Here are some political sites or blogs with announcements of, or reactions to, State Rep. Curt Cobb's decision to leave his legislative seat and take a job as Bedford County Clerk and Master: Adam Kleinheider, Post Politics web site at Nashville Post. Check the comments under the post for speculation about what will happen next and how it will affect the balance of power in the House....

In response to a story comment, I posted a followup comment explaining that county government is audited by the state each year, and the results are public record. I thought I'd repeat that information here, for anyone who's interested. To view the most recent audit of county government, you can go to...

How have you been affected by recent layoffs or closures? E-mail me at jcarney@t-g.com with your story, and please include a phone number in case I need to get in touch with you.

I turn 47 on Friday. Earlier today, I interviewed a school principal -- a school principal! -- who kept calling me "Mr. Carney" every other sentence. I wanted to reach out and smack him, but I'm too aged and infirm to do much damage.

Good news, everyone! Apparently all of our economic and military and social problems were solved while we weren't looking. The reason I'm assuming this is because Congress has enough time on its hands to hold hearings about whether we should have the BCS or a college football tournament. And I know they wouldn't waste time on college football unless all of the world's other problems had been solved first...

Is anyone out there using MagicJack for their home phone service? How do you like it? Have you had any problems with installation, billing or customer service? E-mail me, jcarney@t-g.com .

I had not seen Clyde Jacobs for some time and I ran into him at the gas pumps not more than a week ago. So I was shocked to hear of his death this week. Mr. Jacobs was an owner, and eventually the sole owner, of the Capri Theatre here for many years, and was also owner of the 41 Drive-In back when it was operating (on the property where Lamplighter Estates and The People's Church are now). ...

Somehow, this makes sense: Billy Mays, the fellow who plugs OxiClean, Kaboom! and a dozen other products at the top of his lungs on TV commercials and infomercials, now has his own TV show. Mays and another commercial pitchman, Anthony "Sully" Sullivan, will host "Pitchmen," premiering Wednesday on the Discovery Channel...

The whole debate about building signage in Shelbyville brought back a world of memories for me. The type of signage about which city officials are complaining is common, not only in Latin America -- I've seen it in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Bolivia -- but in Africa as well...