News - Friday, July 13, 2012

Kathryn King is sitting in the bleachers in a sweltering gym at Howard High School on a Saturday night, sweat pouring down her face as she watches ten inner city youth go head to head on a basketball court. Although the game has her rapt attention, she’s not cheering anyone on. To do so would be to show favoritism, and both teams are hers.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has named Russell Gray managing shareholder its Chattanooga office. Gray assumes the role held for seven years by Joe Conner, who will continue his commercial litigation practice with the firm.

“We’re exceptionally proud of the contributions Joe has made both to the firm and to the Chattanooga-area business community,” said Gray. “He was a strategic leader during a pivotal time, and has positioned Baker Donelson and our city for further success. My goal is to build on Joe’s outstanding accomplishments, and continue to move our firm and our city forward.”

Saturday, July 14

The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce has recommended a plan for the municipal leasing of the now closed Tivoli Theatre and the renovation of Memorial Auditorium. The Chamber’s proposal would be a sort of interim or stop-gap improvement for the next seven or eight years. It would cost, estimates say, around $750,000. Looking into the future, the Chamber sees an auditorium-coliseum complex that would cost about $6 million.

The agency that oversees parole processes in Tennessee is now operating under a new name. On July 1, the Board of Probation & Parole became the Board of Parole, as community supervision of adult offenders transferred to the Department of Correction. The change is included in the public safety plan approved by the legislature during the 2012 session. As part of the transfer, state probation and parole officers and other staff who support their work are now employees of TDOC.

July 13

Deer Tick to perform at Nightfall

Deer Tick’s music has been described as a combination of folk, blues and country. Hailing from Providence, R.I., Deer Tick is on tour to promote their latest album, “Divine Providence.” Opening act Behold the Brave will perform at 7 p.m. The Nightfall Concert Series consists of FREE shows held each Friday night for 16 weeks at Miller Plaza.

I typically write these columns, and go through the mail, on Sunday afternoons. Sunday is fantastic at the Levison Towers if you like spending time at a ghost town. This past Sunday, I took a break from the cricket-less silence to turn on the television for a minute.

It began as a typical morning in our house last week, with Kathy and me reading the paper in the living room while Alexis, our soon to be Queens, N.Y., resident daughter, upstairs taking a shower. “She’s been in there long enough,” I told Kathy as I headed upstairs for a shower of my own. “Tell her to hurry up,” Kathy said.

While concussions are no laughing matter, I do chuckle at some of the safety measures being taken by the NFL and NCAA, and wonder why no one seemed to care during my years of literally butting heads. The latest NCAA proposed rule for the upcoming season involves onsides kicks, where it is hoping to eliminate collisions by allowing the receiving team fair-catch protection “… whether the ball is kicked directly off the tee or is immediately driven to the ground, strikes the ground once and goes into the air in the manner of the ball kicked directly off the tee.”

I would be surprised if you ever have an opportunity to make more friends than you will while you are in college. You are going to a campus with 26,000 other students. That is a lot of potential friends. You will naturally gravitate to those you already know, but for you to get the full college experience, you need to spread out and meet as many people as you can.

The price of eggs is now 67 percent higher than a year ago and it looks like pork is on the same path. It is being reported by Mike Doherty of the Illinois Farm Bureau that production is down an estimated 15 percent and restaurant owners along with families are driving to other countries to smuggle their eggs in for breakfast. But before you start to panic over where your next plate of eggs and bacon is going to be coming from, let me reassure you that is the situation over in Europe today and not here in the southland – just yet. I threw that “just yet” in there to let you know that if something doesn’t change, we could be following the same course as the Europeans right now.

Two tigers – an adult and a child – are standing in the den of the older one. At hand is a recently slaughtered gazelle. The larger tiger digs in and gestures to his companion to do likewise. In Joseph Campbell’s words, “The little one backs off” and says, “I’m a vegetarian.”

I hope all of you had a great Fourth of July celebration! We Americans are so fortunate to live under our red, white and blue. When our Army son was last deployed, he emailed us several pictures of young children and their living conditions. It is quite sad but it makes me so appreciative of America. And even prouder of our freedoms.

I have been studying agriculture lately and have learned quite a bit! Test your knowledge on a few of these questions. Maybe you, too, can learn something new!

1. True or False: An acre of forest is more beneficial to the environment than an acre of corn.

Broker Dwayne McMillen takes pride in his profession. This is evident in the way he serves his clients, in his ongoing quest for knowledge and in his contributions to the local association. It’s also evident in the way he says “Realtors” – two distinct syllables, each spoken clearly and properly.

Rep. Steve Scalise pulled out his smartphone, and then he held up an old, blocky cellphone.

“While I can do things today we all take for granted, just remember that the law was written when this device was your communications device, and so I think when we start this conversation it’s real important to remember that technology has changed dramatically, yet the law hasn’t changed at all,” Scalise said.

Saturday, July 6

The Naval Appropriation Bill carrying $138,600,674 and provisions for two new battleships was passed in the Senate today.

Bishop Theodore S. Henderson is the new resident bishop of the Methodist Church. He had been connected with churches in New York. His elevation to the episcopacy is in recognition of his ability to appeal to the intellect as well as emotions. He will speak in three local Methodist churches Sunday: Stone Church, Forrest Avenue and Highland Park. As soon as he locates a home, he will make his residence in Chattanooga.

This is supposed to be a review of “The Amazing Spider-Man,” not an analysis of Sony Picture’s decision to reboot the series a few years after the conclusion of a hugely successful trilogy. Generally, more time is allowed to elapse before a reboot is considered, but as Sony ramped up to make a fourth Spider-Man with actor Tobey Maguire, director Sam Raimi and other established cast and crew, it became concerned about rising production costs and canned the project in favor of an all-new series with different people in front of and behind the camera.

Most agents know deep down inside that they need to do a better job of prospecting in order to increase business. They know that true long-term sales success is built through the work of looking for new business, but they do not do the work. Unlike those agents, if you want to succeed, you must provide service to clients once you have acquired them, but you have to acquire them before you can serve them. The guy who builds the best mousetrap only has a great mousetrap. He still has to find someone to buy it. Finding someone to buy it is often harder than creating the mousetrap.

I have chronic low back pain, neck pain and migraine headaches. I feel sure that most of the pain is due to a wreck in my thirties. I was stopped at a red light to make a left-hand turn when a drunk driver plowed into the back of my car. I did have on my seat belt, but it was before the days of air bags, so I suffered quite a jolt. My car was pushed through the light and into a parking lot on the other side of the street.