Posted by Kevin

I’m always interested in what other local bloggers are writing about, and TennesseeTicket.com is one that I read on a daily basis. Joe Lance offers a non-partisan take on local politics that gives a unique insight into what’s happening in the area.

Yesterday Joe posted about a new website that would be launching today. I quickly emailed him asking him what the new website was all about. He responded by asking me to be apart of the new venture.

Without further ado, I ask that you take a few minutes and check out Chattarati.com.

Today’s entry describes the Chattarati as:

everything we love and hate about Chattanooga, or, communal narcissism for the scenic city.

Look for some of my writings to begin appearing on Chattarati.com within the week!

Posted by Kevin

If you visit KBB2.com on a regular basis, you might remember a post I wrote several weeks ago about saving time and money buying groceries.  In the article, I mentioned using “online coupon aggregators” (probably not the technical term) to find the best deals on the items you buy at the grocery store.  I also mentioned how Amazon.com sells many non-perishable grocery store items for less, and if your total bill is greater than $25 the freight is free.

Amy Williams over at the Chattanooga Times Free Press came across my post while doing research for an article she was working on about using coupons to save money at the grocery store during our sluggish economy.  Not only did she interview me for the article, but she used quoted KBB2.com!  Anyways, just thought I’d pass that a long!

(The link above is the only version of the story that was online before the print edition last night.)

Posted by Kevin

Wow!  Hundreds of thousands of pounds of green algae have been taken out of the Yellow Sea at the Chinese city of Qingdao.  Over 20,000 people have either volunteered or been ordered to help with the cleanup process.  With less than six weeks before the 2008 Olympic sailing regatta, a third of the coastal waters designated for Olympic use are covered with green algae.

Although Chinese and Olympic officials claim they’ll have the waters ready for the summer event, it’s a jaw dropping spectacle.  I don’t like the pieces of algae that hit my legs when I’m in the Gulf of Mexico.  I can’t imagine this!

For more information and the complete original article, check out the International Herald Tribune.  Photos from the International Herald Tribune.

Posted by Kevin

I’ve never been to Nightfall, but after watching this video, I may have to check it out! This is hilarious!

Posted by Kevin

Have any of you actually looked into our Sheriff’s race lately? You would think after we went wrong with our “can’t go wrong with Billy Long” sheriff, that we would be more involved in this important race. A Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer of a county, and we should not take the process of finding a new one lightly. To be honest, it’s very disturbing to watch the two videos I’ve posted below. There is only one candidate that I would even consider voting for on August 7. Let’s see who might get your vote.

I’m going to hold of on commenting for now. I’ll post my choice along with the reasons why at a later date. Just take 10 minutes and watch these videos…

Posted by Kevin

How many of you have an account on Facebook? Seeing that there are 30 million people in the United States that do, the chances are pretty good you get on the massive social networking site at least once a day.

Next question: How many of you get friend requests from people you don’t even know? It seems to happen a lot to me, and I’ve spoken to many other people that get the same thing.

So should we take this as a compliment? I mean, do our profile pictures look so good that complete strangers want to be my friend?  Ha!

I can’t say I mind it because the whole idea about this blog and social networking is to continually build my network larger. I’m simply making an observation.

Posted by Kevin

Many of you that know me know that investing is one of my hobbies.  I am a self taught stock and options trader, and I am constantly looking for new investment opportunities.  There is an article in today’s Times Free Press entitled Debit Card Trend Rising, which prompted me to write this quick post.  In summary, the article details how the overall use of ATMs and written checks is trending downward, and is being replaced by debit card use.

Chattanooga President of Regions Bank, Michael Mathis, said use of his company’s 78 ATMs is down over the past year.  President of Cornerstone Bank, Frank Hughes, said his company has noticed a sharp decline in checks being processed.  The bank is on track to process 13% fewer checks in 2008 than they did in 2007.

This all means one thing - people are using their debit cards.  Who is the largest beneficiary of this trend?  I’m really not sure because I’m not expert, but I can say with certainty that Visa and Mastercard are positioned well for the continued rise in plastic usage.

I also own a small business, and each time someone pays with a credit card or debit card, I am charged a fee of anywhere between 2% and 3.5%.  Let’s put it this way, Mastercard made $4 Billion in 2007.  Their net profit was $1 Billion.  That’s darn good margins after expenses.  Visa’s income statement is a little harder to get ahold of because they just went public this year, but they have even more market share than Mastercard.

The bottom line - these companies are positioned well in the long run.  The current economic conditions might slow their uptrend, but these two companies are ones that I will have in my long term portfolio.  Everything is going digital, and consumers paying for their stuff is no exception.

Buy Visa or Mastercard for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community.

Posted by Kevin

There is no scientific poll that measures the approval ratings of our local School Board, but if there was one I’m sure it would be at least as low as our current Commander-in-Chief.  Check out the latest web poll from the Chattanoogan.com that asks readers if they approve of the premature contract renewal for Dr. Scales.

I normally do not put much weight in web polls because they can easily be skewed if certain restrictions are not set in place.  I believe this one is pretty accurate though.  It doesn’t allow anyone to vote twice from the same computer, and the sheer magnitude of voters disagreeing with the Hamilton County School Board’s decision is very telling.

If you haven’t kept up with all the details, you should start by reading Rhonda Thurman’s account that she posted online last week.  Then read the article that was written the night of the vote.  Finally, finish up with this article that was posted several days ago.

This might be my favorite excerpt from this whole ordeal:

Ms. Thurman said, “I still do not know who wrote this contract and negotiated it.”

Mr. Conner, who is an attorney, said he did so after getting a request from Dr. Scales.

What?  Since when does the employee ask the employer to renegotiate his contract without their being public discussion?  At least let the other board members know.  I’m personally offended that someone inside the Administration took the time to type out six pages of accomplishments.  Who cares?!?

Anyways, what do you think about this nonsense?  Leave a comment below and let us know.

Posted by Kevin

I periodically write about ways my readers can save money, and this just might be the best deal I’ve found yet! Everyone uses printer ink. We use it at home, work and school. As photo printing becomes easier to do at home, we use even more ink printing out high quality photos of our family, friends and events. I use at least two black ink cartridges a month at work between printing, faxing and copying. Using 00inkjets.com saves me an average of 80% per month on my ink expenses. Let’s break that down so you can see exactly how much money you can save by using 00inkjets.com.

I use a Brother MFC-420CN at work, and I average two ink cartridges per month. A Brother black ink cartridge for my printer has the model number LC41BK. I found it online at OfficeDepot.com for $22.99, and I found it at BestBuy.com for $23.49. I did find the LC41BK at TigerDirect.com for $17.99, but I still think that’s too expensive for ONE cartridge!

For the purposes of calculations, let’s not take shipping costs into account (although it would add quite a bit more to these prices!).

Check out the ULTRA LOW prices over at 00inkjets.com. I buy a black ink cartridge for the exact same printer for a paltry $5.23 each! That means I can buy four (4) of these for the price of one (1) of the cartridges from the “Big Box” stores. Also, if I order a certain dollar amount of ink, I get free shipping!

The salesmen at the retail stores will tell you the generic brand cartridge doesn’t hold as much ink. Check it out for yourself. Each cartridge I’ve mentioned above holds 20 ml of ink and prints up to 500 pages! Even the one that costs $5.23! And take it from someone who uses these cartridges - here’s a breakdown of my monthly and yearly savings from using 00inkjets.com:

Brother LC41BK for the MFC420CN Printer
Average Retail Price: $23.24
00Inkjets.com Price: $5.23
Cartridges Used Per Month: 2
Cost of Ink Per Month: $10.46
Savings Per Month: $36.02
Savings Per Year: $432.24

Now what could you do with an extra $432.24 per year? I can think of a lot of things!

Be smart, save money, and check out 00inkjets.com today.

**Also, check out my earlier post on saving 5% every single time you purchase gas! It’s easy and free!

Posted by Kevin

It took me much time and prayer to decide to run for the District 7 seat on the Hamilton County School Board. It took even longer and much more prayer to decide to withdraw my name from the race. As I’ve stated before, it was strictly a personal decision based on time and priorities. I felt like I would not be able to give the citizens of District 7 the time they deserved at this point in my life. Now I’m wondering if I made the right decision. With the recent call by several of our current board members to renew Dr. Jim Scales contract two years early, I’m disappointed and utterly disgusted that our current slate of candidates from District 7 have not stepped up to voice their opinion on the matter.

All we hear is ’safety in schools,’ ‘too much spending,’ ‘discipline for our children,’ ‘overcrowding schools,’ etc. But what I don’t hear is any details on how these things will be fixed. I also don’t hear any pronounced stances on current issues such as the proposed contract renewal of the Superintendent. This is an enormous issues. If we have all of these ‘problems’ then should we not hold the administration accountable?

Even if Dr. Scales is doing a fantastic job running our schools, his contract should be renewed at the proper time. A multitude of things could happen over the next two years, and to renew his contract now would be a major mistake.

Why can we not wait another month and a half for the School Board elections? It only makes sense to let the board that will be serving the remaining two years of his current contract and the first two years of the proposed renewal to make the decision. This smells of a quick strike by several board members to vote this in while they know they have the support on the board. It will also handcuff the new board by forcing them to deal with a situation they had no control over. I don’t think Dumas, Juster and Mosley/Dzik would vote in favor of the contact renewal. I really don’t think Dumas and Juster will have a say anyways. Chip Baker will win his election, and I really don’t think Juster has the widespread support that Tim Price likes to think he has.

Perhaps the most egregious example of wrongdoing is the way in which the school board members and the public were notified. According to Rhonda Thurman’s account, Board Chairman Kenny Smith was forced to put the contract on the agenda against his better judgement. Because two separate board members requested it be on the agenda, Kenny had no choice. Only thirty minutes later a press release was sent out from Central Office entitled “Board asked to consider new contract for Superintendent.” There were also six pages of accomplishments of Dr. Scales since he had been the Superintendent. School Board Chairman Kenny Smith knew nothing about the press release.

Read Rhonda’s entire account of the situation for more information and examples of ‘back room deals.’ I don’t have time to list them all, but I can say one thing. Without placing blame on any one person or group of people, the Hamilton County Department of Education as a whole gets a big fat “F” for failure. Even if it’s failure to communicate amongst themselves, they have proven once again that their ineptness is a detriment to our school system and our children.

I urge the current slate of candidates to speak up on this issue and let the voters know where they stand.  Rhonda’s right, and you should listen to her this time.