Mike Ross owns a LOT of land in Blount County. This is the subdivision you see up in the mountains beyond Jellico between here and KY along I-75:

Federal authorities have cited a prominent East Tennessee developer for illegally strip-mining coal at a gated, luxury golf resort touted as an "eco-friendly community" under construction in Campbell County.

Link...

Our favorite bank hits the news again!

(Link...)

Better read it quickly before they retract it.

According to an article in the Daily Times (Link...) by Rick Laney on Wednesday, 8/29, our local housing market was in a "free fall". But by Friday, there was some sort of weird cross between an advertisement and editorial right there on page 3 painting quite a different picture. It wasn't marked as an ad, but didn't look like the usual news article either. Very confusing. Did anyone else notice it?

With plunging real estate prices and sales being the top of the news nationally, you would expect Blount County's market to follow the trend at least somewhat.

So which is it? And what's up with the DT?? Can't make up their minds? Or maybe too much pressure from the local powerbase: realtors and developers. I guess realtors DO place a lot of ads in the course of business. I'd like to think the paper would print the facts, though, and that those facts wouldn't change with the winds of outside pressure.