Times Opinion from TimesFreePress.com | http://timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/times2 http://timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/times2 The quick take on the health care bill that 60 senators finally voted on Saturday to bring to the floor for full debate dwells more on the politics of whether the bill can pass than on its merits. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/24/t1-the-senates-challenge/ It is, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, the best of times, the worst of times for U.S. military recruiters. The Pentagon recently said that the armed services met all recruiting goals for the just-ended fiscal year. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/23/11-23-t1-crisis-ahead-in-recruiting/ Long-time residents, especially those accustomed to traveling along Bailey Avenue or one of the other roads that provide a view of the 120-acre Chattanooga National Cemetery, remember a time when sweeping expanses of grass were far more prevalent than the rows of white markers that note a veteran's final resting place. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/23/11-23-t2-planning-for-cemetery-expansion/ Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to bring five accused co-conspirators in the 9/11 terrorist attacks to criminal trial in federal court in New York is a victory for American justice. Republican senators, of course, strenuously tried to generate baseless partisan controversy over the decision last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings. But for all their hyperbole, they could not refute the central issue: The terrorist acts charged against the defendants were criminal acts and not the acts of a hostile state in a bona fide war. The defendants should be prosecuted in a United States federal court as a matter of law and constitutional duty. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/22/victory-justice/ For the second time in just over a year, a malfunction in an FAA computer caused disruptions at many of the nation’s airports and inconvenienced thousands of travelers late last week. The problem, traced to the failure of a circuit board in a piece of networking equipment in Utah, was identified and fixed relatively quickly. The fact that it occurred, however, is another in a growing list of incidents that underscore the increasing fragility of the nation’s aviation infrastructure. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/22/faa-infrastructure-failing/ Chattanooga homeowners and businesses may be piqued by the city's sharply higher storm-water control fees, but city officials have no option if they are to bring water quality standards for our streams, aquifers and river up to the mandated state and federal EPA standards. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/21/t1-fees-for-cleaner-water/ The momentous struggle to bring health care reform to fruition always promised to hinge on several do-or-die moments. The first of those may come tomorrow, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attempts to corral 60 votes to bring the proposed Senate version of a reform bill to the floor for full debate. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/20/senates-reform-plan/ Though immigration reform was a major plank in the Barack Obama campaign platform, the topic has remained, by necessity, in the background as the new administration grappled with the more pressing issues of the economy, health care reform and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No more. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week that Mr. Obama will make comprehensive immigration reform a priority in the new year. The willingness to take on another difficult issue is commendable. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/20/immigration-reform-overdue/ The nation's top pharmaceutical companies have crowed a lot lately about their agreement with the Obama administration to issue selective price rebates worth $8 billion a year over the next 10 years to help the administration trim drug costs under the proposed health care reform legislation. More quietly, however, the pharmaceutical industry has rapidly increased drug prices by around 9 percent over the past year through September, producing higher earnings more than three times the value of their ballyhooed give-back. What a deal -- for the drug companies. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/19/t1-more-drug-price-gouging/ This fall has been the best of times in years for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team. The team's record stands at a respectable 6-4 and it is assured of its first winning season since 2005 whatever the outcome of Saturday's game with Alabama, the second-ranked team in the nation. Given the team's 1-11 record in 2008, the turnaround has earned the team a bit of national media attention. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/19/t2-football-mocs-on-tv-priceless/ The right-wing myth that President Obama is a socialist -- and, worse, an out-of-control socialist whose actions threatens to bring America to her knees -- is as nutty as the false rhetoric that the Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity-style talking heads use to spread their destructive propaganda. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/18/rep-floyds-nasty-nonsense/ A task force report says that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and that women 50-to-74 should have the screening exam every other year rather than annually. The same panel says that breast self-exams are not useful at any age. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/18/t2-new-guidelines-new-worries/ It's difficult to determine if a Palestinian announcement to go before the United Nations Security Council to seek international support for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is a bona fide effort to gain sovereignty, or a ploy to gain advantage in the on-and-off peace negotiations with Israel. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/17/talks-yes-un-resolution-no/ Purchase of the commanding and lovely 92-acre section of Stringer's Ridge that frames North Chattanooga and the north rim of downtown came as the result of a rare opportunity to save the forested Civil War landmark from development. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/17/the-stringers-ridge-pledge/ Parents of teens often are more concerned about their children's involvement with drinking, drugs and sex than they are driving, but there is considerable evidence extant indicating that vehicular accidents are the greatest threat to youngsters' safety. Driver's education courses, once a staple of the public school curriculum, are an effective way to impart the knowledge and skills to reduce that risk, but such classes have not been available here for years. That will change today. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/16/11-16-t1-drivers-ed-for-citys-teens/ Even in a populace acutely aware of the H1N1 flu, the numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last week had to come as a shock. About 4,000 individuals, including about 540 children, are believed to have died from the so-called swine flu, according to the report released by the CDC. The figures are considerably higher than previous death estimates, but they reflect, thankfully, a new analysis of data rather than a worsening of the disease. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/15/11-15-t1-question-of-supply-demand/ President Barack Obama said during his campaign that he would work to improve diplomatic relations with Cuba when in office. He's kept that promise. He's initiated efforts to relax or amend some of the strict regulations that govern interaction between the nations and their residents. Still, progress remains slow. There's hope, however, that a new form of diplomacy, can increase the pace. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/14/t1-the-us-cuba-and-baseball/ NASA scientists could hardly contain their excitement Friday when they announced that there is water, perhaps a considerable amount of it, on the moon. It's presence had long been expected, but confirmation comes from a careful study of data from a satellite that was intentionally slammed into a crater there last month. The scientific implications are impressive. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/14/t2-another-milestone-on-the-moon/ Barack Obama, already the most traveled first-year president ever, embarked Thursday on an eight-day trip to Asia to strengthen United States ties to nations there and to reaffirm the broad U.S. role in Asian-Pacific affairs. It is a timely journey. The president already has visited Europe and Africa, and he can't afford to give the impression that he is ignoring a part of the world with ever-increasing economic and diplomatic power. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/13/t1-building-ties-to-asia/ The first naval clash in seven years between North and South Korea is a reminder -- as if another one is needed -- of the extreme volatility in the Far East. The short skirmish on Tuesday quickly heightened tensions between the two Koreas, but it is not clear if the confrontation immediately will alter the delicate diplomatic balance in the Far East. Initial indications from the international community seem to suggest the latter is unlikely. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/12/t1-a-skirmish-and-an-invitation/ The colloquial phrase "you can't get there from here" seems far more relevant in this region today than it did just a few weeks ago. A series rock slides Tuesday on U.S. Highway 64 through the Ocoee Gorge in Polk County closed a second vital east-west route that links Tennessee to North Carolina. The resultant detour will more than double travel time for many commuters and travelers accustomed to using the scenic highway. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/12/t2-another-rock-slide-another-detour/ This year there seems to be an especial awareness and appreciation of America's veterans, the men and, increasingly, women who have willingly worn the nation's uniform and served their nation in both war and in peace. Even as residents of the region join the rest of the nation in noting Veterans Day, this country's citizen-soldiers remain in harm's way around a troubled globe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/11/t1-veterans-day-2009/ Passage of milestone reform legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives following months of partisan national debate is a positive step forward in the necessary effort to provide all Americans with access to affordable health care. P http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/10/t1----next-step-for-health-reform/ When "Sesame Street," the children's show on PBS, made its on-air debut 40 years ago today, its producers had a singal goal; they hoped to use television to prepare young kids for school. Mission accomplished. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/10/t2----a-birthday-for-sesame-street/ Interstate 40 is one of the nation's great east-west highways. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/09/11-9-t1-bottleneck-on-i-40/ Hand washing is rightly promoted by health officials as an effective deterrent to the spread of contagious diseases. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/09/11-9-t2-hand-sanitizers-helpful-but/ The Chattanooga Housing Authority has had its share of embarrassing problems over the past few years, but it has moved aggressively since a major turnover in mid-2008 to refocus its priorities and shape up its budgeting process. It also remains the most vital public participant in the city's under-served low-income housing market. As such, it merits strong support -- and help when needed -- from the mayor's office. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/08/11-8-t1-public-housings-larger-need/ American soldiers have turned their guns on their comrades before. Yet Thursday's horrific shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas -- a burst of furious bloodletting apparently inflicted by a single deranged soldier -- is the worst in memory. The shooter, identified by the Army as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, took 12 lives and wounded 31 others, some critically. An intensive, multi-agency investigation led by the Army was immediately begun to determine any possible motives of the gunman, but in the interim Americans are left to wonder in sadness just why this tragedy occurred and how it possibly could have been averted. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/07/t1-questions-after-the-rampage/ The official opening of the Majestic 12 theater on Friday reaffirms the vitality of downtown development and confirms the community as a leader in the construction of sustainable buildings. The 12-screen moviehouse, located conveniently at Third and Broad streets, replaces the nearby Bijou, which had served patrons for more than a decade. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/07/t2-the-majestic-opens-downtown/ There are a variety of ways to measure a school system's success. One common device is a report card that provides benchmarks of academic achievement and long-term progress of a district's students. That's the same gauge used by parents to determine how a child is progressing in school. By that standard, careful perusal of the state's just released annual Report Card for Hamilton County Schools is cause for concern about the progress being made by students here. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/06/t1-grading-the-countys-schools/ Republicans have good reason to rejoice in their victories in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. But however predictable, it's an unsupported stretch for them to hold out those gains as symbolic of a national discontent with the Obama administration. In fact, both races -- and the congressional race in New York, as well -- turned largely on state and personal issues and strong feelings about the individual candidates. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/05/sifting-voters-sentiments/ If the prospects in Afghanistan were bleak before next Saturday's scheduled presidential run-off election, they are absolutely stark now that the election is off the table. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/04/t1-a-path-out-of-afghanistan/ The seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based, for the most part, on the closely intertwined issues of geography and government -- or, in a nutshell, who owns the land and how it should be governed. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/04/t2-another-threat-to-mideast-peace/ Part of the genius of our Constitution is its division of powers between federal and state governments. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/03/obamacare-versus-federalism/ Just when Democrats in Congress appear to have an opportunity to pass a substantive public health insurance option as a key pillar of health care reform, the party's weak-kneed faction is backing away -- and pushing for a diluted version that would greatly undermine the potential achievement. We hope the timid faction will put aside their fears. Americans too often are jettisoned or jilted by private insurers when they become seriously ill. The nation needs a fairer insurance system to curb the rampant claim denials and medical bankruptcies that now beleaguer Americans who unwittingly believe that they have comprehensive health insurance. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/01/11-1-t1-public-plan-needs-support/ Public discussion about widespread brain injuries has generally related to the plight of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, where hidden roadside bombs frequently leave survivors with crippling head injuries. But there’s another rising conversation about brain injuries, one related to the head-pounding hits that professional football players regularly take in their game’s weekly blocking and tackling. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/31/dark-side-football/ Classical sculpture has often been used to embellish the grand bridges, parks and plazas of great metropolitan cities in America and abroad. It is a bit out of the ordinary, however, in mid-sized Southern cities. The unveiling Thursday of two beautiful classical sculptures at the south end of the refurbished Market Street Bridge may change that. These lovely bronze works -- and two more to be created for the north end of the bridge -- will not only enhance appreciation of the visual arts in Chattanooga. They will surely provide inspiration, as well, for other aspiring cities to follow suit. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/30/t1-four-seasons-unveiled/ Halloween once had a somewhat rascally reputation. Years ago, it had a dedicated following among treat-seeking youngsters, of course, but the holiday was somewhat tarnished by the tricks perpetrated on the public by a small number of malefactors. Today, though, Halloween is widely accepted and marked by far more mirth than mayhem. It's big business, too. Holiday sales this year are expected to reach about $5 billion. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/30/t2-halloween-and-the-marketplace/ Burdened by an illegitimate August presidential election, the prospect of a similar result in the Nov. 7 run-off election, rampant corruption, a soaring heroin trade, and the bloodiest fighting in eight years of war, the outlook in Afghanistan is bleak. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/29/t1-afghanistans-challenge/ Given the latest terrorist bombings and shattered nerves in Iraq in the run-up to January elections, it's not hard to find depressing symbolic symmetry in Iraq's tarnished security and the United State's massive -- and massively flawed -- new embassy in Baghdad. The advertised substance and quality of both are more illusion than reality, never mind what either government would want their constituents to believe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/28/t1-security-challenges-in-iraq/ The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, already the nation's most visited, should be busier still in the coming year. A continuing rise in the number of visitors will contribute significantly to park traffic. So will a phalanx of workers engaged in a massive project to repair and update more than 50 miles of roads, a campground, and a heavily utilized trailhead parking area. The additional visitors are gratifying confirmation of the park's continuing appeal. The repairs should make a visit to the park safer and more pleasurable. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/28/t2-threat-to-national-parks-remains/ Health insurance companies are happy to claim that their profit margins are not as high as those of some other companies that sell consumer products. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/27/t1-health-insurers-abuses/ Brainerd Road and the community that has matured around it long has played a significant role in community life. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/27/t2-a-master-plan-for-brainerd-road/ The Obama administration began talking about imposing rules on Wall Street's dizzying compensation packages almost as soon as it took the reins on the staggering taxpayer bailouts that proved necessary to avoid an economic Armageddon. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/26/10-26-t1-checking-wall-street-banks/ Health care isn't the only area of public policy that merits the scrutiny of leaders with reform on their mind. Higher education is another ripe target. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who served Tennessee both as governor and then as president of the University of Tennessee before election to the Senate, put college reform more directly in the spotlight last week with a cogent argument in Newsweek for creation of an optional three-year college degree. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/25/10-25-t1-targeting-college-costs/ Political squabbles and static funding in recent years have prompted an unfortunate reduction in operating hours and severe cuts in book, periodical and other budgets at the Chattanooga Hamilton County Bicentennial Library. Throughout the tough times, though, library administrators and staff have continued to work diligently to maintain a wide range of services. Opening the main branch of the library on Sundays from 2-6 p.m. is the latest of those welcome efforts. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/24/t1-expanding-library-services/ Most area residents, it appears, are attempting to follow the advice of their physicians and of public health officials. They want to be vaccinated against the H1N1 "swine flu," which is already making inroads here, and against seasonal flu, as well. Their good intentions, however, have been thwarted by the inability of vaccine suppliers to meet demand. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/24/t2-vaccine-shortage-health-care-crisis/ Cancer screening can save lives. That's a mantra -- repeated by the American Cancer Society and other highly respected organizations -- that has been eagerly and readily accepted and practiced by the public over the last couple of decades. It's hardly a wonder, then, that there was an explosion of controversy this week when the chief medical officer of the ACS said in an interview that the benefits of some tests have been overstated. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/23/t1-concern-about-cancer-tests/ The completion of a walking trail in Chickamauga, Ga., provides an immediate boon to community residents. It also should serve as the foundation of a visionary long-term project. Planners hope the multiuse path will be expanded across the county. It should be. Doing so could produce big benefits for Walker County and the surrounding region. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/23/t2-walker-countys-trail-to-the-future/ Smart city leaders, like smart homeowners, understand the necessity of protecting their investment in the place they live. Homeowners invest in maintenance, landscaping and gardens to nurture both the monetary value and quality of life they enjoy in their homes. Smart city leaders similarly recognize they must also tend to the so-called soft investments -- streetscapes, parks, public art and greenways -- as well as the hard infrastructure of streets, sewers and industrial parks. Both are equally critical to keeping cities vibrant and attractive to new businesses and economic development, and to retain existing businesses and residents. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/22/t1-art-a-window-to-citys-heart/ The dialogue and activity emanating from North Korea about its nuclear programs are difficult to interpret. On the one hand, that nation is as roguish as ever. It test-fired another batch of ballistic missiles last week. On the other, it seems more conciliatory, at least at the moment, about the topic than in the past. A high-level North Korean negotiator will be in the United States next week for several meetings -- including a rumored one with this country's top nuclear negotiator. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/22/t2-mixed-messages-from-north-korea/ Even as Congressional Democrats debate how to structure a final health care reform package, evidence is still surfacing which shows that the status quo system Republicans want to keep intact continues to fall apart all around us. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/21/t1-more-proof-reform-needed/ The Justice Department told federal prosecutors in 14 states that they should not longer prosecute individuals who use or distribute medical marijuana as long as such consumption or sales do not break existing state laws. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/21/t2-a-fair-marijuana-policy/ Before they say another word against the city's annexation plans, county commissioners should just stand and declare that they are blatant hypocrites when it comes to their anti-annexation arguments. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/20/t1-the-county-tax-scam/ School-age youngsters spend as much or more time away from school than in it. How and with whom they spend that time directly affects, in many instances, their safety, their health, their academic progress and their sense of well-being. Given that, the role of after-school programs across the nation deserves more attention and support than is currently the case in many states. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/18/home-alone-after-school/ Stock brokers and investors had to cheer this week when the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped the 10,000-point level. After a year of economic turmoil and a stunning 8,000-point plunge in the narrow escape from a depression-sized financial collapse, the Dow’s benchmark recovery of half its losses since the March low of 6,000 is, indeed, cause for hope. It seems to prove the thinking that a recovery is under way, even if real growth is not yet tangible. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/17/10000-dow/ A hard-hitting report makes it clear that bans on smoking significantly reduce heart attacks in nonsmokers by safeguarding them from the effects of secondhand smoke. By confirming that cause-and-effect link with secondhand smoke, it further confirms the public health benefits of public smoking bans, which some states and businesses are still reluctant to impose or accept. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/17/smoking-bans-cut-heart-attacks/ The revelation that city government has been dramatically shortchanging its public art program by not providing the level of funding required by a city ordinance should prompt better support for public art, not less. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/16/more-funding-public-art/ Sen. Olympia Snowe, the Maine Republican who provided the solitary GOP vote to approve the long-awaited, all-important, Senate Finance Committee's health-care reform legislation, aptly explained why she helped Democrats pass the bill by a 14-9 vote that divided otherwise along strictly partisan lines. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/15/t1-a-big-step-toward-reform/ The U.S. military is certainly pleased to report, as it did Tuesday, that it has just concluded its best recruiting year for both active-duty and reserve forces since the all-volunteer force was created in 1973. The news is welcome, though it is a mixed blessing. A prime reason for the recruiting success, a Pentagon official candidly admits, is the tough national economy and rising joblessness. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/15/t2-jobs-and-military-manpower/ Few issues in this nation seem more straight-forward, yet more controversial, than the simple human-rights issue of gay rights. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/14/t1-civil-rights-irrational-hate/ One person's beloved pet can be someone else's nightmare. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/14/t2-pets-parks-and-public-interest/ Improvements in local government are hard enough to nurture in the best of circumstances. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/13/t1-will-commissioners-lead/ The U.S. Senate is likely to vote this week on extending unemployment benefits. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/13/t2-extend-unemployment-benefits/ The on-going construction at the Volkswagen and Alstom sites and continued development downtown and along the riverfront predictably catch the public eye and pique the interest when the topic of discussion turns to local economic development and the job market. Those undertakings, of course, are important to the community and its future, but those enterprises alone do not provide a well-rounded portrait of business activity here. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/12/10-12-t1-progress-on-south-broad/ Chattanoogans and residents of the tristate area long ago recognized the important role the Tennessee Aquarium plays in the region. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/12/10-12-t2-aquarium-wins-national-honor/ The current flu season is unlike those in past years for many reasons. It promises to bring with it at least two strains of the illness, each with its own demographic blueprint. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/11/flu-season-no-other/ President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The award stunned much of the world -- including the recipient -- and prompted immediate praise as well as a barrage of questions and complaints. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/10/t1-obama-wins-peace-prize/ There's little doubt that the Internet has changed the way society operates. Debate continues, however, on whether those changes are beneficial or detrimental. There are points to support either argument. One thing, though, is certain. The Internet has significantly expanded the opportunity for those intent on defrauding others to ply their nefarious trade. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/09/t1-danger-on-the-internet/ The bronze statue of Helen Keller unveiled this week in the National Stuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol is notable for several reasons. It is the first statue there depicting a person with a disability. It also is the only one of a child. And it should serve as a reminder of Ms. Keller's triumph over disabilities and inspirational lifetime journey. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/09/t2-a-change-at-national-statuary-hall/ Last week, Hamilton County commissioners voted unanimously to register disapproval of Chattanooga's on-going annexation efforts. Tuesday night, Mayor Ron Littlefield and the City Council answered that bit of politically inspired action with an offer and a resolution that directly address the issue of equitable and effective government within the borders of the county. The city's response is reasonable. It requires a prompt reply at the County Commission meeting today. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/08/searching-for-a-little-unity/ It wasn't quite business as usual as the U.S. Supreme Court officially opened a new term on the traditional first Monday in October, but that was to be expected. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/07/t1-new-justice-takes-her-seat/ The number of secondary schools in the United States selling candy, salty snacks, soft drinks and artificial fruit drinks to students has declined, according to a report released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/07/t2-progress-in-school-nutrition/ Top Volkswagen officials and German, Tennessee and Chattanooga business leaders and elected officials gathered in Chattanooga on Sunday to view progress on the construction of VW's auto assembly plant. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/06/t1-vws-positive-impact-grows/ Three American researchers were named winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering a vital mechanism in the genetic operations of cells. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/06/t2-a-nobel-for-us-researchers/ The economic embargo that is the centerpiece of U.S. policy on Cuba might have made sense when it was instituted almost a half century ago, but it no longer does. A more progressive and flexible approach that promotes democracy within Cuba and allows normalization of relations between nations 90 miles apart would serve the best interests of all involved. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/05/policy-change-cuba/ It is not often that area residents and those who live in nations halfway around the globe have much in common. This week they do. Both have been battered and tested by the vagaries of Mother Nature. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/03/mother-nature-its-worst/ The death Wednesday of a student who attended City Park Elementary School in Dalton, Ga., from the H1N1 flu virus sadly reconfirms already well known facts. The so-called swine flu virus is present in the area, and children seem to be especially vulnerable to the illness. That is certainly cause for concern. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/03/flu-season-here/ Another week, another meeting, another step or two forward. That, in a nutshell, is the best way to describe the result of talks between Iran and six world powers to discuss international concern about Tehran's nuclear program. Given the difficult topic and the intransigence often displayed by the Iranians, the events in Switzerland on Thursday are a positive, if modest, sign that progress is being made in dealing with a major diplomatic crisis. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/02/t1-some-reasons-for-optimism/ At a time when the number of those who remember the events of World War II is in sharp decline and the number of those who deny the truth of the Holocaust -- a central event of the time -- seems to be on the rise, any reminder of the tragedy and triumph of the period is useful. That's especially true when young people are involved. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/02/t2-history-and-remembrance/ The United States Constitution guarantees just about every form of religious expression. There are two exceptions: It can't be government sponsored and it can't be forced upon others. Those are concepts that seem to have been forgotten by many involved in the emotional debate over the propriety, indeed, the legality, of Bible verse signs painted and displayed by cheerleaders at football games at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/01/constitution-bible-football/ PG&E, the combined natural gas and electric utility provider for much of northern and central California once known as Pacific Gas & Electric, is a renegade of sorts. In an industry where promoting consumption and increasing profits often seem to overrule civic and social responsibility, the privately held firm travels a different path. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/01/t2-a-sense-of-responsibility/ Whatever their personal political affiliation or feelings about specific legislation, Americans generally are united in one regard when it comes to government at any level. They expect individuals they elect to office to be good stewards of taxpayer funds. Sadly, that expectation often goes unmet. The Pentagon -- hardly a stranger to playing fast and loose with public money -- is the most recent case in point. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/30/t1-audit-problems-at-pentagon/ Last week, the United States and its allies told the world that Iran was operating an underground uranium enrichment facility widely thought to be part of a long-range program to develop nuclear weapons. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/29/t1-irans-dangerous-game/ Death and dying are topics most people would prefer not to talk about, but everyone eventually must deal with the subjects at some point in their lives. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/28/9-28-t1-an-advance-in-hospice-care/ The announcement that scientists have developed the first vaccine to prove useful in preventing the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is cause for celebration. The celebration, however, should be a muted one. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/28/9-28-t2-progress-on-aids-vaccine/ Three new surveys make it abundantly clear why no American -- including those who now receive relatively good health care insurance through their employers -- can realistically presume that their health care insurance will remain secure, affordable and certain if Congress fails to enact comprehensive health care reform. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/27/9-27-t1no-guarantee-of-insurance/ Current government guidelines governing access and operation of the Internet are a mixed bag.. They're workable, but they aren't strong enough to prevent the possibility of discriminatory practices that could limit consumer access to the Internet. Proposals put forward earlier this week by Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, address the issue in a positive manner. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/26/t2-preserving-internet-neutrality/ Cases against pharmaceutical companies for using illegal marketing strategies to popularize and sell drugs are not uncommon. But it is amazing that they don't seem to make much of a dent in the public's view of drug companies. It's even more surprising that the Obama administration has been willing to let the drug companies glide away from serious health care reform initiatives on the promise of giving back $8 billion a year over the next 10 years in price rebates for selected patients and coupon tickets, when that give-back is in reality a small fraction of its colossal annual earnings. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/26/t1-rx-marketing-scams/ The Tennessee Valley Authority's ratepayers may have blanched when they heard the agency had put a $3 billion cost on finishing the Kingston ash-spill clean-up and converting TVA's wet-ash disposal system at six unconverted power plants to dry storage. Given the enormous damage we now know can result from wet-pond ash spills, however, TVA has no reasonable alternative. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/25/t1-waiting-for-dry-ash-disposal/ Voters in Massachusetts regularly returned the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy to office. It would be possible to argue, one supposes, that he was sent to Washington time and time again because of his personal magnetism. He was undeniably popular, but the truth is that his views and those of the party he represented perfectly suited the majority of his fellow citizens. It is in that spirit that Gov. Deval Patrick's appointment of Paul Kirk to fill the seat left empty by the death of Mr. Kennedy is entirely appropriate. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/25/t2-a-new-senator-from-massachusetts/ There was little doubt that the city's cost of providing infrastructure and services to newly annexed areas would be affordable relative to the revenue the city would gain through annexation. Though growth is never free, the planning documents submitted by the city Tuesday to Chancery Court and to annexation opponents confirm the cost of annexation is a creditable investment. It will help secure the city's growth and natural capital base for the long term. Opponents may continue to object, but that should not deter the city from going forward with the annexation plan. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/24/t1-cost-favors-annexation/ There was hope around the world that a highly publicized push from President Barack Obama to Israeli and Palestinian leaders would propel the pair toward positive and productive Mideast peace talks. That was, it turns out, more wishful thinking that reality. The president's meeting in New York on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was unfruitful. Rather than produce mutual understanding, it underscored the issues that continue to make meaningful communication between the sides so difficult. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/24/t2-the-mideast-peace-impasse/ Three important portions of the Patriot Act will expire at year's end if Congress does not renew them. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/23/t1-revise-provisions-of-patriot-act/ In describing the ability of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to manage the Pentagon's decisions on defense strategies and two wars, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel said this the other day: "He understands that none of these decisions are between good and bad, but between bad and worse." http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/23/t2-weighing-war-in-afghanistan/ Monday's heavy rains, falling on already saturated ground, prompted significant flooding in the area at a time of year that such events are unexpected. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/22/t1-meeting-a-weather-challenge/ Though City Council members approved the proposed $167.5 million city budget on first reading last week, they have said they may review again today some of the onerous cuts and reduced appropriations that have become particularly controversial. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/22/t2-budget-cuts-beg-review/ President Obama's decision to shift missile defense plans against Iran from an untested system in central Europe to a broader, more proven ship-based -- and eventually land-based -- defense posture reflects a sensible strategy for improved defense. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/21/9-21-t1-a-more-sensible-missile-plan/ The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, like many other agencies in the federal government, lost its way during the George W. Bush administration. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/21/9-21-t2-justice-returns-to-a-core-mission/ Next time a Republican senator or congressman says that Congress just needs more time to develop a bipartisan health-care reform bill, remember the Baucus bill. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/20/9-20-t1-gop-rejects-bipartisan-bill/ Hayes Ledford, lobbyist and public policy whip for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, claims that his Facebook posting that included an offensive rant and the Muslim slur "ragheaded" was private speech that has nothing to do with his employer or the community he represents in his professional life. His argument is, at best, naive. The profanity-laced tirade is, by any measure, an embarrassment that reflects badly on Mr. Ledford, on the Chamber and on the community at large. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/19/t1-mr-ledfords-internet-gaffe/ The House of Representatives has taken the first step to stop the federal government from paying banks to operate its largest college loan fund. The Senate should quickly vote to do likewise. It's long past time for this most wasteful piece of corporate welfare to end, and for the nation's most strapped students to receive the full benefit of the money intended to support their college tuition. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/19/t2-better-use-of-college-loan-funds/ Though at first glance there would seem to be little similarity between the mail delivery and health care delivery systems in the United States, there is an interesting connection. Surveys consistently indicate that most Americans have an abiding respect and affection for the individuals with whom they have a direct relationship in both the postal and health care systems, but that many of the same people are extremely distrustful of the larger institutions those individuals represent. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/18/t2-postal-closings-balance-needed/ We are at the end of National Child Passenger Safety Week, but most people either didn't know about the event or, if they did, attached little significance to it. That's unfortunate. Widespread attention to the topic could help prevent needless loss of life and considerable suffering. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/18/t2-buckle-up-to-save-young-lives/ Among the political cross currents stirring the criticism of many Americans lately is the sense that government spending in Washington is out of control. The tens of thousands of protesters in the Fox News-promoted, Republican-organized "tea party" anti-tax movement -- including a number of Tennesseans -- who gathered in the nation's capital last Sunday were there specifically to raise the alarm against new spending that they don't agree with. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/17/t1-costs-that-haunt-the-tea-party/ George Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to the Mideast, is a patient man. Otherwise, he would have given up his current task -- brokering an agreement to halt Israeli settlement construction -- long ago. Mr. Mitchell, though, perseveres, even when the nuances of Israeli and Palestinian diplomacy and politics thwart his effort to reach a sensible goal. The latest test of his patience came Wednesday, when a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the subject of settlements produced nothing of import. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/17/t2-impasse-continues-in-mideast/ T he House passed a “resolution of disapproval” Tuesday against South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson for shouting “you lie” at President Obama last week. The censure passed even though most congressional Republicans refused to vote to reprimand a GOP colleague — as House Republican leader John Boehner had promised — for his unprecedented breech of decorum in an address by the President of the United States to a joint session of Congress. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/16/politics-destruction/ The traditional fall opening of the nation’s colleges and universities brings with it a host of familiar activities and rituals — football weekends, alumni gathering and fine arts performances — that are an enjoyable part of community as well as campus life. Not all events tied to the campus, though, engender such positive feelings. Hazing, though it is universally denounced, remains a hateful part of collegiate life despite widespread efforts on and off campus to curtail its practice. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/16/evils-hazing-remain/ An AFL-CIO union representative circulated an e-mail statement here last week that attempted to link the construction work force for Volkswagen's new Chattanooga plant to the grim labor policy of Hitler's Nazi era. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/15/t1-an-ugly-slap-at-vw/ Dr. Jan Simek, interim president of the University of Tennessee, says candidly that the system is experiencing a financial crisis that will become greater when one-time federal stimulus money used to ease the initial impact is exhausted. UTC Chancellor Roger Brown echoes that sentiment. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/15/t2-ut-utc-and-the-future/ The current flu season is young but it is already the most stressful in recent memory. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/14/9-14-t1-information-vital-in-flu-fight/ Four bridges in Hamilton County and several others in nearby counties are among 111 structurally deficient bridges in the state scheduled for replacement or repair in the initial phase of a four-year program. The work is overdue, but still welcome. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/14/9-14-t2-making-tennessees-bridges-safer/ Americans may well have considered President Barack Obama's health care speech Wednesday the most momentous political event of the week. But even if his address leads to health care reform, it may still lag the significance of the hearing that occurred Wednesday on a campaign finance case before the U.S. Supreme Court. If that case is decided wrongly, and is used -- as now seems possible -- by the court's five activist conservative jurors to legalize unbridled corporate contributions to campaigns for federal elective offices, it would open the floodgates for a deluge of corporate cash that would swamp and absolutely corrupt our campaign finance system and the course of this nation's vital democracy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/13/9-13-t1-fair-elections-challenged/ Though its future, like its financial underpinning, is in a precarious state these days, the nation's space exploration program has long provided an excellent return on investment. It has a rich history of impressive engineering achievements and scientific advances to its credit. That's especially true of the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope launched into orbit in 1990. Extraordinary photos released by NASA reaffirm the singular value of the telescope as well as the space program as a whole. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/13/9-13-t2-hubbles-big-return-on-investment/ Many area residents now seek and buy fresh, healthy local produce, meats and dairy products from area farmers and gardeners. They may go on Sunday to the Chattanooga market, on Wednesday to the Main Street organic farmer's market, or any day to one of our many local produce stands to buy fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/12/t1-benefits-of-local-foodshed/ President Barack Obama's strong, passionate and compelling case for broad-based health care reform Wednesday spelled out a vision that many Americans -- supporters, skeptics and outright foes alike -- badly needed to hear. His case for reform was based essentially on three overriding issues: The security and stability of health care for those who already have insurance; the larger economic benefits and humane reasons for helping provide insurance for the uninsured; and the absolute necessity of braking the crushing wave of health care costs that threaten to overwhelm the nation's economy and federal budgets in the near future. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/11/t1-mr-obamas-case-for-reform/ Rep. Zach Wamp has always been a social conservative. But he used to talk more about the technology corridor he wanted to build in East Tennessee to attract jobs than about than anything else. Since he became a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, that's changed dramatically. Now, his themes at campaign outings and barbecues are mainly political red meat, marinated in guns, God and defense of states' rights to keep the federal government at bay. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/10/t1-rep-wamps-campaign-slant/ While Mayor Ron Littlefield's new executive order requires all city employees to pay to drive their city-issued vehicles home, the continuing debate about the issue is centered on the police department. The reasons are obvious. Police cars are the most visible of the city's take-home vehicles and there is considerable evidence to suggest that their presence in the community serves a valuable purpose. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/10/t2-fairness-is-issue-in-city-car-debate/ President Barack Obama's back-to-school address to America's students Tuesday could not have been more appropriate -- nor more uncontroversial. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/09/t1-the-presidents-school-talk/ September 11 should not only be a day for mourning -- it should be a day to think about our neighbors, our community, and our country. We can take a tragic day in our nation's history and turn it into a force for good." Sen. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/09/t2-911-a-day-of-memory-and-more/ If a measure were needed to determine just how toxic the political environment has gotten over President Obama's support for health care reform, we wouldn't have to look far. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/08/9-8-t1-another-groundless-attack/ There seemingly are few exceptions to the paroxysms of partisanship that have paralyzed the nation's capital lately, but there is at least one issue of vital importance where widespread agreement provides immeasurable benefit to the nation. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/08/9-8-t2-to-protect-and-to-preserve/ Labor Day is rich in history and tradition. Some use the day to honor workers past and present and to celebrate the vital role they play in building a strong nation. Others use the day off to mark the unofficial end of summer. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/07/9-7-t1-labor-day-2009/ President Barack Obama's prime-time address to the nation on health care reform Wednesday is expected to lay out a cogent argument for reform to counter the widespread myths and lies seeded by industry-backed opponents. His goal is to marshal new energy and support to push a comprehensive health care bill through Congress. Though the need for reform is easily apparent, he faces a huge challenge. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/06/9-6-t1-mr-obamas-reform-speech/ Given the nation's epidemic of obesity across the age spectrum from elementary school to senior citizen centers, the American Heart Association has wisely taken a stand to get Americans to reduce their daily consumption of foods and beverages with added sugar. The Association's goal -- the first specific goal of its kind -- advises women to cut their sugar intake by 100 calories, or about six teaspoons, and men to cut theirs by 150 calories, or nine teaspoons. Americans would do well to heed the association's guidelines. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/06/9-6-t2-a-warning-to-lower-sugar-intake/ Chattanooga's annexation plans reflect a logical extension of the city's boundaries and are vital to the city's future growth and financial stability. They also represent a nonpartisan policy that will be subject to a vote by a nonpartisan City Council. So it is conspicuously odd and unusual that the county's Democratic Party chairman, Jeff Brown, announced this week that the party's local leadership will formally oppose the city's annexation plans. The logical question is, Why would they do that? http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/05/t1-a-better-battle-for-democrats/ Whether war ends in decisive victory or in something less, the conclusion of the conflict is almost never tidy. There are always loose ends. Often, those unresolved issues are unremarkable and best left to historians to discuss and debate. Sometimes, though, unresolved physical problems fester for years and create problems long after the fighting has ended. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the Gulf War are cases in point. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/04/t1-the-aftermath-of-war/ The United States' relationship with China is complicated at best and extremely troublesome at worst. It is especially difficult when trade is involved. That's understandable. The United States has the world's largest economy and China the third, and each desires and needs the other's markets to sustain growth. Given that, it's almost inevitable that conflicts about access and fairness will rise and that an impartial third party will be needed to resolve them. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/04/t2-china-and-the-world-marketplace/ The suspension and pending reassignment of the principal at the new Signal Mountain Middle-High School for allowing an uncertified teacher to instruct math classes is illuminating at several levels. It underscores the pressure of an exceedingly tight budget and a flawed central office process for tracking new hires. It affirms the importance and desperate scarcity of math and science teachers. And it illustrates the troubles the school system can get into with state education overseers with regard to certification of its teaching staff. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/03/in-want-of-a-math-teacher/ The ability to read, educators agree, is the common denominator for academic success at all levels. Youngsters who can read, and comprehend what they've read, typically do well in school. Those who can't fare less well. They constitute a majority of those who do not do well in the academic setting or, often, in adult life. Any program that encourages youngsters to read or that helps improve reading ability is a useful adjunct in the vital effort to create a literate citizenry. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/03/t2-a-national-award-for-local-program/ Comprehensive health care reform would focus broadly on providing better standard coverage for all Americans and a range of widely accepted insurance and efficiency reforms. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/02/t1-addressing-the-uninsured/ State lawmakers and corrections officials have reached the eminently sensible conclusion that one of the most efficient ways to cut costs is to reduce recidivism -- the relapse into criminal behavior by those released from the prison system. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/02/t2-reducing-recidivism-is-program-goal/ Skepticism abounded last fall about the federal government's $700 billion bailout of troubled investment and commercial banks and other financial institutions under the Troubled Relief Asset Program, or TARP, as it became known. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/01/t1-payback-for-tarp-bailout/ Today is the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/01/t2-an-anniversary-of-war/ Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue isn't a politician who eagerly courts media attention. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/31/8-31-gov-perdue-returns-to-action/ Even nations hostile to one another generally make a show of following the custom in international diplomacy that says even the meanest phrase or action should be delivered in a civil manner that allows discussion about meaning and intent. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/31/8-31-t2-contempt-for-world-opinion/ Prescription drug spending in the United States amounted to $235 billion last year. That's not quite 10 percent of the nation's $2.4 trillion in overall spending on health care, but it's a huge chunk nonetheless. The more interesting fact about drug costs, and why it merits scrutiny in health care reform, is this: Americans pay two to three times more for the top 50 prescription drugs than citizens of every other advanced nation with universal health care, and significantly more generally for all other prescription drugs. That gap must be corrected to achieve price equity and reduce costs for Americans. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/30/8-30-t1-rx-drug-prices-can-be-cut/ The second round of annexation proposed by Chattanoga Mayor Ron Littlefield likely will be greeted with the same degree of anti-tax opposition as that expressed by many residents of the first areas scheduled for annexation. Yet the same logic in favor of annexation applies. The city must be allowed to expand its boundaries -- as it has numerous times since 1838 -- to encompass its natural growth and tax-base areas if it is to remain viable and able to meet the community's demand for future growth and jobs. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/29/t1-annexation-for-tax-equity/ The reported death of a child at T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital on Thursday from the H1N1 influenza virus, commonly known as swine flu, indicates that it is no longer a matter of if the virus will visit the area, but how widespread and debilitating the outbreak of the illness will be. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/28/t1-confronting-swine-flu/ Sen. Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod in Massachusetts after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. The long-serving senator, the most influential legislator of his generation and one of the most effective in U.S. history, was 77. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/27/t1-edward-m-kennedy-1932-2009/ New projections in Washington showing an increase in federal budget deficits of $9 trillion over the next 10 years will fuel debate over the costs or savings of health care reform, the cost of keeping the deep 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts in place, and the urgency of reining in spending on entitlements and the nation's current wars. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/27/t2-health-care-reform-to-lower-deficits/ The Central Intelligence Agency's growing use of outside contract workers in the Bush era has included contract interrogators, some of whom were involved in abusive treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and secret rendition sites abroad. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/26/t1-outsourcing-covert-cia-work/ Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, announced Tuesday a two-year government program to build a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/26/t2-a-map-for-palestinian-statehood/ Attorney General Eric Holder's decision Monday to name a special prosecutor to reopen nearly a dozen CIA prisoner-abuse cases in Iraq and Afghanistan marks a morally required reversal from Bush administration policy. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/25/t1-interrogations-under-scrutiny/ Julia Child, a self-described "loud and unserious Californian," had few kitchen skills when she accompanied her diplomat husband to Paris in 1948, Like most Americans of the age, she viewed cooking as a necessity to be handled with a minimum of fuss or, better yet, left to others. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/25/t2-julia-child-a-bestseller-again/ Drinking on campus is an issue that is as old as the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. For almost four centuries, administrators have employed various stratagems to eliminate or to restrict alcohol consumption. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/24/8-24-t1-campus-drinking-and-the-law/ The academic year at most of the nation's colleges and universities is underway and eager but nervous freshmen have begun pursuit of a degree. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/24/8-24-t2-the-class-of-2013/ With a preliminary enrollment of 10,250 students last week, UTC is embarking on a new era in its history this semester. But while the number of students taking classes -- the first time ever in five figures -- is correctly viewed as an endorsement of the university and its programs, it also presents Chancellor Roger Brown and campus administrators with significant challenges that must be addressed decisively if the school is to continue on its positive path. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/23/8-23-t1-utc-record-10000-students/ Reading the economic tea leaves in the Great Recession has been dicey. But after 20 months in the trough, the green shoots of a creeping economic rebound that some saw a few months ago have begun to spread -- enough so that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ventured to say Friday that "the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good." http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/22/t1-in-sight-of-a-rebound/ Congress obviously underestimated the potential popularity of the cash-for-clunkers program. Consumers clearly did not. The first $1 billion Congress gave the program was expected to last from July 27 until Nov. 1. It lasted barely a week. The second funding installment -- an emergency transfusion of $2 billion -- was expected to last until Labor Day, Sept. 7. Fat chance. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/22/t2-a-successful-clunkers-program/ One of every six Tennesseans is uninsured for health care, and one of every three Tennesseans goes without health insurance for all or part of the year. Three in four uninsured Tennesseans come from working families. Half a million Tennesseans who have coverage are under-insured. And many more are just a paycheck away from a potentially bankrupting medical catastrophe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/21/t1-politicians-dodge-on-reform/ Forget the partisan political standoff on whether climate change is a real and urgent problem that must be addressed by reductions in fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions. That's the tiresome, seemingly irresolvable argument between Democrats and environmental advocates, who follow the data and see the need for carbon caps to mitigate environmental damage, and Republicans and their conservative business base and enviro naysayers, who contend the climate change issue is hokum regardless of the evidence. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/20/t1-real-threats-of-climate-change/ Educators and parents have long known that the summer vacation can be harmful to the academic progress of some youngsters. Researchers, in fact, confirm that many students, particularly those with limited skills in areas such as reading, regress during the hiatus. One of the more effective -- and popular -- programs to combat the problem here is sponsored by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library. Its success is easy to measure. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/20/t2-beneficial-summer-for-young-readers/ If elections in Afghanistan on Thursday are to significantly boost confidence in the government and momentum for progress over the next few years, ordinary Afghans must see the elections as legitimate and the winners as credible leaders. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/19/t1-afghanistans-elections/ Thomas Jefferson, who had an idea or two about democratic government, wrote forcefully that "where the press is free ... all is safe." That's a belief enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and embraced by succeeding generations of Americans. The legitimacy o http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/19/t2-freedom-of-press-under-attack/ Mix kids, warm weather and water in a safe environment and you almost always get a positive reaction. The formula usually applies to adults, too. The City of Chattanooga, then, should have a popular attraction to offer the public next spring when, if all goes as planned, a splash park will open at Warner Park. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/18/t2-a-new-amenity-for-warner-park/ President Obama's goal of health care reform is surely the most urgent domestic issue he will undertake. It certainly promises the most vital benefit to the nation. But if, in seeking a bipartisan compromise, he dilutes the core elements of reform too much, he will run the risk of undermining, even sabotaging, the potential success of reform. Regrettably, he seems poised to do that by abandoning the concept of creating a robust public insurance option akin to a non-profit Medicare policy for Americans under 65 years of age. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/18/t1-no-retreat-from-a-public-plan/ Anyone who has helplessly watched a loved one struggle with terminal cancer or other fatal disease knows the agony, turmoil and inner conflict of dealing with end-stage circumstances as death approaches. Indeed, many Americans now write living wills preci http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/17/8-17-t1-origin-of-death-panel-myth/ Travelers on Interstate 24 near the Missionary Ridge cut late last week likely saw the flashing lights and traffic jam that are synonymous with an accident. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/17/8-17-t2-roadside-a-dangerous-place-to-work/ Chattanooga area residents may set a world record for participation in a grass-roots visioning survey by the end of September, but that's not the chief reason to participate in the brief, four-question Stand survey. The larger benefit is that citizens from all walks of life here may each express their views regarding what they like about the Chattanooga region, and their hopes for what our region may become and achieve over the next 20-to-25 years. That makes it doubly important for residents here to go online or to a survey meeting. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/16/8-16-t1stand-to-chart-our-future/ Sessions Court Judge Clarence Shattuck prematurely declared Wednesday that Criminal Court Clerk Gwen Tidwell's son received no special treatment in the way fellow Sessions Judge Ron Durby handled the case against her son and two other defendants in a secret hearing. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/15/t1-special-handling-still-an-issue/ The military rulers of Myanmar, better known as Burma, continue to make it clear that they will ignore substantial international condemnation to perpetuate their rule. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/15/t2-tyranny-continues-in-myanmar/ Locking up almost four dozen men, women and children in a cramped space with little food or water and inadequate sanitary facilities for five or six hours may not rise to the kind of cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. But surely it violates nominal standards of decency for airline customers. Try telling that to the nation's airlines, which often demonstrate egregious conduct. The latest example occurred last weekend. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/14/t1-restore-rights-to-flying-public/ Depending on one's age, Woodstock is either a powerful, personal reminder of one's youth, or a historic event documented in books, song and in the grainy film footage that is considered primitive by today's sophisticated consumers of the visual media. Whatever one's viewpoint, this is a weekend of remembrance. Woodstock, the storied celebration of peace, love and music, marks its 40th anniversary August 15-17. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/14/t2-woodstock-40-years-later/ The Obama administration is so covered up with huge issues -- i.e., health care, budget and the war in Afghanistan -- that less demanding issues tend to stay on the back burner. The Law of the Sea Convention, a United Nations treaty that the United States largely follows but has never formally adopted, is one of the more urgent lower priority issues. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/13/t1-law-of-the-sea-still-blocked/ The United States-Mexico-Canada summit held earlier this week in Guadalajara attracted little attention, produced no controversies and accomplished little other than issuance of a mutual pledge by participants to continue work on resolving shared problems. Given current events in each of the countries involved, that's probably as much as could be expected. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/13/t2-quiet-summit-still-had-purpose/ The wave of myths, distortions, fabrications -- and, more plainly, outright lies -- being generated by vested interests opposed to health care reform and passed around on e-mail and Internet sites are mind-boggling. They also are tragically destructive of the opportunity to reform our brutal profit-heavy medical industry before health care becomes entirely unaffordable and unsustainable for average families. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/12/unfounded-attacks-on-reform/ Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, impassioned advocate for the mentally disabled, sister of a U.S. president and two U.S. senators, mother-in-law of the governor of the nation's most populous state, mother of five and grandmother of 19, died Tuesday. She was 88. Her life of selfless service will be long remembered by the millions whose lives she directly and indirectly touched. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/12/eunice-kennedy-shriver-1921-2009/ The Tennessee Valley Authority's apparent decision to quit using wet storage ponds for coal combustion ash in favor of dry ash disposal in lined land fills is a belated but welcome response to the disastrous Kingston ash spill. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/11/t1-tvas-post-spill-corrections/ Preparing for a new school year is generally a summertime task for administrators and teachers, who implement those plans when students begin classes. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/11/t2-planning-key-to-schools-flu-response/ Judges are advised in general ethics rules to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/10/8-10-t1-secret-hearings-taint-courts/ Chattanooga is fortunate to be selected as one three Tennessee cities to participate in a five-state, $100 million federal test program to build charging stations for electrically powered vehicles. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/10/8-10-t2-electric-cars-figure-in-citys-future/ The August schedule of town hall meetings on health care that members of Congress had expected to hold during their summer recess now seems likely to turn into something far different -- a series of rowdy, ugly and unhelpful shouting shows by robotic, propaganda-fed dissenters. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/09/8-9-t1-the-gop-health-scare/ The Senate's 68-31 vote Thursday to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the replacement for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court contributes several footnotes to history. Justice Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and third woman justice. She is the first nominee by a Democratic president in 15 years and, if all goes as planned, her swearing-in today will be the first ceremony of its type available for TV broadcast. Fascination with history, though, should not obscure the fact that the newest justice is superbly qualified for the job. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/08/t1-a-well-qualified-justice/ John Hughes, the writer, director and producer whose films were among the most popular of the 1980s and the early 1990s, died Thursday in New York. He was 59 and had long retired from public life. His films, though, remain a touchstone for those who reached adolescence during his heyday. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/08/t2-john-hughes-1950-2009/ A federal judge certainly got Gov. Sonny Perdue's attention a couple of weeks ago when he ruled that Atlanta had little right to tap into Lake Lanier, the federal reservoir that is a main water source for more than 3 million residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The judge gave Georgia, Florida and Alabama -- states involved in litigation over federal water rights for more than two decades -- three years to sort out their problems or he would turn off the Lake Lanier tap. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/07/t1another-salvo-in-water-wars/ There are thousands of enthusiastic student-athletes in Hamilton County secondary schools, but not all are blessed with exceptional talent. A few, to be sure, have skills that will transfer easily to the demanding arena of collegiate competition. The formal playing days of most, however, end at high school graduation. That's why the school system has an obligation to ensure that the young men and women who play sports properly balance athletics with academics. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/07/the-role-of-high-school-sports/ Alonzo Heyward obviously was emotionally disturbed when police were called to check on him at a McDonald's restaurant on Rossville Boulevard in the predawn hours of July 18. He held a shotgun to his head, said he didn't want to hurt anyone but himself, and walked out of the restaurant, heading to his nearby Seventh Avenue home. Police officers followed him, urging him to lay down his gun. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/06/t1-59-bullets-43-wounds-1-man/ The immediate benefit of former President Bill Clinton's surprise trip to North Korea on Tuesday is the pardoning of two Americans sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in that nation's notorious prison system. Their release certainly is welcome. It is difficult to determine if other benefits will accrue to the United States as a result of Mr. Clinton's visit. There are reasons, though, to believe that might be the case. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/06/t2-clinton-bill-plays-a-starring-role/ Talk about a lawsuit was bound to surface over the city's proposed annexation of its urban growth boundary areas. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/05/t1-hidden-annexation-issues/ Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern ordered the permanent closure of Deep Blue, a much-in-the-news Brained Road nightclub. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/05/t2-deep-blue-a-full-and-fair-hearing/ The common wisdom about economies turning the corner on recessions is that most people don’t see or feel a recovery as it begins. That’s understandable, and it certainly will be true this time around. Job layoffs are slowing, but hiring won’t noticeably pick up until revived consumer demand and spending generate more work for factories and businesses. That core conundrum takes time to unravel after a deep contraction, yet Americans now have good reason to believe that the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression has begun to thaw. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/04/hopeful-signs-economy/ President Barack Obama reiterated his pledge to make the African continent a priority in United States foreign policy during a whirlwind trip to Ghana last month. His visit and his well-received speech about good governance, democracy and the peaceful resolution of conflict on the continent were more symbolic than substantive, however. The hard work of putting U.S. policy into action falls to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who begins an 11-day trip to Africa today. Her task will be difficult. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/04/pursuing-viable-us-policy-africa/ When Betty Ford, wife of then President Gerald Ford, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974, the disease was rarely discussed in public. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/03/8-3-t2-personal-crisis-public-good/ Area residents still pay close attention to some military related activities in Iraq. Nearly 1,000 family members, for example, attended the send-off in Cleveland last Wednesday of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 52nd Military Company for a year-long deployment to help train Iraqi police units. But given the agreement with Iraq by the Bush and Obama administrations to withdraw U.S. combat troops over the next 14 months and to withdraw U.S. forces completely by the end of 2011, Americans are now largely in sync with the mindset expressed by American officer in Iraq the other day: "We are so out of here." http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/02/8-2-t1-the-iraq-wars-waning-days/ Among the most destructive environmental abuses in this nation, the most deliberate, unconscionable and widespread has to be the form of coal-mining known as "mountain-top removal" mining. Indeed, "mining" is hardly the word for this premeditated, callously calculated, man-made catastrophe. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/02/8-2-t2-a-far-better-use-for-mountains/ Wall Street investment banks generally defend their extravagant bonuses as "pay for performance." So we want to know why the nine megabanks that received $175 billion in federal TARP bailout funds last fall paid out nearly $33 billion in bonuses last year -- including bonuses of at least $1 million to around 5,000 employees -- while they were enduring huge losses or, at best, minimal profits that were lower than the amounts they paid in bonuses. These banks' top 5,000 employees alone collected more than $5 billion in bonuses -- or an average of $5 million apiece -- for 2008. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/01/t1-wall-streets-bonuses/ To get an idea of how popular the "cash for clunkers" program is, consider this: Americans across the country rushed to buy new cars under the bonus program so fast after it took effect Monday that, by Friday, it ran out of the $1 billion allotted for it. The House of Representatives promptly reacted Friday afternoon, voting by a bipartisan 316 to 109 margin to pump another $2 billion into the program. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/01/t2-clunkers-plan-passes-road-test/ Federal officials have unlimited ideas to spend money the government doesn't have for foolish programs. Take "cash for clunkers," for example. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/01/fp4-expensive-cash-for-clunkers/ Republican Sen. Paul Stanley's decision to resign his seat in the Tennessee Senate "due to recent events" -- a self-serving way to describe his extramarital affair with a 22-year-old intern that prompted a tawdry blackmail case -- marks, one must assume, the end of his political career. The announcement, though, is more than that. It also is another painful reminder that elected officials properly pay a high price for preaching one thing and doing the opposite. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/31/t1-sex-scandal-and-hypocrisy/ President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others in power in Iran probably thought massive street protests about that country's disputed June 12 elections were a thing of the past. They were wrong. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in Tehran on Thursday to commemorate those killed in the unrest last month. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/31/t2-protests-roil-iran----again/ Opposition to annexation is reflexive and predictable. Certainly Mayor Ron Littlefield and City Council members had to expect that residents of the urban-growth boundary areas around the city's periphery would rise to protest the mayor's proposal to begin annexing those areas to improve planning for the wave of growth that now lies ahead for the city. But while opponents' protests call for a reasoned response, they are not grounds for the city to back away from the proposal. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/30/t1-annexation-vital-to-prosperity/ During his ultimately successful campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama pledged to " ... repair the damage done to our national parks by inadequate funding ... ." He's made a small but promising start in honoring that promise. That's welcome given the pressing business -- the economy, health care, foreign affairs, etc. -- that confronts a president in office for six months. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/30/t2-repairing-the-nations-parks/ It's become patently clear that Republicans in Washington really just want to kill the idea of health care reform, apparently to trash the Obama presidency and pave the way for their return to the White House. Hence their push to stall reform legislation through the August recess while they launch a $1 million advertising smear of the idea in 33 key states. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/29/t1-the-disinformation-lobby/ Call it the conspiracy theory that won’t die. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/29/t2-shameful-obama-conspiracy-lives/ In the struggle to hold down health care costs, one target seems obvious -- prescription drug ads. Big pharmaceutical companies certainly wouldn't lavish $4.8 billion annually on such expensive direct-to-consumer advertising if the ads weren't generating http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/28/t1-helping-drug-makers-profit/ It is hard to say whether merchants, or consumers, are happier about upcoming sales tax holidays in Georgia and Tennessee. The former hope it will ramp up sales in a difficult retail environment. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/28/t2-tax-holiday-ok-but-reform-needed/ For years, guns weren't permitted in East Ridge or Red Bank parks. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/27/7-27-t1-east-ridge-red-bank-are-wrong/ Rep. Zach Wamp may well need and want to keep the $5,000 contribution that was given to his gubernatorial campaign at the end of June by the Battle Born PAC of Sen. John Ensign, a friend and roommate at the increasingly notorious C Street house in Washington. But given the heady mix of extramarital affairs and secretive Christian fellowship "accountability" counseling now attached to Republican residents and visitors at the C Street house, Rep. Wamp may soon wish he had cut ties much earlier with Sen. Ensign and other Republicans whose connections at the house are now under scrutiny. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/26/7-26-t1-secrets-at-the-c-street-house/ In the wake of the catastrophic ash spill at the Kingston power plant, TVA has just hired a second senior vice president of communications, for $275,000 a year, to handle growing public relations demands and bring what TVA chairman Mike Duncan described Tuesday as "clarity and transparency" to information about the giant utility's operations. Here's the first question he, or some qualified board member or manager, should answer, because it hasn't been answered yet: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/25/t1-tvas-unanswered-question/ President Obama's prime-time foray Wednesday evening into the increasingly vitriolic debate over health care reform could have been anchored on just a few of his abundant arguments for comprehensive reform, such as: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/24/t1-renewing-the-case-for-reform/ A minority bloc of the Senate correctly steered enough votes their way Wednesday to defeat a pro-gun bill that would have allowed gun owners to carry a hidden weapon legally in 48 states if they have a concealed weapon permit in any one of them. The victory for gun control advocates was a close call, though, and a powerful reminder of the continuing strength of the NRA-backed gun lobby. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/24/t2-a-narrow-victory-for-gun-control/ Residents and business owners who live and work near Deep Blue, a nightclub at 3200 Brainerd Road, say there are abundant reasons to make permanent the temporary injunction that has shut the club at least until Aug. 3. A hearing then in Hamilton County Criminal Court should decide that issue. Brainerd residents and city officials clearly hope the court closes the club, and reasonably so. The peace of the surrounding community merits such action. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/23/t1-make-club-closure-permanent/ "Driving while distracted," or DWD, may not be as familiar as the DUI charge that every drinking driver dreads. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/22/t1-dwd-as-bad-as-dui-for-drivers/ Kids and bicycles are an iconic pairing, especially in summer when the two-wheelers provide mobility to out-of-school youngsters whose freedom of movement might otherwise be restricted. That freedom and mobility is accompanied by an obligation to ride bi http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/22/t2-use-your-head-wear-a-bicycle-helmet/ It It's been known for several years that the Bush administration willfully ignored and broke laws requiring oversight from Congressional leaders and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and then justified its actions on the need to protect American lives and national security. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/21/t1-illegal-secret-and-futile/ It's not often that an individual becomes synonymous with a calling, but for those who watched television in the 1960s, 1970s and beyond there is one name indelibly associated with the evening news. It was Walter Cronkite. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/21/t2-walter-cronkite-1916-2009/ It's not often that an environmental group and a conservative taxpayers foundation are on the same side of a legal issue, but when they are the case usually is one of importance. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/20/7-20-t1-just-say-no-to-georgia-power/ Many area residents who appreciate vintage movies already are familiar with Flick's Cafe, operated periodically by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/20/7-20-t2-flicks-cafe-back-in-business/ In late May of 1961, President John F. Kennedy told a joint session of Congress that the United States should set a goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth" by the end of the decade. The nation accepted that challenge and met the deadline with a bit of time to spare. On July 20, 1969, two Americans -- first Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin -- stepped onto the moon's surface while a third, Michael Collins, orbited overhead. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/19/7-19-t140-years-men-on-the-moon/ TVA's voluntary decision this week to reclassify coal-ash sites at four of its 11 coal-fired power plants from "low hazard" to "high-hazard" sites reflects the agency's rising awareness of the potential environmental devastation another burst ash-lake retention dike could unleash on yet another nearby community. It also reflects TVA's growing candor with respect to the public's right to know about the environmental and community-wide hazards of its operations. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/18/t1-tvas-dirty-coal-duties/ Fights to keep alive costly defense industry weapons programs are legend in Congress. Never mind the rhetoric about wrongful deficit spending and earmarks. When the administration proposes to economize a little on building and deploying nuclear submarines, Osprey vertical-takeoff jets, stealth bombers and cutting-edge fighter jets, every member of the House and Senate with a piece of the action in his or her district joins hands to rally support for keeping the spending going. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/18/t2-the-senates-f-22-boondoggle/ If there were any doubt where Republicans in Congress stand on health care reform, their position should be abundantly clear by now. But if you haven't been listening, here's a hint: They're all about protecting the big profits of the greedy giants in the medical industry, and not concerned a whit about changing the system to benefit the 90 percent of Americans who struggle with soaring health care costs while their coverage falls off the cliff. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/17/t1-gop-hypocrisy-on-health-plan/ The health insurance reform plan proposed Tuesday by House Democratic leaders is not ideal, but it would largely achieve the most important elements of a viable reform program: nearly universal coverage, a feasible mix of private and public insurance, continuation of the employer-based insurance model for companies and individuals who want to keep what they have, and, finally, a way to pay for it all. It is the latter, of course, that Republicans immediately pounced on. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/16/t2-a-house-health-reform-plan/ U.S. physicians and hospitals regularly employ high-tech, state-of-the-art equipment to diagnose and treat illness. Many of the same health care providers, though, are decidedly low-tech when it comes to keeping records of those diagnoses and treatments. They still use paper. That must change if the nation is to have an efficient responsive and cost-effective health care system. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/16/t2-accelerate-change-in-medical-records/ The Republican attempt to portray Judge Sonia Sotomayor as unfit for the Supreme Court by deliberately distorting her speeches and judicial record has been uglier than expected. But there's more driving the unfair criticism than Ms. Sotomayor's nomination alone. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/15/t1-gop-vs-judge-sotomayor/ Many people, within and without the medical profession, view the role of the U.S. Surgeon General as a largely ceremonial post, one in which the nation's so-called "top doc" relays health information to the public and serves the White House as an advocate on medical issues. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/15/t2-a-physician-for-all-americans/ Chattanooga's City Council is expected to approve a resolution tonight that would continue the city's long standing policy of not allowing visitors to carry handguns into the city's parks. The resolution should pass without controversy. It merely extends http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/14/t1-guns-in-parks-a-false-choice/ Improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan are much in the news because of the heavy toll in deaths and injuries they continue to exact from U.S. troops. Little has been said or written, however, about IEDs within the United States. A recent an http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/14/t2-security-lapses-imperil-federal-sites/ It being the middle of summer, the average American, if he or she thinks about it at all, hardly gives more than a passing thought to the swine flu. Federal health officials, thank goodness, are more concerned. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/13/7-13-t1-the-return-of-swine-flu/ Ronald McDonald Houses, which provide living quarters and other assistance to families of hospitalized children, are well known and much appreciated. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/13/7-13-t2-a-home-away-from-home/ It's bad enough that city and county governments are slow off the mark on land-use and infrastructure planning to guide the pending growth that will occur east of downtown when Volkswagen and its supplier plants open in 2011. It's even more discouraging to hear city council members and county commissioners express so much skepticism about Mayor Ron Littlefield's proposal to annex tracts east of the city -- identified a decade ago as the city's urban growth boundary areas -- to guide expected growth in an orderly way. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/12/7-12-t1-growth-planning-is-critical/ Annexation ideally should not be the linchpin for elevating the community's growth and development standards. In the current political dynamic, unfortunately, it is. County commissioners are notorious for avoiding progressive government, equitable burden-sharing, zoning and planned growth. With a wave of growth pending before us, annexation may be the only way around that obstacle. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/12/7-12-t2-equity-demands-annexation/ While medical industry lobbyists and their Republican defenders are telling Americans they don't need the simple option of a public health care plan to keep private insurers competitive under health care reform, Tennessee's small businesses -- the backbone of the state's job base and employer-sponsored health insurance-- are saying exactly the opposite, a new non-partisan poll of the state's small businesses shows. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/11/t1-business-wants-health-reform/ These days a cell phone is assumed to be a necessary part of life, especially for the young. Most kids aged 12 and up seem to have one and to use it everywhere -- even in school. That's a problem that properly concerns school officials who must balance the device's high potential for disruption in the classroom with its undeniable value in an emergency. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/10/t1-kids-schools-and-cell-phones/ Thursday's lead editorial, "Guns can't be the answer," contained three misspelling errors due to an editor's faulty proof-reading with a spell-check program. One should have said that the victim of a shooting "had just fired a shot at a black Durango...", not a black During. A second wrongly changed the slang word dissed into "disused." That ignored the explanation of shootings that occur due to being "dissed, or disrespected." A third error, in a sentence on firearms, should have said Glock 9-mm, not Lock 9-mm. We regret the errors. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/10/t2-correction/ Teen drivers in Tennessee are more at risk for a fatal accident than similarly aged drivers in most other states, according to an insurance company study. A state official does not dispute that sad fact, but says that aggressive state programs are reducing the carnage. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/10/t3-tennessees-teens-at-risk-on-roads/ The recent rash of shootings here -- several in April and May, 11 in June, and two already this month -- understandably stir concern that gun violence is not only out of control, but that it is becoming normative behavior for urban gang members that the police seem ill-equipped to thwart. That is perhaps most apparent in the troubling number of young teenagers involved. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/09/t1-guns-cant-be-the-answer/ Cyber attacks in recent days have targeted and in some cases crippled Web sites at several major government agencies and other high-profile institutions. The stealthy strikes are a stark reminder that national security in the Internet Age requires far more than a robust military and active intelligence services. It requires a well-equipped force highly trained in the arts of cyber security and cyber warfare. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/09/t2-warfare-of-a-different-sort/ If President Obama was looking for a diplomatic challenge on his way to the G8 conference in Italy today, he couldn’t have made a better choice than his two-day stop in Russia. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/08/challenges-russia/ Syria and Iran once marched in lock-step. Both were among the most militant of Mid-East states, both espoused strong anti-Israel doctrines and both were decidedly anti-American. That's changed. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/08/t1-syria-turns-toward-us/ The dismal report showing that the economy shed another 467,000 jobs in June may have been obscured by the July 4th holiday, but it should not go unnoticed. It confirms the pernicious grip of the worst recession since the 1930s, and the difficulties that the nation's stressed families, workers and businesses must yet endure while looking for a turnaround. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/07/joblessness-still-chief-problem/ UTC ended years of academic insularity in 2007 when it offered tuition discounts to undergraduate students who lived in nearby North Georgia. It can move farther down the road to becoming a true metropolitan university by extending the same in-state tuit http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/07/expand-utcs-tuition-discount/ The Tennessee State Capitol building is 150 years old this year and a special sesquicentennial exhibit at the State Museum in Nashville commemorates the anniversary. Open to the public through Aug. 9, the multifaceted exhibit offers an informative look at the Capitol's history. The Capitol and the state museum always are worth a visit, but the current celebration and exhibit makes them especially so. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/06/7-6-t1-capitol-events-in-nashville/ A celebration of one of Georgia's most recognizable buildings begins Wednesday. The Georgia State Capitol turns 120 years old this year and the state is properly commemorating the event with a "birthday" party this week and additional events to follow in coming months. It is an appropriate way to remind Georgians and others of the central role the building and the government it symbolizes play in the history of the state and its residents. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/06/7-6-t2-and-under-georgias-gold-dome/ The House of Representatives' adoption of a wide-ranging energy bill includes a cap-and-trade system to limit emissions of greenhouse gases. That marks a milestone for Congress, and invites commensurate action by the Senate. Yet approval of the bill proved hard -- it was adopted on 219-to-212 vote, with 44 Democrats voting against it -- and its passage in the Senate will be even more contentious. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/05/7-5-t1-dealing-with-climate-change/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/