Month: October 2016

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1444

Real Corker

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker (R) has a bone to pick with Donald Trump.

Like most sentient beings, Corker is troubled by some of the things being said by his party’s presidential candidate. Following the third and final presidential debate, Corker took to Twitter with semi-tough words aimed at Donald Trump.

“It is imperative,” Corker wrote, “that Donald Trump clearly state that he will accept the results of the election when complete.”

Boom! If Trump doesn’t capitulate, Corker will just be forced to endorse him sadder.

Verbatim

“There were all of the cyberbots that took out after us that were trying to say ‘no you can’t do that you’re going to impede our free speech.’ We said ‘no we’re trying to keep the roadway clear and to keep some of these bad actors out of the system.'” ­­— U.S. Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), explaining cyber attacks to Wolf Blitzer on CNN.

Online design/tech magazine Gizmodo wrote about Blackburn’s visit to The Situation Room in an article titled, “This Is the Kind of Idiot That Congress Puts in Charge of Technology.”

The Tennessee conservative sits on the Subcommittee on Communication and Technology.

Really, Austin?

Submitted without comment.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Memphis’ Big River Crossing is a Game-Changer

CREDIT: bigrivercrossing.com

bigrivercrossing.com

As is well known, the city of Memphis sprawls a good bit. In fact, we are used to hearing politicians contend that, area-wise, Memphis is larger than Chicago, although that claim has an apocryphal ring to anyone who has driven through the Windy City from north to south.

It is undeniable, though, that over the weekend an event occurred on the downtown side of Memphis that will both magnify its size and extend its borders enormously in the eyes of the outside world.

This was the event known as the Big River Crossing, a commemoration that occurred in tandem with the completion of the Main Street to Main Street project that now links downtown Memphis with downtown West Memphis — and does so via an innovative pedestrian/bicycle pathway extending all the way across a refurbished Harahan Bridge, heretofore used only by trains. At night, moreover, the bridge has the capacity to be visually spectacular, thanks to a lighting system that can shine in “architectural white” or, as it did on Saturday and Sunday nights, in dazzling rainbow colors.

This new addition to the city’s landscape is no serendipity. It is the result of years of visionary thinking and liberally applied elbow grease on the part of several local pioneers, who, in tandem with counterparts across the river in Arkansas, worked together to accomplish what, at first blush, had seemed a crazy idea, even to some of its most avid backers.

The father of this project is the distinguished trader/investor Charlie McVean, but he had help in designing it, funding it, and executing it from a host of others — notably the late Jim Young of Union Pacific Railroad in Little Rock, who overcame his industry’s bias against shared rail/pedestrian structures, and 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, who went to bat for the project in Washington and ended up making it possible through the acquisition of a $15 million TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant that completed the necessary funding package.

The TIGER grant not only significantly underwrote the project (technically known as the Main Street to Main Street Multi-Modal Connector Project) but also made it possible for both of the bookend cities, Memphis and West Memphis, to undertake significant rehabilitation of their downtown cores. It is one of those rare circumstances from which environmentalists and urban-growth enthusiasts can both take heart.

And McVean and his collaborators aren’t resting on their laurels. They imagine further work on the adjoining Mississippi River levees that would result in a recreational artery extending all the way to New Orleans and to the creation of what would be, in McVean’s words, the world’s largest land park.

Categories
Music Music Features

Melissa Etheridge at Minglewood Hall

This Friday night, Melissa Etheridge will perform at Minglewood Hall in support of her Stax tribute album, MEmphis Rock and Soul. Released earlier this month on Stax/Concord Music Group, MEmphis Rock and Soul features 12 Stax classics, including “Hold On, I’m Coming,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember.”

Recorded at Royal Studios with Boo Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm section, MEmphis Rock and Soul sold 14,000 copies in its first week and made an impressive showing on the Billboard 200 chart, earning the No. 1 spot in the Blues category and No. 9 in Rock. The tour in support of MEmphis Rock and Soul kicked off last week, and this is Etheridge’s only Memphis appearance this year.

It’s been a busy year for Etheridge, who in June penned a benefit song for the survivors of the shooting in Orlando at the gay nightclub Pulse. The song — also called “Pulse” — saw all of its benefits donated to the Equality Florida Project. Etheridge has long been a voice for the LGBT community, and her message of equality has reached hundreds of thousands throughout her long career.

Initially recognized as a top-tier songwriter in 1988, Etheridge played the Grammys that year before winning one herself for the song “Ain’t It Heavy” in 1992. Her 1993 album included the chart-topping hits “Come to My Window,” and “I’m the Only One,” the latter of which won her a second Grammy in 1995.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Suburban Showdowns in Germantown and District 96

Dwayne Thompson on the stump. Photo: Jackson Baker

Even if, as is currently being assumed by observers in both major political parties, Democrat Hillary Clinton should win the presidency over Republican nominee Donald Trump, and win in a landslide, how might that affect down-ballot races in Tennessee, where the GOP, almost everywhere, remains in the ascendant?

One test case might be the race in District 96 of the state House of Representatives between incumbent Republican Steve McManus and Democratic challenger Dwayne Thompson. The district, a suburban one incorporating parts of Cordova and Germantown, is considered safely Republican by most observers.

Thompson, a self-described “human resources professional,” disputes that, citing what he says are significant turnouts for Democrats in past statewide and presidential races in the district, as well as  a mix of upscale, middle-class, and working-class populations that he thinks is ready for change.

Among other things, Thompson hopes for a backlash against legislative Republicans for their opposition to Governor Bill Haslam‘s Insure Tennessee proposal for Medicaid expansion. At a recent forum sponsored by the Tennessee Nurses Association, Thompson accused opponent McManus, an investment counselor and chairman of the House Insurance and Banking Committee, of having “bottled up” consideration of Insure Tennessee in the special legislative session of 2015.

McManus’ committee, which did hold an abbreviated hearing on Insure Tennessee in which McManus’ skeptical views on the proposal were obvious, did not administer the proposal’s coup de gras, however; that came from the Senate Health Committee, which had been specially expanded for the purpose by GOP Speaker Ron Ramsey.

McManus subsequently was named by Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell to a special task force on health-care which met several times this year and emerged with a scaled-down health insurance proposal, called the “3-Star Health Insurance Pilot,” that would expand TennCare for uninsured veterans and mental health patients as a prelude to possible general expansion in the future.

Thompson dismisses that plan as too little, too late, and says he will, if elected, continue to push for Insure Tennessee or some close variant.

McManus has more financial resources at his command, by far — $155,7543.59 in campaign cash as of the third-quarter filing, compared to a mere $5,088.20 for Thompson. But Thompson, whose ads — stressing that he is both a veteran and a cancer survivor — have begun to appear here and there, especially online, with a frequency unusual for a Democrat running in the Memphis suburbs.

And, in fact, Thompson’s campaign expenditures for the third quarter of 2016 come close to matching McManus’, with outlays of $9,524.83, compared to $11,871.61 for the incumbent. He is also working hard at outreach to independent voters, like members of the nonpartisan Asian-Americans for Tennessee, who showed up en masse last week at a meet-and-greet for Thompson sponsored by state Representative Raumesh Akbari (D-District 91) at her family’s hair research facilities in East Memphis.

JB

Dwayne Thompson on the stump

Thompson is giving McManus  a run for his money, but the GOP incumbent, no slouch himself at campaigning and possessed of those aforesaid financial advantages as well as help from the Shelby County Republican Party’s vaunted Get-Out-the-Vote network, is sure to be heard from in the campaign’s home stretch.

• Apropos that home stretch: As of Tuesday morning, turnout in Shelby County had been higher than usual for early voting, which began last Wednesday and will end on Thursday, November 3rd. Much of the increase was due to the fact of the ongoing presidential election, of course, but, even allowing for that fact, voter interest seems to be unusually high.

Totals for Wednesday were 16,655; for Thursday, 14,892; for Friday, 15,249; and for Saturday, 9,819. In all cases, the turnout outstripped previous early-voting records, set in 2008, the year of President Barack Obama’s first election.

• Several of the Shelby County suburbs are having spirited local campaigns. In Germantown, there are races for the city’s board of aldermen as well as its school board, which, in both cases, come down to pitched battles between organized slates of incumbents and challengers — the Ins versus the Outs, as it were.

Three alderman seats are up in Germantown. Incumbents Dave Klevan (Position 3) and Rocky Janda (Position 5) are opposed by Dean Massey and David Nischwitz, respectively, while incumbent Forrest Owens has a free ride in Position 4.

Three of the seven school board seats are also on the ballot. Incumbents Linda Fisher (Position 1) and Natalie Williams (Position 3) are opposed by Laura Meanwell and Suzanne Jones, respectively, while Amy Eoff and Mindy Fischer are vying for the Position 5 seat vacated by outgoing member Ken Hoover.

All five incumbents, as well as Fischer, are being supported by current Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo, who spoke on their behalf at a meet-and-greet affair on Sunday at the home of Naser and Shila Fazlullah.

• For the first time since the Democratic gubernatorial field melted down in 2010 to a single serious candidate, Mike McWherter of Dresden, the state’s Democrats seem able and determined to up the ante and make a valid run for governor in 2018 against the now-dominant Tennessee Republican Party.  

• Bill Freeman, well-known Nashville businessman, former mayoral candidate, and prominent donor and activist in Democratic circles, will be the special guest and principal speaker at what is being billed as a “Reception for Senator Lee Harris & Rally for Our West Tennessee Candidates,” to be held in Memphis at the home of Democrat Linda Sowell on November 3rd.

The current co-chair of Hillary for Tennessee and a member of Democratic presidential candidate Clinton’s national finance committee, Freeman is scouting support for a possible race for governor in 2018. Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has also been criss-crossing the state as a prelude to a governor’s race.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

New cookbooks from the Chubby Vegetarian and Marisa Baggett.

It all started with a bowl of pasta and a few too many habaneros for Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence.

“That was the first dish we cooked for each other,” Burks says. “We went together to the grocery store. We thought the habaneros were real pretty. It was so hot, but we ate it because we had made it.”

They’ve come a long way since that first dish they cooked together as a couple, creating a blog, chubbyvegetarian.com, that now has more than 3.5 million visits, appearing on the Food Network, lecturing and cooking at the James Beard House, and now coming out with their second cookbook, The Chubby Vegetarian (Susan Schadt Press).

“A lot of really fortunate things have happened,” Burks says.

The Chubby Vegetarian is a follow-up to their first cookbook, The Southern Vegetarian (Thomas Nelson), which has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kitchn, and P. Allen Smith’s Garden Style.

“The first book looked inward at our Southern culture and tried to fit what we live,” Burks says. “The second is a look at other cultures, particularly cultures that already eat a lot of vegetables.”

There is the Veggie-Packed Napa Cabbage Wraps with spicy Peanut Sauce, or the Samosas with Raita Dipping Sauce, and the Asian-Inspired Taco Bar, or the Egg Foo Yung with Sriracha Gravy.

There are also some typical American dishes but with a veggie twist.

Like the Charred Carrot Hot Dog — a carrot charred on the grill, then smoked inside aluminum foil, topped with all the fixings, and served in a hot dog bun.

Or the Olive-Bar Puttanesca with Cauliflower Chops — big chunks of cauliflower roasted in the oven and made to look like pork chops topped with a spicy puttanesca sauce using things found at an olive bar.

“We were trying to keep things light. We don’t want it to be intimidating or to make it super serious,” Lawrence says.

“We’re taking vegetables and transforming them with just some simple alchemy,” Burks says.

The couple has several events planned for their book launch, including a booksigning at Booksellers at Laurelwood Thursday, October 27th at 6:30 p.m. and a book launch party Sunday, November 6th at the Second Line at 5 p.m.

For Marisa Baggett, it started in a locked bathroom with a

bottle of Jack Daniels.

Eleven Japanese businessmen had shown up at her Starkville restaurant wanting to try her “sushi.”

“All of my employees were concerned and knocking on the door saying, You’ve got to come out of the bathroom,” Baggett says. “I said, No, I’m not coming out.”

Eventually she came out, made her version of sushi that she had learned from books on Japanese cuisine from the library, and promptly enrolled in sushi school.

“After that, I said, You know what, I want to be able to stand in front of anybody and feel comfortable with what I make for them,” Baggett says.

She graduated from the California Sushi Academy with a job lined up at a new sushi restaurant opening in Memphis under the leadership of Karen Carrier — Do.

All the while she was thinking there must be more people like her out there who would like to be able to make their own sushi at home and who may not have access to elaborate Asian markets.

She pitched her idea to several publishers, but no takers, until after she started sharing her knowledge and experience on a blog, and Tuttle Publishing approached her about writing a sushi cookbook for home cooks.

And Sushi Secrets: Easy Recipes for the Home Cook was born.

Baggett recently released her second cookbook, Vegetarian Sushi Secrets: 101 Healthy and Delicious Recipes.

“I knew as soon as I turned in my first book, I was going to do something on vegetarian sushi,” Baggett says. “I was a vegetarian from the time I was in seventh grade until about age 25. It doesn’t seem fair the things they put in front of people and sell as vegetarian.”

Baggett’s books can be found at Booksellers at Laurelwood as well as most bookstores and ordered online. For more information, visit marisabaggett.com.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Stepping Forward

Memphis ranked third of Tennessee’s eight largest cities on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) fifth-annual Municipal Equality Index, an evaluation of how inclusive laws, policies, and services are for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the United States.

Scoring slightly lower than its neighbors to the east, Memphis received a 53 out of 100 rating. Knoxville received a score of 55, while Nashville, at number one, scored at 60. The average score for cities in Tennessee was 33 out of 100 points, below the nationwide mean of 55.

Though the state has a way to go in making substantial changes for the LGBT community, Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, said the state is making progress.

“Cities in Tennessee present real opportunities to advance equality in meaningful ways,” Sanders said. “The challenges remain considerable, but a growing number of Tennesseans are tired of discrimination.”

HRC, in partnership with Equality Federation Institute (EFI), assessed 506 U.S. cities and scored them on a scale of 0-100 based on 44 criteria that fall across five categories. Those include non-discrimination laws, municipal employment policies including transgender-inclusive insurance coverage, and non-discrimination requirements for contractors, inclusiveness of city services, law enforcement including hate crimes reporting, and municipal leadership on matters of equality.

“Despite another year of legislative attacks on LGBTQ equality, we are not merely holding our ground — we also continue to make significant gains across the country,” said Rebecca Isaacs, executive director of EFI.

On non-discrimination laws, a category evaluating whether discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited by the city, county, or state in areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations, Memphis received a score of 0 out of 30. The Memphis City Council, however, approved an ordinance in 2012 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Still, Tennessee doesn’t allow individual municipalities to pass more inclusive laws than the state, which can be a hurdle for cities, said Will Batts, executive director of OUTMemphis.

“Getting laws passed takes a long time,” Batts said. “But expressing that desire as a city for us to be more welcoming and more safe for people is a huge first step.”

Inclusive housing for members of the LGBT community, specifically transgender men and women, has been a point of contention in the city. Last month, homeless advocates marched to the steps of the Memphis Housing Authority to protest and demand an LGBT shelter. OUTMemphis is working with Community Alliance for the Homeless to help area shelters be more accommodating and follow policies set by federal funding.

“If you’re a transgender woman, it’s not safe for you to go to a men’s shelter, and they don’t want to let you into the women’s shelter, so that means there’s no place for you to go,” Batts said.

The organization is also in the early stages of opening the Metamorphosis Project, Batts said, an emergency shelter for LGBT youth.

“Statistics show that even though we only make up eight percent or 10 percent of the overall population, our kids make up between 40 to 50 percent of young people on the street,” Batts said.

While city employment scored a six out of six for non-discrimination, and while the city received a five-out-of-five score for having an LGBT liaison in Mayor Jim Strickland’s office, Memphis offers no health-care benefits for transgender people. However, employees from 86 municipalities have access to transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits this year — up from 66 in 2015 and just five in 2012.

“We’re trying to build the case that there needs to be a change in practice,” Batts said.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Weed, Forrest, and Panhandling

Council Moves

The city’s new, softer rules on marijuana possession were sealed last week in a vote by the Memphis City Council, while city officials are still working out the details to implement the new law.

Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers now have the discretion to issue a $50 fine for possessing less than a half ounce of marijuana, or uphold the state law which can carry up to $2,500 in fines and one year in jail. City courts will have the ability to assign community service in lieu of a fine, but those details are still being tweaked by city and court officials.

The council beefed up its ordinance that prohibits panhandling at busy intersections, though panhandlers already faced time and place restrictions that outlined when and where they couldn’t beg. The hours were extended to cover both rush hours, from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Council member Philip Spinosa Jr. has repeated that his sponsored ordinance is solely about the safety of panhandlers and motorists alike, but critics of the ordinance have said it accomplishes nothing but to further criminalize poverty.

Finally, the city council made initial moves to start collecting taxes from short-term rental owners, like those on Airbnb and others. But the details of the new rule will continue to evolve in committee before the minutes from the October 18th meeting are approved and thereby cementing the ordinance on the November 1st meeting.

Forrest Rides On

Last Friday, the Tennessee Historical Commission denied Memphis City Council’s application to relocate the statue and remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the slave-trade profiteer and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, from a taxpayer-funded public park in the middle of a majority black city.

The city council voted in 2015 to move the statue and remains of both Forrest and his wife from what is now called Health Sciences Park in the aftermath of the Charleston, South Carolina, shooting that left nine parishioners dead.

However, the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013 prevents cities or counties from relocating, removing, renaming, or otherwise disturbing war memorials on public properties. So, the council filed an application for a waiver that would allow the monument to be relocated to one of two suggested spaces.

The rejection was based on criteria adopted by the commission in 2015; the commission could have voted to change that criteria at Friday’s meeting, but opted not to.

According to city council’s attorney, Allan Wade, the waiver filed met the commission’s criteria. Much of the criticism and what Wade deems “erroneous” claims regarding the requested waiver came from members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

“I think the larger question is, what is the reason for the statue to be located here?” said Wade. “The only connection [Forrest] has to the city of Memphis is that he made millions and millions as a slave trader.”

That day, Memphis mayor Jim Strickland said in a statement, “I’m disappointed with the Tennessee Historical Commission’s vote today. We’ll continue to explore options to carry out the statue’s removal, which I voted for as a member of the City Council.”

Presently, it is unclear what options exist for the continued pursuit of the statue’s removal. The city council has the option to file for another waiver, but it is likely to be rejected again if no criteria changes are made.

The Tennessee Historical Commission did not return the Flyer‘s request for comment.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Keith Krass Throws Stephen King Themed Halloween Ball

Keith Krass has many talents. He’s the proprietor of the Arthouse t-shirt shop, whose creations have added ironic heft to my closet, and he’s a talented experimental filmmaker, working under the name Lenzcrack. His bizarre, wildly creative video work can be seen regularly in the interstitials between the classic movies at Time Warp Drive-In, and his hilarious, eye-popping “Scumbags From Outer Space” will screen during the Departures experimental animation bloc at Indie Memphis on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 9 PM.

Krass is getting ready to move on from Memphis to pursue film projects in Atlanta, and he’s decided to say farewell by throwing a Halloween party  at the Hi-Tone. The honoree will be master of nightmares Stephen King, whom Krass will pay tribute to with a video installation in the club’s small room that will combine altered images from film adaptations of King’s work and remixed, theme appropriate music. 
In the big room will be the industrial Goth stylings of DJ PLASTIC CITIZEN leading a dance party that will be the official kickoff to Halloween party weekend “It will be gory. It will be scary. It will be awesome!” says Krass. 

The whole horrorshow will kick off at 9 PM. on Thursday, Oct. 27 at the Hi-Tone.  

Categories
News News Blog

Violent Crime Up Slightly Since Last Year; Property Crime Continues to Decrease

Today, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission released figures that show violent crimes are up slightly from this time last year, while property crimes continue their overall decrease. 

While the figures, which are based on preliminary data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, do show a 3.4% countywide increase in major violent crimes (murder, aggravated assault, robbery, and rape), the overall trend is down more than 15 percent from this time in 2006. 

Property crimes continue their decade long decline with a four percent reduction in property crimes from this time last year, and a whooping 37.9% from this time 10 years ago. 

District Attorney Amy Weirich said in a statement today that, “Since 2006, we have seen a continuing decline in the rate of major property crime. However, after steady declines from 2007 through 2011, our major violent crime rate has been up and down. It remains the biggest part of our crime challenge,”

Categories
News News Blog

Memphians Call 911 for Loose Dogs, Weeds, Recycle Bins

CREDIT: Memphis Police Department

Memphis Police Department

Memphians call 911 to report weeds, loose dogs, debris in yards, drain flooding, sewer backups, when they want a traffic sign fixed, or when they want a new garbage can or recycle bin.

That’s according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland Wednesday who said about 30 percent of 911 calls each year do not require immediate assistance.

“Non-emergency calls tie up our phone lines and can prevent callers with genuine emergencies from getting through,” Strickland said in a news release.

So, the city and United Way of the Mid-South have launched the “Make the Right Call” campaign to inform citizens on who they should call about those weeds and stray dogs.

Those non-emergency calls should go to the city’s 311 system, for which a call center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. If you’re looking for information on local resources on community, social, and health services, you should call 211.

If that’s a little confusing, let’s do it this way:

311: requests for city services
• Complaints about debris in yards, vehicle violations at homes, weeds, potholes, trash collection, or requesting a new garbage and recycle bin, to report sewer backup, drain flooding, traffic sign maintenance, and loose or stray dogs.
Open Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.

211: information on community, social, and health services
• Community, social, and health services, along with federally-funded services like housing, employment, food banks, emergency shelters, youth and family counseling, mental health, addiction agencies and more.)
Open Monday –Thursday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Friday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; and Sunday 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

“Knowing the right number to dial helps reduce call volume, but most importantly, it saves our citizens time and cuts through the red tape of finding a nonprofit agency with appropriate services,” said Dr. Kenneth S. Robinson, president and CEO of United Way of the Mid-South. “The quicker a person in need is connected to the right information, the faster we can help them discover solutions to challenges and problems.”