration’s appointment of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to lead this nation’s war against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan is understandable. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/09/elusive-afghan-strategy/ It is difficult for even seasoned diplomats to interpret what takes place in North Korea, but there can be little doubt what the sentencing Monday of two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor by courts there really means. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/09/north-korea-journalists-pawns/ The Community Kitchen on 11th Street has long offered the city’s homeless population a comprehensive range of services, but there is always more to do. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/08/day-center-homeless/ Vacation already is underway for the community’s school-aged youngsters, but that’s no excuse to take a holiday from reading. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/08/reading-programs-summer-boon/ The nation’s health insurance industry is preparing to mount an assault on the most vital component of health care reform — a proposal for a model public health insurance plan, offered by the government, that would be available on a voluntary basis to any citizen regardless of their personal circumstances, health or employment status. The insurance industry is on the wrong side of this critical issue. Yet its leaders apparently are so livid at the prospect of a competitive public plan and its potential rein on their rich profits that they don’t consider the overall public good — and the savings on health care spending — that such a plan would promote through rate competition. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/07/solution-insurance-gaps/ The monthly report Friday on unemployment is of the classic good news/bad news variety. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/06/job-losses-decline-may/ There is ample reason to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings on the French coast in Normandy during World War II. The successful but costly campaign opened a second European front and set in motion the string of events that ultimately hastened the defeat of Nazi Germany. That, and much more, will be recalled today. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/06/remembering-d-day-65-years-later/ President Barack Obama’s current visit to the Middle East is designed to restore the United States’ somewhat tarnished image there. He made a fine start on that tough task in a highly anticipated and diplomatically risky speech in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday. He struck all the right notes in a wide-ranging talk, and won many positive responses from friends and sometime foes alike. Whether the initial reception will lead to long-term diplomatic gains remains uncertain. The effort, however, was worthwhile. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/05/obama-meets-challenge/ The date is firm. The shift to digital TV in the United States occurs June 12 — a week from today. There will be no more delays like the one in February, when U.S. officials postponed the deadline because too many households were unprepared for the change. That’s no longer true. Though some TV viewers still will be unable to receive digital service on changeover day, there’s no longer significant reason to delay. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/05/switch-digital-tv-nearly-here/ The Senate is expected to consider this month a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products. Regardless of objections by tobacco state senators, the Senate should not hesitate to pass the bill. It’s already been passed by the House. And a vigorous ruling by a federal appeals court two weeks ago, and the latest report by a noted lung cancer research doctor, make the case for regulation indisputably clear. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/04/bring-tobacco-under-fda/ Nowadays, China’s leaders eagerly promote their nation as one that is speedily embracing Western ideals and just as quickly distancing itself from the old Communist regime that strictly controlled every aspect of Chinese life. To some extent, that’s correct. It is not true, however, when it comes to history. Today’s anniversary — the 20th — of events in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square proves that the urge to control the free flow of information in China remains strong. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/04/tiananmen-20-years-later/ It was predictable that the GOP’s far-right flame-throwers, pundits and putative prophets would get in high dudgeon over the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor — a Latina, gasp! — for the U.S. Supreme Court. With the Republican Party lacking a coherent agenda http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/03/how-judge-judge-sotomayor/ The disappearance over the Atlantic of an Air France Airbus A330 with 228 people, including two Americans, on board Sunday while flying from Brazil to France is a catastrophe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/03/catastrophe-and-mystery-air/ There is no way to sugar-coat the bankruptcy of General Motors, and no way to minimize the Obama administration’s bold but risky decision to force and stage manage the dicey transition of GM from bankruptcy to a post-bankruptcy future. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/02/auto-icon-bankruptcy/ Dr. George Tiller, a well-known provider of late-term abortions, was gunned down — murdered — Sunday at his church in Wichita, Kan. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/02/no-role-murder-abortion-debate/ Some actions by a faction of the county school board occasionally defy belief in their disregard for the school system’s students and vital community partners. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/01/vote-needs-reversing/ The men and women who serve in the nation’s military often face dread, stress and doubt while performing their assigned duties. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/01/addressing-va-hospital-failures/ Though the economic recession has morphed from the acute to the chronic phase, the damage is still onerous and becoming ever more burdensome. Abundant evidence lies in the latest round of 1,373 state job cuts proposed by Gov. Bredesen this past week to meet the latest declines in anticipated state tax revenue. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/31/tennessees-budget-dilemma/ Closing the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay would not seem to merit the politically enflamed controversy that now surrounds it. Former President George W. Bush said in 2006 that he’d like to close it some day, plenty of congressmen from both parties have insisted it should be closed, and the option of incarcerating the worst terrorists it holds in a federal super-max prisons in the United States should take calm any worries about security. All of which suggests that the controversy stirred up by Dick Cheney and the shrill right-wing talking heads is about politics, not security. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/31/closing-guantanamo/ Citing the common-sense maxim that guns and alcohol don’t mix, Gov. Phil Bredesen on Thursday wisely vetoed legislation that would allow Tennesseans with gun-carry permits to take their guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. The wide margins by which the gung-ho gun-rights Legislature passed the bill in the first place suggest that lawmakers will ignore the governor’s call to common sense and override his veto. Still, we urge lawmakers to pause and reconsider the grave potential impact on public safety of this legislation and respect his veto. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/30/support-veto-guns--bars/ Huge and welcome investments by Volkswagen and Alstom understandably dominate any discussion about local and regional economic development and the job market, but those undertakings alone do not provide a comprehensive portrait of the overall business climate here. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/30/chattem-commits-city-growth/ Texting — sending short text messages between cell phones or other handheld devices — is both boon and bane. When used properly, it provides quick and sometimes vital communication between individuals. When used improperly, it holds the possibility of great harm. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/29/dangers-texting/ The Legislature’s inexplicable obsession for expanding gun-carry rights in Tennessee may soon force local governments to decide whether to ban or allow guns in municipal and county parks. Local officials don’t have to knuckle under to the rash legislative rush to open parks to gun-toting citizens, however. When the issue arrives, they should unite to ban the presence of guns in our local parks. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/28/no-guns-parks-here-please/ India’s recently concluded parliamentary election is remarkable both for its result and for the amazing scope of its exercise in democracy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/28/indias-big-really-big-election/ In nominating federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, President Obama spoke broadly Tuesday not only of her “knowledge and experience acquired over a course of a brilliant legal career, but (also) the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life’s journey.” http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/27/judge-sonia-sotomayor/ The swift and unequivocal condemnation by world leaders of North Korea’s underground detonation of a nuclear bomb on Monday is a sure sign that the international community’s forbearance with the rogue nation is wearing thin. The practical result of such censure is uncertain. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/27/north-koreas-latest-challenge/ You’d think that the recent rise in the number of sometimes deadly food-borne illnesses would prompt manufacturers of processed foods and federal agencies to do all in their power to enhance public safety. Not so. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/26/danger-lurks-home-freezer/ How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/25/memorial-day-2009/ Officially, Memorial Day is a solemn holiday observed with appropriate rites. Semi-officially, the weekend observance signals the beginning of the summer vacation period. Unofficially, the holiday is the start of the nation’s favorite time to eat hot dogs. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/25/hot-dog-days-summer/ A new report showing that health insurance premiums in Tennessee rose five times faster than workers’ earnings from 2000 to 2007 is deeply troubling, but it certainly is not surprising. Workers still lucky enough to have access to employer-provided insurance — less than 55 percent in Tennessee still do, as compared to 60 percent nationally and 70 percent a decade ago — are well aware that their premium costs have eaten up their wage gains in recent years, even as their coverage has declined and their out-of-pocket expenses have soared. Such depressing and clearly unsustainable trends should be fueling national demand for health care reform and the creation of an alternative public insurance plan for voluntary, tax deductible purchase. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/24/whos-afraid-public-plan/ Campaign finance rules are not designed to level the playing field between less affluent candidates, who must rely on contributions from many donors, and multimillionaire candidates who can afford to lavishly finance their own campaigns. Rather, they are designed to protect the public interest by restraining the influence of big-money donors over any candidate, rich or not. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/23/alarming-ethical-blindness/ The enormous lobbying power that big corporations exert over the state Legislature is legend in Nashville. Lobbyists control much of the legislative agenda and write or approve much of the legislation they want. If they spend enough money and hire enough lobbyists, they generally get their way. Take the case of AT&T, this year’s icon for lobbying clout. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/23/lobbyists-usually-win/ Parents of school children may be familiar with the high truancy and drop-out rates in schools here and around the country. Yet the idea of making parents do public service trash pick-ups on weekends if their children miss school excessively likely will seem novel. Never mind. If it spurs parents to make sure their children are in school, and helps lower the truancy and drop-out rates, it will serve a useful purpose. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/22/holding-parents-accountable/ Georgia and Tennessee are bound to one another by more than proximity. In addition to geography, they have strong and distinctive historic, cultural and economic ties. They share, as well, a stunning natural beauty and a willingness to protect that heritage. The states’ leadership roles in the nation’s largest community improvement program is impressive testament to the latter. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/22/georgia-tennessee-take-lead/ Congress’ fast march to pass a law limiting credit card companies’ abusive tricks on their customers now seems certain to arrive on President Obama’s desk for signing by Memorial Day. Though the new law wouldn’t take effect for some nine months, it is worth cheering its passage. Credit card holders have deserved better for a long time. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/21/credit-card-and-gun-rights/ The first meeting between President Barack Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday produced courteous conversation, mutual compliments and animated discussion of common goals. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/20/new-conversation-mideast/ American auto makers and the Bush administration fought California’s proposal for tighter auto mileage and emissions control standards for new cars to a stand-still for seven years. On Tuesday, auto makers modestly cheered as the Obama administration embraced the California proposal as a uniform national standard and ordered it to be implemented beginning in 2012. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/20/california-way-autos/ The biggest economic debate today among partisan politicians and critics of the Obama administration seems to be a myopic focus on the size of the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year and next, rather than the dimensions of the global recession and the sustained effort it will take to pull out of it. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/19/way-kill-recovery/ The generals who rule Myanmar — once known as Burma — have made it clear over the years that they will do whatever is necessary to retain power. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/19/fear-democracy-myanmar/ The ultimate expression of the Legislature’s obsession this year with gun-carry rights came last Thursday when the state Senate, by an overwhelming 24-7 margin, approved the final version of a bill passed by an equally strong margin in the House that allows citizens with handgun-carry permits to carry their weapons into bars and restaurants where alcohol is served. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/18/guns-alcohol-next/ An educator always strives to impart knowledge to students and to inspire them, but often it is difficult for even the most skilled and dedicated teacher to know how successfully those goals are met. There should be little difficulty measuring the impact Edna Clemens, a teacher at Sequatchie County Middle School, has had on the students and the community she serves. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/18/inspiration-school-community/ Computers and the Internet undoubtedly have changed individual lives and society for the better over the last couple of decades. It is difficult indeed to mount an argument to the contrary. Still, fairness demands that any assessment of the Computer Age include a cautionary note. Growing dependence on computer networks brings with it the increased possibility of cyberattacks that threaten the security of nations, the stability of institutions and the well-being of individuals. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/17/cybersecurity-nation-risk/ The goal of war — defeating the enemy on the field of battle — hasn’t changed over the millennia, but the technology employed to gain victory is in a state of near constant evolution. The latest advance emphasizes and employs technological expertise rather than brute force. Welcome to the increasingly wide world of cyberwar. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/17/and-new-face-warfare/ President Obama may have reversed himself on publication of detainee abuse pictures, but he is keeping his word on a host of reforms related to the financial distortions and reckless Wall Street trading that threw the nation — and the world — into what’s now fairly being called “the Great Recession.” He has proposed new banking rules, restrictions on off-shore tax havens and compensation guidelines. On Wednesday, he proposed a detailed plan to regulate trading of derivatives and credit default swaps — the exotic financial instruments at the core of the financial crisis. His proposal, a prelude to a broader regulatory overhaul of the financial system, should form the basis of a crucial reform. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/16/regulation-wall-street/ The National Transportation Safety Board hasn’t completed its investigation yet, but testimony at a just-concluded inquiry into the causes of a commuter plane crash in February raises troubling questions about regional airlines, the training and testing of the pilots they employ and the oversight role of the Federal Aviation Administration. The mass of evidence revealed at the hearing is incriminating — so much so that prudent travelers who use regional carriers are right to worry about their safety when they next take to the air. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/16/crash-inquiry-raises-safety-worries/ President Obama’s decision Wednesday to reverse course and mount a fresh legal challenge to the release of pictures of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan is sure to be criticized, perhaps as much as his agreement last month to allow their release. Advocates reasonably argue that releasing the pictures would serve legitimate national interests in documenting and exorcising the stain of abuse, and would inhibit such conduct in the future. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/15/u-turn-pictures-abuse/ So far, so good. The Hubble Space Telescope repair mission is going well. It’s an expensive and dangerous undertaking, but the rewards outweigh the substantial risks faced by the astronaut repair crew and the hefty price tag. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/15/hubble-repair-mission-beneficial/ There are several factors driving the explosion of deficit spending in the current and pending fiscal years, yet there is no way to sugar-coat it. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/14/deficit-budget-challenge/ First our state lawmakers offered multiple pieces of legislation to open up the state’s bars, restaurants and parks to licensed gun-toting patrons, never mind the police chiefs who counseled against allowing more guns in more public places, particularly if mixed with alcohol. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/13/guns-saggin-and-tax-equity/ An Iranian court’s decision on Monday to drop charges and to suspend the sentence of an Iranian-American journalist sentenced to eight years in prison for spying for the United States is notable on several levels. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/13/messages-iran/ If there were doubts that President Obama and key Democrats intend to accomplish serious health care reform this year, they were laid to rest Monday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/12/health-care-reform-kick-/ Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey doesn’t have the widespread recognition or following of Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, and Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, but he’s their equal when it comes to leadership and service to community. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/12/national-award-mayor-ramsey/ An internal Justice Department inquiry — begun and concluded before President George Bush left office — reportedly has found that the three key Justice lawyers who wrote what have become known as “the torture memorandums” committed serious lapses of judgment in writing those memos which merit disciplinary review by the lawyers’ state bar associations. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/11/lawyers-behind-torture/ The Statue of Liberty, like many of the United States’ most iconic landmarks, was closed to the public after 9/11. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/11/monumental-decision/ At a time when the shaky economy continues to stress many family budgets, every opportunity to save even a little money is extremely welcome. Residents of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama will have an opportunity to do so later in the year. Each state will hold special state sales tax holidays in late July or early August. The savings could be substantial. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/10/sales-tax-holidays-return/ Tennessee’s open records law has proved its value over the years mainly by protecting the public’s right to know how state and local government officials and agencies use their powers. Conversely, it’s also demonstrated its usefulness by attracting attacks from lawmakers who peddle the notion that a lot of actions taken by public officials, and the people who benefit from those actions, should be kept secret from the public to protect special interests. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/10/gun-carry-permits-should-be-public/ The black irony of calling an April loss of 539,000 jobs a surprisingly good number is inescapable. It is good relative only to the more awful job losses of 699,000 in March, 681,000 in February, 741,00 in January, and more than 5.7 million overall since the recession began in December 2007. Any good in the April number owes to the fact that it is not accelerating the trend of previous months. Rather, it is well down from the worst months, enough so to affirm the predictions of many economists that the staggering economic free-fall of the past half-year seems to have bottomed, setting the ground for the economy to begin inching upwards later this year. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/09/april-jobless-lifeline/ The national recognition won by the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe academic decathlon team did not come easy. Students earned it the old-fashioned way — through long hours of dedicated study. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/09/lfo-academic-team-earns-acclaim/ Some public officials never seem to appreciate the useful purpose of the state’s Open Meetings and Records Act, an expansive law which guarantees Tennesseans reasonable and free access to all public records not otherwise protected by law. It took immense public pressure for months last year before Hamilton County’s Water and Waste Water Treatment Authority revealed its attorney’s billing records to the County Commission. It took even more time, a needless lawsuit, and an order by Chancery Court Judge Howell Peoples before the East Ridge City Council would reveal its attorney’s billing records. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/08/how-officials-breed-mistrust/ Chattanooga area letter carriers will take part Saturday in the 17th annual Letter Carriers Food Drive on Saturday. It is the nation’s and the community’s single largest event of its kind — and it has proved enormously successful over the years. Postal patrons can help the group add to its impressive record of success by leaving donations on or near their mailboxes tomorrow. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/08/letter-carriers-drive-helps-hungry/ TVA now estimates the cost to clean up the Kingston coal fly-ash spill will run from $675 million to $975 million, and the time it takes may be “several years,” according to a regulatory report it filed last Friday. Given the agency’s progressive run-up in time and costs of the http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/07/tvas-billion-dollar-clean-/ The tie between the United States and Israel, complex even in the best of times, is especially complicated now. Both nations have newly elected leaders, a circumstance that makes predicting the future relationship between the long-time allies more of a guessing game than usual. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/07/reiterating-us-policy-mideast/ President Obama warned recently that Pakistan’s own Taliban and al Qaida militants along the country’s mountainous border with Afghanistan are not just providing arms, safe havens and support for their militant Afghan counterparts. They also are threatening Pakistan’s own government and its democracy from within, and putting the security of the country’s 50-plus nuclear warheads at risk. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/06/criteria-aid-pakistan/ T.A. “Tommy” Lupton, whose nearly half-century career as a developer brought immense and positive change to the Chattanooga skyline and landscape, died Monday at 79. His vital presence at the heart of the city’s economic and civic life, as well as his leadership and vision, will be missed. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/06/t-tommy-lupton-developer/ Legislation to establish a badly needed “Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights” passed by an overwhelming 357-to-70 bipartisan margin in the House last Thursday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/05/credit-card-users-bill-rights/ Jack Kemp, a nine-term Republican congressman whose idea of supply-side economics — the conviction that the more taxes are reduced the more robust the nation’s economy will be — became the foundation of Ronald Reagan-era tax policy and shaped the GOP for decades, decades, died Saturday at 73. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/05/jack-kemp-gop-congressman/ The Obama administration’s decision to push a Chrysler restructuring plan through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding Thursday is a bold but risky decision. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/04/chryslers-bankruptcy/ It is never too late to correct some mistakes. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/04/unfair-sentence-crack-cocaine/ President Barack Obama has pledged to restore the United States’ primacy in scientific research. His bold plan echoes the decision made by U.S. leaders half a century ago to invest in basic science and applied research to meet the challenges posed by the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik. That resolve proved a long-term boon to the nation. Mr. Obama’s renewed commitment to science should produce similarly positive results now. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/03/new-commitment-science/ Though it is difficult to know how widespread and how dangerous the current outbreak of swine flu in Tennessee and elsewhere will become, one thing about the disease is known. The arrival and presence of the virus in the United States will severely test the nation’s public health agencies — the initial line of defense against the illness. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/02/public-health-network-strained/ Justice David Souter’s decision to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court means the nation’s highest court will lose one of its most dependable liberal votes. His departure, though, is unlikely to change the court’s make-up. His replacement, President Barack Obama’s first nominee for the court, likely will adhere to the same moderate-liberal path. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/02/opening-supreme-court/ The rising quest for energy efficiency and related environmental and cost savings have made the concepts of green building practices familiar to many. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/01/real-leed-building-last/ North Korea’s declaration this week that it would build a reactor, begin a uranium enrichment program and conduct nuclear and intercontinental ballistic tests is either a serious challenge to global piece, or a planned provocation designed to call attention to itself and its demands. Trouble is, no one — including the most seasoned international diplomats — can be sure what North Korea hopes to accomplish with its latest pronouncements. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/01/more-bluster-north-korea/ Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s surprising decision to switch sides from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party could dramatically alter the balance of power in the Senate and help propel President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda. He could add the 59th vote to the Democratic majority, bringing Democrats just one vote shy of the threshold 60 votes needed to break a Senate filibuster. If the apparent election of Al Franken in Minnesota to the Senate — now on appeal to Minnesota’s Supreme Court — is finally certified, Democrats could control the Senate outright. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/30/party-no-loses-one-yes-we-can/ President Barack Obama took office promising to reverse the Bush administration’s most noxious industrial intrusions into the nation’s remaining pristine roadless wilderness areas, which were legally protected under the 2001 Clinton-era Roadless Rule. He also promised to reverse Bush policies that would undermine the Endangered Species Act. He and his new cabinet heads, however, haven’t had time to act on his promises. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/30/environmental-rules-risk/ For years, using the phrase “fair elections” in South Africa was a joke. Though the nation was ostensibly a democracy, the politics of apartheid made it impossible for the country’s black majority to play an active role in the governance of the country. All that changed in 1994, when voters of all races were allowed to cast ballots for the first time. Now, elections in South Africa are internationally praised for their transparency and fairness. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/30/victory-and-challenge-south-africa/ The convention of measuring a president’s performance in his first 100 days in office — a lingering salute to FDR’s hectic early pace in his first term to beat back the Great Depression — has been a pretty shallow exercise the past few decades. Most presidents since haven’t faced the sort of crashing challenges that demanded a Roosevelt-style gallop out of the gate. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/29/mr-obamas-first-100-days/ One harsh consequence of rising unemployment in this recession is the surge in the number of uninsured Americans. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/28/vanishing-health-insurance/ United States health officials are reacting with a proper mix of public information, prudence and professionalism as the number of confirmed cases of a sometimes deadly swine flu around the world continues to climb. The reasoned response is a proper one. It allows the nation to meet any challenge presented by the disease in a medically efficient manner. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/28/swine-flu-preparedness-not-panic/ Recent rains have eased drought conditions in Georgia, but prudent officials aren’t ready to declare the emergency over. Revised water restrictions remain in place in 55 counties in North Georgia. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/27/georgias-water-crisis-remains/ There is nothing more baffling than trying to understand directions and instructions provided in a language other than your own. Imagine, then, the hazards involved when drug store customers are unable to communicate with pharmacists or to read the label or the printed material that routinely accompanies prescriptions. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/27/language-problems-pharmacy/ Mayor Ron Littlefield’s inaugural pitch for consolidating some local governments’ services to improve efficiency, lower costs and propel economic development merited a warm reception, at least in an ideal world. After all, taxpayers under Hamilton County’s 10 municipal governments, plus county government, suffer needless inefficiency and pay duplicative overhead costs for many vital public services. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/26/streamlining-government/ Hunting for a way to wave their banner and ambush President Obama’s agenda, Republicans have seized on the propagandist notion of defaming his work to fix the busted financial system as “socialism.” http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/25/false-label-socialism/ Public health officials, government leaders and citizens across the nation hailed the multibillion-dollar 1998 settlement between tobacco companies and the states as a landmark agreement. It was designed to fund programs that would reduce the number of smokers and lower http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/24/tennessee-losing-smoking-war/ The decision Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration to allow 17-year-olds to purchase morning-after contraceptive pills without a physician’s prescription is a triumph of science over politics. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/24/fda-makes-right-decision-plan-b/ President Barack Obama opened the door Tuesday to the possibility that key Justice Department lawyers and Bush administration officials could be held account-able for their legal opinions justifying the use of brutal interrogation methods used from 2002 to 2006, including several widely recognized forms of torture. He also suggested the param-eters of an independent bipartisan commission that might be established, in preference to a congressional investigation, to report on the roots and effect of the Justice Department’s sanctioning of the use of harsh interrogations. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/23/demand-accountability/ Jon Meacham, a native of Chattanooga and a regular visitor to Tennessee, is the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for biography. The honor confirms what many who have read his work and followed his career have long known. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/23/pulitzer-prize-jon-meacham/ The Legislature won’t be able to fix a budget, its largest piece of business, until the State Funding Board and Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration receive the state’s May revenue projections and are able to fine-tune the new fiscal year’s proposed budget. Even so, the Legislature could be doing productive work in the interim. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/22/distorted-legislative-agenda/ Area residents who may have wondered what the new City Council and Mayor Ron Littlefield would have on their agenda for the next four years need look no further than Mr. Littlefield’s inaugural address Monday. In commencing his second term, the mayor laid out a bold, vital and admittedly difficult vision: a transformational restructuring of the city and county’s political, governmental, utility and growth planning infrastructure. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/21/transformational-agenda/ Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s charge Monday at a United Nations racism conference that Western nations used the Holocaust as a “pretext” for aggression against Palestinians is hardly a surprise. The virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic leader often uses such forums to espouse such despicable views. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/21/refuting-facts-fostering-intolerance/ Though there is universal public condemnation of hazing, it remains a perennial in collegiate life. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/20/no-tolerance-hazing/ Sometimes it is wise to spend a little money to save a lot of money. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/20/sensible-investment-lafayette/ Tennessee’s system of selecting appellate and Supreme Court judges has for years provided an exemplary service to Tennesseans. While voters ultimately elect the judges, they do so under a selection process that preserves judicial independence and integrity by eliminating the traditional corrupting pitfalls of campaign contributions, partisan and ideological agendas, and the power of lobbyists and wealthy special interests. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/19/threat-courts-integrity/ It is well documented now that an “alterna-tive set of procedures” — the code phrase for brutal interrogation techniques that in some instances constitute recognized torture — were authorized by the Bush administration, approved by the Justice Department, and widely practiced at secret CIA prisons abroad and in prisons in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq from 2002 through 2005. But until this week, the Justice Department’s own internal memos describing the brutal techniques it approved had not been released by either the Bush or Obama administrations. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/18/justices-tortured-memos/ A three-judge appellate court in Minnesota ruled in unusually assertive language this week that Democrat Al Franken won Minnesota’s second Senate race last fall. It said the election has been proven “by overwhelming evidence” to have been conducted “fairly, impartially and accurately.” http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/18/gops-senate-stall-minnesota/ If you have noticed what’s happening in both the national and local real estate markets, you surely are aware that there have been many sad foreclosures, that many property values are declining, and that many homes and other properties are advertised for sale at lower prices without attracting buyers. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/17/your-property-tax-too-high/ Tax Day Tea Party participants tried Wednesday to connect the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to contemporary protests about what they view as excessive federal spending and the prospect of higher taxes. They failed. The 18th century patriots were protesting taxation without representation, a major issue in the run-up to the American Revolution. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/17/partisanship-stirs-tea-party/ Given the number of Americans who die or become ill from food each year, you’d think most people would pay close attention to recalls and take appropriate action to protect themselves and family from illness. That’s not the case. Most people are aware of food recalls, it seems, but many of them fail to act upon that knowledge. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/17/eating-can-be-dangerous-your-heath/ Run-off election victories Tuesday by three new candidates for the City Council featured noteworthy but not entirely unexpected defeats of two incumbents — District 8’s long-serving Leamon Pierce and District 1’s Linda Bennett. The winners who soundly trounced them in small-turnout races, Andrae McGary and Deborah Scott, respectively, will join Peter Murphy, winner of the open District 9 position, on the City Council. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/16/new-city-council-members/ In an era of rising population, increasing sprawl and ever heavier burdens on natural resources, many citizens can now envision that the rolling farmlands we love, the forests we hike and hunt, and the clear streams in the woods we treasure will continue to vanish. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/16/trusts-preserve-treasured-land/ President Barack Obama’s announcement Monday that he will amend several long-standing components of U.S. policy towards Cuba is a positive step. It eases but does not end an adversarial relationship that spans nearly 50 years. The changes signal the president’s willingness to engage in useful dialogue with Cuban leaders and his desire to promote democracy in a nation that has known precious little freedom for five decades. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/15/cuba-step-toward-normalcy/ If the spate of recent suicide bombings, American casualties and arrests of Sunni Awakening leaders in Iraq is not the beginning of the long endgame struggle between Shiites and Sunnis, it at least forebodes that apparently inevitable sectarian strife. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/15/endgame-iraq/ The rescue Sunday of an American sea captain kept hostage by Somali pirates is a resounding testament to the prowess of the U.S. Navy and to the cour-age of Richard Phillips, the Vermonter held at gunpoint for several days in a covered lifeboat off the coast of Africa. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/14/bold-rescue-decisive-president/ The Obama administration sensibly pro-poses to quit subsidizing private banks to make student loans that the government can make directly at far less cost. This simple plan — resisted for years by politicians in bed with their corporate campaign donors — is long overdue. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/14/better-plan-student-loans/ One doesn’t have to be a genius to predict that the photograph of USA Airways jet afloat in the Hudson River with passengers and crew standing on its wings will be an iconic picture of the early 21st century. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/13/faa-needs-transparency/ The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/13/abstinence-only-sex-ed-failure/ In Chattanooga’s City Council run-off elections Tuesday, The Times endorses: District 1: Linda Bennett District 8: Leamon Pierce District 9: Peter Murphy http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/12/tuesdays-run--elections/ It is a foregone conclusion among health care experts, and probably most Americans who are trapped in insurance quagmires or threatened by the loss of health insurance, that America’s health care system is systemically fragmented, broken and increasingly unaffordable. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/12/path-health-care-reform/ Having come this far into the recession and our staggering bailouts, most Americans know the term “derivatives” generally connotes an exotic financial instrument that looks good when a financial market bubble is rising, but wallops you when the bubble bursts. Thirty-eight Tennessee city and county governments are now feeling precisely that financial misery. And they are rightly angered that they were misled into issuing derivative municipal bonds for government projects. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/11/tennessees-derivative-plight/ For most people, piracy on the high seas is the stuff of history or of novels. Many recall with ease the exploits of Blackbeard or the role of Barbary pirates in U.S. history. For others, swashbuckling tales are popular escapist fare. Piracy, though, is not limited to the past or to novels. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/10/perils-piracy/ In the very best of circumstances, a classroom teacher has a tough and demanding job. Even in ordinary times, satisfying the competing constituencies of a classroom while imparting useful knowledge to students with varied interests and abilities is difficult. It is especially hard for a new teacher or one with only a couple years of experience. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/10/another-winner-whitfield-county/ President Barack Obama’s authority to appoint board members for the Tennessee Valley Authority was probably not on the minds of many Tennessee voters last fall, but it’s one of those presidential powers that now looms large for this region’s energy future. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/09/new-direction-tva-board/ Given the deep recession, the swirl of complex and costly proposals by the Obama administration to bolster financial markets, and unified Republican opposition, one might wonder what Americans think about President Obama’s performance in his first 11 weeks in office. Most Americans, as it turns out, have a pretty clear idea what they think about Mr. Obama’s direction: fully two-thirds like it, even if they don’t agree with some specific proposals. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/08/mr-obamas-high-poll-figures/ Federal prosecutors, like all attorneys, are bound by the canons of the legal profession to seek justice within a framework of time-tested rules. Failure to do so undermines the judicial system. Consequently, when it becomes obvious that prosecutorial misconduct taints a verdict, the Justice Department has an obligation to right the wrong. Attorney General Eric Holder did just that last week. Good for him. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/08/holders-bold-decision-stevens/ President Barak Obama and his wife are still seen by Europeans as the brightest stars in the political firmament. The fawning crowds and media attention that followed the couple at the G20 summit amply affirmed that. Still, Mr. Obama’s personal popularity has a limit with European leaders: it obviously doesn’t extend to the president’s war policy goals in Afghanistan. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/07/nato-token-afghanistan/ Tremors, even earthquakes, are not unusual in Italy, which is crossed by a pair of geological fault lines. Even so, few could have been prepared for the loss of life and the widespread damage that occurred when a magnitude 6.3 quake struck a mountainous area northeast of Rome early Monday morning. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/07/fear-reasonable-when-earth-shakes/ Google, one of the most successful business models on the globe, is used by a vast majority of those who search the Internet for information. Indeed, it is so familiar and accepted that its name has morphed into every-day conversation. No one is startled, for example, when someone says that “I googled the guy I met at the bar.” http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/06/google-and-civil-liberties/ The stock market may have rallied the past two weeks, but the job market is still plunging. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/06/new-thrift-erodes-economy/ When county commissioners agreed recently to let voters decide in a public referendum whether the county should grant a property tax freeze to median-income senior citizens, they didn’t anticipate that Tennessee’s Attorney General would rule that proposal out of bounds. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/05/alternative-tax-freeze/ A state representative who visited this newspaper the other day explained clearly why the Legislature so easily does the bidding of lobbyists for big business (at the moment, think natural gas companies and AT&T) while trampling the public interests and economic welfare of ordinary citizens. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/05/why-lawmakers-bow-lobbyists/ It was too much to hope that the G20 summit, convened to coordinate a global response to the economic crisis, would produce a viable plan to match its mission. It did produce some useful commitments, to be sure. But the rich European countries refused to commit to new stimulus packages for their own economies, leaving intact the likelihood that global trade will contract for the first time in 30 years. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/04/half-measures-summit/ North Korea is being obstreperous again. That’s not unusual. Kim Jong Il, the country’s erratic ruler, regularly says or does something purposely designed to produce angst in world capitals. This time, he’s using the possible launch of a long-range rocket to draw attention. If that, indeed, is his goal, he’s certainly succeeded. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/04/north-korea-demands-attention/ The power of lobbyists — those who attempt, often with great success, to influence what the nation’s laws will or will not say — remains strong. There’s no better example of a successful lobby than the one deployed by the National Rifle Association. Its recent role in derailing legislation to give citizens of the District of Columbia certain voting rights is a powerful case in point. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/03/long-reach-nra-lobbyists/ Many fair-minded Americans suspected, with good reason, that President George W. Bush listened to partisan political operatives rather than heed the voices of scientific reason when making policy about “Plan B,” the emergency contraceptive for women. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/03/plan-b-triumph-reason/ RiverCity Co. officials have good reason to feel aggrieved about the city’s decision to file a $1.5 million lawsuit against their not-for-profit company and the two companies whose construction work on The Passage at the city’s riverfront has been criticized by the city for the past year. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/02/breaking-hand-progress/ Cigarette smokers and users of other tobacco products no doubt wish the steep price increases that took effect Wednesday were a cruel April Fool’s Day joke. They weren’t. The prices are here to stay, and the biggest-ever boost in the federal cigarette/tobacco tax that prompted them will alter personal habits and budgets large and small. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/02/beneficial-increase-tobacco-taxes/ American car buyers are well accustomed to auto makers’ cash-back incentives. But we’ve not had the federal government offering us cash incentives for buying a car built in America. Yet with plummeting sales threatening Detroit’s demise, such a stimulus incentive may soon be coming from Congress to help revive the auto industry. The help can’t come too soon, but it should be strategically targeted. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/01/future-gas-sipping-cars/ Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said many of the right things Tuesday as he assumed office, but what he did not say is just as important to his nation’s future and prospects for peace in the Mideast. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/01/new-overtures-peace-israel/ The Obama administration’s decision to push General Motors and Chrysler into fundamental restructuring — voluntarily, or in bankruptcy court if need be; and within a few weeks, not months — marks a sharp departure from the usual sort of jaw-boning that the federal government traditionally has used to forge a hard resolution in a troubled industry. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/31/forcing-terms-detroit/ Hamilton County commissioners equitably resolved a dispute about camping rates at Chester Frost Park late last week. The reasonable decision should settle complaints by senior citizens about what they viewed as exorbitant fee increases. It also allows elected officials to meet their reasonable goal of operating the highly popular park in a fiscally prudent manner. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/31/fair-resolution-park-controversy/ When big corporations push for deregulation of their rates at the state level and legislators and lobbyists line up behind them to offer support, Tennesseans have good reason to back up and guard their billfolds. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/30/dont-rush-deregulate/ We’d be remiss if March passed without noting an important birthday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/30/celebrating-30-years-c-span/ Voters in three of Chattanooga’s nine City Council districts will return to the polls on April 14. Runoff elections are required because no candidate in Districts 1, 8 and 9 won a majority plus one of the ballots cast in the general election. Turnout for runoff elections generally is light, but there are compelling reasons for affected district residents to vote either during the current early voting period, which ends April 8, or on Election Day. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/29/city-council-runoffs/ One of the enduring environmental catastrophes of the Bush years has been the rampant destruction wrought by mountaintop removal mining on the streams, forests and water resources of Appalachian valley communities. Through this environmentally and morally offensive form of virtually unrestricted strip mining, hundreds of mountaintops and ridge-tops have been blown off to expose subsurface coal, sending the mountains’ rocks, trees and debris down hillsides to valleys below — smothering streams, polluting water supplies and obliterating the natural landscape and the lifeblood of surrounding communities. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/28/mountain-top-mining-brake/ Given the state’s recession-hammered economy and the disastrous plunge in tax revenues that support vital public services, Tennesseans could be forgiven for thinking that the Republican-controlled Legislature would want to close blatantly unfair tax breaks for special interest groups. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/28/cut-states-fonce-tax-loophole/ The nationally renowned Conference on Southern Literature, which will be presented here Thursday through April 4 is one of the cultural and educational touchstones of the community and the region. It is, in fact, an event that has earned a positive national reputation and wide following. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/27/honoring-literature-south/ President Barack Obama’s justification of his proposed budget Tuesday rightly centered on the big issues that will challenge the nation not just for his term, but for the next generation. His main goals — turning the economy around, containing soaring health care costs, reducing the nation’s excessive reliance on imported oil, and improving this nation’s lagging educational achievement — are absolutely crucial to the nation’s future prosperity. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/26/mr-obamas-agenda/ Some Georgia legislators, it seems, are determined to have their way even if it costs the state millions of dollars and endangers residents. That’s about the only explanation for a House subcommittee’s vote this week to defeat a bill that would require adults riding in pickup trucks to buckle their seat belts. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/26/vote-against-safety-georgia/ Gov. Phil Bredesen has warned since last fall that a worsening recession and the resulting shortfall in state tax revenues would spur severe cuts in education, state services and the ranks of state employees. The only hope for combating that scenario, he has warned, would be a monetary infusion through the federal stimulus package. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/25/stimulus-helps-state-budget/ The United States functions best when Americans and their elected officials work cooperatively to reach a useful goal. There’s no better current example of that principle than the Serve America Act, a measure that, if approved, will expand opportunities for Americans of various ages to perform public service. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/25/call-national-service/ Tennessee’s unemployment rate hit 9.1 percent in February, up from 5.5 percent the same month a year ago. But Tennessee’s lawmakers don’t seem very interested in that, or in a range of other vital issues. They’re far too busy moving legislation to expand gun-carry rights for the roughly 5 percent of Tennesseans (and 25 percent of Tennessee’s legislators) who hold state-issued permits to carry handguns, concealed or not, as they go about their daily lives. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/24/myopic-focus-gun-rights/ When Volkswagen announced last year that it had chosen Chattanooga and Hamilton County as the site for its American manufacturing plant, the company made it clear that it wanted to participate fully in affairs of the city, state and region it would call home. VW officials confirmed that commitment Friday when they announced the company was pledging more than $5 million to improve K-12 and higher education in Tennessee. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/24/vws-commitment-education/ Many Tennessee apparently don’t care much about water quality, or stopping water pollution, or protecting 30,000 miles of Tennessee’s blue line streams. Consider the 10 worst of the 14 bad water-resource related bills now pending approval. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/23/lawmakers-water-pollution/ The high price of the recent Chattanooga election is prompting public officials and others to think about ways to pare costs. It’s a good thought, but those involved should be careful that the understandable desire to be good stewards of the public purse doesn’t compromise the election process. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/22/mitigating-election-costs/ Even in difficult economic times, the effort to preserve and protect the United States’ historic sites and its greenspace is a process well worth undertaking. Safeguarding those places is hard when confronted by a highly mobile and land-hungry population; it is even more difficult when the economy dries up traditional funding sources for those determined to preserve vital pieces of America’s patrimony. Still, preservation is a task that many groups willingly undertake. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/22/battle-preserve-history/ Israeli President Shimon Peres’ decision Friday to give prime-minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu an additional two weeks to form a new government is a reasonable one. It provides the standard-bearer of the hard-line Likud party time to build a moderate coalition more likely to survive the increasing rigors of domestic and international politics. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/21/balancing-act-israel/ Thursday wasn’t the best of times for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team and coach John Shulman, but it was still a fine day for the university as a whole. The team lost 103-47 to the University of Connecticut in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Yet the appearance generated so much positive national attention that the benefit to UTC is, as the well-known commercial says, priceless. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/21/utc-big-benefits-ncaa-trip/ U nlike Europeans who express political anger in tumultuous street marches, barricades and blockades, modern Americans largely have been patient sideline observers in times of political and economic turmoil. The boiling public wrath over the $165 million in AIG bonuses, a comparatively small but hugely potent symbol of the staggering financial crisis created by Wall Street’s disastrously rotten dealing in unregulated credit derivatives, marks a notable shift in tone. Americans haven’t taken to the streets yet, but it’s clear many would if they thought it would do any good. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/20/market-needs-new-set-rules/ The Obama administration shelved a proposal Wednesday that would have required veterans to use private insurance to pay for combat and service-related injuries. The decision, a sensible one, reaffirms a long-standing promise to provide care for those injured while in the nation’s service. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/20/veterans-and-health-care/ Several public officials are trying to spark interest in building a new, centrally located, county technical-vocational high school. It’s not a new idea, but it has merit. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/19/new-techical-high-school/ Spring begins Friday and with it comes longer periods of daylight, warming temperatures and an explosion of flowers and greenery. Whether the turn of season will be heralded by the usual chorus of birdsong is uncertain. An unusual number of deaths, attributed to salmonella, is reducing the region’s songbird population. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/19/salmonella-threatens-spring-songs/ After receiving $170 billion in federal bailout money — by far the largest single portion of the bailout fund — it seems inconceivable that American International Group’s management would turn around and pay $165 million in bonuses to the very executives and key employees whose work in the conglomerate’s “financial products” section brought down AIG — and may have been the nuclear trigger for the present global financial blowup. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/18/bonuses-hint-fiscal-iceberg/ The revelation that Republic Parking provides City Council and County Commission members and other public officials free parking passes — and has for more than decade — raises at least two ethical questions. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/17/pass-parking-perk/ The $1.3 billion in the economic stimulus package for Amtrak, the nation’s main operator of passenger trains, will be money well spent. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/17/useful-stimulus-amtrak/ A high-profile group representing Tennessee public safety officials is promoting a package of bills carefully crafted to help reduce the gun-related and violent crime that increasingly besets the state. The proposals are meritorious. They deserve serious consideration by the Legislature. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/16/deterrence-and-public-safety/ Once, collisions and other adventures in outer space were the stuff of science fiction. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/16/close-encounter-scary-kind/ State legislators casually and proudly voted in committees Wednesday to advance two of four pending bills that expand Tennesseans’ gun-carry rights — this time into bars that serve alcohol and state parks. They apparently see no harm in what they’re doing, and no connection between the gun culture they are helping reinforce in America and the mass shootings by deranged individuals in Alabama on Tuesday and at a German school on Wednesday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/15/growing-deadly-gun-culture/ School closings are never easy. The soundest business reasons — whether structural deficiencies of buildings, achievement gaps or the unsustainable cost of low student-teacher ratios — rarely outweigh the emotional bonds of communities to their familiar neighborhood schools. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/14/controversial-school-closures/ Legislation that would prohibit the sending or the reading of cell phone text messages while driving in Tennessee won the approval of a Senate committee this week. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/13/distraction-behind-wheel/ Those who regularly travel in downtown Chattanooga undoubtedly have noticed newly planted trees in neighborhoods and along thoroughfares. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/13/greener-chattanooga-takes-root/ American workers who want to establish a union face daunting hurdles. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/12/give-workers-fair-shake/ March is a month of anniversaries in Tibet. Though many such occasions elsewhere are usually celebratory, the opposite is true in the Himalayan nation. Mourning marks the month. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/12/calm-tibet-now/ How best to use Tennessee’s share of federal stimulus money for higher education and unemployment assistance unfortunately has become a matter of debate. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/11/stimulus-spending-dilemma/ The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs’ 80-69 victory over the College of Charleston in the Southern Conference championship game Monday night punches the basketball team’s ticket to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005. The triumph, well noted in sports circles, deserves more than passing notice in the broader world. It puts the team, the university and the city in the national spotlight. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/11/utc-big-dance-and-more/ David Meek, a past president of the Chattanooga Bicycle Club and among the most veteran, experienced riders in the city, was killed while riding his bicycle along Ashland Terrace early Friday morning. He suffered the fate that every bicyclist sadly must recognize is still a lethal possibility in a community whose motorists are notoriously negligent of safely sharing the road with bicyclists. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/10/lethal-threat-bicyclists/ President Barack Obama reversed almost eight years of right-wing political orthodoxy Monday by signing an executive order that permits scientists to expand embryonic stem cell research to find treatments or cures for a variety of debilitating conditions and deadly diseases. The change in policy is a victory for good science and public opinion — and a defeat for the pro-life lobby and many religious conservatives. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/10/science-trumps-politics/ President Obama’s decision to move forward with a health care reform initiative this year will strike some as gratuitous work given the nation’s economic woes. It is anything but. As he correctly emphasized in opening an initial round of discussions on reform in the White House last Thursday, reform of the nation’s fractured health care system —and reining in its soaring costs to families, business and government — is absolutely essential to the effort to breathe new life into our moribund economy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/09/path-health-care-reform/ In the months and years after the terrorism strikes of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans began to understand that President Bush had assumed sweeping presidential powers that overrode core constitutional protections of our most cherished civil liberties. We have since learned that he did so on the basis of legal opinions issued in the wake of the 9/11 attacks by Justice Department lawyers who apparently acquiesced to White House demands for extraordinary powers. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/08/when-justice-let-us-down/ The issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir this week is hardly a surprise — to the dictator or to those even remotely familiar with the Darfur crisis. It was only a matter of time until the International Criminal Court, which had been considering charges for months, handed down indictments for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The question, of course, is whether the warrant will serve any purpose. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/07/justice-darfur-and-mr-bashir/ These days, the federal regulatory agencies that oversee and regulate the nation’s financial affairs justifiably are drawing the most criticism for failing to do their jobs, but the Food and Drug Administration isn’t far behind. The reason is obvious. Americans increasingly are convinced that the FDA can no longer meet its mandate to protect them from contaminated food, drugs, medical devices and a variety of other products. There is considerable evidence to support that belief. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/07/fda-woes-imperil-consumers/ Washington’s capitalism-good-or-bad religionists can’t seem to stop carping about bailouts and the threat of socialism and nationalizing banks. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/06/bailout-needs-transparency/ The Georgia Senate approved legislation Wednesday that, if enacted, should give state residents significant help in their battle to prevent or control diabetes. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/06/battling-diabetes-georgia/ Tennessee’s higher education structure has been divided for years between the multicampus systems of the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Board of Regents’ institutions. Though their missions are integrally related, each has an autonomous board of directors and an expensive administrative bureaucracy. Compounding the bureaucratic overload is the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, a body created by the Legislature in 1967 to coordinate higher learning in Tennessee. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/05/bureaucracy-ripe-trim/ Most Chattanooga residents probably believe that the city as a whole selected the winner in the mayoral race and that most people in a given district had a direct voice in filling seats on the City Council in Tuesday’s municipal elections. Those beliefs are wrong. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/05/minority-rules-chattanooga/ If there was anything surprising about Chattanooga’s city elections Tuesday, it was not the pathetically low — but widely expected — 18 percent turnout. Just 18,773 of the city’s 103,747 voters exercised their franchise. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/04/tuesdays-city-elections/ U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a difficult agenda on her current Mideast trip. Her ability to protect U.S. interests there is the initial high-profile test of her international diplomatic skills, her tact and her discretion. The success or failure of the mission will set the tone of the nation’s relationships in the region for months, if not years, to come. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/04/mideast-test-hillary-clinton/ Tennessee is not yet the worst state for lax gun laws, but it’s not for lack of trying. Like more than a dozen other states bunched at the bottom of the heap with laws that encourage easy access and use of guns, our state Legislature keeps pushing the envelope for new ways to loosen our already stretched gun laws. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/03/more-bad-gun-laws-proposed/ Matthew Brady’s photos of Civil War dead — the first widely circulated images of the type taken in the field — stunned supporters of both the Union and the Confederacy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/03/war-and-photographs/ We apparently can forget all the fiery campaign rhetoric by Republican opponents against the Obama plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by the summer of 2010. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/02/timeline-out-iraq/ There are 10 races on the Chattanooga municipal election ballot Tuesday, but not all are contested. In three of nine City Council district races, there is only a single candidate. The lack of opposition, however, is no excuse for failure to go to the polls or to ignore those races when casting a ballot. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/02/vote-has-value-uncontested-races/ Many Americans believe our nation’s most troublesome issue with Mexico is illegal immigration. In reality, it’s something far more sinister: a war on Mexico’s government by the country’s increasingly powerful and deadly violent drug cartels. The cartels, ironically, are armed chiefly by American gun stores operating under our disastrously lax regulation. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/01/crisis-mexico/ There are millions of adults in the United States today who were read to regularly in their formative years. Many of those same individuals, and more, wisely now read to a child or children on a regular, often daily, basis. All those who read or who are read to know personally the immense pleasures of reading and the complementary magic of words. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/mar/01/reading-worth-celebration/ If President Obama’s proposed $3.6 trillion federal budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, and especially the $1.75 trillion deficit it includes, seems mind-boggling, it is. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/28/presidents-fair-budget/ The announcement Thursday that Wacker Chemical Corp. will build a $1-billion plant near the Hiwassee Industrial Park in Charleston in northern Bradley County is wonderful news for the county, the region and the state. It is the third $1-billion industrial investment announced in Tennessee in the past eight months and the second by a German firm in Southeast Tennessee in the same period. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/28/wacker-chemical-finds-new-home/ The City Council’s long-running impasse — demonstrated again Tuesday — over whether and how to establish an independent auditor’s office subject only to the City Council’s control is mystifying. The city already has an auditor’s office, but it answers to the mayor — not to the council, as required by the city charter. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/27/independent-auditor-needed/ The rising and frightening number of suicides and suicide attempts by U.S. combat veterans is a shameful legacy of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For years, the military was reluctant to admit the existence of the problem, but recent events finally have forced the Pentagon to confront it. To its credit, the military seems to have done an about face on the issue. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/27/battling-end-military-stigma/ President Barack Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress and the nation may not assuage Republicans’ unreasoning resistance to bipartisan approaches to the nation’s economic crisis and fiscal policies. But it should broadly assure the nation that the new administration intends to pursue a robust agenda — and much substantive change — in White House policies across the board. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/26/president-obamas-promises/ It’s been a busy first month in office for President Barack Obama. His attention, understandably, has been focused on economic policies. Even so, other issues require the administration’s notice as well. The United States’ relationship with Cuba, less than 100 miles from the nation’s shores, is a case in point. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/26/rethinking-us-cuba-policy/ If the City Council has a guardian father figure, it is Leamon Pierce. By dint of his independence, personal and civic history, moral authority and stiff spine, he stands out among council members when it comes to standing up — to the mayor, to the council — for principled decisions. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/25/district-8-leamon-pierce/ With Deborah Gaines’ decision not to run again, the open City Council seat in District 9 has generated wide interest, several good candidates, and one particularly outstanding candidate: Peter Murphy. We strongly recommend his election. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/25/district-9-peter-murphy/ Voters in the District 6 City Council race should be delighted to have the choice of Carol Berz over Marti Rutherford. Ms. Berz has established herself as perhaps the most energetic, hard-working, thoughtful and constructive member we’ve had in years on the City Council, for both her district and the city at large. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/24/district-6-carol-berz/ Manny Rico, the incumbent District 7 Chattanooga City Councilman, is concluding his initial term in office. As is the case with anyone holding a major political position for the first time, there is a learning curve involved. Mr. Rico has proved an apt student of city government, and has served his district and the city admirably for four years. His success suggests he has much to offer constituents in the future. We recommend his re-election on March 3. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/24/district-7-manny-rico/ Members of the Chattanooga City Council have a dual responsibility. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/23/district-1-linda-bennett/ The Chattanooga City Council post in District 3 became open when incumbent Dan Page, a quiet but effective champion for his district and the city at large, decided to not to seek re-election. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/23/district-3-pam-ladd/ Chattanoogans preparing to vote for mayor face a hard choice. Incumbent Mayor Ron Littlefield has a lot of pertinent management experience, but his first-term performance has been largely disappointing. His chief challenger, Rob Healy, a former city department director, may well stand for higher principles over the sort of political machinations that taint Mr. Littlefield’s record. But he has no comparable experience in the responsibilities of the mayor’s office, and the inevitable stumbles along his learning curve could be disheartening. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/22/critical-vote-mayor/ Controversy over the county’s state-mandated property reappraisal programs occurs like clockwork every time those four-year-cycle reappraisals roll around. And every time, citizens who aren’t familiar with the process feel threatened by reappraisals, fearing their property taxes will rise unfairly. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/21/reappraisals-vs-higher-taxes/ More than 2 million families lost their homes to foreclosure over the past two years while the Bush administration negligently watched from the sidelines as the housing market spiraled downward. If nothing were done to break this self-reinforcing cycle, another 2.3 million homeowners this year alone will suffer foreclosure. This bleak scenario by itself well justifies the plan President Barack Obama unveiled Wednesday to address the foreclosure crisis. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/20/obama-foreclosure-plan/ The Georgia Senate, no doubt spurred by a massive recall that has torpedoed sales of one of the state’s leading agricultural products, approved without a dissenting vote on Wednesday a food-safety bill. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/20/tougher-food-inspections-georgia/ The county school system’s plan for closing a projected $20 million shortfall for the 2009-2010 school year has been apparent for some time: cut several hundred teaching and administrative positions, close some schools, and defer needed expenditures on transportation, textbooks, building maintenance and other vital items. Superintendent Jim Scales and the school district’s chief financial officer, Tommy Kranz, have been making the case for such cuts for months, and they did so again before the school board Tuesday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/19/cost-equation-schools/ Leaders of the Tennessee Valley Authority, an agency long detached from its founding vision as an environmental steward and a powerful force for progressive change in the utility industry, are suddenly talking about shifting direction and recovering TVA’s abandoned sense of mission. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/18/will-tva-change-its-ways/ High-speed collisions are not unusual these days, but the one that occurred last week is an eye-opener. That’s when a U.S. communications satellite owned by Iridium Corp. and a lifeless Russian military satellite slammed into each other at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. The residue of that collision is a vast amount of debris orbiting Earth — and a plethora of questions about the security of space travel and other operations. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/18/look-sky-its-space-junk/ Tennessee’s Republican-dominated Legislature must decide this spring whether to renew or let expire the Missouri plan for selecting the state’s appellate court judges, and there’s talk of letting it expire. The plan should be renewed: It avoids election races that plunge candidates for the state Supreme Court into multi-million-dollar fund-raising campaigns, and the ethical and corruption issues that arise from such campaigns’ reliance on rich supporters. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/17/when-justice-sale/ Though Tzipi Livni, a moderate representing the Kadima Party, apparently won Israeli elections last week, it means little in terms of governance of the nation. Benjamin Netanyahu, her main rival and a member of the conservative Likud Party, fared almost as well. Neither won a majority. In Israel’s parliamentary democracy that means one or the other will have to form a coalition government to rule. That’s easier said than done. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/17/israels-complex-political-situation/ TVA’s latest estimates for the cost and duration of cleaning up the disastrous coal-ash spill at its Kingston steam plant provide some eye-popping, yet predictable, figures. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/16/coal-ash-disposal-rule-needed/ Georgia is many things. It is one of the leaders in the resurgence of the South. It is an economic powerhouse and home to leading social, educational and philanthropic institutions. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/16/buckle-georgia-pickup-trucks/ Anti-Semitism is not as prevalent now as it has been in many periods during the past, but it is still a palpable presence in many parts of the world. It is especially visible now in the wake of Israel’s recent war in Gaza. Most troubling, many of the recent acts of anti-Semitism have gone unchallenged by leaders of the nations in which they have occurred. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/15/scourge-anti-semitism/ Chattanooga, already rich in history, became a little richer in that precious commodity last week with the arrival of the Delta Queen, one of the nation’s most storied paddle-wheel steamboats. No longer permitted to ply the nation’s inland waterways as an overnight passenger vessel, the steamboat will be docked, possibly permanently, at Coolidge Park, where it will serve as a hotel. The region is the richer for its presence. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/15/new-home-queen/ Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister of Zimbabwe on Wednesday. Normally, the installation of a new leader in government is a sign of change. Not in Zimbabwe. Nothing is normal in that troubled land where real political power, economic and military, remains in the hands of Robert Mugabe, the dictatorial president whose reign has ruined his once prosperous nation. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/14/sham-government-zimbabwe/ It’s still unclear how the new stimulus bill will be apportioned to the states, and how much of the infrastructure funding set aside in the final version of the bill will end up in each state’s treasury. But it is clear that most state governments, including those in the South, already have compiled long lists of transportation projects for which they like stimulus funds, both for repairs and new highways. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/14/forget-highway-boondoogles/ It’s not often that Congress passes a bill that comes out costing less than it did when it went into the sausage grinder of a House-Senate conference committee. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/13/smaller-less-effective-stimulus/ When it comes to development pressures and planning for the future, the town of Signal Mountain could serve as a useful example to the other smaller municipalities around the county of the potent and persistent conflict between lofty community goals on the one hand, and a grasping lust on the other for new tax revenue and growth of the kind that can unwind a costly chain of negative consequences. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/12/when-growth-isnt-smart/ Early spring municipal elections often fail to generate huge turnout. That’s especially so when the balloting follows hotly contested national and state fall elections. As that’s the case this year, some worry there will be a paucity of voters in Chattanooga and Collegedale city elections on March 3. Nothing is certain, but a few spirited races could spark high voter interest. We’ll know quickly. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/12/its-not-too-early-vote/ The $838 billion stimulus package approved, at last, by the Senate on Tuesday will not be greeted by either its advocates or its myopic Republican critics as the perfect bill to correct the ills of our troubled economy. Never mind. It is welcome because it is far better than the Senate’s recent partisan paralysis and mind-boggling inaction that threaten to push the economy over the cliff. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/11/final-steps-stimulus-bill/ Gov. Phil Bredesen pulled no punches Monday night in his seventh State of the State address to the legislature. He simply stated the obvious, admitting that Tennessee and Tennesseans face tough economic times. He then urged lawmakers to work in a bipartisan way to overcome the problems and expressed faith that the state’s “resilient and common-sense people” would meet the challenges ahead. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/11/somber-state-state/ Call it the spill-over effect. TVA initially tried to downplay the staggering scope of the Kingston coal-ash spill. Its public relations team struck the word “catastrophe” in favor of a “sudden, accidental release” in the agency’s talking points; it said the tsunami of coal ash that buried 300 acres of farm and residential land and the Emory River and flowed out to the Clinch and Tennessee rivers was mainly “inert” harmless material. Then TVA failed to issue a timely water quality report. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/10/dealing-tvas-pollution/ Americans are familiar with the wildfires that periodically rage across parts of the United States, including the Southeast. Yet the damage caused by those blazes pales beside the toll already claimed by the firestorm currently rolling across Australia’s countryside. The death and destruction is epic, a result, perhaps, of a tragic confluence of the acts of both nature and man. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/10/trial-fire-australia/ It was almost certain that the issue of Marti Rutherford’s true residence, and whether it is inside or outside the City Council’s District 6, would arise again in her effort to recapture the seat now admirably held by Councilwoman Carol Berz. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/09/ms-rutherfords-real-home/ Reports late last week that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being treated for often virulent pancreatic cancer inevitably sparked intriguing questions about the future makeup of the court as well as about her condition. That’s inevitable in the highly charged political and partisan atmosphere of the nation’s capital. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/09/high-court-speculation-unseemly/ The struggle in Washington to expand health insurance for children, stymied by President Bush’s vetoes the past two years, finally paid off last Wednesday when President Barack Obama signed into law the new State Children’s Health Insurance Program legislation. Passage of the bill extends the SCHIP initiative for another five years, and marks a vital expansion of health care coverage for children whose families often can’t afford health insurance and don’t receive it from their employers. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/08/health-care-more-children/ Mayor Ron Littlefield hasn’t had much luck in persuading homeless-related agencies, particularly those which provide night shelters, to move to the Farmers’ Market site that he got the City Council to purchase three years ago. In turning his attention to the Salvation Army, he may at last secure a taker. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/08/taker-farmers-market-site/ If further reason were needed to propel passage of a vigorous stimulus bill, it came Friday with the Labor Department’s alarming report that America’s employers shed another 600,000 jobs in January, the fourth month in a row of job losses in the 500,000 range. The new figure was worse than expected and pushes up the official unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest level in 16 years. Even so, cantankerous Republicans and meek Democrats continued to work Friday to diminish the stimulus plan, when they should be beefing it up and pushing it out the door quickly. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/07/economy-reeling-gop-fiddling/ Colleagues in the Times Free Press sports department have properly chronicled and celebrated Pat Summitt and her 1,000 victories as coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. Her achievements, and those of the women in her charge over nearly 35 years, transcend the world of sports, though. She, and they, offer life lessons that should be taken to heart by all — even those with little or no interest in the world of collegiate athletics. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/07/milestone-pat-summitt/ Consumers across the United States will have another four months to get ready for the transition from analog to digital television broadcasting following House approval Wednesday of a bill to postpone the switchover. The Senate unanimously approved the measure last week. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/06/digital-tv-delay-buys-time/ The U.S. Postal Service might be able to conquer snow, rain, heat and gloom of night to complete its appointed rounds, as its unofficial motto states, but it is having extreme difficulty doing so in the face of rapidly declining mail volume and sharply rising expenses. The situation is so dire, in fact, that postal officials are considering reducing service in order to balance the budget. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/06/balancing-books-post-office/ Americans have been rightly angry that Wall Street titans and other bank and corporate executives — the very people who engineered our nation’s fiscal train wreck — have taken tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout funds to keep their financial institutions afloat and then blithely handed out billions of dollars in executive bonuses. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/05/cap-executive-pay/ “I screwed up” aren’t words we are accustomed to hearing from the president. Indeed, apologies — straightforward or implied — were never uttered by the Bush administration. Yet President Barack Obama didn’t seem at all reticent about making such an admission Tuesday when asked why two of his nominees for senior administration posts had withdrawn their names for consideration. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/05/president-obamas-apologies/ Tom Daschle probably would have made a terrific secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, and he may have performed admirably as the White House czar on health care reform — the positions for which President Obama tabbed him. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/04/holes-new-ethics-rule/ North Korean leader Kim Jong II, it is increasingly evident, wants to be a main player on the world’s stage. He does not want his nation ignored, particularly by the new administration in Washington. That’s one way to explain the rogue nation’s latest attention-grabbing activity. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/04/messages-north-korea/ Iraq’s crucial regional elections on Saturday were not expected to be easy, free of violence or widely secular and non-sectarian. But in fact, they proved to be better in all respects except for overall turnout, which, at around 50 percent, still isn’t too bad. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/03/iraqs-hopeful-elections/ Neither Tennessee nor Georgia currently have laws that completely ban driving while talking on cell phones or sending text messages. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/03/dont-talk-or-text-just-drive/ Interviews with City Council and mayoral candidates for the March elections confirm a still common belief — one held by many Chattanoogans — that the city of Chattanooga, under Mayor Ron Littlefield’s guidance, is engaged in building or planning a “homeless complex” on the old Farmer’s Market site, which the mayor purchased not long after he took office for $775,000. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/02/what-homeless-complex/ The recent release of a consultants’ report on the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library prompted several public responses. The most common, it seems, was the one espoused by many residents and by at least one mayoral candidate: that $50,000 spent on consultants was a waste because “everyone knew the library had problems.” That may be true, but it misses a critical point. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/01/call-action-library/ Problems at libraries in mid-sized and big cities are well-documented in reports such as the one just released on the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library. Similar issues at public libraries in small towns and in rural areas are no less serious, but they often are not as well publicized. The Cherokee Regional Library System, which serves residents of Dade and Walker counties in Georgia, is a case in point. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/feb/01/other-library-services-risk/ If you, like many Americans, think the debate over the teaching of evolution in the nation’s public schools will never end, there’s a reason for that belief. It never does. The latest quarrel on the subject is taking place in Texas, where conservatives on the state’s board of education continue to push proposals regarding the curriculum that could affect not only that state, but many other school districts across the United States. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/31/debating-evolution-again/ Pilgrim Congregational Church will launch the Robert Sparks Walker Dinner: A Celebration of the Environment and Sustainability on Feb. 7. The celebration, the first of what is hoped will become an annual event, honors Mr. Walker, a world-renowned naturalist and writer with deep roots in Chattanooga, and highlights two of the church’s ministries. The program is a welcome addition to the community’s public calendar. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/31/honoring-robert-sparks-walker/ Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield was widely expected to base his re-election campaign on his help in landing the Volkswagen plant, and his experience in courting business development generally. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/30/mayor-littlefields-gaffe/ Americans are reasonably outraged that Wall Street’s investment executives, brokers and traders, even traders far down the line in some big investment banks, have made millions of dollars in annual bonuses on the basis of gains over the last several years, while those gains have virtually evaporated in the past five months. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/30/taking-other-peoples-money/ Despite City Councilman Leamon Pierce’s persistent and wise objections, most City Council members seem content to hand over to the mayor’s office the Council’s unused charter power as sole authority for the city’s auditing office. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/29/councils-audit-myopia/ John Updike, best known for his four Rabbit novels, was far more than a novelist. In the truest sense, he was a man of words. His prodigious output in a variety of forms and styles made him one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed writers. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/29/john-updike-1932-2009/ President Obama’s appeal to Republicans Tuesday for support of an economic stimulus package may not make much of a dent in their partisan opposition to his plan. Still, when the plan comes to a vote in the House — probably today — it should pass. The need for action is urgent. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/28/pass-stimulus-bill/ “Two steps forward, one back” is an apt characterization of events Tuesday in the most perilous area of the Mideast. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/28/reaching-out-muslim-world/ President Barack Obama promised in his campaign that he would act to conserve energy, reduce air pollution and global warming, and move the auto industry toward building — in America — the cleaner fuel-efficient cars of the future. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/27/changing-our-energy-future/ The reappearance in Minnesota of an uncommon but sometimes deadly illness in children is a reminder that routine vaccination of youngsters is one of the most potent weapons in the campaign to improve public health. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/27/vaccinations-vital-public-health/ The County Commission’s decision to let voters determine whether to establish a county property tax freeze for income-eligible seniors 65 and older, as allowed under a state law that became effective last year, is understandable. Still, it is an obvious way to pass the buck on a tough call. It’s also a portent of needless controversy when the referendum rolls around on the May 2010 primary ballot. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/26/county-punts-tax-freeze/ Access to adequate health care is one of the nation’s most pressing problems. It is an especially urgent problem in rural areas where relatively few physicians practice, specialists are rare and hospitals are small. Telemedicine promises to help resolve those problems in areas like Southeast Tennessee. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/26/benefits-telemedicine/ Overwhelming attention to President Barack Obama’s inauguration may have eclipsed the legislative controversy in Nashville, but it hasn’t obscured it entirely. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/25/politics-vs-focus-budget/ Among the many welcome areas of national policy that President Barack Obama pledged in his inaugural address to reshape from the focus of the Bush years is the administration’s approach to science-based findings. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/25/restoring-science-rightful-place/ When Lilly Ledbetter worked for a Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama, she was paid less than all her male peers, including those with less seniority, for almost 20 years. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/24/victory-fair-wages/ A lot of money and rhetoric was expended in Nashville before voters sensibly rejected a proposal that would have required that English be used for all government businesses. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/24/vote-tolerance/ Caroline Kennedy, considered by many seasoned observers to be the top candidate to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as U.S. Senator from New York, abruptly withdrew her name from contention Thursday “for personal reasons.” http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/23/caroline-kennedy-bows-out/ Hillary Rodham Clinton was prepared to work on her first day in charge of the State Department. She arrived Thursday with a mandate from President Obama to increase diplomatic efforts and to restore the nation’s ravaged global image. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/23/hillary-clinton-command/ President Barack Obama surely was exhausted by the end of his long inaugural-day ceremonies, parades and balls Tuesday. Yet he quickly got to work doing essential business. He started by issuing an order late Tuesday night halting prosecutions at Guantanamo Bay. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/22/rolling-back-abuses/ In the weeks prior to Barack Obama’s inauguration, there was much speculation about the role faith would play in the event. Those who worried that there would be an over-emphasis on religion in general or a specific creed in particular need not have worried. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/22/faith-and-inauguration/ The lengthening list of food companies, grocers and other retailers recalling or removing products containing peanut butter from the marketplace is evidence that a salmonella outbreak spreading across the nation is serious. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/21/another-test-inspection-system/ Historic moments, evanescent by nature, may also be transcendent, fusing the hopes, histories and aspirations of individuals together in the greater arc of history’s march. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/21/president-barack-h-obama/ A cease-fire, unilaterally declared Sunday by Israel and followed by a similar announcement by Hamas a few hours later, seemed to be holding along the Gaza Strip on Monday. Israeli troops were leaving Palestinian territory. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/20/gaza-cease-fire-time-refocus/ The inauguration of a new president is usually accompanied by a swelling sense of optimism: There is always hope that a new administration can use its fresh energy, ideas and the good will of a new Congress to move the nation forward. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/20/barack-obamas-inauguration/ Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday — or, more properly, the official federal holiday celebrating his birth — is a fitting occasion to recall the words of the civil rights leader and to extol his remarkable legacy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/19/king-holiday-call-action/ A night at the movies typically requires a trip to a traditional stand-alone theater, a visit to a DVD rental store or kiosk, or enrollment in a mail-order service. In Chattanooga, beginning tomorrow evening and continuing on Tuesdays for six weeks, it can involve a trip to the downtown Chattanooga Hamilton County Bicentennial Library for a visit to Flick’s Cafe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/19/tuesday-nights-flicks-cafe/ The Tennessee Valley Authority isn’t just going through a rough patch. Its recent problems reflect something much larger and perceptibly much more fundamental than that. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/18/tvas-costly-mission-drift/ Much about the airline episode that ended with a US Airways jetliner landing in New York’s Hudson River beside Manhattan is, as many were quick to observe, miraculous. No one died or suffered serious injury. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/17/captain-behind-miracle/ President Bush’s farewell address Thursday was remarkable both for what he failed to say, and for the spin he put on what he did say. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/17/unvarnished-bush-legacy/ Israel insists that its air-and-ground attack on the Gaza Strip is not a territorial grab. Rather, it is a way to put an end to the Hamas-backed rocket attacks that have become an almost-every day event in adjacent parts of the Jewish state. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/16/time-war-time-talk/ While the United States Army reports exceeding its recruiting targets in the last year, that’s not always been the case. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/16/america-we-have-obesity-problem/ Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue presented legislators an austere budget for the coming fiscal year in his annual State of the State address Wednesday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/15/georgia-budgeting-tough-times/ Doris Kearns Goodwin’s finely honed scholarship in the histories of great presidents has endowed her with unique insights not just into the lives of Lincoln and Roosevelt, Kennedy and LBJ. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/15/history-brought-life/ The University of Tennessee system faces unprecedented fiscal pressures as it works to educate students, conduct research and provide other services. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/14/cost-higher-ed-cuts/ Considering the various crises in state governments across the land, probably few Americans outside Illinois would profess much concern for that state at the moment. Regardless, affairs of state in Illinois are not going well. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/14/illinois-paralyzed-scandal/ Republicans and Democrats who are reticent about the need for a whopping stimulus plan, even one as relatively mild as many economists now perceive the pending $775 billion Obama plan, should study last year’s job-loss numbers and trends. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/13/jobless-trend-begs-stimulus/ Prosecutorial requests to revoke bail usually don’t draw much attention outside legal circles, but when the individual involved is Bernard Madoff, the alleged mastermind of an approximately $50-billion Ponzi scheme, that rule doesn’t apply. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/13/mr-madoff-stays-out-jail/ The most momentous transformation in broadcast television since the introduction of color arrives in the United States on Feb. 17. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/12/tv-digital-divide-remains/ First Lady Laura Bush, who has assiduously avoided the spotlight during the eight years of her husband’s often controversial presidency, will finally provide a more public view of her life and thoughts in a book due to be published in 2010. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/12/what-will-laura-bush-write/ Many American workers reasonably resent the way China and the American businesses that rushed to relocate their jobs there have used that country’s vast, cheap labor force to become the world’s fastest growing economy. One largely unseen benefit of the flow of U.S. and global cash into China, however, has been China’s propensity to spend their soaring trade surpluses on purchases of U.S. Treasury notes. Now, that tendency, as well, may fall to the recession. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/11/harder-search-lenders/ American economists have complained for decades about big federal budget deficits, especially when they ballooned into the $300 billion to $400 billion-plus range under the Bush administration in recent years. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/11/irony-recession/ Federal officials have talked for months about the need to help distressed homeowners avoid default and foreclosures. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/10/move-stem-foreclosures/ Alabama pays its county sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed each of their prisoners, and allows the sheriffs to keep the change. Sheriff Greg Bartlett, whose official salary is around $64,000, has done well by that formula. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/10/starving-prisoners-profit/ President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are in Washington to discuss a national economic recovery plan that includes new spending and tax cuts. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/09/stimulus-national-parks/ Tuesday’s heavy rains, falling on ground already saturated by about 10 inches of rain in the previous month, created emergency situations not experienced in this region for months, if not years. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/09/positive-responses-heavy-rains/ President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination of Leon Panetta to lead the CIA sends positive mes-sages. expedi-ency. Mr. Panetta is such a choice. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/08/sensible-choice-lead-cia/ For all its toxic environmental conse-quences, the huge TVA ash-pond spill at the agency’s Kingston, Tennessee, electric power plant has at least focused national attention on the stunningly haz-ardous yet widespread use of unregulated, open-pond disposal of coal fly ash around the country. The dimensions of the problem are mind-boggling. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/08/toxic-spill-demands-reform/ The recent turmoil surrounding the county’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority may recede in the wake of the release of the WWTA’s long-sought legal bills and Henry Hoss’ resignation as chairman. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/07/wwta-springboard/ NASA’s release of a report last week on the shuttle Columbia disaster is an honest look at a tragedy that shocked the nation and shook the agency to its core. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/07/nasa-needs-direction/ In announcing his decision not to run for governor in 2010, former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist opened the gate for other Repub-lican gubernatorial hopefuls to jump in the race. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/06/gubernatorial-kickoff/ China’s recent record for food and product safety is dismal. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/06/step-right-direction/ The turn of the year brings thoughts of new beginnings and meaningful changes. In keeping with that practice, many of us made resolutions for 2009. If the past is an accurate indicator of the future, a majority will be short lived. That’s because most are unrealistic and difficult to maintain. Some resolutions, however, are easier to honor, and those often bring change to our lives and to society at large. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/05/going-green-new-year/ We have become accustomed to medical miracles in the last century or so. Illnesses that once decimated populations have been eliminated. An explosion of scientific knowledge, an expanding pharmacopoeia and an array of high-tech equipment allow health care professionals to practice their craft with ever-rising rates of success. That success, though, comes at high cost. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/05/medicine-and-money-icu/ When the former Chattanooga Times and Chattanooga News-Free Press were bought and merged by a new owner into one newspaper 10 years ago, the chief concern of our small editorial page staff — by then narrowed to two writers and an editorial cartoonist — was what would happen to The Times’ editorial page and public voice. Would the political and civic views long advocated on our page be lost? If not, how would they be incorporated into a new paper that, we had been told, would keep alive the institutional voices expressed on the editorial pages of both outgoing newspapers? http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/04/decade-editorial-debate/