In Tuesday’s hearing, the opposition rolled out a representative from the Tennessee Drug Awareness Council. This is the first time TDAC has testified in four hearings on wine in food stores.

Two things from the testimony. The first is the TDAC representative said underage drinkers get 94% of their alcohol from their own homes or the homes of their friends. This goes right to our point teens rarely try to purchase alcohol in stores, especially when they know they will have to show proof of age as required in all grocery and convenience stores. Thanks for providing that information.

The TDAC representative testified about the cost to Tennessee of underage drinking. He explained the costs are associated with youth violence, youth traffic violations, high-risk sex, property crime, etc. In all, he said it costs Tennessee $1.7 billion per year. Here’s a link to the entire report.

(more…)

You can watch this morning’s hearing live online.

The streaming broadcast will begin at 10:30 am. Click “View Event” next to the Senate State and Local Government.

Wine in food stores is the first issue on the agenda.

We’ll also be tweeting live from the event @redwhitefood. Follow us or the #tnwinesales hashtag for all the fun.

Some fantastic comments from the Commercial Appeal‘s article this morning about wine in food stores. Enjoy.

“In other news, the butchers’ lobby launched an effort to pass legislation banning the sale of meat in grocery stores. ‘It is driving us right out of business,’ said a spokesman.”

Not every decision should be forever. Zero-based thinking is one way to evaluate whether decisions you made in the past are still valid today.

Here’s how it works.

1. Choose one of your decisions.
2. Ask yourself, “If I had not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I still make the same choice?”

If the answer is no, then your next step is to get out of the decision as quickly as possible.

This is the question the Senate State & Local Committee must ask itself tomorrow when it casts the first vote on wine in food stores.

(more…)

The Senate State & Local Committee is expected vote on legislation to allow wine sales in food stores at its meeting on March 29.

The legislation is the first item on the agenda. The committee will hear brief testimony from both sides and then take up the bill.

The meeting begins at 10:30 a.m.

WATCH THE HEARING LIVE

The General Assembly streams all meetings live. You can watch the live streaming of the State & Local meeting here. In the left-hand column, click “State and Local Government.” If you can’t watch live, it should be archived on the site.

We’ll also tweet during the hearing, so follow @RedWhiteFood for updates.

Congratulations to Matthew Hurtt for the winning entry in our Blog Day contest.

We appreciate his support for Red White and Food.

Read his winning entry

We had two entries for Blog Day 2011.

• Matthew Hurtt — “On Wine and Free Markets“
• Dancedivam — “Debunking, Part 1″

You get to help picking the winner of a $100 gift certificate.

Voting will be open until Thursday at 8 a.m. We’ll announce the winner tomorrow.

Thanks to Matthew and Dancedivam for continuing to spread the word about Red White and Food.

Blog Day is the second official part of Red White and Food Social Media Week.

We’ve asked many of our favorite bloggers (you can find them in the blogroll to the left) to write their take on selling wine in food stores.

Everyone who writes a blog post today will be eligible to win a $100 gift certificate. Readers will have an opportunity to vote on the best blog post beginning tomorrow morning.

The official 2011 Blog Day submissions are:

• Matthew Hurtt —  ”On Wine and Free Markets“
• Dancedivam — “Debunking, Part 1“

Last week, the Williamson Herald ran a story about our quest to change Tennessee’s antiquated liquor laws and allow food stores to sell wine. As always, we are grateful for the coverage and opportunity to engage Tennesseans in the debate.

So far, there have been approximately 1,295 media stories, editorials, op-eds, letters to the editor, trade magazine stories, and blog posts about wine in food stores. We’ve had media outlets update their stories before as new facts become part of the equation.

What happened last week in the Williamson Herald was the first time a story significantly changed after its original publication.

(more…)

It’s Social Media Week for Red White and Food.

Best of all, our great members have five chances to win $100 gift certificates to the food store of their choice.

The five contests this week are:

• Monday — Best Facebook profile/status update
• Tuesday — Best blog post
• Wednesday — Best tweet
• Thursday — Meetup/Check in
• Friday — LinkedIn status update

The contests are relatively simple. You can see how to enter and judging criteria for each on our website. You have to be Red White and Food member to win.

Like Charlie Sheen, we are truly winning in social media. Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated to the legislature yet.

To be winning, we need you to ask your friends to join the campaign and contact their legislators. The next month is crucial for our legislation with an expected vote in the Senate State & Local Committee coming soon.

Thanks to all of our great members. This week is about celebrating you and everything you’ve done to drag Tennessee kicking and screaming into the future.