Tennessee representative Stacey Campfield authors the best resolution I've ever seen.
This is an absolute must read!
Ophelia Ford drafted a resolution honoring Justin Timberlake "for his highly successful music career and for his meritorious service to the State of Tennessee."
Meritorious service? Anyone seen Timberlake do anything "meritorious"? Ever?
Evidently, neither can Ophelia. In the two pages of sycophantic praise of Timberlake's accomplishments, there is nothing about service to Tennessee, meritorious or otherwise. Not one word.
The media is blaming big, bad Republicans for canning the resolution:
But state Sen. Raymond Finney, R-Maryville, removed it from a list of resolutions that is expected to get unanimous support in the Senate.
But Sen. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) had it exactly right when asked why the resolution was taken off the docket, saying simply:
Just read it.
The headline reads, Irked Naifeh cancels news conference:
Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh angrily canceled his weekly news conference Thursday because reporters chose to attend an earlier news conference by Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey.
Naifeh has wielded unquestioned power in Nashville for so long that he just can't stand it when the press doesn't fawn over him like liberal toadies are supposed to.
It's time for this man to go. Maybe Jeff Ward will be the man to replace him.
Memphis has made the big times:
Voters here indulge peccadilloes among their politicians, like the occasional indictment or child born out of wedlock. But shielding the powerful from utility bills when many are struggling after a cold winter seems to have pushed public opinion over the edge. The City Council — some members present and past were on the list — has ordered an investigation, as has the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the president of the utility has been called before a federal grand jury.
Believe me, I've seen voter outrage turn to apathy time after time. This will soon be swept under the rug and the politicians know it.
March 13th is election day in Memphis.
In the race to succeed Steve Cohen as state senator for District 30, Republican Larry Parrish is battling Democrat Beverly Robison Marrero.
To take over the House District 92 seat Henri Brooks vacated when she was elected to the Shelby County Commission, Democrat G.A. Hardaway is campaigning against Republican Richard Morton.
It's a pair of long shots for Republicans, but a special election is the best time to try and take a seat away from the Democrats.
If you're driving in Midtown and see a big white Durango with a yard sign for Larry Parrish duct-taped to the back, that would be me.
Journalist Otis Sanford was a reporter for the Commercial Appeal for ten years, starting in 1977. He covered a lot of political corruption stories during that time, and now he's back and a little pissed off that politicians like former state senator Roscoe Dixon keep trying to play the race card when they get caught up in things like FBI sting Tennessee Waltz.
Now back at the Commercial Appeal, Otis writes:
The argument usually goes this way: "White politicians have been doing this stuff for years and getting away with it. But now that black folks are in power, they are being targeted because of racism. Why don't they go after the white politicians too?"
But Otis notes that back in the day, there was trial after trial and conviction after conviction, and almost always is was a white male on the receiving end of the prison sentences:
Long before "Tennessee Waltz," there was "TENNPAR." And before "Operation Main Street Sweeper," there was "Operation SHELBCO."
TENNPAR was the seldom used code name for the federal investigation of the state's pardons and paroles scandal of the late 1970s that reached all the way to the office of then-Gov. Ray Blanton.
Blanton's brother, Gene Blanton, and several others also were ensnared in federal investigations of bid-rigging on state road contracts.
At about the same time, the feds in Memphis and Jackson, Tenn., were investigating corruption by rural county sheriffs throughout West Tennessee. Those probes eventually led to indictments and convictions against nine sheriffs, all white.
Former U.S. attorney Hickman Ewing Jr., the chief prosecutor on many of those cases, recalls one sheriff who took a nine-month break from collecting payoffs to let the investigations cool down. When he thought the prosecutions had subsided, his hiatus ended and "he was back collecting his money again," Ewing said.
Memphis and Shelby County politics also had its share of shadiness. SHELBCO was the FBI code name for a massive investigation in the late '70s and early '80s of corruption in county government. The cases focused primarily on elected and appointed officials accepting payoffs and kickbacks from developers and others doing business with the county.
As many as 10 people were prosecuted in the SHELBCO cases, including former county commissioner Lee Hyden, former top county administrator Bill Hays and former public works director-turned informant Jim Butler.
Read the whole thing, especially the money quote that follows this:
Greed is greed and politics, in all colors, is full of it.
Nice job, Otis. And a breath of fresh air — honesty in journalism. I like you, Otis
Sanford.Memphis Mayor Herenton's tied up in another scandal, this one involving a questionable land deal with a man that has received numerous no-bid contracts from the city.
Known as "King Willie" because of his tyrannical misuse of power, the mayor lives in a $529,400 house at 5281 Horn Lake Road, a rather nice neighborhood. Here's an aerial view of his 5 bedroom, 4 full bath home.
He also owns an adjoining lot at the corner of Horn Lake and Dubois Drive, which has been appraised by the Shelby County Assessor of Property at $45,000.
In October 2005, Herenton sold the lot to E.W. Moon, LLC (view the warranty deed) for $50,000. Then just months later, in May 2006, Moon gave the property back. Gave, as in "for free". (View the quit claim.)
Herenton is now building a home on the lot and sees "nothing improper" about the deal with Moon, even though Moon has received $702,000 no-bid city road design contracts from the mayor since 2002. (The mayor is the man that approves city contracts. As I understand it, the city council can't do anything except make recommendations.)
Reached in his Los Angeles office, Moon said he didn't give or loan Herenton $50,000, but said he forwarded the money to the mayor because he intends to buy the house when it's finished. Moon said he doesn't have a written contract on the house but does have an oral agreement to buy it.
"You don't have to put everything in writing. We're friends,'' he said.
Indeed. And you don't have to exchange money in the light of day, either. It takes really good, trustworthy friends to move money under the table. And this looks like a good way to move money under the table — only they got caught.
But so what? It seems that these actions don't even violate Memphis' ethics rules!
This is not the first time that this particular lot has made Willie money. According to records on the Shelby County Register of Deeds site, Herenton sold this lot to Joyce P. Kelly in 1996 for $35,000. Then in 2003, Kelly sold it back to the mayor for $28,000 — after seven years of real estate appreciation as high-dollar houses sprung up all around it. After all, it is located in Banneker Estates, a gated community that Herenton has developed and in which his own home is located.
The name Joyce Kelly is a familiar one in Memphis politics, as it is the name of the mayor's girlfriend and sometimes fiancee. She first entered the public light in 1989, when County Commissioner Pete Sisson charged Herenton (who was Memphis City Schools Superintendent) with promoting Joyce Kelly to principal of Corry Junior High while she was having an affair with Herenton (Thaddeus Mathews has a scan of the story).
Toyota finally picked a location for their new plant. Chattanooga lost out because of concerns over air quality. It was thought that Marion, Arkansas was the front-runner, but Toyota has officially chosen Tupelo, Mississippi.
Mississippi legislators jubilantly passed an incentives package that includes $293 million to Toyota to pay for roads, water and sewer lines, $60 million to local governments to acquire land, and $30 million for Toyota's preferred auto suppliers.
The hoped-for economic benefit to Memphis if nearby Marion was chosen won't be realized as Tupelo is 100 miles away. Still, there should be some effect given Memphis' position as a major shipping hub.
Nike has purchased 125 acres in the Northridge area on which it will build a new 1 million square foot footwear distribution center.
Nike expects to realize more than $200 million in cost efficiencies totaling, not to mention reduced shipping times. And, of course, Nike gets a sweet Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) deal from both Memphis and Shelby County because of the expected job creation and capital improvements to the area.
The new facility will replace one in Wilsonville, Oregon as another company moves off of the east coast and comes to Tennessee.