News Briefly
Ding dong...
Now that the public drama of UT president John Shumaker’s slow demise is mercifully over, talk has turned to who will replace the judgment-challenged character. Three names in particular have surfaced this week among Nashville’s chattering classes, who are often guilty of wild conjecture: Bill Stacy, president of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who worked for both former Gov. Ned McWherter and former President Bill Clinton; and Billy Stair, who also worked for McWherter. Meanwhile, former UT president Joe Johnson is being mentioned as a possible interim pick. At this point, anyone flying coach and booking vacations on his or her own credit card would look pretty good.
A bad week for state prosecutors, or not?
Lawyers for death row inmate Philip Workman, who was convicted in 1982 for the shooting death of a Memphis cop, are asking Gov. Phil Bredesen to spare his life based on the fact that the state’s lone eyewitness in the case now says he can’t remember what he saw the night Workman robbed a Wendy’s restaurant. The witness has also taken a lie detector test, which supports that claim and which Workman’s lawyers revealed in a press conference this week. State prosecutors would no doubt argue that any crime resulting in the death of a law enforcement officer is a capital case.
Hey moms, take a soak and read a book
Parents across Nashville were no doubt jubilant this week that 70,000 kids returned to Metro schools after the summer break. No more “I’m bored,” no more schlepping swimming gear and no more check-writing for day camps. Many kids seemed ready for a change of pace, too, as about 17,000 students and parents packed the downtown arena Sunday for the mayor’s annual celebration of the beginning of the school year.
