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May 31, 2006

You'd Have to Be Smoking Crack to Steal Commemorative Brass Nameplates from the Walnut Street Bridge in Order to Sell Them for Scrap So You Can Buy More Crack

Yep. Pretty much. Luke H. Swafford, the offender, got 11 months and 29 days.

In related news, the City Council is considering the purchase of a $265,000 surveillance system to help combat theft and vandalism.

Posted by pulseblogger at 10:08 AM | TrackBack

May 30, 2006

CNE Leaving the Property Management Biz

According to a press release, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise will gradually leave the property management business over the 14 months. CNE will shift its focus to training and education programs, various low- and moderate-income lending and neighborhood revitalization.

Posted by pulseblogger at 11:02 AM | TrackBack

Doing the Am-Nasty

You’re never going to believe this, but all three Republican candidates for U. S. Senate are so totally against amnesty for illegal immigrants. Oh, and they don’t like the Senate’s new immigration bill – the one Bill Frist voted for – either.

“The immigration bill passed by the U.S. Senate is unacceptable,” Van Hilleary declared Thursday in a press release. “Not only does it grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants who have broken the law but it also requires the United States to get Mexico’s approval before any physical barrier is constructed along our southern border.”

Ed Bryant agreed: good fences make good neighbors. “We must strengthen security at the border, refuse to tolerate illegal behavior, and make sure the federal government does not abdicate its constitutional responsibility to secure our borders,” he said. “We need comprehensive immigration reform, but we don't need amnesty, or any other reward for illegal behavior.” (We always rather thought that illegal behavior was its own reward.)

As for Bob Corker: yep, him too, but with a nifty instant-status-verification twist. “Comprehensive immigration legislation must include strong provisions to secure our borders without the inclusion of amnesty,” he said, “provide a means for those who want to work here to do so legally, and an instant verification system for employers to use to determine a worker’s status.” Corker did not offer any opinions on the upcoming Jack Black vehicle Nacho Libre. Or the Dixie Chicks.

Posted by pulseblogger at 10:54 AM | TrackBack

Long Time Gone

Have you heard the Dixie Chicks’ new single, “Not Ready to Make Nice”? No? That’s because Chattanooga’s country stations aren’t playing it.

Singer Natalie Maines famously badmouthed President Bush in a 2003 concert, and local radio behemoth US 101 isn’t… well, it isn’t ready to make nice. “We polled listeners online,” station operations manager Kris Van Dyke told the TFP’s Barry Courter, “and 67 percent said they still did not want to hear them, and that’s before they started running down country fans.” That’s funny: we didn’t know country fans could operate the Internet. Just kidding! We kid because we love! Please don’t boycott us!

Posted by pulseblogger at 10:53 AM | TrackBack

Let the Healy-ing Begin

At least one chapter of the Rob Healy saga ended on May 23 as Mayor Ron Littlefield announced a replacement for his favorite bomber atop Outdoor Chattanooga. Philip Grymes, who previously headed the city’s canoeing and kayaking programs, will receive a $45,000 salary.

Littlefield told Herman Wang – a nice busy outdoor week for him – that Grymes defeated five other finalists for the job. “He’s got more experience doing what Outdoor Chattanooga was intended to do,” the mayor said. “I’m sure he’ll carry this opportunity forward without missing a beat.” Or a stroke.

Posted by pulseblogger at 10:51 AM | TrackBack

Vend Over

Want to set up your hot dog stand on the 21st Century Waterfront? You’ll have to ask Friends of the Festival if your cart cuts the mustard. (The puns are no extra charge.) The City Council on Tuesday passed a contract placing the Riverbend Festival-running organization in charge of regulating sidewalk vending and street performers. Vendors and buskers will now be restricted to certain areas of the Waterfront.

“I think the agreement will bring more order to a potentially chaotic situation down there,” Councilman Jack Benson told the Times Free Press's Herman Wang. Because we all know what havoc a few warring string trios can wreck. They’re ruthless, those cellists.

Posted by pulseblogger at 10:50 AM | TrackBack

May 23, 2006

Hamilton County Herald IS a Newspaper

Giving an opinion after a request from Rep. JoAnne ("A representative from District 29, with Jo on our side the future's looking bright...") Favors, the Tennessee Attorney General's office has ruled that the Hamilton County Herald is, in fact, "a newspaper of general circulation."

Read more here.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:52 AM | TrackBack

Da, Da, Da

Say this for the Times Free Press: It does not lack for Da Vinci Code coverage. Not satisfied by Saturday’s front-page story in which pastors used their pulpits to dispute the celluloid heresy? Don’t worry: Monday’s paper has another, front-of-Metro story about pastors using their pulpits to “debunk” the movie. (Nice work on the unbiased headline, by the way.) Parishioners seem to have gotten the message, and are now ready to critique the film’s claims. “Harrison Ford would have been better than Tom Hanks,” a Good Shepherd Lutheran Church member told the TFP.

That’s not to mention the two-page spread on the movie in the Weekend section, or the interview with religious scholars in Saturday’s Lifestyle pages. Somehow it seems worth noting that all but one of these features was centered around the Christian counterattack on the movie. Damn secular media.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:43 AM | TrackBack

Staying Stong

The Stong Building, a century-old hotel next door to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo – and the structure named the city’s second-most imperiled by The Pulse last July – has been saved from demolition. Probably.

Joe Sliger of Eastman Construction purchased the Stong Building for $171,000 last week, according to reports in the Times Free Press and Chattanoogan.com. “I’ve always wanted that building,” Sliger told the TFP’s Herman Wang. We hope so: the top two floors of the three-story building are partially collapsed, and a rehabilitation plan is due to the city by May 30 to avert the wrecking ball.

The Stong Building, a thin wedge at the corner of Market and 14th Streets, first arrived on the city landscape as the Terminal Hotel, owned and operated by Chester Davis, a former porter at the Terminal Station (now the Choo-Choo) who made his capital on tips. The building stayed in the family even after the hotel closed in 1930. “My grandfather, he put a lot of work into the building, and over the years we kind of got away from doing what we should have done to keep the building running,” said Darrell D. Davis, one of 11 family co-owners. That might be an understatement: Neeld Messler, a local developer, told The Pulse last summer that the building’s deterioration was mostly due to roof leaks. “And it takes nothing more than going to ACE Hardware and getting some roof tar,” Messler said.

Note to Joe Sliger: Go to ACE Hardware. Get some roof tar.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:42 AM | TrackBack

Bob and Van and Weave

Just hours removed from the East Brainerd and Lookout Valley kickoffs of his door-to-door campaigning efforts, former Chattanooga Mayor and senatorial hopeful Bob Corker reportedly got into a shouting match with rival Republican primary candidate Van Hilleary outside a Tennessee Homecoming event in Memphis on Saturday night.

According to various reports, Hilleary and Corker traded verbal jabs as attendees filed past them into the venue. Hilleary is said to have attacked Corker’s recent TV ads as being full of lies. Corker supposedly accused Hilleary of “never doing anything with his life.”

Of course, considering subsequent comments from Hilleary-backing blogger Jeff Ward, it’s often hard to take any of this seriously.

“Heck I’m from West Tennessee, we have settled a lot of problems and disagreements in politics with our fists and a ball bat or two. It may be wrong, immature and unprofessional, but it is very decisive.”

And we wonder why it’s hard to get people to go to the polls. Or take bloggers seriously.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:40 AM | TrackBack

You Can Claim a Taser Was Used Improperly On Your Genitals, But You Can’t Hide

Brian Woodby, who was spotted by authorities while at press conference held by attorney John Wolfe accusing the Bradley County Sheriff’s department of improper Taser use, was arrested last week and charged with assault, disorderly conduct, unlawful possession of a firearm and public intoxication. Woodby, who is also facing charges in several other states including California and Minnesota, had claimed that a Taser was used on his testicles.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:38 AM | TrackBack

A Giant Leap for Ronkind

Responding to widespread criticism and speculation concerning pollution at the city’s proposed homeless shelter site, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield told City Council members last week that “you don’t have to wear a space suit there.”

Though a referenced EPA report said no further remedial action needed to be taken on the site, Littlefield also pointed out that there are no final design plans for the site as of yet, no cost estimates and no timetable for the project.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:36 AM | TrackBack

Chattanooga: (Still) Great for Auto Manufacturing!

A recent New York Times story mentioned Chattanooga as one of four possible locations for a new Toyota plant; the others being Greensboro, NC, Roanoke, VA and northeast Arkansas. Hopefully someone has told Toyota about Enterprise South.

Posted by pulseblogger at 09:34 AM | TrackBack

May 19, 2006

Iran Eyes Badges for Jews, Christians, Others

From Canada.com:

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."

The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.

Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.

"There's no reason to believe they won't pass this," said Rabbi Hier. "It will certainly pass unless there's some sort of international outcry over this."

Also in the piece...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described the Holocaust as a myth and earlier this year announced Iran would host a conference to re-examine the history of the Nazis' "Final Solution."

In related news, Germany has pledged to open its Holocaust records, perhaps (at least partially) in response to nutjobs like Ahmadinejad who say the Holocaust never happened.

Here's a movie about one other such nutjob.

Here's a movie about some local kids who are the polar opposite...

Posted by colrus at 02:17 PM | TrackBack

May 10, 2006

Hilt Case Gets Another Judge

So, this Nicholas Hilt case is going to get another judge...

A murder case has been switched to another judge after Criminal Court Judge Doug Meyer called the defendant "the scum of the earth" and said he "deserves the death penalty."

District Attorney Bill Cox asked for the change, saying, "You do not want to take a chance on possible error."

The murder trial of Nicholas Hilt will be heard by Criminal Court Judge Don Poole beginning June 5.

I'm no legal scholar, but I would imagine this is a good thing, as it is probably hard to prove that someone is the scum of the earth.

...though I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see someone try.

Posted by colrus at 02:17 PM | TrackBack

May 09, 2006

And the Award for Sorest Loser in Last Week's Elections Goes to…

…18-year Bradley County Sheriff Dan Gilley, who was quick to blame “outside influences” for his loss to Tim Gobble in last week’s Bradley County Sheriff’s race.

Chief among those “outside influences” is Chattanooga attorney/talk show host John Wolfe, who is currently representing Jason Adams, Brian Woody and the family of Timothy McCargo—three men who were all allegedly improperly stunned with tasers while in custody at the Bradley County Jail. Shortly after losing the election, Gilley told NewsChannel 9 that he was “surprised at how much influence outside individuals” like Wolfe “had in this race.”

“I don't think a Chattanooga ultra-liberal attorney should be allowed to have an active role in anybody's campaign, and obviously he did," he added.
Gilley also saved some ire for the folks behind the “outside influences” at HometownCleveland.com, a Web site that has published extensive criticism of Gilley.

"We've got an online news service here in Cleveland that is just scurrilous, probably the worst piece of trash that I've ever read and it apparently influenced some peoples' thinking," he said.

HometownCleveland.com writer J. Michael Leonard told Channel 9 that Gilley "ran a bad campaign and I'd like to think we had influence." Perk Evans, technical director for the site, told the station that if the site was “able to play a small part in the march for justice, then that's the role we're happy to play."

Despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, Gobble told Channel 9 that he had never even met Wolfe prior to victory celebration party Tuesday night, and while HometownCleveland.com might have had a hand in educating people about local issues, his victory was due to a “grassroots” campaign, word of mouth and the hard work of his supporters. Gobble didn’t respond to Gilley’s allegations, refusing to get involved in a “tit-for-tat” volley with the now-defeated sheriff.

Posted by pulseblogger at 03:04 PM | TrackBack

Unseen Risk at Homeless Site Actually Seen

Contrary to the scandalous headlines on the front page of Sunday’s Times Free Press, the polluted history of the city’s proposed homeless campus site has been common knowledge – at least since Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield’s initial announcement about the proposed development on April 20.

Reminiscing about the history of the neighborhood once known as Onion Bottom, Littlefield recounted to the crowd a conversation he’d had with former Chattanooga Mayor Gene Roberts.

“I said, ‘We’ll call it the Gene Roberts Memorial…’ and he said, ‘Dump,’ and I said, ‘OK.’ Because that’s what it used to be: a dump.”

Speaking of the pollution in the TFP piece, Littlefield said, “All the authorities think it’s something we can live with as long as we don’t disturb it.”

While good news for the proposed homeless campus, this assessment means, of course, that the city will probably have to cancel its Homeless Miners Initiative. Or keep the homeless from jumping up and down a lot.

Posted by pulseblogger at 03:01 PM | TrackBack

May 02, 2006

Three for Cotton

As voters went to the polls to elect their officials today, William Cotton went to jail.

Well, not exactly. The former County Commissioner stung in the Tennessee Waltz actually won't have to report for his three-year sentence until June 5. But Judge Edgar Allan declared today that Cotton's getting three in the pokey. And that's the important thing.

Posted by mesh at 03:11 PM | TrackBack

May 01, 2006

Immigration Rally Tidbits

At today's immigration rally -- which started at Jefferson Park around 10:30 a.m. and concluded at the steps of the federal building near Miller Park around 2 p.m., and which was attended by upwards of 1,000 hispanics -- some interesting things could be seen and heard:

(Photo by David Andrews)

Shauna Wilson (above), a Nazi, was part of a small counterprotest. She didn't stay long.

To get their message out to the protesting passers by, the Christian Science Reading Room on Market Street had replaced all of the English versions of the free literature on their sidewalk table with Spanish versions.

Many hispanic protesters took breaks from the festivites to buy snack chips and soft drinks at the nearby Subway.

A middle-aged gentleman slowly pushing a bike on a curb, had this to say to us: "You seen that stuff over there? Those hispanics, they stick together. They've been here ten, 15 years and they haven't paid any taxes. Now, they want part of the $36 billion. Well, why didn't they say that in the first place?" Upon moving into traffic, he had this to say: "I love this country. I wouldn't want to live in any other country. But this country can be pretty lowdown to its people. It can be pretty lowdon to its people."

What appeared to be a federal marshall -- gun in tow -- could be seen standing with two other white men. (Plain clothes cops?) At one point, they all shook the hand of a S.W.A.T. team member who was in uniform. One of the men was seen taking pictures of protestors for close to an hour, both while they were marching towards Miller Park and after they had settled at the federal building.

A white male protester held a sign reading, "Legalize Marijuana, Not Illegal Immigration." A white woman with him held a peace sign. They flashed their wares at passing motorists from the corner of Market and 10th.

Other comments overheard:

Police officer at the federal building who refused to give his name: "They’re all breaking the law by being on the steps." [David Andrews, Pulse photographer: "Are you officially asking them to clear the steps?"] Officer: "I told you once not to take my picture."

Police Officer Harold Diaz: "We have been only given instructions to monitor security, nothing else. It’s been very calm and peaceful."

A woman on smoke break outside Warehouse Row: "I ain’t got anything against their marching, but they are illegal. That’s the problem. If they can’t get a visa, they shouldn’t come." A woman standing with her: "And they’re not paying taxes. That’s not right."

Harold, a parking lot attendant nearby: "Ain’t nothing down there for them. They ain’t hurting anything; I say let them stay."

Posted by pulseblogger at 04:58 PM | TrackBack

Rico: Mannyhandling the Protestors?

From Chattanoogan.com:

An Hispanic group rallying in downtown Chattanooga denounced City Councilman Manny Rico and one woman said she planned to take out a warrant against him.

Urna Adame, leader of the march, said there was a confrontation with Councilman Rico, whose parents came to Texas from Mexico.

She said he grabbed the arm of her daughter, Christian, and she said the daughter will seek a warrant for assault.

Ms. Adame said, "He grabbed my daughter in a threatening manner. She is going to seek a warrant."

Posted by pulseblogger at 03:45 PM | TrackBack