Month: February 2006

Categories
News The Fly-By

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

Mayor Herenton has repeatedly told Memphis reporters that he has done no wrong and his upcoming testimony in the racketeering trial of former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell is strictly for the defense. Fair enough, Mr. Mayor, but we must confess, the following comment from the WMC news Web site is a little strange: “While he confirmed he was going to Atlanta to testify next week, Mayor Herenton would not answer which day he planned to travel, because, he said, he does not want the media to follow him there.”

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

MAD AS HELL: Fabricators? Fabricators?!!





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The two Americas of these Disunited States crashed in a
historical encounter this week at the funeral of Coretta Scott King. When the
two worlds collided, it was quite a spectacle. And the fact that it happened
at all will be the most momentous and lasting tribute to the first lady of the
Civil Rights Movement.

 

After her husband’s death, Mrs. King proved to the world
that she could move mountains of hatred with her rare combination of strength,
poise, beauty, and dignity. At her funeral, it was fitting to see the
mountains of fraud and lies of this administration moved for a brief moment so
that her memory could be celebrated with the same truth and righteousness that
she gave to all.

 

By attending this most public of events, George W. Bush
found himself right smack in the middle of the Other America – the one that
wasn’t pre-screened, monitored, and picked by his handlers. He became the
veritable Emperor sitting in a sanctuary of ten thousand people who refused to
reinforce neither his deluded version of reality nor his party’s revised
version of history.

 

Reverend Joseph Lowery’s reminding that there were no
weapons of mass destruction was the first salvo of truth that stripped the
Emperor, rendering him buck naked. When Senator Kennedy recalled that the
beatitudes of Jesus instructed us to be peacemakers, all of Bush’s religious
hypocrisy was laid bare. Jimmy Carter’s remembrance of the wiretapping of
Martin Luther King and his family by the government seemed to be a sword of
truth that was particularly sharp and difficult to take. 

 

As expected, the funeral had barely ended when the right
wing went into hyper mode replete with feigned outrage of the
inappropriateness of it all.  Listening to Kate O’Beirne of CNN calling Jimmy
Carter, “Our most graciousless ex-president” was both laughable and pathetic. 
The folks at FOX News were seething apoplectics.  That America had heard
the truth, not just their truth really had their bowels in an
uproar.

 

Our ever amusing and always undecipherable Congressman
Harold Ford, Jr., a Democratic contender for the U. S. Senate, contributed
this remark about the funeral to the progressive blog,
thehuffingtonpost.com: “Funerals should not be ceremonies to fabricate a
life’s works.” The resulting comments posted mostly by Democrats indicate the
congressman might be trying to explain his way out of this one for a while. At
the least, his choice of words was unfortunate, as the implication seems to be
that Mrs. King’s funeral was a contrivance used as a build up to commemorate
someone not truly deserving of the tributes.

 

However, his use of the word ‘fabrication’ is rather
interesting, as the real fabrication lies in the pretense of a candidate who,
while running as a Democrat, never misses an opportunity to suck up to and
weasel down for Republicans.  It is too bad for Tennessee and too bad for the
Other America that the congressman can only muster enough courage to criticize
those who had enough conviction to tell the truth.  Instead of fighting those
who personify everything Coretta Scott King stood against all her life, he
apparently wants to join them.

 

 




 

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Categories
Opinion

CITY BEAT: Election Deja Vu





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What’s the difference between Terry Roland and Dick
Hackett?

Both are Republicans and both lost
incredibly close elections. But Roland challenged his defeat and Hackett didn’t.

Hackett’s act of statesmanship and
political calculation in 1991 probably influenced the course of history more
than anything he did during his nine years as mayor. And it’s relevant to the
current overblown controversy over Roland’s 13-vote loss to Ophelia Ford in a
state Senate race of less heft and consequence.

The
lesson is this: What the news media report, what the courts rule, what the
lawyers spin, and what the state Senate does are only part of the story. The
X-factor is what individuals like Roland and Hackett do in the crucible of
personal experience.

A quick lesson in history and deja vu:
In 1991, Hackett lost to Willie Herenton by 142 votes out of 247,973 cast. Crank
candidate Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges got 2,923 votes. In 2005, Roland lost to
Ford by 13 votes, 4,333 to 4,320. The same Robert Hodges got 89 votes. As a
percentage, Ford’s victory margin was greater than Herenton’s.

The 1991 mayoral election was flawed.
There were 609 “overvotes,” a term coined to explain the difference between
votes cast and signatures in the poll book. An accounting firm that audited the
election results said “the differences are unreconciled, and the causes are
undetermined.” The majority of the overvotes were in Herenton precincts.

Hackett had the audit. He had the
political savvy. He had two capable lieutenants, Bill Boyd and Paul Gurley, with
vast experience in Memphis politics. He had more than $300,000 to mount a legal
challenge or another campaign. And after three days of thinking about it, he
decided to let it go. He did not hire lawyers or private investigators or order
campaign workers or city employees to go out and search for dead voters, voters
with felony convictions, voters who lived outside of Memphis, or voters who
failed to sign either the ballot application or the poll book.

In 247,973 votes — with the mayor’s
office at stake — what would you say the odds were of finding some dead people,
some felons, some nonresidents, and various other skulduggery? Given that Roland
and his team found dozens of irregularities in an election in which fewer than
9,000 votes were cast, I would say they were pretty good.

Not only did Hackett let it go, so did
almost everyone else. The
Memphis Flyer, then less than two years old and full of bluster, did
a cover story detailing the “irregularities,” as Hackett called them, and bawled
for reform and investigation.
The Commercial Appeal, which has made such a fuss over Terry Roland,
was mostly silent. Attorney Richard Fields, who represents Roland, was notable
back in 1991 as one of two high-profile white citizens who openly backed Willie
Herenton.

U.S.
district judge Bernice Donald’s ruling in the Roland-Ford case (in which Ford
and her supporters are the plaintiffs) made no mention of the mayoral election.
She cites another tainted cliff-hanger, the presidential election between George
W. Bush and Albert Gore, in which there were some 110,000 overvotes. A large
section of her order speaks to the issue of voters who fail to sign in twice,
but it is silent on dead voters and felons.

“Although measures to detect
substantial mistakes or illegality may be heightened,” she wrote, “the standard
used to invalidate votes should not be.”

There is a difference between voting
mistakes, and illegality and fraud. I am not learned in the law, but Donald’s
order seems to say that voters can’t be disenfranchised because there were some
mistakes but leaves hanging the issue of whether fraud, if proven, can void an
election. All it says is that elections must be conducted by the same standards
in every part of the state.

Donald’s order doesn’t
resolve the Ford-Roland controversy. Senate action won’t resolve it, because
Ford’s lawyer has already vowed to come right back to court if she is ousted.
The manufactured outrage on both sides won’t resolve it. Elections, at both the
local and national level, are imperfect. And Dick Hackett knew what he was doing
back in 1991.

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Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

VIEWPOINT: Sea Change





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With the conclusion this week of the special session on
ethics, state legislators now are free to open, or reopen, any of several other
Pandora’s boxes — the most immediate of which is the on-again/off-again question
of who gets to sit in the state Senate representing Shelby County’s District 29.

 

Though Terry Roland, the Republican
candidate in last fall’s special election, continues to press his case, and
Democrat Ophelia Ford, declared the winner back then, still sits provisionally,
resisting Republican senators’ efforts to void the election, two circumstances
have blunted the edge of the drama and slowed its momentum.

 

One
was last week’s ruling on the case by U.S. district judge Bernice Donald, which
raised as many questions as it answered. Both sides immediately claimed victory:
Ford’s side did so because Donald appeared to invalidate Roland’s numerous
challenges based on residence and improper registration procedures. Donald’s
ruling further mandated that any effort to void the election had to conform with
statewide election practices that were observed before that special election —
which was to determine a successor to Ford’s brother John Ford, a casualty of
the Tennessee Waltz scandal.

 

But Roland’s side still possessed the
trump card that Donald’s decision provisionally put in play: an up-or-down vote
on voiding the election. Senate Republican leader Ron Ramsey, who prevailed in a
preliminary vote of 17-14 some weeks back, has indicated he intends to proceed,
presumably with his hand strengthened by the accession to Republican ranks last
week of erstwhile Democrat Don McLeary
of Humboldt.

 

The
crossover vote of McLeary, then still a Democrat, in last month’s preliminary
“Committee of 33” session is what gave Ramsey the majority he needed for a
formal and final vote by the Senate. It was the imminence of such a climactic
vote that resulted in a temporary injunction by Donald at Ford’s request. But
the legal uncertainties still need to be sorted out before Ramsey, Roland, and
the Republicans get to cross their Rubicon.

 


Another development that may have rendered the District 29 showdown somewhat
moot is the political tide that has further eroded the Democrats’ position in
the Senate. And though the issues of ethics in general and electoral reform in
particular were, and continue to be, integral to the District 29 situation,
those issues were always somewhat overshadowed by the pure politics of the case.

 

In the same week that McLeary made his
surprise announcement of a party switch, a Republican state senator from
Memphis, Curtis Person, announced that after 40 years as a legislator he would
be vacating his seat this year — conceivably to run for judge of Juvenile Court,
where Person is currently a part-time administrator.

 

In
one sense, that would mean no change in the Senate lineup. Republican Person
will almost certainly be succeeded by a partymate. In another sense, however,
the exit of Person, a longtime friend and ally of Lieutenant Governor John
Wilder, a nominal Democrat, will have seismic consequences. Even though he
formally voted for Ramsey over Wilder for speaker in January of last year,
Person did so knowing that two other Republicans were going Wilder’s way,
assuring the venerable speaker a majority.

 

Whichever Republican ends up succeeding
Person is unlikely to be so ambivalent. (Nor, presumably,  will the newly
chastened, formerly  compliant pair of  GOPers.) It could be an opportune time
for the long preeminent Wilder, who is presumably disinclined to be a
back-bencher, to consider retirement.

 

In any case, the high likelihood is
that octogenarian Wilder will not be a candidate for reelection in 2008.
Worsening the Democrats’ predicament is the fact that Wilder’s rural West
Tennessee district, which includes many new bedroom suburbs of Memphis, has been
slowly tilting Republican, and it could be ripe for plucking by the GOP.

 

The
bottom line: Even without an opportunity to avail themselves of District 29 by
means of a possible interim Republican appointee by the Shelby County Commission
(the Democrats would be heavily favored to win the seat back this fall), the
Republicans appear very much in the ascendant as short- and maybe even long-term
masters of the Senate. The magic figure of 20 seats, out of 33 overall, would
seem to be within their reach.   

 

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Categories
Editorial Opinion

EDITORIAL: Questions Need Answers





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This week, for the second time in a month, Mayor Willie Herenton
held a press conference to critique the press.

While that may be interesting to people in the media and some of
their viewers and readers, it has deflected attention from two more important
issues: the city’s financial condition and the mayor’s political condition, both
of which can be affected by any sudden adverse development on the mayor’s legal
front. And it was this prospect — teased on local television,
perhaps prematurely and incompletely — that prompted the press conference on
Tuesday.

Dewey Clark, a witness in the corruption trial of former Atlanta
mayor Bill Campbell, has said that he gave Herenton $9,000 — in Herenton’s
office. A wiretapped audiotape on which Clark said such has been introduced into
evidence at the Atlanta trial. The circumstances of this claim are unclear and
will remain so until Clark and Herenton provide more testimony in the trial,
which is expected to last several more weeks.

Statements made in federal court by government witnesses who are
under oath should be taken seriously. Clark, who is from Memphis, and Campbell
were good friends. Clark even lived in Campbell’s basement for a while. Herenton
and Campbell were good friends too. They took part in each other’s ceremonial
functions, traveled to Tunica together, and helped each other raise money.

The media and the public, understandably, have a big interest in
this. When Herenton testifies, he can be cross-examined by the prosecution.
Presumably, prosecutors will bring up the $9,000 payment. Herenton said he runs
an honest shop, and he has promised to raise his right hand and put his other
hand on a Bible and tell the truth when he testifies. He added that he will
speak about Clark’s testimony and Campbell’s trial after it is over.

The media and the public and their elected council members have
an obvious concern with challenges, made directly or indirectly, to the probity
of this city’s chief executive. Likewise, they have a legitimate interest in the
city’s financial condition and changing forecasts from the Division of Finance
and Administration. Herenton hasn’t yet explained in detail how he will cut
costs and possibly raise revenues at City Hall to balance the budget.

His criticism of some media reports as incomplete, biased, and
overblown is fair shooting. Reporters have learned this mayor gives as good as
he gets. You bait him, badger him, or, as one reporter did, put a hand on him at
your peril. By political standards, Herenton is direct and not especially
devious. On the other hand, we suspect that the former Golden Gloves champion
can be a hard man at close quarters, within or without the Marquis of
Queensberry rules.

Whether a television station had a scoop or a mini-scoop, a
bombshell or a blank — and whether said station over-hyped it during the Super
Bowl — is for viewers to decide.

The two pressing questions are whether Herenton can fix the
budget and whether he did anything illegal. Whether His Honor likes it or not,
both these stories are going to receive a full-court press from the media.

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Categories
Politics Politics Feature

ROLAND, HARVEY MAKE NEW ELECTION CHARGES

CREDIT: J.B.






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Terry Roland, the Republican candidate who seeks to
overturn last fall’s special state Senate election in Shelby County’s District
29, made new charges Tuesday night about the election process which saw his
Democratic opponent, Ophelia Ford, sworn in after being declared the
winner by the Shelby County Election Commission.

 

“We’re looking into something else now,” Roland told
members of the newly formed Shelby County Conservative Republican Club, meeting
at the Fuego restaurant in Cordova. “We might have people who lived outside the
district who didn’t even know they voted. We might have had live voters going in
for people who didn’t vote. There’s an investigation going on right now.”

 

The “investigation” would, of course, be carried out
primarily by his longtime friend, computer maven, sheriff’s deputy, and current
candidate for sheriff, John Harvey. It was Harvey’s post-election
researches that began the process that uncovered voting by dead people, suspect
voting addresses, and other potential abuses and has chipped away at  Ford’s
purported 13-vote majority. A Republican majority in the state Senate is poised
to void the election if that action can be squared with conditions of fairness
laid down last week by U.S. District Judge Bernice Donald. Judge Donald
was responding to Ford’s request for an injunction against a Senate vote on
due-process grounds.

 

“If she doesn’t have jurisdiction, how can she set
conditions?” Roland asked rhetorically but promised to abide by the court
ruling.

 

Roland said Tuesday night that Harvey, who was on hand and
confirmed the fact had  also found “1300 people on the rolls in Shelby County
with two voter’s registration cards and two registration numbers.”  He said the
election appeals launched by himself and Harvey were “not about me getting into
the Senate but about each one of you getting a fair shake.”

 

Summing up, Roland said, “If we cannot prove that you’re
getting a fair election, then we’re not a democracy any more.” He said the ongoing election contest – “my Groundhog Day” -was not about “irregularity” but about “illegality.”

 

Harvey also addressed the meeting briefly and, among other
things, accounted for his candidacy in the Republican primary against incumbent
Mark Luttrell this way: “The current sheriff is a nice guy, butr I don’t
think the sheriff should be taking money from convicted cocaine dealers” That
turned out to be a reference to developer Rusty Hyneman, a donor to many
political campaigns. Hyneman, as Harvey pointed out, was convicted of drug
charges back in 1986.

 

Also critcized by Harvey as sources of support for Luttrell
were the late businessman William B. Tanner and Tanner aide Joe
Cooper.

 

 

 

 

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Categories
From My Seat Sports

FROM MY SEAT: My ‘Home’ Games





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When the Games of
the 20th Winter Olympics open later this week in Turin, Italy, you’ll have to
pardon me for considering this my first hometown Games. It’s a stretch,
admittedly, but likely the closest geographic tie I’ll ever establish to the
Olympics.

 

You see, during
the 1976-77 academic year, my dad took our family of four to Turin — Torino to
those who live there — as he researched his doctoral thesis in economic history
(on Count Cavour, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the unification of Italy in the
mid-nineteenth century). He studied and taught a class at the University of
Turin’s Institute of Economic History. And I got to spend second grade a
cultural leap off the beaten path, at the American Cultural Association of Turin
(ACAT). Along with being the first woman I can confess to having a crush on, our
teacher — Ms. Travis — taught in English, a fundamental strategy of this
unique school. My classmates, though, were an international conglomerate of
7-year-olds. In looking at my yearbook, I count three American, nine Italian,
two British, and one German friend in my class. It was a year of education that
went way beyond the three R’s.

 

Along with my fond
memories at ACAT came the seeds of a love for sports that have grown to color my
life in ways I dared not imagine in 1976. Before I could recite the St. Louis
Cardinals’ batting order in less than a minute, I could shout “Forza Juve!” in
support of an Italian soccer club that just might rival the standing of the New
York Yankees here stateside. Founded in 1897, Juventus has won no fewer than 28
Italian league championships and is one of only four clubs to win all the major
European trophies (the UEFA Cup, the Cup Winners Cup, and the European Cup).
Taking the Yankees’ pinstripes up a bold notch, Juventus takes the field in
striped jerseys that are really no different from an NFL referee’s. Shouts of “i
bianconeri!” anywhere in northern Italy will call to mind instantly the
black-and-white soccer gods of Turin.

 

Our year in Italy
was extra special in soccer terms, as Juventus won its very first UEFA Cup in
May 1977. Stars like Roberto Bettega, Marco Tardelli, Claudio Gentile, and
goalie Dino Zoff found their way to my bedroom wall (thanks to posters inserted
in La Stampa, Turin’s daily newspaper) and permanently into the hearts of a
nation that loves soccer more than Americans do cheeseburgers. Tardelli,
Gentile, and Zoff, by the way, would gain a degree of global fame in 1982 when
they helped Italy win the World Cup.

 

So as U.S.
Olympians like Bode Miller, Sasha Cohen, and Apolo Ohno seek to add their names
to Italian — and international — sports history this month, forgive me for the
flashbacks to those soccer stars jumping off my collectible stickers to this
day. (I know Dad was teaching me the joy of baseball-card collecting, not to
mention some grade-school economics, when he had me approach sidewalk
newsstands, requesting “calciatori?” Discovering a Juve player as I opened a
pack was found gold.)

 

It’s been 29 years
since I’ve seen Turin, but I’m lucky enough to retain some appreciation for its
beauty — and chill! — nestled as it is at the foot of the mighty Alps. Better
yet, I retain memories of playing soccer at a nearby park, hopelessly
undermanned against my foil (his name was Aldo). And I retain some astonishment
at the street celebration when Juventus captured a championship, a party that
took some violent, fiery twists at the hands of Torino fans (Torino being the
other pro team in Turin; think Yankees-Mets with a dose of temperament that
would make Tony Soprano recoil).

 

The beauty of the
Olympics, of course, is that internecine rivals get caught up in, as corny as it
sounds here in the twenty-first century, the spirit of sport for two weeks. When
representing our country, our better nature tends to carry the day. It pleases
me to see the world visiting a place I called home at such an important time in
my life. I’m not sure who I’ll cheer the next two weeks, but I know HOW I’ll
cheer: Forza Torino!

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Categories
News News Feature

Courtroom Round-Up

As she awaits a ruling from U.S. District Court judge Bernice Donald, Ophelia Ford has emerged from obscurity to become a fixture on local television and a household name in Memphis and, to a lesser extent, across Tennessee. Not an easy thing for a late-starter like Ford, who is 55 years old. And not a bad thing in politics, where name recognition is vital. She went from Ford family also-ran (in 1999 she was disqualified for a Memphis City Council election because her qualifying petition did not have 25 valid signatures) to political celebrity in six months, thanks to a 13-vote special election victory in which the turnout was 6 percent.

Had Ford won the election going away last September, she would have merely been one of 33 senators and 132 members of the Tennessee General Assembly. Instead she has been on television and in newspapers almost daily for more than a month. Newspapers in Jackson and Chattanooga have editorialized about her and called for a new election. Whether or not Ford retains her Senate seat after the current election controversy ends, her fame and political future are assured.

n It will be at least two more months before any of the Memphis political corruption cases comes to trial. On January 27th, a federal judge gave Calvin Williams two more months to prepare for his next court appearance. Williams, the former chief administrator for the Shelby County Commission, was indicted on federal charges last year. Assistant U.S. attorney Tim Discenza told the judge the case is “complex” with “a lot of proof,” and the trial is expected to last five days. Williams declined to do an interview but said his long-awaited book about his experiences in county government is coming out “after this is over.”

The next scheduled court appearance for a defendant in the Tennessee Waltz cases is Michael Hooks’ appearance on March 20th. Former Senator Roscoe Dixon got a 90-day extension in January when he changed attorneys. John Ford’s case is expected to be the headliner in the group and will probably come last.

n Call it “Not Facing History and Ourselves.” It is always interesting to see how official government publications handle government scandals. The 2005-2006 edition of the Tennessee Blue Book came out last week. In it you will find lots of information about state history, symbols, honors, songs, and the hobbies, professional affiliations, and vanities of 132 legislators but nothing about Operation Tennessee Waltz.

Ex-senators John Ford and Roscoe Dixon are pictured along with notes in fine print which say they resigned in 2005 for reasons that are not specified. Both were indicted in the Tennessee Waltz along with Senator Kathryn Bowers, whose occupation is listed as “contractor consultant,” and Senator Ward Crutchfield of Chattanooga, whose biography includes a full page of honors dating back to 1985 but nothing about his recent notoriety.

Controversy has no place in the Blue Book, unless it happened during or before the civil rights era of the 1960s. Former Governor Ray Blanton’s biography says nothing about his prison term or his forced removal from office in 1979. The whitewashed history of state government refers to “questionable acts” by the Blanton administration. A government that can’t distinguish between questionable acts and illegal acts is a government that will be hard pressed to deal with ethics reform.

n Accused bogus wedding planner Rafat Mawlawi was in federal court last week for a change of plea hearing. Mawlawi, who has been jailed since April because the government considers him a flight risk and a possible terrorist sympathizer, pleaded guilty to four counts of immigration violation and one weapons charge during a one-hour hearing. He was returned to prison until his sentencing hearing April 27th.

Assistant U.S. attorney Fred Godwin, who is prosecuting the case, made no mention of the terrorism angle during the hearing. Videos, photographs, passports, and more than $30,000 in cash, which the government considered suspicious, were seized when federal agents with the Joint Terrorism Task Force searched Mawlawi’s home near Craigmont High School on April 4, 2005.

Godwin did provide one new detail about the case. An alert customs agent at Detroit Metro Airport identified both Mawlawi and codefendant Tamela Bracey as possible immigration violators in separate searches in May 2003 and tied the two together. Mawlawi and another codefendant, Janet Netters Austin, recruited others to engage in sham marriages or engagements with Middle Eastern men to help them enter the United States. Before he was arrested, Mawlawi worked as a part-time interpreter for the immigration office in the federal building in Memphis.

n One year after his celebrated trial and conviction in federal court, University of Alabama football booster Logan Young Jr. remains free pending appeal. His attorneys have asked the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to move the appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court because they believe it is an issue of state law rather than federal law. Young received a six-month sentence for his conviction for paying $120,000 to high school coach Lynn Lang in the Albert Means recruiting case.

n Headline in last week’s Detroit News: “Milder weather cuts heating bills.” The story explained how a mild Michigan winter and lower rates for natural gas — down as much as 21 percent at some Michigan utility companies — are reducing heating bills by 25 to 30 percent. Headline in last month’s Nashville Tennessean: “Natural gas bills to shrink as utility cuts rates again.” Nashville Gas customers get a 36 percent reduction effective February 1st, on top of another reduction in January. Memphis Light, Gas and Water has offered no such relief from gas bills up 70 percent or more. Any consumer savings are the result of lower usage due to January temperatures in the 50s.

Categories
Opinion

Deferred Gratification

If you’re going to college, plan to go to college, or paying for someone else to go to college, a recent report on endowments might surprise you.

College endowments are loaded, and they’re growing as much as 25 percent each year. The increase is due to a combination of exceptionally large gifts and investment gains. The University of Memphis has been one of the big winners, with a $175 million endowment and a gain of nearly 16 percent last year.

Other colleges and universities in Tennessee and the Mid-South saw gains ranging from 5.2 percent at Rhodes College to 23 percent at Mississippi State University. A bigger endowment means more financial aid for students, said David Easley, chief financial officer of the Mississippi State University Foundation, where about half of the endowment income goes toward scholarships.

The National Association of College and University Business Officers publishes a report each year on endowments of 746 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Their Web site, nacubo.org, has the full report.

Harvard, with $25.5 billion, has the largest endowment. The only university in Tennessee with an endowment of more than $1 billion is Vanderbilt, with $2.6 billion.

The big gain at Mississippi State was due to fulfillment of a $25 million pledge from a private donor. The university earned a return of 8.4 percent on its investments, which is slightly below the 9.3 percent average return for all colleges in the 2005 survey. At the University of Memphis, three gifts of more than $1 million boosted the endowment, said Julie Johnson, vice president of Advancement.

For students, parents, and donors, endowment surveys point out things that may not be heralded in the institution’s alumni publications or fund-raising appeals.

Endowment gifts, as opposed to, say, gifts to the athletic department, don’t get spent right away. Donors are helping future generations of college students live off the interest. College financial officials say that, on average, they spend only 4 to 5 percent of the endowment each year. If inflation takes 3 percent and management fees another 1 percent, a 9 percent return keeps the endowment at roughly the same level.

It’s never a good thing to lag one’s peer group, and endowments are no exception. The difference between a 5 percent gain and a 10 percent gain on $200 million is $10 million. That translates to thousands of dollars per student at a time when tuition exceeds $5,000 a year at public colleges and $25,000 at some private colleges.

The rich get richer. Yale, with an endowment of $15.2 billion, also consistently has one of the best investment returns of around 16 percent. Stanford, with a $12 billion endowment, grew 19 percent last year thanks to investments in the stock of Google and emerging companies in Silicon Valley. On the other hand, size can be a disadvantage. Givers may wonder how much is enough? What difference does a $100 gift make to a university with an endowment of more than $1 billion as opposed to a similar gift to the local food bank or high school?

Endowment growth, coupled with the Tennessee Lottery, is good news for college students. Lottery proceeds, constantly replenished by gamblers, are projected to be $240 million this year, and most of it gets spent. By statute, the lottery reserve fund is only $50 million. Some 70,000 students will get a $3,300 scholarship if they attend a four-year in-state college.

Here’s a summary of the national rank, size, and growth of endowments of colleges and universities in the Mid-South:

Vanderbilt University, 23rd: $2.6 billion, 14.5 percent.

University of Tennessee system, 81st: $714 million, 7.3 percent.

University of Arkansas system, 83rd: $691 million, 10.4 percent.

University of Mississippi, 135th: $397 million, 8.3 percent.

University of the South, 187th: $253 million, 5.4 percent.

Rhodes College, 202nd: $223 million, 5.2 percent.

Mississippi State University, 207th: $211 million, 23 percent.

University of Memphis, 236th: $175 million, 15.8 percent.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Full of Beans

If restaurant openings were a disease, the number of new Mexican restaurants downtown and Midtown might be considered an epidemic.

The Complex is chiefly known as a bar and live-music venue, featuring the city’s hippest alternative acts. But it’s also the site of El Pollo Grille and Mexican Cantina. Bert Jamboa opened the Complex three and a half years ago and since then has worked on adding a kitchen. Although he says that the restaurant is still a work-in-progress, it’s open and serving standard Mexican fare — burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and the like — as well as all-American and all-Mexican breakfasts, which means you can get your short stack or L.A.-style huevos rancheros. The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

El Pollo Grille and Mexican Cantina, 704 Madison (692-9211)

Another hidden treasure can be found inside the Comfort Inn on Front Street. Sgt. Jalapeno’s Tortilla Factory Co. is a Tex-Mex family affair. Melissa and Victor Ortiz opened the restaurant in mid-December, temporarily abandoning Ortiz Tortilla Company, their Southaven restaurant.

“We are still making our own tortillas. We only closed the restaurant in Southaven temporarily,” says Victor.

It’s not just homemade tortillas at Sgt. Jalapeno’s. It’s homemade everything. The Ortizes moved here from Brownsville, Texas, where they operated Zelda’s Bakery, which specialized in Mexican pastries. When they came to the Memphis area in 1999, they brought along the flavors of South Texas and their concept of “food fast fare.”

Food fast fare? It’s hard to explain but mouth-watering nonetheless. Try Sgt. Jalapeno’s smothered burrito, a 12-inch flour tortilla filled with Spanish rice, lettuce, tomatoes, your choice of meat, smothered with red sauce and topped with olives. It’s yours for $7.95.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Sgt. Jalapeno’s Tortilla Factory Co., 100 N. Front St. (526-0583)

Transplanting a little patch of their Mexican hometown of Guadalajara to Memphis is what Andreas Flores Jr. and his dad had in mind when they opened Quinto Patio on Beale Street across from the New Daisy Theatre. The restaurant serves traditional Mexican food for lunch and dinner, as well as Italian standards — a holdover from the restaurant’s former tenant, New York Pizza. A full bar will be available once the liquor license is in place, and a patio for outdoor seating is in the works as well.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Quinto Patio, 345 Beale St. (523-7288)

Rio Loco’s opened last week in the old Buckley’s space about a block west of The Peabody. You can try their jumbo lime margarita for $6 during happy hour from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Or you can stop by for one of the daily lunch specials and get a demi-margarita, the jumbo lime’s little brother, which costs only $3.

Rio Loco’s is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Rio Loco’s, 117 Union (523-2142)

Also opening: Las Margaritas Mexican Bar and Grille next week inside America’s Best Inns & Suites at 1837 Union; Garcia Wells Southwestern Grill in Overton Square this month; Happy Mexican Restaurante & Cantina next month at 385 S. Second St.; and Qdoba Mexican Grill at Poplar and Holmes in April.