News - Friday, March 18, 2016

Attorney Alix Michel says the end of the world is drawing near. And the evidence is irrefutable.

“People are supporting a billionaire for president,” he says, “and lawyers are getting hugs.”

Michel laughs, more at the latter notion than the former one. His joke plays off the misperception that attorneys are generally unlikeable. But with people like him populating the Chattanooga Bar, the maxim seems as outdated as the law books that line the shelves of many firms.

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) recently named Patricia Best Vital, principal of Vital Law Office & Dispute Resolution Services, as a Fellow.

Membership in the Fellows is limited to one percent of the lawyers admitted to practice in the United States and its territories and to a limited number of lawyers in jurisdictions outside of the U.S. In addition to supporting the ABF’s groundbreaking research in law and social science, Fellows host and participate in special social events and educational programs at the mid-year and annual meetings of the American Bar Association (ABA) and at the state level.

Attorney John R. Morgan has moved his practice to 631 Cherry St. His office is located at the corner of 7th and Cherry Streets.

Morgan practices family, criminal, and personal injury law. Contact him at (423) 531-2800 or jay@jaymorganlaw.com. 

Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan is pleased to welcome attorney Frank P. Clark to the Chattanooga office.

Clark graduated from the Mississippi College with his B.S. and went on to receive his Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law. His areas of practice include General Liability and Insurance Coverage and Defense. He is licensed to practice law in Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.

In October 2008 I wrote a couple of columns that, taken together, set forth a quotation and then endeavored to correctly identify the source thereof. That quotation—“I don’t cry over spilt milk, but a fallen scoop of ice cream is enough to ruin my whole day,” attributed to one Terri Guillemets—may be found throughout cyberspace to this day.

Now that spring has officially sprung, you might look around your home and decide it’s time for some sprucing up. But you don’t have to confine your efforts to your house and yard – you can also engage in a little “spring cleaning” in your investment portfolio.

Keller Williams Downtown Realtor Mark Hite is putting a new twist on closing gifts by donating the money he would typically spend on a present to charity.

Hite has selected six nonprofits that will be receiving $50 per closing during a specified period of time in 2016. At the end of January and February, Hite donated $2,000 (the total contributions for 40 closings) to the American Heart Association. His contributions for March and April will go to Chambliss Center for Children.

The primary story, both nationally and in local submarkets, is a dwindling months’ supply of inventory. The cure, of course, is more inventory. However, new construction has been lagging during this opportune moment, and sellers of existing homes are not yet hitting the market in droves.

Weather you’re retiling the bathroom floor or building a whole new house, hiring a qualified and reliable contractor will make the difference between a positive experience and an expensive nightmare.

Skilled contractors are plentiful in the Chattanooga area, but knowing how to find the right one for your project can be daunting. Navigate the search with these simple steps:

Karen Mills has her audience in stitches. It’s Thursday night at The Comedy Catch, and she’s serving up the kind of humor that comes out of observing life as it happens.

She cracks a joke about pulling up to the drive-thru window at a bank and asking the teller for her prescription. The audience, which is still laughing at her last bit, doubles over. She’s on a roll.

If anyone tries to tell you anything about “10 Cloverfield Lane” beyond whether or not they liked it, cover your ears and start humming. It’s a movie best experienced without knowing anything substantive in advance. Anyone who even hints at what happens at the end is just begging to have his ears boxed.

A local elder justice interdisciplinary team will host the 2016 Southeast Tennessee Aging Forum on Friday, April 1 at Concord Baptist Church, located at 7025 E. Brainerd Rd.

The event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nearly 100 local professionals and elders are expected to gather together to learn about the issues facing Chattanooga’s aging demographic. To register, contact Sally Brewer at (423) 321-0357 or sbrewer@chamblisslaw.com. Registration ends March 29.

The Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNA) Board of Directors recently welcomed five new members.

The additions include Eugene “Buck” H. Schimpf, III of The Schimpf Company, Ricardo C. Morris of CoPAC (Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga), Rebekah Marr of CO.STARTERS, Tiffanie Robinson of Lamp Post Properties, and George E. Ricks, Sr., of Southside Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers.

On Monday, March 7, Mayor Andy Berke signed an executive order establishing a community coalition to identify the challenges faced and propose solutions to strengthen minority-owned businesses in Chattanooga.

This task force will pull together a group of businesses owners, community leaders, and economic development experts to develop an action plan and provide recommendations directly to Mayor Berke.

A new report from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency provides an in-depth look at the age and physical condition of existing affordable housing properties in the state, along with other risk factors for loss of affordable units, such as HUD rental subsidy contract expirations.

Lent, the Old English word for spring, is a forty-day period before Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday. It derived that name from the season of the year in which the forty days fall. This name is unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term Quadragesima, or “the forty days.”

My brother-in-law Bill H. from West Memphis sent me an email concerning little known facts about America. Here are some of them.

 – In more than half of all states in the U.S., the highest paid public employee in the state is a football coach. (That’s OK with me, and as Bill H. once said to me, “You don’t see 50,000 people filling a stadium for a physics lecture.”)

Saturday, March 19, 1966

Formation of a new nationwide motor inn franchising operation – Dutch Inns of America – with two of the inns planned for Chattanooga was announced by two prominent Miami developers.  The corporation plans an inn of 222 units to cost more than $2 million, probably in the Golden Gateway, and will franchise some other group to erect the other one here.

Saturday, March 18, 1916

Ten loaded freight cars of the southbound Queen & Crescent Railway fell into the Tennessee River Friday night when the second span on the north end of the steel bridge gave way. No one was hurt, but two hoboes had a thrilling escape. There were 44 cars on the train.