News - Friday, June 6, 2014

Attorney Alan Jackson is surrounded by imperfect people. But having been raised in a good home, he’s learned to tolerate the shortcomings of others.

By imperfect, he means people who aren’t Vols fans.

Take, for example, the federal judge under which Jackson clerked for two years: Walter E. Johnson of Rome, Ga. By his own account, Jackson has tremendous respect for the man. “Clerking for him was a very good experience. He whipped me into shape and helped to hone my writing skills. He’s a wonderful man and a great judge,” Jackson says.

The recruits in Fire Academy 2014 were exposed to serious heat and flames on Friday, May 16.

The Chattanooga Fire Department held the live fire training at the natural gas training facility behind the wastewater treatment plant on Moccasin Bend. 

Business owners and managers typically hold their books close to their chests. Restricting the numbers to fewer eyes gives the top people control, avoids issues with disgruntled employees, and keeps information from being leaked to the competition – or so the logic goes.

Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel this month announced that Dana Perry has been appointed to the Board of Directors for Meritas, a global alliance of independent business law firms. Perry was elected to the position during the alliance’s recent annual meeting.

The GIGTANK 2014 startup teams on Wednesday, May 14 met with entrepreneurs, investors, startups, and established business owners at the Chambliss Startup Social.

Hosted by The Company Lab (CO.LAB), GIGTANK is an annual startup accelerator that attracts world-class talent to Chattanooga each summer to launch next-generation businesses.

What began as a response to the recession in 2010 continues to reap great benefit for the local economy. 

Legal Aid of East Tennessee’s Family Stabilization Project focuses on the recently unemployed in the Chattanooga area to identify those who lost a job through no fault of their own, and yet were denied unemployment benefits. 

Mark Making, a Chattanooga-based non-profit organization, has unveiled a 300 square foot exterior mural at the H*Art Gallery on East Main Street created by Tennessee teens struggling with drug addiction.

The mural, entitled “Awakenings,” symbolizes hope not just to the teens but to all people who seek inspiration to never give up hope in their own personal battles.

Benjamin Sanders Willson of Chattanooga, Tenn., received the juris doctor degree on Saturday, May 10, from Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Willson was among 126 students who received their J.D. degree during commencement ceremonies held on Washington and Lee University's historic Front Lawn.

Tractor Supply Company, in partnership with National 4-H Council, recently announced the record-breaking fundraising results of its spring 2014 Paper Clover Campaign. Tractor Supply Company, the largest retail farm and ranch supply store chain in the United States, raised $787,769 during the 12-day national in-store fundraiser, breaking the record for most monetary donations during the four-year collaboration. Tractor Supply has raised almost $4 million for 4-H programs across the country through Paper Clover Campaigns in just four years.

A trio of musicians from Belgium brighten up Main Street during their lunch break on Friday, May 30. The ladies were in Chattanooga to take part in a World Music Weekends workshop sponsored by MakeWork, Folk School of Chattanooga, green|spaces, and H*Art Gallery. 

Hamilton County’s literacy program, Read 20, on Thursday, May 20, donated $10,000 to Ganns Middle Valley Elementary School.

The money went to the school for their participation in the second annual Millionaire Readers program.

The Millionaire Readers program is part of an ongoing Read 20 literacy contest engaging students in reading. The Millionaire’s Readers program encourages children to read a million words during the school year. The winning school receives ten thousand dollars to be used to purchase more books for the school library.

The Lillian L. Colby Charitable Foundation, established in 2012, is seeking local and regional organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Chattanooga Area to apply for a fall 2014 grant award.

Established under the Trust Agreement of the late Lillian L. Colby, the Lillian Colby Foundation seeks to support a variety of health and human service organizations through both established and innovative programs.

For most consumers, the term “Realtor” is associated with the purchase or sale of a home. Not everyone is familiar with the services the more than 200 Realtors in the Greater Chattanooga commercial real estate sector provide.

The recent forecast from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports a positive outlook for commercial practitioners.

^“If you don’t have anything nice to say,” my mother said to me many times as I was growing, “don’t say anything at all.” Of course, she didn’t know I’d someday review movies, and would sometimes have to say things that were not at all nice.

June is a popular month for weddings. If you’re getting married this month, you no doubt have many exciting details to discuss with your spouse-to-be.

But after you get back from the honeymoon, you’ll want to have another discussion — about your finances.

Dear Judge Vic, Enjoyed your column about stenosing tenosynovitis. I once felt your pain. Who did your surgery? /s/ Curious

Dear Curious, Since I’m now on the road to recovery, I’ll reveal that my surgeon was Dr. Jeanine Andersson of Little Rock. Dr. A. has also treated one or two folks in my extended family, although when I asked her about that, she replied, “Under HIPAA, I can’t confirm that.”

Laws are funny things. It wasn’t that long ago that three strikes and you’re out laws were infamously sending people to jail for a very long time – for selling very small amounts of marijuana.

Now, in such odd places as Georgia, Missouri, Florida, and the Carolinas, legislatures are, all of a sudden, considering the legalization of medical marijuana, and many states seem to be in a big rush to authorize gay marriages. It’s a little surprising.

One night last week, hubby and I had a wonderful meal at one of the fancier restaurants in town. One of my sides was Golden Beets with Feta Cheese, and one of his was Haricot Verts. He wasn’t sure what that was so I had to tell him, and let him know that he would like them.

There’s a tour you can take at the Crescent Hotel that claims you might see the walking dead – not the zombie kind, the transparent kind. We made reservations for the tour at the 1886 landmark on a recent Monday night. Fred would be joining us, driving over from his home in Fayetteville. KM and I were staying in the recently constructed Crescent Cottages, close to the hotel.

As the school year winds down and the temperatures climb, kids across America will be flocking to pool parties, the beach and weekends by the lake.

This week, a U.S. mom shared her scary story of her son’s near drowning as a cautionary tale to other families. It was not her toddler’s initial scare that she was worried about – it was the secondary drowning that followed.

1. Who said this about an outbreak of typhus during the Russian Revolution: “Either socialism will defeat the louse, or the louse will defeat socialism.” Lenin; Marx; Stalin; Trotsky.

2. Starting in 1887, what did miners use to extract gold from ore in a process called leaching? Leaches; cyanide; milk; chlorine bleach.

Fill in the blanks in the quote using the following words:

first, happy, second, majority, thinking, happy, minority, third, thinking, happy

“The ______-rate mind is only ______when it is ______with the______. The ______-rate mind is only ______when it is thinking with the______. The ______-rate mind is only ______when it is______.”

I have recently been attending budget hearings in my county to learn more about where our tax dollars go, and after you come out of one of those meetings, you have to grab hold of something to stop your head from spinning around.

My county’s school system, for example, is the fifth largest in the state, and the numbers that churn out of those budget meetings are very head spinning.

I once knew a person that drove a Cadillac with a Jaguar emblem on the front. It was commonly known as the “Jagillac.”

The person that drove the car eventually went on to get a graduate degree, so there was nothing intellectually deficient about them, at least not to the point where I could prove it.