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	<title>Ellen Smith for Oak Ridge</title>
	<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog</link>
	<description>I&#039;m Ellen Smith, member of the Oak Ridge City Council. Thank you for visiting my blog and reading my views on public and private life in and around Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This website is my own; content here does not represent the official policies or views of the City of Oak Ridge. To add your own comments, click on the topic title to open a comment box. To read posts about a particular topic, scroll down to &#34;Categories&#34; (in the sidebar) or use the &#34;Search&#34; box in the sidebar. Look under &#34;Archives&#34; to see collections of past posts organized by date.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 19:19:12 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Good press for our metro area</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Forbes magazine ranks the Knoxville Metropolitan Area (which includes Oak Ridge) #6 in its list of the best &#8220;mid-size&#8221; metro areas for jobs (and we&#8217;re number 33 overall among the 398 U.S. metro areas), with healthy job growth. Interestingly, Knoxville seems to be bucking the trends described in the Forbes article, which says that that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/05/08/good-press-for-our-metro-area/</link>
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		<title>Sizing up the competition</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Folks around Oak Ridge are enthusiastic about the prospects for small modular reactors (SMRs) at the southwestern Oak Ridge location known as the &#8220;breeder site&#8221;, but we need to be aware that there are other project sponsors and communities aiming for financial assistance and quick regulatory review as the first SMRs.  A New York Times [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/04/27/sizing-up-the-competition/</link>
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		<title>Busy evening</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Tuesday evening shapes up as busy. First is a PlanET public forum, &#8220;What kind of East Tennessee do we want to pass on to our children?&#8221; or &#8220;Shared Values and Aspirations for 2040&#8243;, 5:30 PM at Anderson County High School. This is one of those events where people sit around a table and talk [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/04/24/busy-evening/</link>
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		<title>Part of Quincy Avenue to close next week</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A press release from the City of Oak Ridge Public Works Department announces that Quincy Avenue between South Purdue Avenue and South
Illinois Avenue (State Route 62) will be closing on Friday, April 27, 2012, to allow construction of the Woodland Town Center commercial development, whose first tenants will be Panera Bread (relocated from its current [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/04/19/part-of-quincy-avenue-to-close-next-week/</link>
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		<title>Our once-a-year chance to get rid of household hazardous waste</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Anderson County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day 
Saturday, April 14, 2012, from 9 AM to 2 PM at the Oak Ridge Public Works Building (behind K-Mart in Oak Ridge).
Household Hazardous Waste is anything generated in the household that has a hazardous property such as being flammable, corrosive, toxic or reactive with heat or contact with [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/04/09/our-once-a-year-chance-to-get-rid-of-household-hazardous-waste/</link>
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		<title>Another new ordinance on parking</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The third ordinance on parking – the one that Council passed on first reading last Monday – is an amendment to the city ordinances related to on-street parking. It will clarify some of the existing requirements to make it easier for police to enforce them and it will add some new provisions to discourage on-street [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/04/02/another-new-ordinance-on-parking/</link>
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		<title>New ordinances for parking, on-street and off</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Parking has been a big topic for Oak Ridge City Council in recent weeks, and on Monday evening we made our first final decisions on the subject when we passed two ordinances on second reading (that means they will go into effect soon). A third ordinance passed on first reading (that means it needs to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/03/27/new-ordinances-for-parking-on-street-and-off/</link>
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		<title>HB 0368/SB 0893 is harmful to the interests of Oak Ridge and Tennessee</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My email to State Senators Randy McNally and Ken Yager: 
As a scientist and an elected official in the city of Oak Ridge, which trades on its scientific reputation, I urge you both to vote against SB 0893, the &#8220;critical thinking&#8221; bill.
Professional science teachers and the scientific community as a whole correctly interpret this as [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/03/19/hb-0368sb-0893-is-harmful-to-the-interests-of-oak-ridge-and-tennessee/</link>
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		<title>Are state and local budget-cutting slowing economic recovery?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This thought-provoking analysis by Nobel economist Paul Krugman probably has implications for the decisions that Oak Ridge needs to be making on various aspects of the city budget. He says that state and local budget cuts are &#8220;exerting a powerful drag on the economy as a whole.&#8221; He compares government spending during the Obama-era economic expansion [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/03/06/are-state-and-local-budget-cutting-slowing-economic-recovery/</link>
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		<title>International Women’s Day Forum at Roane State Oak Ridge</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a really impressive program line-up.
International Women’s Day Forum 
Prepared Girls &#8211; Powerful Women
Friday, March 9, 2012
12:00 PM (Registration) to 4:30 PM
at the
Oak Ridge Campus
Roane State Community College

The forum is FREE.
Refreshments will be provided.
FREE parking is available in front of the facility.
Speakers:

Power and Priorities, Lori Tucker, News Anchor, WATE-TV
Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking: The [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://ellensmith.org/blog/2012/03/04/international-women%e2%80%99s-day-forum-at-roane-state-oak-ridge/</link>
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