| Toll on parkway still possible
You never see one toll road," Holston Hills resident David Cochran told members of the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization's executive board. "They're like roaches. Once you see one, you know there's a bunch more coming." Members of the planning organization were asked to recommend that the Tennessee Department of Transportation continue to study the feasibility of making the parkway a pilot toll road for the state. After hearing from 30 speakers - all but two of whom opposed the concept - the board voted 7-2 to support further study. Voting in favor of more examination about building the parkway as a toll road were planning organization chairman Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam; Loudon County Mayor Doyle Arp; Dale Hurst, who represented the mayor of Lenoir City; Cindy Pionke, Knox County director of planning and development, who represented Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale; Eddy Ford, mayor of Farragut; John Lamb, who represented Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham; and Chris Hamby, who represented the mayor of Alcoa.
UPI NewsTrack TopNews
FORT CARSON, Colo., Nov. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. military personnel are turning to illegal drug use to help them adjust to life off the battlefield, it was reported Monday.
Although the Army denies there is increased illicit drug use among soldiers deployed to Iraq, ABC News reported Monday that drug use at Fort Carson is rampant, citing interviews with a dozen soldiers.
The base near Colorado Springs, Colo. is home to about 17,500 active duty personnel, nearly 5,000 of whom are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Spc. William Swenson, who was deployed to Iraq from Fort Carson, told ABC News "lots of soldiers" returning from Iraq are using drugs.
"Right when we got back, there were people using cocaine in the barracks; there were people smoking marijuana at strip clubs; one guy started shooting up," Swenson said.
A sweet legacy: Retired engineer wants to pass on the art of maple ...
BYFIELD — Bernie Field has to move quickly or else he will miss his chance at perfection. Darting back and forth around a large maple sugar evaporator, he checks for foam, then heads back to the thermometer to make sure the syrup is progressing well. Every half hour or so he needs to throw more logs into the wood burner that keeps the sap boiling. Though Field is now in only his first real maple sugar season, the process of making syrup was learned almost by osmosis. "I tapped my first tree at 5 years old. I've been around it my whole life," said Field, 62. "But this is the first time I've done it all alone in my backyard." Field's foray into maple sugaring was only natural. His family has owned a maple sugar business in Amherst for almost 100 years. Growing up, Field remembers traveling from their home in Byfield to Amherst.
Wild Card -- Tuesday PM
Ada County prosecutors have charged BSU footballer Cam Hall with three counts of felony vehicular manslaughter for his role in a triple highway fatality here. *Neither Memorial Day weekend campers or the smelly Kootenai County landfill provided clues in the search for two children missing from the scene of a triple murder near Coeur d'Alene earlier this month here. *With tougher Washington laws, officials say, meth labs may move to Idaho here. .
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