Kick 'em when they're down
Anti-gay hotelier gets his due
When Tarun Surti, owner of the Artee Hotel in Brentwood, was found to have allegedly made a list of, then fired, perfectly good employees just because they were gay, the cries of "Sue the bastard!" could be heard all the way to the courthouse. Of course, the rallying cry was made under the assumption that Surti actually had money to lose. Turns out that might not be the case.Last week, Surti and his wife filed for Chapter 13, the unluckiest chapter of them all. That brings Surti's bankruptcy filing tally up to four since last August; two for his businesses, one for just him and one for the couple.Now bankruptcy isn't just something that sneaks up on you. Surti obviously knew about his financial troubles months, maybe even years, in advance. So that begs the question: Just how dumb is Tarun Surti?If a date with angry creditors is in your near future, it's probably best to lay low. –Caleb Hannan
The usurers strike again
The economy has tanked, the market has crashed, and home foreclosures are at record numbers. Sure, it's hitting everyone to some degree, but with the onslaught of grim news, you can get desensitized to it...until it unleashes its full fury on you or someone you know.
Writer, activist and documentarian Molly Secours, who for years has fought to help those struggling to make ends meet, has recently found herself at the short end of the foreclosure stick. Secours, who was diagnosed with uterine cancer a year-and-a-half ago (and who had decent credit up until that time), has desperately tried to work something out with her lender, First Franklin, but has been stonewalled at every turn. The irony is that, were she to be offered a new loan at, say, 5.5 percent (above the going rate for a 30-year-fixed), she could afford the payments.
Secours sees little alternative to foreclosure in her future, but hopes her plight may help others. And for the thousands of Nashvillians who know Molly and the tireless good works she undertakes, it puts a face on the financial meltdown's overwhelming human cost. –Jack Silverman
Kick 'em when they're down
Disturbing news for legions of laid-off workers: A record number of employers are disputing unemployment claims made by terminated workers. The Gaylord Resort and Convention Center is apparently among them.
A recent Washington Post story details how an electrician working for the company was fired and began collecting $380 a week in unemployment. But Gaylord took Kenneth M. Brown to court to dispute his right to the money. The company alleged that Brown was fired for "being deceptive with a supervisor," and therefore not entitled to unemployment.
"A big corporation like that..." Brown told The Post. "It was hard enough to be terminated. But for them to try to take away the unemployment benefits—I just thought that was heartless."
But this story has a happy ending for Brown. From The Post: "After a Post reporter turned up at the hearing, the hotel's representative withdrew the appeal and declined to comment."
When a lawyer turns tail just because a reporter shows up, it's hard to believe Gaylord was interested in anything more than nickel-and-diming a former employee. – P.J. Tobia
Preds papering the house?
Word is fast and furious in Canada that the Predators are papering the house to scam the NHL's revenue sharing agreement. Though no one seems to be offering concrete proof, the theory runs like this:
Low attendance teams can receive as much as $17 million in revenue sharing if they average 14,000 fans a game. But because the Predators have struggled to reach that figure, Canadian media geeks are floating the rumor that the team is papering the house, presumably with free or drastically discounted tickets.
Preds Senior VP Gerry Helper isn't buying. He admits the team's schedule is loaded with specials, but nothing out of the ordinary. "We're doing a lot of discounting to fill this building as best we can," he says. And while that may include things like a ticket with registration for the Preds' 5K run, it doesn't include scamming the system.
After all, he notes, teams also have to reach income growth levels as part of the revenue sharing deal. "You can't just hit 14,000 but not grow revenues to a certain level," he says. "You have to do both." – Pete Kotz
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