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Month: June 2009
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Strickland: Time for Real Budget Cuts
The City Council has the right — and the duty — to perform some drastic fiscal surgery, says Councilman Jim Strickland.
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Detention Basin Declared Dead
Students at both Memphis City Schools (MCS) and Shelby County Schools (SCS) will now have access to online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues, thanks to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit filed against two Middle and East Tennessee school districts. Bianca Phillips reports.
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Memphis Water Rights Upheld
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision that rejected a claim by the state of Mississippi seeking payment for water in the Memphis Sands Aquifer. John Branston has the story.
Students at both Memphis City Schools (MCS) and Shelby County Schools (SCS) will now have access to online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues, thanks to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit filed against two Middle and East Tennessee school districts.
The lawsuit, filed just over two weeks ago, addressed the use of computer filtering software provided by Education Networks of America at both Nashville Public Schools and Knox County Schools. The software, which blocked access to the websites of national LGBT groups, is used by about 80 percent of the school systems in Tennessee, including MCS and SCS.
As of Thursday, June 4th, schools using the Education Networks of American software will now have access to the websites of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, the Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality USA, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and Dignity USA (an LGBT Catholic organization). The software continues to block gay chat rooms and adult-themed websites.
The issue was first brought to the ACLU’s attention by Andrew Emitt, a high school student from Knoxville. He’d been attempting to research LGBT scholarships on school computers, but was blocked access to certain websites. The ACLU filed suit on May 19th in the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee.
The filtering software is required in public schools according to state law, but it is intended to block students from obscene or harmful information.
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Memphis Water Rights Upheld
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision that rejected a claim by the state of Mississippi seeking payment for water in the Memphis Sands Aquifer.
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Council Budget Games; Dozier’s SAT
John Branston takes a look at the City Council’s budget battle, and has a link to a story on Robert Dozier’s SAT score at City Beat Blog.
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Dozier’s SAT Questioned
ESPN.com is reporting that former Memphis Tiger basketball star Robert Dozier made a 720 on his SAT after making a 1260 on his first attempt in 2003.
University of Memphis officials will be in Indianapolis Saturday to meet with the NCAA on questions about Derrick Rose’s SAT scores. The Dozier matter is not part of that investigation.
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Detention Basin Declared Dead
City engineers gave Park Friends a death certificate last night for the proposed Overton Park detention basin.
The certificate, which reads “The land of Overton County of Greensward cometh the coronor certifying that the detention basin alternative near Rainbow Lake is not merely dead; it is sincerely dead,” is signed by Deadus O. Arrivalus.
“For me, I think we saved the greensward and we saved the forest,” says Martha Kelly with Park Friends.