News Briefly
Boy captain found for Titanic
J.D. Hickey, J.D., M.D. Lots of letters there, but let us spell it out for Gov. Bredesen's new TennCare director: You're S-C-R-E-W-E-D. Maybe the 33-year-old docttorney will find it worth his while to wade into the current political, legal and medical cesspool that is Tennessee's health care plan for poor and uninsurable folks. (After all, for $217,000 a year, lots of stuff sounds like a decent idea.) Let's just hope this fresh-faced management consultant is as smart as he is educated—and that he's politically savvy enough to fix TennCare without bruising too many egos in the process. People's lives depend on it.
MNPDUI?
Was Metro Police Sgt. Kim Gooch driving drunk when she hit MTSU student Micah Jones outside the Red Door Saloon last week? Did the cops treat her like they would anyone else with flammable breath who had just struck a pedestrian? What does it mean to display "clues of impairment?" Did Gooch leave the scene before returning? And who gave her that bottled water to drink, anyway? At press time, these questions remained unanswered, and Jones remained in a coma.
Executing justice
To summarize a just-released report from the state comptroller (a word officially pronounced however you want to say it): It's cheaper to execute someone than to imprison them for life. But death penalty trials cost more than life-in-prison trials. And the irreversible punishment is applied unfairly. And it makes jurors depressed. And did we mention there's no evidence that capital punishment is an effective deterrent? Insiders say Bredesen will call for a moratorium right after he endorses Nader for president.
