Editorial Roundup: Tennessee

Recent editorials from Tennessee newspapers:

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April 13

The Johnson City Press on a Tennessee senator’s response to the Biden Administration’s infrastructure plan:

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn took to Twitter last week to tear to shreds President Joe Biden’s proposal to address jobs and infrastructure, what the White House calls The American Jobs Plan.

The senator objected to the cost of the $2 trillion package and took issue with the relative lack of attention the plan pays to roads and bridges, what Blackburn argued was true infrastructure.

Biden’s plan, which includes $621 billion for transportation infrastructure like roads, bridges and electric vehicle-specific needs, $111 billion for clean drinking water, $100 billion for broadband expansion and $100 billion for power infrastructure, is a “Trojan horse for the radical left,” Blackburn explained.

In highlighting some of what she believed was outside the scope of the plan’s stated goals, Blackburn tweeted critically of the $400 billion in it earmarked for elder care.

The senator’s argument is one of semantics, that investing in the country’s care economy isn’t infrastructure spending, but she’s really just looking for an excuse to oppose something the Democratic president is in favor of.

However, going after senior health care is a strange move for Blackburn.

The spending is targeted at expanding Medicaid coverage for long-term care, meaning older people will receive more support to stay in their own homes longer instead of moving to assisted living facilities.

And it’s popular. Separate polls have put support of the elder care spending at 61% and 76% among likely voters. One poll estimated 64% of Republicans and 63% of Trump voters supported it.

Twitter users immediately called Blackburn callous for her seemingly anti-elderly stance, but it’s clear she was only mugging for the more radical voters in her base. In today’s political climate the senator believes she can cotton up to voters by playing games with people’s lives.

For now, it seems making the substantive positive changes for her constituents in this infrastructure plan is a bridge too far.

Online: https://www.johnsoncitypress.com

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April 12

The Crossville Chronicle on thanking essential workers who acted to keep people safe during severe weather:

Friday’s surprise tornado hit without warning. But our county was able to avoid a possible tragedy because our teachers, bus drivers, school resource officers, fire fighters, law enforcement, emergency medical workers and others were alert and acted quickly.

In some ways, the timing of the storm Thursday afternoon could not have been worse. Students weren’t safe inside their school. They were on buses, ready to go home, or preparing for after-school activities on a spring afternoon.

As we hear more about how quickly the storm developed out of a sunny sky, we can only say thank you to all the people who worked to protect their precious passengers and look after those kids and the injured in the wake of the storm.

Thanks, too, to our emergency responders who headed toward the emergency. They worked long into the night, the next day and over the weekend to remove debris and make areas safe for the community.

The clean up may take a little longer. We know there are residents who suffered severe damage to their homes that may need help. We know there are neighbors and others already stepping up to do what they can.

Emergencies and disasters often show us what this community is made of. Thursday confirms Cumberland County is made up of people who put others’ safety and wellbeing above their own, who are ready and willing to help at a moment’s notice.

Online: https://www.crossville-chronicle.com/

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April 1

The Kingsport Times-News on heeding warnings and not driving onto flooded roads:

This year April showers will bring not just flowers but continued damage from some of the worst flooding in parts of Tennessee in a decade, which has taken at least seven lives. We can’t control the weather, but if we all pay attention to the warnings, lives can be saved.

Heavy rain on March 31 prompted a new round of flash flood warnings from the National Weather Service in Morristown. With the ground saturated from heavy rains, roads in low-lying sections may be covered with water, with many rivers at or above flood stage throughout the region.

The message from law enforcement agencies is simply this: DO NOT drive into a flooded area.

Among the victims was a 61-year-old Surgoinsville woman whose vehicle was swept into Big Creek in Hawkins County, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. She was swept out of one of the windows, and her body was found about 20 yards downstream from the vehicle.

In Ashland City, a man drove his car around barricades and apparently drowned. He was in his 60s and ignored a sign warning of flooding and drove into high water, Cheatham County authorities said. In Nashville, a 70-year-old man was found in a submerged car in Seven Mile Creek.

Another victim was swept away as he got out of his car, which had become stuck in floodwaters near his home. Two other Nashville victims were found in a wooded area near a homeless camp.

Besides flooded homes, damage has also been severe including in Hawkins County where Laurel Run Park, known for the fictional flooding scenes filmed there for the 1983 movie “The River,” is facing massive repairs due to the real flooding that has occurred over the past two years. Last year, two footbridges were taken out by flooding, and an engineer told county officials earlier this week that another bridge is in jeopardy if steps aren’t taken to curb shoreline erosion along Laurel Run Creek.

Another problem that needs to be addressed soon is the two-mile hiking trail that follows the creek up the hollow to a popular waterfall. Heavy rain this past weekend washed a deep trench in part of the trail, and the engineer, who works for the USDA office in Rogersville, reportedly told county officials that the trail is only going to get worse if steps aren’t taken to divert rainwater off the trail and into the creek.

The Hawkins County Commission’s Parks Committee voted to forward a recommendation to the commission’s Budget Committee to fund approximately $225,000 worth of repairs to the park in the 2021-22 budget. That work includes erosion protection for the hiking trail and creek shoreline and new bridges on the trail and near the waterfall. The committee included the caveat in its motion, however, to put the park repairs in the budget “if funds are available.”

And they may be. Hawkins County will receive $11.1 million in federal stimulus funding, easily covering repairs to the popular park if allowed to be used for that purpose.

Meanwhile, heed the advice of Hawkins County Emergency Management Agency Director Jamie Miller, who said the tragic deaths bring home the importance of never driving into flooded areas. “That’s why they say, turn around, don’t drown.”

Online: https://www.timesnews.net