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The first Great Smoky Mountains Sustainable Tourism Summit takes place Monday and Tuesday in Knoxville. Sustainable Tourism is defined as an industry that attempts to have a low impact on local environment and culture as it produces jobs and income. Susan Whitaker is the Commissioner of Tourism for Tennessee. She tells WUOT's Chrissy Keuper that in 2006, tourism brought $13.4 billion dollars into the state's economy and that annually, tourism provides about 180,000 jobs in the state and produces about a billion dollars in sales tax revenue...
Two retired Army officers are in Knoxville today to discuss U.S. policy in Iraq. Lieutenant General Robert Gard and Colonel William Hauser say American troops are in an untenable situation in Iraq. Officially, military personnel support the Bush Administration's policy. But Gard says personal opinion is very different...
Today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most controversial environmental cases in national and East Tennessee history. On this date in 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Hill vs. the Tennessee Valley Authority--- also known as the Snail Darter case. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper has a report on this important case...
This evening, the Tennessee Health Care Campaign will host a town hall meeting with several state legislators about the status of health coverage for the poor. One of the topics that will surely arise is the upcoming transition from the federal government's Medicaid Spend-down program to the state's program. John Stewart of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign tells WUOT's Chrissy Keuper many of the people affected by the transition are in danger of losing their health coverage...
On the surface, a discussion about ethics and the environment may seem pretty self-explanatory. After all, don't we have an ethical obligation to take care of our environment? But look deeper and it gets a bit more complex. Why do we have an obligation? What happens if we don't fulfill it? And in the grand scheme of things, why does that even matter? As a species, aren't we just passing through anyway? On this segment of Dialogue, host Matt Shafer Powell Today tackles some of those issues with John Nolt, an Environmental Ethicist from the University of Tennessee...