News - Friday, November 2, 2012

Someone once said, “Do one thing, and do it well.” Despite the murky origin of the saying, one thing is clear to the people who know attorney Patricia Best Vital: she lives out the dictate with fierce precision.

The words on the door of her office say it all: “Vital Dispute Resolution Services.”

District Attorney Bill Cox and his fellow Tennessee district attorneys have kicked off a statewide campaign to fight the rising rates of prescription medication and synthetic drug abuse among Tennessee’s youth. The campaign is called Deceptive Danger because Tennessee’s youth are being deceived into thinking any substance prescribed by a doctor or purchased in a convenience store is safe.

Partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, work has begun on Main Terrain, an urban art fitness park coming to Chattanooga’s Southside district. Renderings of the park’s design were unveiled at the groundbreaking ceremony held on October 25 at the park’s future site between West Main and West 13th streets.

Kim Riddle has carried a badge and a gun. Now she carries real estate licenses in Tennessee and Georgia. Both jobs have allowed her to do something important to her: help people.

“I became a police officer because I wanted to help people. I’m still helping people, but now they’re happy to see me,” she says with a charming Southern twang.

Beginning in 2013, the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors will offer enough free CE classes to allow members to keep their licenses active. GCAR president Mark Hite received enthusiastic applause when he made the announcement during the GCAR Information Gathering on October 24. Even better: the Association’s ability to offer this service comes with no increase in local dues. “Dues are seventeen dollars less than they were in 2010,” Hite said to another around of applause. TREES will be teaching the courses at GCAR. Pictured above is the instructor of a recent paid CE course at GCAR. (David Laprad)

Tennessee State Senator Andy Berke speaks with some of Chattanooga’s real estate professionals at the GCAR Information Gathering the morning of October 24.  Here, he addresses a question from Realtor Lois Killebrew of Mountain City Realtors. (David Laprad)

Tennessee Magazine last week announced the winners of its 2012 Best of Tennessee Readers’ Choice Awards. More than 1,000 entries were submitted nominating the best food, attractions and accommodations in the state. Two Chattanooga attractions made the list: Hunter Museum of American Art and the Tennessee Aquarium. Sitting on an 80-foot bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, Hunter focuses on American art from the Colonial period through the present. The Tennessee Aquarium was selected in the Getaways category as a “Place to Take the Kids.” Readers in Tennessee chose Chattanooga as a whole as one of three “Towns to Visit.” The statewide awards program seeks to determine the best of all Tennessee has to offer. (David Laprad)

Living in a tourist destination city is a new experience for me; calling “Hill City” home means needing to know where to take visiting friends for the best views.

Rock City, of course, offers a spectacular view, but Rock City isn’t the only place to make visitors’ jaws drop.

It has been almost 30 years since I voted for the first time. I still remember the excitement I felt going into the booth for the first time. I’d be lying if I said it was more exciting than getting my driver’s license, but it was a close second. Voting is something I’ve tried to do whenever given the chance. I’ve always figured that, if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain. Since I like to complain, I vote.

I’ve been sick recently with a head cold, as have several other folks I know. The doctor I went to see had been sick with the same thing over the last month.

Head colds can make you feel miserable, but really, there’s not much that can be done other than treating the symptoms and letting it run its course.

Nine-year-old Joel Brown, a 4th-grader at Moody Elementary in White Hall, Ark., and his dad, Chris, a Jefferson County deputy clerk, arrived at Sturgis Hall at 4:20 last Friday (October 26). Busy with her nursing school studies, mom Stacy couldn’t come.

Continued from last week.

We pulled out of the apartment parking deck in downtown Chicago in search of the Marriott in Schaumburg, a village some 30 miles to the west. I was to rendezvous there with my ticket broker Craig for the exchange of cash for four 2012 Ryder Cup International Pavilion passes.

Last weekend, Don and I attended a church dinner party at the home of a friend, and I ate a piece of cake – actually, I ate three pieces of cake, but they were cut into small squares – that was so delicious. Had we stayed long enough, I would have probably finished it off!

The Bible remains one of the oldest and most read books in history. Test your knowledge by trying to answer the questions below.

1. What city were Jesus and his disciples departing from when they saw Bartimaeus, the blind man? Jericho; Nazareth; Bethany; Jerusalem.

"Cloud Atlas” is a made-for-TV melodrama masquerading as a cinematic epic. It has ideas that suggest significance and magnitude, but when you boil down the movie’s themes, they’re little more than trite romantic notions. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the gap between the grand ambitions of the filmmakers and the movie they made is too wide to provide an entirely satisfying experience.

Do you often find yourself caught up in working so hard at taking care of getting things done that at the end of the day, you wonder where your time went? If so, you have allowed yourself to become tactical. This happens when you become a doer and not a leader.

Saturday, November 3

Siskin Steel and Supply received a judgment totaling $949,935.70 Thursday from the jury, which heard the Tennessee Highway Department’s condemnation suit against the concern. Land and buildings taken for freeway easement, incidental damages and moving expenses are included in the judgment.

Friday, November 1

In the greatest political speech of his career, Gov. Benton McMillin scored Gov. Hooper in a meeting Friday night at the City Auditorium before a widely cheering crowd of 5,000. Hon. Thomas R. Preston introduced Gov. McMillin.

Saturday, November 3

Language of Life literacy festival

The Future Is Ours will host Language of Life from noon to 3 p.m. at East Lake Recreation Center. Language of Life is a multi-cultural opportunity for faith-based and other literacy and education providers to share their programs with Chattanoogans. Activities include vendor booths set up by area churches and service providers offering literacy and educational training opportunities; music by both English and Spanish performers; two types of football games: American football and European soccer; games and activities with a fall festival theme; and free food featuring both traditional Southern and Hispanic foods. Improving literacy to help reduce gang activity and violence in Chattanooga is a primary goal of The Future Is Ours and the Gang Task Force. Boyd Patterson, Gang Task Force coordinator, said, “Illiteracy is intimately connected with poverty and crime, thus linking it to gang activity. Helping a child improve his literacy doesn’t require a teaching certification or specialized training; so, almost anyone can make a contribution to our community’s children.” Language of Life is a free event open to the public. For more information about The Future Is Ours, visit www.thefutureisours.net.