From the press release:

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission has announced its intention to provide an extra tag for youth only at the 2012 elk hunt at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said if implemented, the youth tag would be in addition to the four tags that would be drawn and the tag that has been donated to a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).   There would now be a total of six tags available for the special season. The youth tag would be for Tennessee resident youth only between the ages of 13-16.

The one tag would be for a hunt to be held at North Cumberland WMA on the weekend of Oct. 20-21 which would follow the Fourth Annual Elk Hunt set for Oct. 15-19. All five elk hunting zones would be available for the youth hunter giving the juvenile access to approximately 40,000 acres for the elk hunt.

The general elk hunt has been and will continue to be open to all applicants regardless of age or residency.

Due to a big game gun season being held, all deer archery hunters on the WMA would be required to follow the blaze orange requirements. This would apply only to the WMA elk hunting zones while a gun season is underway and not the entire WMA.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is seeking comments concerning the proposed hunt to be presented to the TWRC. Comments may be sent to TWRA Big Program Coordinator Chuck Yoest at chuck.yoest@tn.gov or by mail to Chuck Yoest, Wildlife Division, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, P.O. 40747, Nashville, TN 37204.

Comments must be received prior to Feb. 8 so they can be presented at the next TWRC meeting.

That’s a start. Now they need to take one of the four permits and stipulate that it be awarded to a resident of Scott, Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne or Morgan counties.

President Barack Obama declared during his State of the Union address Tuesday that “America is back.” Which leads to the question: Where did America go?

Sure, we’ve been mired in deep economic recession, but the president’s statement wasn’t really about the economy. Here’s the complete statement, for context:

From the coalitions we’ve built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we’ve led against hunger and disease; from the blows we’ve dealt to our enemies; to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.

I’m not sure how any of that has changed over the past three years, but the part that struck me the most was the last part — the part about America’s moral example. To suggest that we’re any more or less of a moral example to the rest of the world today than we were four years ago seems a little nonsensical to me.

During the same speech, Obama ratcheted up the issue that was a rallying cry of sorts during the ’08 campaign: A need for Republicans and Democrats to work together; a need for a spirit of bipartisanship.

And the president is exactly right on that point. But how can you reach out to Republicans and ask them to work with you in one breath, while insinuating that they weren’t putting America’s best moral foot forward in the other breath?

Wouldn’t that kinda be like a politician saying that Bill Clinton isn’t fit to be president because of his extra-marital affair, then turning around and running for president himself despite his own marital transgressions?

Oh, wait . . . Sorry, Newt.

Launched yesterday by Scott County Mayor Jeff Tibbals at the Scott County Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting…

ShopScott.net

I’ve always preferred Microsoft’s Xbox video game platform over Sony’s Playstation III, mainly because of the whole American vs. non-American concept. But this is enough to give me pause:

Have you ever bought a used car? Do you frequent those loveliest of places, second-hand bookstores? Will you be wearing, at some point soon, a cherished article of clothing purchased from a sweet lady at a thrift store?

If you have engaged in any of these practices, welcome friend, to the bustling reality of trade, an element of society that goes back to the Stone Age.

But hark, the thundering hooves of evil approach. Microsoft and its busy little pals in games publishing want to put an end to the trade in used games, or at the very least, make it so difficult that it’s not worth the effort.

If recent reports are to be believed, they want to kill the trade in used games by adding technology to new consoles, like the Xbox 720, that lock-out games that were originally bought by someone else. As Kotaku points out, the details of Microsoft’s plan – if it even exists – are sketchy. But there is no doubt that games companies are hell-bent on destroying used games.

Of course: a.) Specifics on when the next generation of game consoles will be pushed out to the market is speculation at best; until we have an Xbox 720, it’s kinda dangerous to assume what technology the new platform will ship with, and b.) If Microsoft takes this step, Sony will fall over itself to follow suit.

Still, it’s a practice that is dangerous enough in theory to make it worth discussing now — before concept becomes reality.

This is merely a reflection of what is happening in the publishing industry as a whole. It isn’t altogether different from the heavy-handed tactics of the RIAA. To be fair, the RIAA’s bad rep came primarily from its assault on music pirates, but something had to be done. Subpoenaing dozens of individuals into court and dumping hefty lawsuits on their heads might have been a little too strong-armed, but the industry heavyweights couldn’t exactly stand by and watch as Internet users downloaded hundreds — in some cases, thousands — of MP3 files and videos over P2P networks. But the RIAA has since taken its heavy-handedness to the next level, and is one of the primary players in the congressional Internet-takeover bills that have created an international firestorm.

What next? Is Levi Strauss and Tommy Hilfiger going to patrol yard sales and thrift stores to be sure a mother-of-three isn’t trying to pick up some used jeans for her kids?

From newspaper design consultant Ed Henninger:

According to a recent survey, “70 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, say they prefer to read print and paper communications than reading off a screen.”

The survey was commissioned by Two Sides, the fast-growing non-profit organization created to promote the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper. So, it may be a bit self-serving (hmmm…wonder if that’s ever happened before!). Still, there are some findings that may be of interest to those of us who know newspapers are not dying.

This is a song that has caught my ear lately. It has been sung and recorded by a lot of different people; this particular version is by Jason Crabb. I’m not ordinarily much of a fan of Crabb’s music, but I think this is my favorite version of the song.

For anyone who has never heard it, “Why Me Lord” was written by Kris Kristofferson in 1972, and it became the biggest hit of his career. The single was certified gold in 1973 and even topped the Billboard country charts that same year.

It’s been one week since the last post in anticipation of a possible pattern change to colder and snowier weather in the South…which means that a post canceling that possibility and eluding to the possibility of the Winter That Isn’t A Winter continuing is several days overdue.

So here it is.

Models that were locked on a pattern change in the northern Atlantic just a week ago have now nearly lost their negative North Atlantic Oscillation depiction. The latest GFS ensembles are mostly keeping the NAO in neutral or positive territory for the next couple of weeks. More and more of the model’s ensembles, which were keeping the Arctic Oscillation in negative territory, are now moving it to neutral or even positive territory. The only real bonus in the projected pattern right now is the Pacific North American ridge index, which is still projected to move into positive territory. If enough of a ridge develops in the eastern Pacific, it could lead to some cold and snow in the South. But the PNA was consistently positive from mid December to mid January, with little change in the pattern in the South.

Add it all up, and it equates to a stagnant pattern over much of the continental U.S. for at least the next couple of weeks. That means mild weather and plenty of rain, just as we’ve seen since fall began. There’s still time for a broad-scale change, but time is quickly running out. The teleconnections can give us a reasonable idea of what to expect for the next couple of weeks. Once we get beyond that, we’ll be sailing towards Valentine’s Day. Once we get to Valentine’s Day, winter is — for all intent and purpose — over in our neck of the woods. Yes, there can still be some cold and there can still be some snow (even some big snows), but sustained winter usually doesn’t happen in late February or March. By mid February, the lengthening days and rising sun angle are really becoming noticeable.

So if you detest winter, give it up for Ma Nature. And just hope that we don’t pay for our good fortune by seeing the pattern flip just in time for spring — leading to a cool and wet spring season in the South.

It appears that GM is facing a bit of a problem with dealers refusing shipments of the Chevy Volt. Unfortunately, this isn’t a noble backlash by dealers in the wake of GM’s decision to move most of the car’s production to China, but rather a concern over reports that the car’s battery pack caught fire on some models, which is currently being investigated.

Still, the end justifies the means, I guess. If sales of the Volt crashes and burns (no pun intended, really), that’s a good thing.

I do realize that Chevy is not the only all-American manufacturer to outsource its labor. Far from it, in fact. But none have thumbed their nose at Americans the way GM did by taking taxpayer dollars to save itself from bankruptcy and returning the favor by jumping across the pond when they could’ve recreated some of the American jobs that had been lost as the once-proud automaker dipped deep into the red.

The Chicago Sun-Times on why it will no longer endorse candidates in elections:

With this in mind, the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board will approach election coverage in a new way. We will provide clear and accurate information about who the candidates are and where they stand on the issues most important to our city, our state and our country. We will post candidate questionnaires online. We will interview candidates in person and post the videos online. We will present side-by-side comparisons of the candidates’ views on the key issues. We will post assessments made by respected civic and professional groups, such as the Chicago Bar Association’s guide to judicial candidates.

What we will not do is endorse candidates. We have come to doubt the value of candidate endorsements by this newspaper or any newspaper, especially in a day when a multitude of information sources allow even a casual voter to be better informed than ever before.

Research on the matter suggests that editorial endorsements don’t change many votes, especially in higher-profile races. Another school of thought, however — often expressed by readers — is that candidate endorsements, more so than all other views on an editorial page, promote the perception of a hidden bias by a newspaper, from Page One to the sports pages.

Not included in that brief excerpt is the Sun-Times’ contention that newspapers today strive to be without partisan bias, because that isn’t true for too many of the nation’s largest newspapers.

But the Sun-Times’ reasoning is spot on. As a newspaper editor myself, I’ve always felt that newspapers have no business endorsing candidates or positions in elections. Newspapers should present all the available information to their readers, then let the readers make up their own minds. Anything else is a disservice to the readership and adds little value to the newspaper.

The latest Rasmussen poll in Florida finds former House Speaker Newt Gingrich up by nine over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney following Gingrich’s upset win in South Carolina on Saturday.

Which is proof that Republican voters have little interest in beating President Barack Obama in November, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary.

If Gingrich wins in Florida, he just might capture the nomination. That would be a disaster for the GOP, as Gingrich has no hope of beating Obama in the general election. Gingrich isn’t conservative and he carries more baggage than any other presidential candidate in the field. The press may be eating out of the palm of his hand for now, but that will change if and when he gets the nomination.