Month: July 2014

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News The Fly-By

Beale Street Landing: A Timeline

After years of a constantly inflating budget and mounds of public scrutiny, Beale Street Landing officially opened to the public last weekend.

The Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) managed the landing’s design and construction process, and, despite criticism over the project, its president, Benny Lenderman, believes the landing has drastically improved neighboring Tom Lee Park.

“Beale Street Landing fixes Tom Lee Park, which I have said was one of the worst waterfront parks in the nation. Now it’s one of the best waterfront parks in the nation because all that it was missing — shade, restrooms, food amenities — are now housed within Beale Street Landing,” Lenderman said.

The $44 million boat dock and public space includes downtown’s only playground, a Riverfront Bar & Grill restaurant, a gift shop, docking facilities for the American Queen cruise line and other excursion boats, an observation deck, public art, and an eco-friendly green roof that connects to Tom Lee Park.

Beale Street Landing

But long before the landing was ever conceived, many plans, some of them including commercial development on a massive scale, were proposed for the riverfront. The Flyer has compiled a timeline with a few examples.

1819 — Andrew Jackson, John Overton, and James Winchester owned 5,000 acres on the bluff where the Wolf River flowed into the Mississippi. They commissioned surveyor William Lawrence to map out Memphis with lots, public squares, a public landing, and a public promenade along the river.

1978 — The Memphis Riverfront Study from the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning and Development recommended a “riverfront garden walkway” with a “performing arts barge, an open air marketplace, barges or piers, marine service, and a better mooring site for riverboats.”

1987 — Center City Commission plan for downtown called for improving the public promenade as a “grand civic open space,” restoring the cobblestone landing, adding amenities such as “floating restaurants and places for art,” adding “something special at the foot of Beale,” creating a Bluffwalk, and adding an aquarium to Mud Island River Park.

1996 — Mayor Willie W. Herenton came into office in 1991 with the idea that the riverfront should be an “economic engine” for Memphis. He had several ambitious plans for the riverfront over his years in office, but in 1996, he introduced some new items. He wanted to fill in the southern tip of Mud Island to create 10 acres of private development as a “theme village,” build two land bridges to convert part of the harbor into a 28-acre lake, and he wanted to cut a channel into what was left of the river’s harbor. Those changes were estimated to cost between $25 and $30 million.

1999 — The Waterfront Center, a nonprofit that assists communities in making the best long-term plans for their waterfronts, was hired to work with the public in developing ideas for the riverfront. Those ideas included free, year-round access to Mud Island River Park, slower traffic on Riverside Drive, protection of the cobblestones, better docking for river tour boats, and scratching Herenton’s idea for the lake.

2000 — The RDC was founded as a public-private partnership to oversee, maintain, and “develop where appropriate” the public property along the riverfront.

2002 — Memphis City Council approved the Memphis Riverfront Master Plan. It included a 50- to 70-acre “land bridge” dam for commercial development. Early renderings showed large skyscraper-like buildings along the water’s edge. The channel to the Mississippi River was gone, and the harbor was to become Wolf Lake. The plan also included a mention of a boat docking facility in the area where Beale Street Landing is today.

Lenderman said the board later amended that master plan and removed the land bridge with commercial development.

This 2002 master plan features new skyscrapers and a land bridge filling in the riverfront.

“There were mistakes made [with that plan]. It was a 50-year plan, but the problem is, you can’t do a public 50-year plan. Board members can’t comprehend beyond five years, and the public can’t comprehend more than a year and a half.”

2003 — At the end of 2002, the RDC announced an international design competition for Beale Street Landing. More than 170 submissions came in from 20 foreign countries and 28 states within the U.S. By October, the winning design from the RTN firm of Buenos Aires, Argentina was chosen.

“A lot of local architects and even we [at the RDC] assumed that what you needed down there was Memphis’ Eiffel Tower or something to show where the river was, and then you’d build around that,” Lenderman said. “But what our design panel of judges gravitated toward is having the river be the attraction, and they liked the design that RTN came up with.”

2005 — In June, the Memphis City Council approved the Beale Street Landing project as part of the FY 2006 city capital improvement project budget. In August, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and the RDC said it tripled the cost of all projects along the Mississippi River and the price of steel, which was to be a key component of the landing’s construction. Critics of Beale Street Landing, especially Friends for Our Riverfront, had much to say about the project’s ever-increasing cost to taxpayers.

“The first number in a city budget book was $28 million. The final number, with design and permitting and construction, was $44 million,” Lenderman. “But part of that went up $1 million in the past two years because extra money was raised for the play area from private dollars. Of that number, $29 million was city taxpayer money, and $2 million was private donations. The rest was state and federal.”

In December of 2005, the first phase of construction on the landing began with dredging out the mouth of the Wolf River Harbor, widening the shipping channel by 50 feet.

2008 — A groundbreaking ceremony was held for Beale Street Landing.

2012 — The American Queen cruise line, the first passenger boat to dock at Beale Street Landing, held an event to celebrate its headquarters moving to Memphis.

2014 — Beale Street Landing held its grand opening event on June 28th.

Future — Preservation of the historic cobblestone landing has been approved, and it has been ready for construction for about 18 months. But that part of the project has been held up by a Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) requirement that “railroad crossings within 100 feet of any project they fund be improved at the same time,” according to Lenderman. He said the RDC plans to go out to bid on the cobblestone project as soon as TDOT is ready to go.

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News The Fly-By

Veterans Frustrated with Memphis VA Medical Center

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran sat in the back of a room filled with nearly 200 fellow vets inside the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library last Friday. Frustrated and in dire need of treatment, the veterans were attending Congressman Steve Cohen’s Veterans Administration (VA) medical care town hall meeting to address inappropriate scheduling practices.

“I’m sick and dying, and they’re not trying to do anything about it,” the veteran said. “I’ve got prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, degenerative joint disease, and high blood pressure. It may look like I’m doing all right, but I’m sick. I know that I don’t have too much longer to live. I came to see what they’ve got to say.”

Cohen called the town hall meeting after a Department of Veterans Affairs access audit revealed that more than 1,600 patients at the Memphis VA Medical Center had to wait about 30 days after they requested an appointment with a physician. First-time patients waited nearly 50 days on average for appointments. However, 97 percent of the local VA’s nearly 50,000 appointments were scheduled within 30 days of their requests.

The meeting featured a panel of officials from the national and local VA including John Patrick, VA regional director for Tennessee and Kentucky, and Jan Murphy, acting deputy under secretary for the VA.

One of the panelists, Dr. Diane Knight, director for the Memphis VA Medical Center, admitted there are some flaws that need to be corrected for the establishment to operate more effectively. She said the facility’s emergency department is being expanded from 22 beds to 33 beds to serve more patients. Large monitors have been installed in each room.

“The medical needs of this city are huge, and our veteran population is growing,” Knight said. “We’ve taken a lot of efforts to improve some of the problems. It’s not going to improve overnight.”

One by one, veterans expressed their dissatisfaction with the VA and how its service has impacted their lives. Some yelled, others cried, but all conveyed the significance of needing to receive appropriate care in a timely manner.

Dennis Spain, a U.S. Army veteran, said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and back injuries that hinder him from having a functional life.

“My back injury really bothered me. I could hardly walk,” Spain told the crowd at the meeting. “I went to my clinic and sat there for an hour and a half. After speaking to a nurse, I was sent back to the waiting room for another hour. After that, I was told to go to the main VA to get X-rays. After they took my X-rays, they said, ‘Go home, we’ll call you in four weeks.’ Not one physician ever laid a hand on my body. That’s not acceptable treatment.”

The VA audit didn’t single out Memphis. It reviewed scheduling practices at 731 VA hospitals and clinics nationwide. More than 57,000 veterans waited for care 90 days after their appointments were scheduled, according to the audit. Nearly 64,000 veterans who scheduled an appointment over the past decade have never been seen by a doctor.

“Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not,” Patrick said. “We have lots of work to do. We have a challenging environment but an environment I believe we can deal with. We have a system of folks who have committed their entire lives to taking care of veterans. We can’t do this work alone. It takes all of us to take care of our nation’s veterans.”

On Monday, it was announced that President Barack Obama will tap Bob McDonald, a West Point grad and former CEO of Procter & Gamble, to head the Department of Veterans Affairs and clean up what has been described by top officials as a “corrosive culture” at the VA.

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News The Fly-By

U of M Constructing New Multimillion-Dollar Rec Center

It’s been more than four decades since the University of Memphis constructed its current recreation and fitness center, which provides students with a place to exercise, play intramural sports, and swim laps.

An artist’s rendering of the U of M’s planned recreational facility

Now, the U of M has plans to construct a new $62 million recreational facility. It will feature a quarter-mile indoor track, juice bar, four-court divisible gym, multi-purpose fitness center with a climbing wall, and outdoor leisure pool. It will be located along Southern Avenue north of the existing center at 620 Echles.

“The new center will greatly expand and enhance opportunities for students to enjoy wellness activities such as intramurals and club sports, group fitness classes, and other expanded recreational and fitness activities,” said Jim Vest, director of Campus Recreation Intramural Services. “Cardio and weight rooms will be easier to use because we will have more space. This will not only promote fitness among students, it will also boost academic achievement, retention, and graduation rates, since studies show that physical fitness enhances students’ academic performance.”

The new facility will also boast three full-size turf fields, basketball courts, and tennis courts. A land bridge will make the center accessible from the northern part of the campus. Construction of the 192,500 square-foot facility is expected to begin during the 2015-16 academic year and will be implemented in three phases. It’s scheduled to open in 2018.

Vest said the first phase would involve relocating the tennis courts from the current facility and creating new parking spaces. An additional $24 million will be spent on a parking garage.

The construction of the new center and $18 million land bridge will be included in the second phase.

After the new recreational facility is in operation, the third phase will be implemented: demolishing the existing recreation center and replacing it with three lighted artificial turf fields.

The school’s current rec center has three full-size gyms, indoor and outdoor 50-meter swimming pools, an aerobics studio, sauna, a cardio room, and free weight room. It houses the Larry O. Finch Facility and Campus Recreation Intramural Services.

The decision to create a new rec center came about after students expressed dissatisfaction with the existing rec center’s inadequate space and amenities.

Hastings and Chivetta Architects, Inc. conducted a development study in May 2013, which found limited field and gym space for intramurals and club sports, long waits to use equipment in the cardio and weight rooms, and congestion to be issues impacting students’ experience at the facility.

“Constructed in 1971, the existing student recreation and fitness center is not large enough to meet the needs of the current student population,” Vest said. “The development study showed that U of M students would benefit from the construction of a new recreation center, which would offer expanded facilities and new amenities.”

 The study was presented to the Student Government Association (SGA) in September 2013. The SGA recently approved a student fee increase of $307 over the 2014-15 academic year to fund construction of the new center.

“By offering students a state-of-the-art facility, we hope to encourage fitness and wellness among students and the U of M community,” West said. “The new recreation center will result in an enhanced academic experience, because engaged students are more likely to be successful students.”

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News The Fly-By

A Look Back at the Fight Between a Faulkner Statue and a Tree

In the January 23, 1997, issue of the Memphis Flyer, Phil Campbell detailed a struggle between a tree and a writer’s statue in Oxford, Mississippi.

The proposed statue would be a tribute to William Faulkner, the Nobel Prize-winning author from Oxford, who penned Southern classics such as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, among many others. The writer was born in New Albany and bought a home in Oxford for his family in 1930 that he called “Rowan Oak.” Despite this, however, the town had not done much to pay homage to him, according to the article.

“Even Square Books, the town’s popular bookstore, displays more photos of one-time Oxford resident John Grisham than it does of Faulkner,” the story read.

The statue was set to be built with $70,000 raised by businesses and the Oxford Board of Aldermen, one that would show Faulkner “standing with dignity, with a pipe in his mouth, looking off into the distance, sporting his signature tweed coat and baggy britches.”

Faulkner’s oldest-living relative at the time, his nephew Jimmy Faulkner, gave his approval for the project until Oxford residents became upset with how the project began to unfold.

The William Faulkner statue in Oxford sits in front of City Hall.

On the plot in front of Oxford City Hall, where the statue was to be raised, sat a magnolia tree. The mayor during that time, John Leslie, privately told the city’s electric department to cut down the tree because “the board of aldermen hoped to pass an ordinance creating a ‘tree board’ that would effectively have prevented the tree from being removed,” Campbell wrote.

Residents wrote letters against the mayor’s actions and two dozen showed up to the tree stump on one particular day, even laying a wreath on the dead tree. The Faulkner family pulled its support of the project after the writer’s daughter, who lived in Virginia, spoke out against the tree being cut down. The nephew originally believed the project had the daughter’s blessing but ended up speaking out against it, even going in front of the board of aldermen.

“Jimmy Faulkner appeared before the board of alderman, with dozens of other people in tow, to protest the mayor’s decision the week after the tree was felled. His presence made a strong statement, given the family’s affection for privacy and general apathy for politics,” the story read.

Some people felt “manipulated,” and the convoluted situation surrounding the fallen tree involved many parties. Joseph Blotner, who wrote a biography on Faulkner, was quoted in the article in favor of the statue.

“In ‘Go Down, Moses’ and other works, Faulkner deplores the disappearance of the big woods in the Delta,” he said in the story. “However, there are many, many magnolia trees in and around Oxford. There is only one native son that brought honor to his town, his state, and his country.”

Despite the controversy, the statue went up as planned. The bronze statue now sits in front of City Hall in Oxford, depicting Faulkner on a bench with his legs crossed and holding a pipe.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Split the Baby

I got several calls from Memphis Police and Fire Department employees this week. They were all angry about the proposed cuts and changes to their pension and health-care plans and wanted the Flyer to “tell the truth” about the situation.

The core truth is that the city — as mandated by the state — needs to find a way to pay down its pension obligations in five years. It can do this by cutting costs, raising revenues (taxes), or a combination of the two.

The proposal at hand would turn the current guaranteed pension plan for city employees into a 401k plan. It would also reduce benefits and/or raise the costs of health care for current employees and retirees.

The Memphis City Council majority is determined not to raise property taxes, come hell or high water, the stated rationale being that it will motivate people to leave Memphis. The 6,000 police and fire personnel and other city employees contend that they are being asked to carry the entire burden of fixing the budget mess for the rest of us.

The council has gotten support for its “no new taxes” position from the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce (COC), which launched a campaign against any tax hike. A counter-campaign has sprung up, urging citizens not to patronize businesses that are COC members.

And speaking of hell and high water… one fireman I spoke to alluded to certain “measures” that could be taken to demonstrate how important his department is to the city. He was referencing the rumors that have been circulating for a week or so about a “sick-out” over the Fourth of July weekend.

A sick-out of fire and police personnel on a holiday weekend filled with fireworks and massive downtown crowds would be a PR disaster for both departments, in my opinion, and would only harden the views on both sides of the issue. Especially, if there were a fire or a crime that caused the loss of life due to a lack of response.

That said, taking away promised health benefits, especially from retirees on a fixed pension is just wrong. And remember, these employees don’t get Social Security, so their pension is it when it comes to supporting themselves in their old age.

I’m quite obviously not an expert in city finances, and Lord knows the city has spent enough on consultants and experts to cover my retirement quite nicely. But surely there is a baby to be split here somewhere. A small tax increase isn’t going to send people fleeing en masse. And the switch to a 401k plan isn’t going be the end of the world for city employees.

We need to keep and attract highly qualified police and fire department personnel. A fear of not being safe will send as many people fleeing the city as a tax increase will. It’s time to make a deal — before things get even hotter.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1323

W(TF)REG

A story on WREG’s website headlined “Increased health problems with illegal immigrants” is summarized with the following text: “The head of Homeland Security will head to the border to see the U.S. response to the influx of illegals. Meanwhile, some doctors are concerned about the increased health problems immigrants may be bringing into the country.” The video consists of one doctor, an infectious disease expert with Baptist Hospital, explaining that there is no immigration-related health threat increase and that the threat comes from poorly informed Americans not getting their kids vaccinated.

Campfield Revue

The Stacey Campfield musical Casey Stampfield: The Musical, a lampoon of Tennessee’s most talked about politician, opened in Nashville last week, and The Tennessean loved it. Sort of. The takeaway quote: “There’s an unmistakable cringe factor as Stampfield reminds us why Tennessee so often ends up being used as a punchline on late-night television.”

Seeing Red

Sammy Hagar, the Red Rocker who can’t drive 55, is opening a sports bar at Southland Park. Will neighborhood speed limits force the Van Halen frontman to be airlifted to and from his own club?

Cheesy

Either I’m going crazy or the cheese at Ms. Cordelia’s grocery store on Mud Island is trying to communicate with me. I think that’s its way of saying, “I’m with stupid.”

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Opinion Viewpoint

Short-changing Justice in Shelby County

Would you prefer to appear before a judge based on his/her political affiliation or the color of his/her skin, or would you prefer to appear before a judge who has experience in the law? Shelby County has the most diverse judiciary in the state of Tennessee. Is it perfect? No. Will it ever be perfect? No. But we are way ahead of the rest of the state. However, when it comes to diversity, there are those among us who think that party affiliation or race are more important than experience.

Judge James C. Beasley Jr.

When I started my career, attorneys generally practiced law for a number of years then decided to “give back to the community” by serving as judges. Based on those years of experience within the system, judges were viewed as older and wiser and capable of making the decisions necessary to run a court. We have reached a point in our society where everything but experience is important in electing judges.

I recently handled a murder case in which the state was seeking the death penalty. The key issue in the case was the intellectual disability (mental retardation) of the defendant. I spent three days hearing proof on that issue alone pre-trial. Although I am not an expert in this field, I have spent 36 years trying cases and listening to experts testify about this issue. That experience helped me make a decision that affected that defendant’s life. I give that example as a reason why experience counts more than politics or race in serving as a judge.

The lieutenant governor of this state feels that “political correctness” means more than experience. He believes that we should turn out experienced and learned jurists just because they were appointed by a governor who was from a different political party. Experience and ability mean nothing.

Likewise, the local chapter of the National Bar Association seems to be saying the same thing; only this time the issue is race. The local president of that chapter sent out a letter with the following quotes: “We have a golden opportunity to unite as a community of attorneys of color with the goal of running one member per race.” And, “This committee has been hard at work establishing a mechanism to reach a consensus candidate for each race.”

It seems that many of these candidates are running simply to include someone in each race, and it appears that, for the most part, the goal has been accomplished. However, the list of candidates running in most of the judicial races against incumbents, both black and white, have little or no experience. Many were recruited simply because of their race. Several have never tried a case. Some do not even appear or practice in the same field of law for the position they are seeking, either civil or criminal. One was suspended from the practice of law for multiple instances of unethical conduct. Although many have no experience, it appears that they are relying simply on the color of their skin as a qualification.

I have spent my entire career attempting to be fair and impartial to all who appear before me, and I feel very blessed and fortunate that I do not have opposition in this election. However, I feel very strongly that we have a diverse and experienced judiciary in this count. Our judges, black and white, male and female, should be judged on their work ethic and experience and not on their politics or the color of their skin. If they are doing a bad job, vote them out of office. That is the basis of our country. But please don’t vote somebody out of office for the wrong reason. Experience matters; seek it out and demand it from your judges. James C. Beasley Jr. is judge of Division 10, 30th Judicial District, Shelby County.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Dotting the ‘”I” in Memphis Politics

CREDIT: JB

JB

Sidney Chism and small fan at last year’s picnic.

Attendees at the Sidney Chism political picnic, held two weekends ago at the usual stomping grounds on Horn Lake, would have observed this scribe doing his annual duty there for several hours, and may have since wondered if and when I would publish an account.

For a variety of reasons, I have delayed posting my observations. I do indeed have some, along with a variety of interesting photographs from the event, and I’ll be putting samples of both online shortly, along with snapshots and notes about other aspects of the recent political season.

There has been what the late poet T. S. Eliot would call an “objective correlative” to my wait on dealing with the picnic. On the day of the event, Saturday, June 21st, I was leaving the picnic when my left foot sank deep into a perfectly disguised hole on the property, a good foot deeper than its surroundings but topped with the same deceptive flow of green grass.

I thought I’d wrenched a knee but was able to walk out on my own, and, since nothing except a little soreness occurred over the next few days, thought I must have gotten off light. Last Thursday night, however, after I’d been to two political events (moderating one), I started feeling punk enough to beg off on a third.

Starting about nine o’clock Thursday and continuing through the weekend, the left knee gave me its delayed constituent reaction, swelling up to double its usual size, hollering at me vigorously through the available nerve circuits and stiffening up so as to make me bed-ridden even before I got doctor’s orders to that effect.

I got the knee drained of fluid and shot with cortisone on Sunday, and that seems to have restored me to the ranks of the ambient. Knock knock.

And, being a respector of what may have been a karmic message, I shall delay no longer in shedding some light on what happened at the picnic (though the balance of my observations will be published in the “Political Beat Blog” online).

The most remarkable single circumstance was the apparent endorsement by host Chism of several candidates — two of them outright: Democratic nominee Deidre Malone and, most vociferously, Sheriff Bill Oldham, the Republican nominee for a position also sought by Democrat Bennie Cobb.

It will be remembered that Chism was actually censured some time back by his Democratic Party mates at a meeting of the party’s executive committee for his support of Oldham. Chism was not bashful about giving Oldham his best shout-out at the picnic, and he — the county commissioner who was given so often to denouncing Republicans as marching always “in lockstep” — was now boasting defiantly about his having “friends” in both parties.

On the congressional scene, Chism gave Ricky Wilkins, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Steve Cohen in the 9th district, what seemed to be at least an indirect nod, allowing (or encouraging) event emcee Leon Gray to introduce the challenger with Wilkins’ own billboard slogan, “our next congressman.”            

• The current congressman, Cohen, was conspicuously absent from the Chism event, but he is making his presence felt in other ways.

Undeniably stung by this past weekend’s announcement of a Wilkins endorsement by the Memphis Police Association, Cohen, who early in his career was the legal adviser to the Memphis Police Department, put on a show of force on Monday, backed by almost a score of union representatives trumpeting their own or the Memphis Labor Council’s endorsement of the incumbent congressman, who has normally enjoyed wall-to-wall support from local  unions.

• For the record, there’s been some feedback about that August 2013 letter (see Politics, June 26th) from Imad Abdullah, the then president of the Ben F. Jones chapter of the National Bar Association (NBA), to chapter members soliciting “attorneys of color” to come forth as candidates in the 2014 judicial election with the goal of running “one member per race.”

There were numerous reactions to the premise of that item — especially from current office-holders irked at having to devote a summer to running against what they consider to be premature or unqualified candidates. One comes from Criminal Court Judge James Beasley (who is himself unopposed in this election) in this week’s Flyer Viewpoint, p. 12.

Another came from David E. McKinney, the current president of the Jones chapter of the NBA. In a letter notable for its courtesy, McKinney insists, “I vehemently reject the notion that this chapter is engaged in endorsing judicial candidates in the upcoming election based upon their race or ethnicity.”

And, indeed, as he and others have pointed out, there has of yet been no slate of endorsees released by the Ben F. Jones chapter. One who has made this point was lawyer/congressional candidate Wilkins, who (with Charles Carpenter) was mentioned as follows in Abdullah’s letter:

“Thus, to keep us on an organized path, we have established a separate committee that is co-chaired by Charles E. Carpenter and Ricky E. Wilkins. This committee has been hard at work establishing a mechanism to reach a consensus candidate for each race.”

Wilkins spoke to the Flyer on Thursday and strongly denied that he had been part of any action to prepare a black candidates’ slate for this year’s election, though he acknowledged he had been briefed in general about plans to interest African-American lawyers in seeking judicial office and had responded with encouragement.

Whatever the case, the number of contested races in this year’s judicial election is reasonably high (though maybe not unprecedentedly so), and it would seem that incumbents, for the most part, are getting the better of it so far — at least in the Memphis Bar Association’s lawyers’ poll of judicial candidates, released on Monday.

(Those recommendations are available online at memphisflyer.com‘s “Political Beat Blog” and will be available in their entirety in future print issues.)

• Note to judicial candidate Alicia Howard, who has asked me for a retraction of my report last week, based on public commentary by former Democratic Chairman Van Turner and on a citation from the state Board of Professional Responsibility regarding her erstwhile suspension: 

It is a matter of record that the board in 2011 gave attorney Howard an 18-month suspension for “signing and notarizing her client’s signature to [a] petition without indicating the client’s permission to do so” and for submitting “applications to the AOC [Administrative Office of the Courts] billing for work not performed.” 

Those two findings were the heart of the case against her and the reason why Howard was cited by the board for seven separate breaches in categories ranging from “truthfulness” to “fairness” to “misconduct.”

Howard objected to my saying that she “was held liable for forging a client’s name to a document without authorization” and for “obtain[ing] payment from the state Administrative Office of the Courts under false pretenses.” I will gladly withdraw that attempt at layman’s summary in favor of the Board’s carefully parsed statements quoted above.

She points out also that she “practiced for over twenty years with absolutely no discipline history,” that she “disagreed with certain findings” and accepted “the harsh nature of the penalty” only after “considering the expense of prolonged litigation and the toll on my family and my personal health.”

Howard also contends that 12 months was lopped off her suspension time and that she was able to resume practice in January 2012.

 

• The Master Meal of the East Shelby County Republican Club, which normally has some out-of-county designate as its featured speaker (past example: former Arkansas Governor/TV host Mike Huckabee) got by on local talent this year — the party’s major county-wide candidates on the August election ballot, plus state GOP chairman Chris Devaney of Nashville.

But that was enough to swell the turnout to several hundred at the Great Hall of Germantown last Tuesday night. Included were candidates galore for other races, including not a few Democrats. An omen for what comes next?

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We Recommend We Recommend

60th Anniversary of Rock-and-Roll Celebration

Elvis Presley didn’t just walk into Sun Studio fresh off the streets of Memphis and instantly give birth to rock-and-roll. It was his fifth visit to Sam Phillips’ Union Avenue recording service, and his first two attempts of the night were both ballads. Phillips felt the boy’s emotion, but didn’t hear a hit, and he was ready to end the session when Presley relaxed and started goofing off with his guitar, jumping around and playing Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right.” The recording equipment was turned back on, and two days later WHBQ DJ Dewey Phillips played the song on the radio. History. So this isn’t just Independence Day weekend, it’s Rock Week, when the whole world turns toward Memphis to salute the 60th anniversary of Elvis’ first full recording session, and all the magic that happens in the meantime, when you’re just goofing off.

Anniversary festivities kick off Friday, July 4th, at 9:45 p.m., with a very Elvis installment of the Mud Island River Park’s Fireworks Spectacular. Sun Studio hosts the official grand opening of its newly installed “60 Years” exhibit Saturday, July 5th, at noon with a ceremony and cake-cutting event. Visitors to Graceland on July 5th will receive a free limited-edition poster featuring a young Elvis Presley with his 1956 Gibson J200 guitar. Graceland is also offering a special VIP tour package exploring Elvis’ transformation from truck driver to megastar.

Later that evening, Elvis bassist Bill Black will be honored at a Levitt Shell concert and with a Brass Note to be placed on the Beale Street Walk of Fame. The free concert showcases contemporary Memphis artists paying homage to Elvis, Booker T. & the MG’s, Sam & Dave, Al Green, the Staples Singers, and more.

If that’s not enough Elvis for you, there are a variety of special tours, and you can always drop in on the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum’s “60 Years of Rock,” an ongoing timeline exhibit, tracing the history of rock-and-roll beginning, of course, with Elvis, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black’s recording of “That’s All Right.”

Categories
News

Compromise in City Budget Crisis?

Bruce VanWyngarden says there needs to be some more flexibility in addressing the city’s budget issues.