“If we have a client come in and they’re married and they say that they’re going to harm their spouse, if this bill were to pass, we’re not allowed to ask, ‘Do you have firearms in the home?'” she told News 2. “If they are suicidal, we’re not allowed to ask questions about firearms. If we’re working with a teenager and they begin to talk about feelings of wanting to take things out on other people in the school and making threats, we can’t ask about firearms. It severely limits our ability to conduct our fiduciary duties of duty to warn.”

Protecting constitutional rights and public safety: Bill would prohibit doctors from asking about firearm ownership

Jacobs — an atmospheric scientist with a background in computer forecasting — led the agency on an acting basis during Trump’s first term. He was the chief in the chair during the so-called “Sharpiegate” weather scandal in 2019, when Trump drew with a Sharpie on a Hurricane Dorian track to suggest it would hit Alabama, contradicting the official federal forecast.

At the time, Jacobs and other top NOAA officials were ordered by the White House to double down on Trump’s false claim, which they ultimately did. A subsequent investigation into the incident found Jacobs had violated NOAA’s code of ethics.

I am surprised at this small number of staff....

There are 12 people who work in the National Hurricane Center’s specialist forecasting unit

Life-saving weather warnings are on the line as Trump and DOGE target America’s forecasting agency

“It’s alarming that Elon Musk is attempting to gain access to the Federal Government’s critical payment system, which is responsible for delivering Social Security checks, tax refunds, and Medicare benefits to Americans across the country,” Warren said in a statement provided to CNN. “It is equally alarming that Musk and the Trump Administration drove out the most senior career official at Treasury as the agency is already taking extraordinary measures to avoid a US default.”

How an arcane Treasury Department office became ground zero in the war over federal spending

The offer, outlined in a memo the U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent to employees Tuesday, would give federal workers eight months of pay and benefits through September if they resign by Feb. 6.

Donald Trump offers eight-month buyouts to all federal employees

Google Maps will change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America

Editor update:
Google explained that it has a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” The name will be tweaked when the Geographic Names Information System, a government database of names and location data, is updated.

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Tire manufacturer Bridgestone Americas is closing its LaVergne, Tennessee, truck and bus radial tire plant and laying off 700 workers there, the company announced in a news release.

Bridgestone closes a tire plant in Tennessee with 700 layoffs and other reductions

Topics:

Residents also brought up the proposed roundabout for the Martin Mill Pike and Tipton Station Road intersection

This statement is referring to a nearly 350-home proposed development on Tipton Station Road. The property at 2814 Tipton Station is roughly 155 acres and backs right up to Stock Creek.

Development district for South Knoxville subdivision approved despite some pushback

On Monday, Trump signed a sweeping order aimed in part at reversing several Biden administration executive orders on health care, including efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, enhancing the Affordable Care Act and increasing protections for Medicaid enrollees. The so-called initial rescissions order, according to the Trump White House, is aimed at Biden policies that it says are “deeply unpopular” and “radical.”

Trump reverses Biden policies on drug pricing and Obamacare

Seems like there should be a free South Knox/Sevier Ave/Kerns trolley from downtown on weekends at least while the Gay Street bridge is out.

South Knoxville business fears for survival amid bridge closure, Sevier Avenue project

“As introduced, requires a local legislative body to approve an application for a proposed development without allowing public comment, if the legislative body determines that the proposed development is in substantial compliance with the zoning regulations or map that was previously made available for public review and comment.”

“The purpose of this is to take a lot of the politics out of land use ...

Interesting interpretation.

New Tennessee bill would limit public comment on proposed developments

The top pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — CVS Health’s Caremark Rx, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx — generated roughly $7.3 billion through price hikes over about five years starting in 2017, the FTC said.

The “excess” price hikes affected generic drugs used to treat heart disease, HIV and cancer, among other conditions, with some increases more than 1,000% of the national average costs of acquiring the medications, the commission said.

The FTC also said these so-called Big Three health care companies — which it estimates administer 80% of all prescriptions in the U.S. — are inflating drug prices “at an alarming rate, which means there is an urgent need for policymakers to address it.”

Top three insurers reaped $7.3 billion through their drug middlemen's markups, FTC says

In one example listed in the lawsuit, a single mother with two dependents was given a loan even though she had a residual income of -$0.50 based on Vanderbilt’s low monthly expense estimate for the family as well as nine debts in collections.

Sounds kind of like 2007-2008

Maryville-based lender accused of giving borrowers mortgages they could not repay

One of the largest companies that tracks Americans’ location through smartphone data has been hacked by Russian cybercriminals in exchange for ransom, according to two cybersecurity researchers, a person who has posted a massive trove of allegedly hacked files and a notice the company sent to the Norwegian government.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/location-data-broker-gravy-analytics-was-seemingly-hacked-experts-say-rcna187038

A yearlong bipartisan congressional investigation into two private equity-backed U.S. hospital systems found that patient care deteriorated at both operations as their private equity owners reaped significant payouts on their investments in the systems. The findings reinforced academic research showing how private equity health care investments harm patients while enriching investors.

Private equity reduces patient care while enriching investors, Senate report finds

In October 2023, the City of Knoxville obtained the land for the pedestrian bridge, located at 23253 W. Blount Avenue. The city also designated $20 million of state funds toward the pedestrian bridge development.

Knoxville to get $24.7M RAISE grant for pedestrian bridge

Knoxville's long-awaited pedestrian bridge project receives over $20M in federal funding

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U.S. consumers will no longer have medical debt appear on their credit reports under to a new rule the Biden administration finalized Tuesday.

About 1 in 12 adults in the U.S. have medical debt, according to a 2024 poll from KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues. The CFPB determined that a medical bill on a person’s credit report was a poor predictor of whether they would repay a loan yet contributed to thousands of denied mortgage applications.

Biden administration finalizes rule to strike medical debt from credit reports

Mon
Jan 6 2025
11:34 am

Residents, business owners and other stakeholders are invited to learn more about the Sevier Avenue Streetscape Project at a public open house on Thursday, Jan. 9, 5:30-7 p.m. at South Knoxville Elementary School, 801 Sevier Ave.
The project includes ADA-compliant sidewalks, a new railroad crossing, new streetlights and traffic signals, a roundabout, and upgraded (and buried) utilities.

Sevier Avenue Streetscape Project.

CNN’s Van Jones had a tense exchange with Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison, the chair of the Republican Caucus, saying in the interview that state Republicans had been “unreasonable” in expelling two Black Democrats over a floor protest on gun violence.

CNN’s Van Jones in tense exchange with GOP Tennessee state lawmaker: ‘Why are you being so unreasonable?’

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