Hard Knox Independent coming soon

The folks putting together an alternative newspaper they hope will fill the void left when the Metro Pulse died - sorry "Go Knoxville," you're too lame to do the job - have named their publication: The Hard Knox Independent.

Heh.

In a release sent out today, the good folks said the paper will feature local columnists (and former Pulse writers) Frank Cagle, Scott McNutt and (new guy) Chuck Cavalaris "and others."

"The goal of Hard Knox Independent is to create an alternative weekly voice that reflects the spirit of the community we serve," said publisher Crystal Huskey. "We want to build a sense of community and highlight the stories of people who make our town great. We also strive to tell the stories that are often overlooked."

You can find the entire news release RIGHT SMACK HERE.

Facebook page RIGHT SMACK HERE.

Follow them on Twitter RIGHT SMACK HERE.

What the??? No more Metro Pulse? Layoffs lead to reorganization

So, apparently a bunch of boring newspaper peeps are now tasked with putting together the snarky alternative.

For the two of you in the Knoxville area who don't know, the Metro Pulse, the local alternative weekly, shut down today under some kind of reorganizational plan or other.

And, parent company E.W. Scripps, which also owns the Knoxville News Sentinel, laid off the entire staff. (In addition, KNS laid off a number of its own employees.)

You can follow the Metro Pulse mess on Twitter, RIGHT SMACK HERE. Also, folks are commenting OVER HERE and wishing the former staffers well.

In the meantime, the new plan is have the KNS newsroom produce the Pulse and distribute it inside the Sentinel and in free-distribution racks.

Here's the rest, according to an email, by head KNS editor Jack McElroy:

"A bit more information to go with the note (Publisher) Patrick (Birmingham) distributed and the story on Knoxnews:

Effective immediately, Amy Vellucci will be directing our local news operations as city editor. She will be looking to promote someone within the local staff to assistant city editor to support her.

Amy Nolan will become News Sentinel business editor as well as editor and publisher of the Knoxville Business Journal. Josh Flory will report to her as assistant business editor and will continue as News Sentinel data editor.

Vivian Vega will move into the newsroom and continue to direct special publications. The newsroom will provide production support, but newsroom writers will not be producing any advertorial content.

Chuck Campbell, Susan Alexander and Lori Wilson will be working with the combined features and entertainment staff on a merger of knoxville.com and Metro Pulse, which will be produced by the newsroom and distributed in-paper and in free-distribution racks. Jennifer Dedman will be assisting in this project.

Department meetings will be scheduled in the next few days to discuss plans further."

The wisdom of journalist Rikki Hall

Sadly, Rikki Hall, a heck of a guy, a great conversationalist, and an overall decent person passed away this morning.

Rikki, who wrote a column for the Metro Pulse, also was a super freakin' smart.

Randy over at knoxviews has highlighted some of the gems he posted on the blog. Seriously, check them out. They're right here.

Rodgers: Close schools for elections

Clifford Rodgers

Was it last week that the school board talked about whether to hold class on Election Day? I can't remember. I know it's come up a couple of times (as folks talk about how and where to extend the school year by five days).

Anyhoo, Knox County's head election honcho, Clifford Rodgers doesn't think it's such a slick idea.

And he says so in a two-page letter he sent to school Superintendent Jim McIntyre more than a month ago.

Click right smack here for that bad boy.

As Cliff told me, he sent the letter to “refresh their memories about the realities of conducting elections during a school day.”

In the memo, which you really should read, he says that opening schools on election day will create problems that impact voters, students and teachers. He talks about accessibility, security and insanity.

(OK, I made up that last one.)

Still, it's a good read. Check it out.

(On a side note, I swiped the above photo from the Metro Pulse, but we own 'em, so . . . .)

Commish, elections, managment style

Couple things on this Friday afternoon that I noticed during the past week. 

A number of folks were talking about Joe Sullivan's column over at the Metro Pulse. The one in which he skewered Knox County Commissioner Dave Wright.

Find it right smack here.

Sullivan says Wright has a tendency to ramble like a mental, and he takes exception to a number of resolutions tied to school-related election issues that Wright sponsored.

I'll give da Pulse this: Wright like to ramble. That's true.

But to say there's no consensus in the 8^th District for an elected superintendent? Yeah, you're kidding yourself. And while I like Lisa Starbuck (she's a great activist and has a cool last name), she's kidding herself, too.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that countywide – if you put to vote whether to have an appointed or an elected superintendent – we'd be voting for a new one next year.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong. But you can take that vote to the bank. People in Knox County like to vote. Heck, the charter review committee had a chance to fix this and didn't bother.

Over on da Rogue's blog, Brian Hornback calls out Knox County Property Assessor. (These two have no love for each other by the way.) He says Ballard is violating all sorts of campaign laws and has the picture to prove it. Click right smack here for that bad boy.

Ballard, though, says he's not doing anything wrong. He said that he was putting together a booth that he will set up tomorrow for a home builder's association at the Expo Center. He said the sign that bears his name doesn't include the phrases “vote for” or “elect.”

“I'm term limited,” he said. “I don't need to campaign.”

He didn't mention the rumors that he'll seek another elected office when his time is up.

Finally, we got former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe and his column in the Shopper – click right smack here. Ashe talks about the managing style of county Mayor Tim Burchett and city Mayor Madeline Rogero. And he appears to be dead on about that South Knoxville stuff, which has left me scratching my head for awhile.

I really thought the city was going to take the initiative on this. Well, there's certainly still time.

Knox website wins transparency award

The Sunshine Review today announced today that Knox County is one of only three Tennessee governments to win a “Sunny Award,” something that honors “the most transparent government websites in the nation,” according to the spin release.

The Virginia-based nonprofit, which analyzes government transparency, looked over more than 1,000 qualifying government websites and graded each one on a 10-point transparency checklist. Editors looked at available content, including budgets, meetings, lobby, financial audits, contracst, academic performance, public records and taxes. The winners of the fourth annual award received an “A” grade.

The top dogs were Florida (25), Virginia (19), Illinois (19), California (12), Georgia (12), Kansas (11), Oklahoma (10) and Colorado (9). Click right smack here for the full list, and right smack here for the Knox County, which received an “A-.”

This is kind of funny considering the Metro Pulse slammed the county's website last week (although some of the reasons were kind of stupid, but whatever). 

On a side note, Knox County was apparently docked because the website didn't provide information on taxpayer funded lobbying. It also didn't include a list of employed lobbyists, blah, blah, blah.

That's probably because the county doesn't have a lobbyist, Oh well, so much for accuracy.

Shelby and Wilson counties also each scored an A-.

UT professor to take on Campfield

The Metro Pulse in this week's edition has a piece on “early starter” Brian Stevens, a 30-year-old UT statistics professor who looks about 12. He's already campaigning for Stacey Campfield's state Senate seat, which isn't up until 2014.

Find the story right smack here.

I'm not sure what the big deal is. Knox County Commissioner Richard Briggs has been running for this seat since last year. Heh.

County cuts 'I voted' stickers

I think it was just after I voted during the August primary that I realized: What the deuce, man! Where are the “I voted” stickers?

The good folks at ballot boxes didn't know, so I made a mental note to call top dog elections guy Cliff Rodgers. And . . . then I promptly forgot.

Soooo, earlier today I'm twittin' on Twitter and up pops a blip from the Metro Pulse.

Yes, the pulse people, more than likely it was Cari “Mean” Gervin, asked Rodgers about the stickers, or lack thereof.

Rodgers told the paper that not providing them would save the county $1,512 (including shipping) for the presidential election. He noted that the money would be used to pay 25 election officials to attend a four-hour polling place operations training class.

“Simply put, I'd rather spend money on training election officials than congratulatory stickers,” he said.

(Man, and I though Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett was cheap.)

I somewhat agree with Rodgers. But, is it not the election commission's job (at least on the periphery) to encourage/promote voting? Stickers are a great advertisement and reminder.

Anyhoo, Rodgers said “reasonable people” can disagree with him. Heh.

Click right smack here for the original story.

MP's 'mean one' says KTSC is full of it

Cari “Mean” Gervin over at da Pulse is calling out the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp., saying it took credit for events that the non-profit had nothing to do with, like the Big Ears Festival and the Furrow Auction Company’s Great Smokey Auction, among others.

Now why doesn't that surprise me? 'Course, you can probably find bogus claims made my these types of groups throughout the state. Not that they're bogus, you know. Heh.

Anyhoo, the mean one writes:

There is no question that KTSC has brought events to town, and there is no question that those events have had an economic impact. However, there are questions over whether all the events that KTSC claims as examples of its success at driving economic impact are ones that it actually had anything to do with. Despite just picking a sampling of events at random from KTSC’s list, we found a number of organizers who say they had no assistance at all from KTSC.

Click right smack here for the story.

Bistro at the Bijou boots Sen. Campfield

I see there’s been somewhat of a fallout for Stacey Campfield over those comments about gays, bullies and AIDS. (You know, because they were so brilliant and insightful.)

Apparently, the owner of Bistro at the Bijou gave the good state senator the boot yesterday afternoon.

Campfield, local comedian Spanky Brown, reporter Dan “The Man” Andrews and radio talk show host Hubert Smith went to the restaurant to eat, when owner Martha Boggs pretty much told Campfield to get the $&%* out.

(From what I understand she called him a homophobe, but there was also a choice word that preceded it. Heh.)

Anyhoo, Dan told me that as they were exiting, Brown said: “Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever seen two black guys walk into a restaurant and a white guy gets thrown out.”

(What’s that expression? You shouldn’t crap where you eat?)

For his part, Stacey was “very calm, very professional and very understanding,” Dan said.

They ended up having lunch at Latitude 35 on Market Square.

UPDATE: The Metro Pulse talked to Martha this morning: Click right smack here for it it.

Campfield to the Pulse: Put up or shut up!

Wow, this one is really making the rounds. But, hey, it involves state Sen. Stacey “Mr. Wrestling II” Campfield, so what did you expect?

Here's the deal: Apparently, the Metro Pulse issued a challenge to Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, asking him to live on $300 in scratch for just a week. The hippies over there figure that's what someone on unemployment gets.

The writer, Cari “Mean” Gervin even said she'd even pony up her own money if Ramsey, who wants to cut unemployment, took the plunge.

Click right smack here for the story.

Now, in the meantime, Campfield, who wants to drug test the unemployed before they can get state coin, said on his blog that he's game. For a month. Nice. In fact, he's willing to donate some of scratch to Habitat for Humanity.

Then he thew out a bunch of numbers and some math formula that I'm too lazy to analyze. Click right smack here for Campfield's response.

Personally, I don't think he can do it. Sean Braised over at Nashville 21 explains, in part, why. Yup, right smack here for that.

Plus, it looks like Campfield wants to cheat. He's still going to pay his mortgage. Well, people who are unemployed probably miss those payments.

Then there's the matter of how to verify this: Click right smack here for R. Neal's thoughts.

Still, if it happens, I'm going to go ahead and root for the guy.

I like this kind of stuff.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the initial Pulse story - right here!

Padgett finally starts spending his coin

Last week the Metro Pulse ran an email from a Knoxville mayoral candidate Mark Padgett supporter. Some funny stuff. (You know, entertainment at the expense of others.)

Apparently the guy (or gal) was pretty peeved about the money-grabbing tactics of the young Democrat who claimed to once be homeless and has now somehow managed to raise somewhere north of like ten billion dollars for a job that pays around $150,000.

But, whatever.

Here's the email right smack here. (Way to sign your name by the way.)

In the meantime, Padgett's spin doctress, Laura Braden, who tells everyone she once worked with the Governator (obviously she's not from around here), sent the media an email, saying the candidate has launched his ad campaign and it stresses job creation.

Woo-hoo.

It's really pretty silly, but I've picked on this guy so much that I'd be remiss if I didn't at least link to it. So, click right smack here if you dare.

And just so you know (and you know who you are), I do not care who wins this race.

So, before you start saying that you know who I support, just know that you are wrong.

Hey, how much ya got on you?

I know this is a few days old, but I can't resist. Apparently the mean ol' Metro Pulse (i.e. Carie and the beer-swillin' yankee who used to work at the News Sentinel) decided to ask Knoxville mayoral and city council candidates how much coin they earned each year.

Click for the story right smack here.

I think the story has merit. But that's just me. (For the record, I make $5 a year. But the company picks up my Friday night tabs, so I call it even. I do this blog for free because I'm stupid.)

The reactions to the requests are great. Entertainment at the expense of others. But the BS'ing Carie got was even better. The "dog-ate-my-homework" kind of funny. Or sad. Or ridiculous. (Although many folks obliged and provided the info.)

Anyhoo, the story is good, but what's even better is the epilogue:

A bunch of damn hippies arguing about it.

Click here for that.