'Kinoxville' restaurant scores

R. Neal kills me sometimes. He has a hilarious post (click right here) about the state's so-called “award winning Legislative Information Services team.”

He talks about the new website Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey launched today. Or kind of launched. As Neal says: “There's a policy section but there's nothing there. Seems about right.”

Heh.

Anyhoo, it got me to thinking about a story I wrote back in July (click right smack here for it) about restaurant inspection scores. Someone called me up and said they couldn't access Knox County scores on the the health department's website.

That's because it takes you over to the state's site. When I went there, in bright red letters, it said; “Notice! Disclosure of Public Health records has been terminated by the State.”

WTF?

So, I called them. Got a bunch of BS, wrote a story. The next day, the Website said something like “temporarily disabled.” Or whatever. I can't remember. Anyway, the fella they had a contract with – someone out in North Carolina – called me that day to tell his story. I missed his call. Then he never returned mine. This went on for months.

I forgot about it.

Eventually, one day I called the state to get an update because the site was still down. Folks there didn't really want to talk about it. Now, keep in mind that when public officials don't answer questions, it means (a) they don't like you or (be) they have something to hide. (Technically, I suppose, it could be both.)

Well, I can't recall making anyone over there upset, so I suppose they're hiding something. You know, cause it's the state and all. And it's government. And whatever.

I'm getting long-winded here, I know.

But, after reading Neal's post (did I mention it's pretty funny?), I headed over to the state health department's website to see if they finally had the restaurant inspection scores back on line. Well, hell, it's hard to say. Click right smack here and you'll know what I mean.

It's either (a) not going to redirect you, or (b) redirect you to right smack here.

OK, got that, now look to the left and you'll see a list of cities. You, know, cause you might want to check out the scores. Now look for “Knoxville.”

They've managed to spell it three different ways.

I hope the crack pot team of award winning tomato cans isn't responsible for this.

Or our copy editors.

Heh.