--E. Frank Stephenson

I'm happy to see my employer pushing back against the Tennessee Higher Ed Commission's anti-competitive behavior; here's a synopsis:

Berry College is suing Tennessee’s higher education commission in a dispute over billboard advertising.

Berry College says in the federal lawsuit that the Tennessee agency has threatened to sue the school if it continues to advertise in that state without registering and paying fees of more than $20,000 a year.

The Rome-based school says it competes with Tennessee colleges and has advertised on at least one billboard in the state. It depicts two students in front of a college building with Berry’s name, website and the phrase “26,000 acres of opportunity.”

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission has threatened other schools with such requirements in order to reduce competition from out-of-state institutions, Berry maintains in the lawsuit. Other schools have removed their ads over the issue rather than risk civil and criminal sanctions, the school’s lawyers say.

--E. Frank Stephenson

Life Church will meet at Brewhouse

--E. Frank Stephenson

First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the government says it will import 50m rolls to boost supplies.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.

"This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in Caracas. "I'm 71 years old and this is the first time I've seen this."

One supermarket visited by the Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.

"I've been looking for it for two weeks," said Cristina Ramos. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."

Economists say Venezuela's shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

Source. I wonder if it's just a cheap stunt to get a visit from Sheryl Crow--she'd be an upgrade over Sean Penn who liked to visit his departed pal Hugo.

--E. Frank Stephenson

Florida quietly shortened yellow light standards & lengths, resulting in more red light camera tickets for you

One of the best things to happen under Georgia's golden dome was enacting legislation requiring that a second be added to yellow lights at red light camera intersections. When cities such as Rome then got rid of their red light cameras it was apparent that the cameras were more about revenue than safety.

--E. Frank Stephenson

That's the title of a superb takedown of NC's film tax credits by Jon Sanders. The critique, though, is more general than just the film tax credit as Jon goes after a broad swath of economic impact studies based on absurdly large multipliers (one of a renewable fuel mandate claimed a multiplier of 19.3!).