Month: June 2015

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Draft Night Recap: Grizzlies Draft Jarell Martin, Andrew Harrison, trade Jon Leuer

In a move that wasn’t as surprising as it should’ve been, the Grizzlies selected LSU’s Jarell Martin with the 25th pick of the draft last night, and then swapped Jon Leuer to the Phoenix Suns for a second round pick, which was then used to select Andrew Harrison from Kentucky.

I don’t like either pick, and both were reminiscent of a Grizzlies past that we thought (erroneously, perhaps) was dead and gone.

People whose opinions I respect about such matters—guys like Jonathan Tjarks and Mike Prada—liked the Martin pick:

…but I have a hard time getting excited about a raw combo forward with a lot of potential at 25. And Martin has a foot injury which will reportedly keep him from playing in this year’s Summer League, so we won’t even get a look at him until preseason to see whether he knows what he’s doing on a basketball court or not. (And, Martin didn’t even play basketball until his junior year of high school, so he’s managed to go from not playing at all to D1 SEC basketball player to first round pick in only four years of playing the sport at all. That’s certainly a counterpoint to my disappointment with the pick that I would be intellectually dishonest to leave out: the kid is obviously a fast learner.)

I, along with several other Griz-watchers, heard in the run-up to the draft that the Grizzlies really liked Duke point guard Tyus Jones, and that they were going to try to move up to take him. Stat projections love Jones and have him rated as much higher than the 24th in this draft. Alas, the Griz didn’t (and still don’t) have much in the way of tradeable assets, so that didn’t happen, and when Jones almost fell to them anyway—he was selected by the Cavaliers at 24 on behalf of the Minnesota Timberwolves in a trade—I guess Martin was the next guy up on the draft board chart.

I don’t really want to address the fact (“fact”) that the Grizzlies promised Martin they’d pick him, except to say this: Those stories apparently originated with Martin’s camp, and none of my team sources would confirm it. What I heard from team sources before and during the draft was that Jones was a guy that they liked, and if he’d been available, he’d have been the pick.

Whatever. We’ll see. It’s unlikely that Martin will play a single minute next season. I anticipate that he’ll spend the whole year in Iowa getting minutes and getting in practice time, but that’s kind of my whole frustration with the Martin pick: this is a guy who, even if Joerger were willing to play rookies, probably still isn’t ready to play for a year or two, and in the meantime, he’s going to be taking up a roster spot and salary space to not play. And, the way the Griz have built themselves, without any regard for drafting well, the truth is that he’ll probably be dealt somewhere for pennies on the dollar inside of three seasons anyway.

Which is why the Andrew Harrison pick is kinda stupid, too. Sure, it was an opportunity to get some sort of asset in return for Jon Leuer, who was probably going to be waived if he was still on the roster when his contract becomes guaranteed on 6/30, but the same logic applies here as does to the Martin pick: this is not a guy who is likely to play, and in Harrison’s case he probably won’t even make it through training camp, assuming the rumblings we’ve heard about the Griz front office “having plans for Russ Smith” are accurate. So why not just use a second round pick on a European player who you can stash for a couple of years without having to pay any money? Obviously those are valuable assets; the Grizzlies turned one (Janis Timma) into Matt Barnes literally the same day as the draft. But no, instead, they drafted a guy who will either take up space on the roster or be gone forever by the end of the summer.

Last year’s draft, it felt like John Hollinger was asserting his will. There were others in the front office who liked Rodney Hood more and wanted to take him, but the advanced stat projections loved Jordan Adams, and that’s who the Grizzlies picked, and so far we haven’t seen enough of Adams to know whether the projections are accurate, but he’s shown signs of being a very good player if he can continue his development.

Hey, at least it wasn’t as bad as the Thabeet pick.

The advanced stat projections don’t really like Martin, and they don’t really like Harrison, either. Martin wasn’t in the top 30 of Kevin Pelton’s (ESPN Insider) statistical projection big board. For comparison, Jordan Adams ranked much higher than 22nd, where he was actually drafted. The projections I’ve seen have Andrew Harrison somewhere in the mid-40’s, which is where he was picked—which is to say, he doesn’t seem to have been much of a steal in the second round; that seems to be about where he should be.

So, the Grizzlies drafted a couple of guys who definitely won’t contribute this year if they even play a single NBA minute, who probably won’t contribute anything in the next three seasons, and who (realistically) probably will be traded before anyone ever finds out whether they can develop as Grizzlies or not. The Grizzlies, in other words, did exactly what they’ve always done during Chris Wallace’s tenure as general manager, which is take draft picks out into the parking lot and light them on fire. Last year’s Adams pick gave me just enough hope that things would be different in the future that I was disappointed to see the Grizzlies take another Tony Wroten-style “maybe he’ll be good” flyer on somebody who they’ll probably trade to the Sixers for second rounders at some point. Instead, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Is Forrest’s Exit Now a Consensus?

Forrest

Inevitably, the shockwaves from Charleston, S.C., have found their way into the Memphis election season.

In truth, several different kinds of things got said and done by candidates in 2015 city races this week, and these will be dealt with soon enough (in the case of this blog, within the next post or two).

Right now, the one thing that stands out was a statement made by Mayor A C Wharton that got widely noticed on Thursday but actually got said sometime late Wednesday — in an email to the Associated Press, no less.
That a statement with such potentially profound consequences got distributed that way surely belongs in the next thoughtful thumb-sucking piece about how social media have impacted our election process.

What the Mayor recommended was the immediate removal of a statue of the late Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, atop his charger, from a park that was once named for the general, a renowned calvary leader during the Civil War, but became Health Sciences Park in 2013 as part of a general re-evaluation of the city’s attitude toward its own history.

That statue, said Wharton, should be remanded to the custody of the Forrest Monument Association, the memorial society that placed it there a century ago and, to judge by what the Mayor said, must still exist.
Wharton went further: The remains of Forrest and his wife should be disinterred and taken for re-burial in Elmwood Cemetery, the vintage resting place of many distinguished Memphians and the original place of interment for the Forrests before they were re-buried beneath the general’s statue.

This unprecedented demotion of a Memphis icon is more than just another reaction to the horrors of Charleston like the sentiment almost everywhere, South as well as North, for the eradication of Confederate symbolism of the sort that clearly motivated Dylann Storm Roof.

Forrest has long been controversial in his own right for three matters attached to his reputation — his history as a slave trader before the Civil War, his alleged massacre of black Union soldiers at the battle of Fort Pillow during the war (Forrest’s defenders hotly dispute his responsibility for the verified non-combat deaths that occurred there), and his founding of the Ku Klux Klan after the war (something that the self-same defenders insist didn’t really happen, or didn’t happen in exactly the way that people imagine).

These are the issues, presumably, that Wharton had in mind when he said that it was inappropriate for people to be picnicking in the shadow of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

And it isn’t just the Mayor. One of his prime opponents in the current Mayor’s race is Councilman Jim Strickland, who was at Overton Square’s Zebra Lounge on Thursday night as the honoree of a meet ‘n greet affair that targeted African-American voters.

Asked about Wharton’s proposal before he spoke to the crowd, Strickland answered without hesitation: “I’m for it.”

An hour later, at the close of an East Memphis fundraiser in the offices of the Farris and Bobango law firm, Councilman Ed Ford was asked his attitude toward the idea and said that, while he’d rather focus on amending the larger conditions of potential racial discord in the city, he wouldn’t oppose the act of removal proposed by Wharton.

Others running for Mayor or for Council have not had a chance to weigh in yet, but one gets the sense that Wharton’s proposal, while it may be at least partly inspired by the politics of the moment, is transcendent of it as well, and is unlikely to incur much disagreement among other mainstream candidates.

The idea of removing all traces of the General and of what he is now thought to represent from a place of honor and prominence in Memphis is not new. It has been proposed at intervals for the last decade or so. It may in fact be that proverbial idea whose time has come.

Categories
News News Blog

Wharton Wants Forrest Statue Removed From Park

Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in Health Sciences Park

In one of the many reactions to the murders in the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting last week, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton announced Thursday that he wants the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest removed from Health Sciences Park.

The recent attention that has been given to the dismissal of the Confederate flag from state capitals since the shooting has put more pressure on Southern political leaders to make a statement on any remnants of Confederate history.

“We are simply saying that there might be a more appropriate place,” said Wharton. “In the case of the flag, put it in a museum. Don’t put it out in common places. You see, we all have t

o drive down Union Avenue. It’s a common, unavoidable place. If someone wishes to see that, then go over to the cemetery in the peace of solitude, tranquility, and reverence and do it there. What Americans would say, I’d like to have a picnic in the shadow Bedford Forrest?”

Forrest fought in the Confederate army and is declared by many as one of the original leaders of the Klu Klux Klan, although any public involvement with the group is harder to pin down. Both his and his wife’s bodies are buried near the statue in Health Sciences Park. Their remains were originally buried at Elmwood Cemetery, but they were moved to the park in 1904.

The call for the statue’s removal comes only two years after the name of the park itself was changed. In February 2013, the park was renamed from Forrest Park to its current name in a vote by the Memphis City Council.

The final decision on moving the statue and the bodies would have to be made by the Memphis City Council, making the Mayor’s declaration just a declaration. Any decision would have to come from the council and will likely receive much opposition from groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Wharton made it clear that removal of other Confederate symbols, specifically the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, around the city was a discussion for another day. His thoughts on the Forrest statue, however, according to the Mayor, are simple.

“We have an opportunity to just go ahead and remove this monument to a horrible time of the history of our state and nation,” Wharton said. “Let’s just do it.”

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Two Lonely People Collide in “Brilliant Traces”

CREDIT: Threepenny Theatre Company

Threepenny Theatre Company


Brilliant Traces is a perfectly named play. For the most part it’s not very brilliant, but it’s threaded with moments of startling clarity that  knock you back in your seat. And top-drawer actors Meghan Lisi and Michael Khanlarian turn in performances worth the suggested admission price even though they’re never really set free to explore the theatrical possibilities inherent in Cindy Lou Johnson’s rambling, but mercifully short script

The opening is full of possibility. It’s dark, the wind is howling, and someone is beating on the door of a sparsely appointed hermit’s cabin. A woman’s voice calls out, “Let me in! I’m a person in serious trouble!” Suddenly the door bangs open and in stumbles Rosannah, delirious in a filthy wedding dress. She’s driven from Arizona all the way to a remote corner of Alaska where her car has broken down near the cabin of Harry Henry, an antisocial oil rig worker with sad stories to tell. If he can ever get a word in edgewise. For the first quarter of the play he stands silently as this mystery woman drinks his whiskey, and babbles until she passes out cold for two days.

Two Lonely People Collide in ‘Brilliant Traces’

“It’s so cold in Alaska.”

Harry drags Rosannah to his bed. He undresses her, respectfully. He washes her tentatively. He has a nervous breakdown over her delicate lace shoes which remind him of something that hurts real bad. Not knowing what else to do with them he puts them in the oven and burns them to a crisp. Rosannah sits up in bed and announces, “I’m the prettiest girl you’ve ever seen,” then passes out cold again. The setup is tight. Everything else falls apart.

Have you ever been trapped in a confined space with a cocaine addict having a manic sad? That’s what the rest of Brilliant Traces is like. Only there are two of them. Once Rosannah wakes up she and Harry take turns vomiting up backstory in a series of semi-coherent rants. Outside there is a white out, with snow coming down so hard it’s impossible to distinguish one direction from another. Rosannah, who arrived all in white, babbles redundantly about her fear of becoming indistinguishable. And about how, when she was driving from Arizona, in some kind of fugue state, she felt like her essence was moving faster than the car. Faster even than her own body in the car — like the essential part of who she is might fly off into space. Harry, in turn, spins a contrived tale of negligence, woe, social anxieties and “paper shoes.”

Opening sequences notwithstanding, Johnson’ script is a classic example of a play that tells us who the characters are instead of showing us who they are, and Threepenny Theatre Company director Matt Crewse keeps the action as naturalistic as the symbol-laden dialogue will allow. That may or may not be a good thing. At its best Brilliant Traces hints at Eugene Ionesco’s domesticated absurdism, which isn’t always served by a close alignment of dialogue and action. It’s the kind of script you really want actors to play around with. You want them to take chances and find the physical quirks and contradictions that bring dimension to characters and depth to a script in desperate need.

There’s a kind of play that actors love even if it’s not very good. They tend to be about extreme people in extreme conditions and give character actors a chance to go big and show off their range. Brilliant Traces is one of those plays. And even though Khanlarian and Lisi play things a little too safe for my liking, these are actors that could make me excited about a staged reading of the Tennessee driver’s manual. Brilliant Traces, I’m happy to report, is much better than that. 

The closing moments find Rosannah and Harry on an inevitable collision course, and the play’s last gasp is absolutely lovely. 

Brilliant Traces is at TheatreWorks through June 28. 

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Democrats, Others Urge New Special Session on Insure Tennessee

CREDIT: JB

JB

L to r, participants at Thursday’s press conference were Harris, Miller, Parkinson, Coffield, Kyle, Stewart, Coffield, and Roberson.

With what turned out to a providential act of timing — within an hour or two of Thursday’s latest Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act — a group composed of state Democrats and local advocates of Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal for Medicaid expansion under the Act made a pitch in Raleigh for a new special legislative session to reconsider that proposal, Insure Tennessee.

The primary spokesperson for the group was state Democratic chair Mary Mancini of Nashville, and for obvious reasons her focus was on Democratic support for Insure Tennessee and partisan Republican attempts to obstruct it in a February special session of the legislature this year, as well as during the regular session itself.

Expressing pleasure at the brand-new Supreme Court decision, Mancini said, “passing Insure Tennessee becomes even more important now.” She noted that the aborted plan would have provided affordable health-care coverage for 280,000 currently uninsured persons statewide and “68, 000 right here in Shelby County.”

Pointing out that Haslam, a Republican himself, had been unable to garner support for his plan from the members of his party, Mancini said she and her fellow Democrats had persistently called on the Governor “and the Republican leadership” to support another special session, “and they have refused.” She accused Republicans of “focusing on politics rather than providing what the majority of Tennesseans want.”

Alluding to revelations (not always welcomed by the legislators in question) that a significant number of Republican General Assembly members who acted to stonewall Insure Tennessee were beneficiaries of blue-ribbon health insurance plans provided by the state, Mancini asked, “And why are they more concerned with hiding access to their own affordable health-care plans they get than they are with helping other Tennesseans get the same access?”

Other members of the predominantly Democratic Party group of presenters made such other points as that as many as 220 Tennesseans might have died during the last year for lack of an affordable health-care plan and that other matters of importance included jobs and the survival of hospitals, many of which have been over-burdened with emergency-room care for indigent patients.

State Representative Larry Miller, sponsor of the House resolution for Insure Tennessee (one which, like the Senate version, was blocked before it could get to the floor), promised to “name names” of local legislators deserving special blame for obstructing Insure Tennessee, and he did so, mentioning state Senator Brian Kelsey and state Representative Steve McManus.

State Senator Sara Kyle was equally blunt. “Stop being selfish!” she said, as a message to those Republicans who had bottled up the Insure Tennessee resolution in committee. “It’s a moral issue,” she added.

State Senator Lee Harris, the Senate’s Democratic leader, who had made a well-received appearance the evening before at a meeting of the Germantown Democrats, where he had addressed similar themes, made an effort to move the issue beyond pure partisanship.

Pointing out that polls show a clear majority of Tennesseans favoring Insure Tennessee, regardless of their party, Harris said the appeal for a new special session should by rights be directed to “a very narrow audience” of resisters, “a very small group of leaders on the other side of the aisle and extremists who have dominated the debate.”

Harris absolved “rank and file Republicans,” reminding his hearers that the plan’s author, Governor Haslam, was also a Republican, and he added a hat-tip for John Roberts, the GOP-appointed Chief Justice who had voted with the majority on Thursday to uphold the ACA against a lawsuit, King v. Burwell, that challenged it on largely technical grounds.

Another effort to bridge the gap between Democrats and Republicans was made by Ed Roberson, the current director of Christ Community Health Centers, a onetime Democrat who has been a financial officer in several prominent Republican campaigns over the past couple of decades.

Identifying himself as a Republican, Roberson professed solidarity with the others on Insure Tennessee and called it “unacceptable” that Tennessee should rank 44th in the nation in health-care and that Memphis should have been called the “unhealthiest” city in the country in one nationwide survey.

Roberson’s participation provided at least a measure of ecumenism to Thursday’s press conference, as did his presence side-by-side with Ashley Coffield, local director of Planned Parenthood — an organization that has often been at odds with Roberson’s over their different attitudes toward legal abortion but which in many instances provides overlapping medical care.

Participants at the press conference were Mancini, Harris, Miller, Kyle Coffield, Robinson, state Rep Mike Stewart of Nashville, and state Rep. Antonio Parkinson, whose local Raleigh office provided the venue.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis City Council Approves Budget, Raises for City Employees

After two days and nearly 10 hours of debate in the chamber, the Memphis City Council passed a budget for the next fiscal year Tuesday morning.

When debate opened Tuesday morning, the budget stood at $656 million. The council added 2 percent raises for police officers and fire fighters and 1 percent raises for all other city employees. The raises added $3.1 million to the budget for a total of $656 million.

The raises were the first order of business Tuesday. They were proposed by council member Reid Hedgepeth during last week’s regular meeting. Though raises represent less than 1 percent of the overall budget, they consumed most of the debate on the entire $661 million budget.

Reid’s proposal gave raises of 2 percent to police and fire only. It was amended by a proposal from council member Edmund Ford Jr. to include a 1 percent raise to the rest of the city’s employees.

The money to pay for the raises will come from cutting some funded but unfilled positions in the Memphis Police Department.

The council approved the raises but completely circumvented the impasse process. That process, set up after labor struggles of 1978, give city employee unions a vote by three-member council committees if unions can’t get a deal worked out with the city’s mayor and administration.

Impasse committees approved several raises this year and rejected others. However, those decisions weren’t considered by the council Tuesday. On advice from the city council’s attorney Allan Wade, the group ignored the impasse decisions, allowing the budget vote to supersede them.

This drew the ire of many council members, including Harold Collins and Janis Fullilove.

“I’m not sure what we went through the impasse process when it means absolutely nothing, just to make some time during the day to say we’re doing something?” Fullilove asked. “We are making a joke of our political process. I never thought I’d say this in my life but I am so sorry to be on this council with many of you.”

Collins said the council could vote the impasse decision up or down but they should not circumvent the process.

“We are setting the wrong precedent by what we’re doing here today,” Collins said. “Hedgepeth offered what I considered a worthy alternative (to the impasse decisions). But it is not right. We have to do what the ordinance tells us and the law tells us first, then we have to proceed.”

Many proposals for raises were raised, defeated, and even turned down by labor unions in the chaotic budget season that began in April. In the end, it was the chaos that had many council members “baffled.”

“I am shocked today,” said council member Wanda Halbert. “I’m like some of you (in the audience), I’m baffled by all of this. … This budget seasons had been very different form the rest in the last seven years.”

Halbert then, called for the question, meaning she wished to stop all debate on the budget and take a final vote.

Council members Berlin Boyd, Alan Crone, Kemp Conrad, Ford, Halbert, Hedgepeth, Myron Lowery, Bill Morrison, and Jim Strickland voted for the budget.

Council members Bill Boyd, Joe Brown, Collins, and Fullilove voted against it. 

Categories
News The Fly-By

App Users Compete for Best Selfie

Selfie skills are getting put to the test thanks to Pickle, a Memphis-made mobile app dedicated to “competitive selfies.”

The app recently secured $135,000 in funding — the majority coming from Wolf River Angels, the investment branch of tech accelerator and development group Start Co. The app allows users to post different types of themed selfies, such as best dinosaur face or most absurd duck face. Pickle users can then vote for the best in each category.

The app’s creators — Morgan Steffy, a University of Memphis student majoring in computer science, and Evan Katz, a recent Rhodes College graduate — met two years ago while studying in Ecuador. Initially, Katz dreamed up an app to help users decide what to wear, and Steffy began coding it.

Screenshots from Pickle

Katz applied for Start Co.’s summer acceleration program last year, which is dedicated to getting tech startups off the ground. Once they got in, Steffy, who was in Pennsylvania at the time, took a one-way flight to Memphis. The app’s focus then took a shift toward selfies.

“By December, we really found our big traction doing competitive selfies,” Steffy said.

By March, funding was solidified with the help of Start Co., which secured investors from as far away as Texas and California. According to Steffy, the funding will mostly be going toward development as they add a second developer to the project in order to speed up the process. Marketing will also take a chunk in order to grow its userbase.

“Even if we didn’t have the funding, we could still do it, like iterate on our app and figure out different marketing strategies,” Katz said. “But we’d be doing that on a much smaller scale and much slower. The funding allows us to do a lot more at once on a larger scale and get answers quickly on what works and what doesn’t, so we can grow the company.”

The competitive selfies game already seems to be taking off. The app currently boast 35,000 downloads on Apple’s iOS platform.

Pickle’s journey hasn’t been without challenges. Steffy and Katz went into the startup with no experience with mobile technology.

“The hardest realization was that I was under the impression if you had a good idea for an app, you would just build it,” Katz said. “Once it was built, if people liked it, they would tell their friends who would tell their friends — then a couple of months later, you’d have the next Snapchat. Not only is building an app incredibly complex, but actually finding the perfect combination of feature, utility, and entertainment takes a huge amount of technical expertise and math.”

The duo is also going against stereotypes: Steffy, a woman, is in charge of the technical side, while the male Katz is the business’s brains. People often assume their roles are reversed.

“It never would’ve crossed my mind that [the startup scene] would be male-dominated in the first place,” Steffy said.

“You see less female CTOs [chief technology officers] and technical co-founders, so that’s a nice dynamic we have on the team,” Katz said. “I think it’s refreshing that we have a multiple-gender team. We’re definitely big supporters in getting women into the [business].”

The free app is currently only available for iPhones, which is a deliberate move by Steffy and Katz, who want to perfect the interface on one mobile device before opening it up to other platforms.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Paradise Café’s Café Au Lait Shake

Sure you can grab a great sandwich or salad from Paradise Café, but have you noticed their entire shakes section? The shakes aren’t what you’re thinking… they’re HEALTHY! Normally you don’t hear the words healthy and shake in the same sentence, but Paradise Café’s shakes are all made with fat free frozen yogurt. There’s a wide variety, from a Carrot Shake to a Chocolate Monkey Shake. When I went to the counter to order and asked an employee what the best shake was, she said that the Café Au Lait was her favorite.

The Café Au Lait Shake ($3.79) is gourmet roast chilled coffee blended with vanilla frozen yogurt. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds. It’s served ice cold and goes down like a creamy, thick milkshake. There’s a hint of vanilla that quickly vanishes and turns into a coffee flavor. Think of it as a creamy iced coffee. The coffee taste is light and not overpowering at all. I completely forgot that I was drinking a yogurt shake. I instantly felt better about myself and guilt-free.

You can even do what I’ve done before which is take the shake home and put it in your freezer. It solidifies and you can just grab a spoon and go for it later when you’re craving it! It’s a great, light lunch.

This shake is perfect for the Memphis summer weather we’ve got going on right now.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Weekend Roundup 22: Pokey LaFarge, John Paul Keith, Western Medication

Marcella and Her Lovers play this Friday night at Bar DKDC.

Welcome to the 22nd edition of my Weekend Roundup. This roundup is a little sparse compared to some of the jam-packed weekends we’ve had so far this summer, but there are still a lot of bands worth checking out over the next few days. 

Friday, June 26th.
Pokey LaFarge, 7:30 p.m. at the Levitt Shell, free.

Weekend Roundup 22: Pokey LaFarge, John Paul Keith, Western Medication

Banned Anthem, Red Tape Riot, Cult of the Flag, TornApart, Spline, 9 p.m. in the Hi-Tone Small Room, $10.

Marcella and her Lovers, 10 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $5.

Atlas Road Crew, 10 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Weekend Roundup 22: Pokey LaFarge, John Paul Keith, Western Medication (2)

Saturday, June 27th.
Stax Academy All Star Band, 7:30 p.m. at the Levitt Shell, free.

The Neverhawks, All The Indians, Idle & Wild, Movie Night, 9 p.m. in the Hi-Tone Small Room, $10.

John Paul Keith, 10 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $5.

Weekend Roundup 22: Pokey LaFarge, John Paul Keith, Western Medication (3)

Gringos and Buldgerz, 10 p.m. at the Buccaneer, $5.

The BB King’s Blues Club All Star Band, 10 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Sunday, June 28th.
The Wampus Cats, 4 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Western Medication, 9 p.m. at Murphy’s, $5.

Weekend Roundup 22: Pokey LaFarge, John Paul Keith, Western Medication (4)

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down King v. Burwell Challenge to ACA

Even as members of the Democratic caucus of he Tennessee General Assembly prepared to hold a press conference Thursday morning on behalf of Insure Tennessee, Govenor Bill Haslam’s Medicaid-expansion proposal, news came of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, under which Insure Tennessee would operate.

By a 6-3 vote, the Justices decided against the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell, a suit that challenged the validity of insurance subsidies paid under the ACA through federally run exchanges rather than the state-run exchanges specifically enabled by the Act.. A number of Republican-dominated states, mainly Southern and including Tennessee, had declined to establish state-run exchanges.

In its majority opinion, the Court said, “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.”

9th District Congressman Steve Cohen issued a statement welcoming the opinion:

“This ruling affirms that the subsidies that the Affordable Care Act provides to our citizens are legal. I am pleased that the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the law, which is working and helping make health coverage affordable for millions of Americans, including more than 230,000 Tennesseans who are receiving an average of $213 each month through the law. I hope that this ruling will help the nation to see that the Affordable Care Act is a federal law that is helping Americans stay healthy and alive, and that it is here to stay. I also remain hopeful that the Tennessee General Assembly will finally act to expand Medicaid so that our citizens can access the same benefits of the law that residents of other states do.”

The Tennessee Republican Party issued a statement critical of the ruling:

“ObamaCare was created, passed, and implemented on a party-line basis. Democrats essentially shoved this down the throats of Americans and it is disheartening to see the Court develop another avenue to keep this hurtful law alive. Individuals and businesses are struggling under this law. Republicans are going to continue offering solutions to actually drive health care costs down and make quality health care accessible once again—which is the exact opposite of what Americans have gotten under this flawed law.”

Although the Medicaid-expansion component of the ACA was not specifically challenged by King v. Burwell, a successful outcome for the suit would have seriously hampered — and perhaps crippled — all parts of its functioning.

Insure Tennessee, which Thursday’s press conference by Democratic legislators supports, was prevented from reaching the floor of either the state House or the state Senate during the 2016 legislative session, having been blocked in committee in both a February special session and the regular session itself.

One of the arguments made by GOP opponents against the Affordable Care Act (and hence against Insure Tennessee) had been that King v. Burwell,if successful, would make the Act unworkable.

Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley), leader of House Democrats in Tennessee, addressed the point in his post-ruling statement and renewed a Democratic call for a second special session:

“Regardless of your feelings about the Affordable Care Act, one of the most conservative courts in the history of this country has ruled–again–that it is the law of the land. There are no more excuses for this legislature or its leadership to ignore the 300,000 working men and women waiting on health care. We have work to do. It is my hope that the Governor and our speakers will call legislators back to Nashville immediately to work on passing Insure Tennessee.”