State Sen. Amy Sinclair and State Rep. Jon Thorup were in Knoxville on Saturday for their monthly forum, in which they fielded questions from the public about bills which did and didn’t make the cut for the General Assembly’s “funnel” period this month.

Sen. Sinclair addressed the widening college admissions scandal elsewhere, in which a number of prominent persons and celebrities are accused of outright buying admissions for their children onto college campuses. She told the crowd she’s willing to make inquiries about whether this could happen here.

“It’s certainly something that I’m willing to ask questions about; but it’s disturbing that a public (university like) USC, it’s disturbing that a public university would be willing to sell a slot,” Sinclair says.

She also told the audience that she supported legislation backed by the utility companies that would slow widespread adoption of solar technologies by individuals, municipalities, school districts and churches. The legislation is opposed by pork producers and the League of Cities, and could stall solar projects planned by the Knoxville Community School District and the City of Knoxville.

Rep. Thorup says he often gets questions from the public about proposed bills which offer radical changes or ideas to state laws; he says many of these measures have little chance of passage, and the fact they even get put for consideration is sometimes amazing to him.

“The same reaction a lot of times happens in both houses; we’ll get a bill put on our desks and…‘What the? Whaat?! Why would anybody put this in print? This isn’t going anywhere!’ So…there’s a certain amount of disbelief sometimes on these things.”

Sen. Sinclair told constituents a bill which did move on concerns free speech rights on the state’s university campuses; this stems from a lawsuit filed against the University of Iowa, and the Senator says the bill comes at the request of the university in order to give them some guidance in an effort to keep the situation from repeating itself.