« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
February 27, 2007
My Brother-in-Law's Iraq Diary
(Photo courtesy of the Charlotte Observer.)
My brother-in-law, Sgt. Roy Lewis, is currently serving in Iraq.
WCNC, the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, NC where he, my sister and their family live is running his dispatches on their Web site. They also mail him disposable video cameras and post videos from him each week.
Check it all out here.
To say we're proud of him is an understatement.
Posted by colrus at 10:30 PM | TrackBack
February 26, 2007
Channel 9's Bob Johnson Has Parkinson's Disease
From NewsChannel 9:
Bob Johnson Discusses Parkinson's DiseaseBob Johnson announced on NewsChannel 9's This-N-That program that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Bob said the disease first began about two years ago. Bob jokingly said he first attributed his symptoms "to old age." He has been under the care of neurologists, but the definitive diagnosis of Parkinson's has just come recently. "It is not classic Parkinson's (with tremors) but Parkinson's nonetheless," he said. In a frank and open interview with Don Welch, Bob of course said he was shocked by the diagnosis but hoped that medication would help ward off the symptoms. "To compound the problem, I've had a chronic back disorder for some years," said Bob. "Degenerative discs that caused me stiffness, lack of movement and some pain." Bob expressed gratitude at the concern, the prayers and the inquiries viewers have expressed.
Click here to watch Bob discuss his illness with Don Welch.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bob, his family, friends, co-workers, and longtime audience at WTVC.
Posted by pulseblogger at 12:51 PM | TrackBack
If the Suit Doesn't Fit, Make It Bigger
InsideServices filed a new motion Thursday in its lawsuit against the city. It wants to add a couple of people as defendants in the lawsuit, namely Missy Crutchfield and George Parker.
Crutchfield and Parker were named in the website developer’s lawsuit against the city. But the city was the only party being sued in court.
Here’s why InsideServices is wanting to sue Crutchfield and Parker separately: the website developer claimed in December 2006 that Crutchfield, who is director of the city’s Department of Education, Arts and Culture, and Parker, general manager of the Tivoli and Memorial Auditorium, acted on behalf of the city to enter into a contract with the company.
The complaint states that the city did not pay money due the company for services it provided in designing, maintaining and hosting OnStageChattanooga.com.
The company agreed to maintain the site for three years, charging the city $100 for five hours of design time to handle each city-sponsored event, based on a minimum of 50 events for each facility per year. That is a total of $10,000 per year, for three years, or $30,000. Each non-city-sponsored event that was placed and maintained would cost $200 for five hours of design time.
The city responded in January that the two entered into a contract outside the scope of their authority as city employees. According to City Code, department heads or the city purchasing agent may execute a contract without getting permission from the City Council if charges are under $10,000. Should charges be more than $10,000, the City Council has to OK the contract. According to the code, the “award of a contract [over $10,000] … shall not be binding on or create any liability against the city until approved by the City Council.”
Because Crutchfield and Parker were not originally named as co-defendants in the initial claim, InsideServices now is asking a Chancery Court judge to allow their addition as individuals to the lawsuit.
“Such individuals are therefore exposed and subject to personal liability for executing the subject agreement and must be added to the above litigation in order to compel the individuals to participate in the alternative dispute process,” the motion states.
A hearing is set for March 12.
When contacted, Parker said he could not comment at this time.
“We do not comment on pending litigation,” city spokeswoman Michelle Michaud said.
When contacted at her office for comment, Crutchfield’s assistant Carla Johnson said her boss was out of the country until March 5 and referred The Pulse to city attorney Michael McMahan for a statement.
McMahan said he does not make comments on pending litigation.
Posted by pulseblogger at 12:40 PM | TrackBack
February 22, 2007
Video: Leticia Wolf on Howard Stern
Here's Tish singing on Howard Stern's show a few weeks back...
Posted by pulseblogger at 03:51 PM | TrackBack
PulseCast: Music Edition #013 - Now Online
Features music from Kings of Leon, Electrelane, Patrick Wolf, Dalek, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Studio, The Go Find, Grinderman, Papercuts, Feist, Arcade Fire and more.
Click here to listen.
Click here to subscribe.
Posted by pulseblogger at 02:09 PM | TrackBack
February 19, 2007
The Word "Sex" is Too Much to Handle for One UTC Professor
An item from last week's UTC Echo student newspaper caught our eye:
At 4:45 p.m. police responded to Holt Hall to speak to a professor regarding an obscene phone call she received on Feb. 2 at 2:51 p.m. The professor said she was in her office and received a phone call from an unknown phone number.The suspect said "hello" and asked if he could speak with her. She responded, "This is she."
The suspect stated that her name was Angela, with The Chattanooga Times, and she claimed to be quoting a survey saying, "When asked about women's sexual satisfaction..."
At that time the professor hung up the phone and retrieved the phone number from her caller ID. The professor attempted to locate the source of the phone number but was unsuccessful.
The "suspect" was actually Angela Tant, our news editor and not an employee of the Chattanooga Times, now known as the Times Free Press. Angela called a professor -- just like she called other people around town -- to get feedback about the data we collected in our Sex Survey. Thinking it was an obscene phone call, the professor hung up on Angela.
This is, officially, the funniest thing we've ever read.
Posted by pulseblogger at 10:11 AM | TrackBack
February 14, 2007
Brainerd High School 911 Tape Audio
Click here to hear the 911 tape of the incident at Brainerd High School referenced in our cover story this week.
(Audio courtesy of WRCB.)
Posted by pulseblogger at 01:01 AM | TrackBack
February 12, 2007
Must-Watch Video: "Chattanooga Sucks"
We found a link to this video over at Nooga.com.
We don't know if it's serious or not, but it's certainly worth comment either way...
Posted by pulseblogger at 02:44 PM | TrackBack
February 08, 2007
Anna Nicole Smith is Dead
She died this afternoon.
Posted by pulseblogger at 04:00 PM | TrackBack
Kevin West: "If you want to build trust, don't lie."
Simply put, Kevin West's blog post on WGOW's Morning Press Blog is fantastic, and should be read by every resident of this city.
If you want to build trust, don't lie.I hope people working in governmental agencies don't really question why we don't trust them. They don't tell us the truth. The gun incident at Brainerd High School is the latest fiasco. The original story was this:
Police got a tip that a male student was going to bring a gun to school. They were there waiting for him, stopped him at the beginning of the day before school started, took him into custody and found the gun he threw away.
That's not how it happened. As Channel 3's David Carroll found out in obtaining the 911 call tape, school had been in session for more than an hour, no uniformed police officers were on campus, and an assistant principal actually spotted the gun, and then apprehended, tackled and restrained the student until police arrived.
Ron Rice is the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department Public Information Officer. He told us the original story. Much to his credit, he got on the air immediately and gave us the story as questions from callers swirled about what was going on.
He didn't know he had incorrect information.
Danielle Clark is the Hamilton County School System Public Information Officer. She told us about the lockdown. She told us about the on-going search inside the school. And she told us classes were not being dismissed. She told us school things. She could not talk about the investigation. That's police work. Police don't want a school system PR-flack talking about police work. The school system doesn't want their well-paid information conduit talking about police work. So she didn't. And won't.
Michelle Michaud is the mayor's Director of Communications. She wasn't at the scene and shouldn't be involved at all but is involved because the Chattanooga Police Department, at the moment, has no Public Information Officer. Now that she is, she has sent me the accurate story of what happened -- matching what David Carroll reported earlier in the week. Maybe she got it from David, I don't know. In a two-and-a-half page summary based on David's Channel 3 Eyewitness News story, she notes correctly that "breaking news is inherently flawed" and then defends why "everyone interviewed" thought it was NOT important to tell the truth about what happened until David did his story. She does not explain why investigators told Ron Rice a story that had nothing to do with what really happened and allowed him to pass it along in good conscience as "fact."
So the question remains: who decided to make up a story and pass it along as fact when it wasn't? Who is that thought it would be okay to hang Ron Rice out to dry? And who was it that decided to continue the "us-versus-them" mentality of distrust that plagues local government in Chattanooga exactly because of situations like this?
I'll probably never know for sure, but I've already got it way narrowed down. And it doesn't help us trust anything police or city hall or the school system says at face value -- makes us have to scrutinize it that much more closely.
Really bad call. If you want to build trust, don't lie.
And if you make a mistake, don't defend it. Correct it.
Posted by pulseblogger at 02:48 PM | TrackBack
Leticia Wolf on Howard Stern
Here are a couple pics of Tish on today's Howard Stern show, as plugged in this week's column by Ted Reynolds. Yes, per the usual, there is a naked woman in the background of one of the shots. (Click for bigger views.)
From Tish:
I told Howard that this particular performance set-up seemed "pretty low-budget". Thanks to Andrea Ownbey for fighting for me to come on the show and share my love. It was a blast...AND I met Ron Jeremy in the green room. Hello! How perfect?!
Posted by pulseblogger at 12:18 AM | TrackBack
February 07, 2007
Matt Damon's Matthew McConaughey Impression
Matt Damon is freakin' hilarious.
Posted by colrus at 12:46 PM | TrackBack
February 06, 2007
When Trying to Kill Someone, Bring Diapers
The girl wore diapers.
Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers in the car so she wouldn't have to stop to go to the bathroom, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.
Posted by pulseblogger at 05:01 PM | TrackBack
Bill on Channel 12
Bill appeared in a WDEF piece on YouTube last night.
See the video here.
Also, WDEF reporter Joe Legge has a blog. Check out "Joe's Blog" here.
Posted by pulseblogger at 02:10 PM | TrackBack