Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Crazy Crap / Media / Politics Paul House Case Gets National Attention
Posted by Liz Garrigan on Wed, May 28, 2008 at 11:10 AM
CNN has taken note of Tennessee death row inmate Paul House's tragic case, about which the Scene has reported and written extensively. This case is one of the more sobering and mean-spirited legacies of both Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Tennessee Attorney General's Office, who are dragging their feet on a case they know they've bungled despite the chronic and life-threatening condition of an innocent inmate.
Multiple sclerosis has Paul House in a wheelchair. A tenacious prosecutor has him on death row, deemed too dangerous to be released two years after the U.S. Supreme Court said he likely isn't guilty. Paul House sits on death row despite a ruling that says evidence raises reasonable doubt about his guilt. That closely watched ruling, which made it easier for inmates to get new hearings on DNA evidence that emerges after their trials, and the fallout from it have left House in limbo while a prosecutor methodically battles every effort from the courts to have him retried. Federal judges have done as the high court ordered: They reviewed his murder case and concluded new evidence raises reasonable doubt about his guilt. Not allowed to overturn the conviction, they took the extraordinary step of giving Tennessee a six-month deadline to bring House to trial or release him. And still House, 46, is locked up in a Nashville prison. An appeals court ruled in his favor this month, but that ruling also reset the 180-day countdown at zero. U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to consider terms and conditions of House's release, but prosecutors are taking their time in setting a date for a new trial. "The Supreme Court has said, 'You just got the wrong person.' You would think ... that there would be some respect for that situation," said U.S. Circuit Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, who has heard portions of House's case and believes he isn't guilty of murder. District Attorney Paul Phillips said he plans to retry House with old evidence from the first trial and some new evidence he wouldn't describe. He promises he has "proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. House is guilty or we would not be re-prosecuting him."Right. DNA evidence released long after House's trial shows that House did not rape the victim, as the prosecution claimed—which was the aggravating factor it cited to get him death in the first place. In fact, it was her husband—the same man who later confessed to multiple people that he killed her.
Media So It's Not Local; Sue Me
Posted by Liz Garrigan on Wed, May 28, 2008 at 9:49 AM
The folks taking the Washington Post buyout package are signing off with final columns and pieces this week, my favorite of which is Peter Carlson's. He's the guy who, for the last 12 years, has covered magazines for the Post. Remember Brill's Content, George, Spy, Sly? He knew and wrote about them all. But what I like best about his piece is that it manages to condense into this great little read both a farewell and what's so cool about the fascinating and ever-changing world of magazine publishing. And he does it with humor and non-saccharine nostalgia.
If you love magazines, and great journalists who have become casualties of our new-media age, check it out.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Breaking News / Law and Order / Politics Who Killed Estelle?
Posted by Matt Pulle on Tue, May 27, 2008 at 1:06 PM
An anonymous donor has come forward offering $35,000 for information that could solve the murder of Estelle Richardson, the CCA inmate who was found dead in her solitary cell with a cracked skull and broken ribs. Alex Friedmann, the anti-private prison activist who has rallied nationwide opposition to CCA general counsel Gus Puryear, has the news after the jump.
Education Pray for Those School Employees
Posted by Liz Garrigan on Tue, May 27, 2008 at 12:41 PM
This just across the transom:
Clergy, Workers Pray for Metro Schools
SEIU Hosts Prayer Vigil for Workers Left Out of Metro Schools Budget
(Nashville) The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is hosting a prayer vigil before the Metro School Board meeting today to address the failure of the Mayor's proposed budget to include school support staff.
"The Mayor has proposed an increase of millions of dollars in the Metro schools budget for next year, but not one dime is set aside to help support workers keep up with the cost of living," says Teresa West, a food service worker and union steward. "We seem to have plenty of money for new buildings, updated books, and the teachers' annual raises, but what about the people who drive the buses, serve the food, and clean the school buildings? Our work has value too and we pray that the school board will understand that as they deliberate their budget with the council and the Mayor."
Clergy from across Davidson County, school employees, and other community leaders are expected to attend the prayer vigil.
Deets after the jump.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Barry / Media / Presidential Politics Hey Steve, Maybe You Should Switch to Decaf
Posted by Bruce Barry on Mon, May 26, 2008 at 10:19 AM
How desperate are conservatives right now in an election cycle that has GOP disaster written all over it? Pretty damn desperate, to judge by Steve Gill’s immoderate rant Sunday morning on WKRN’s This Week with Bob Mueller. Gill implored Tennessee Democratic Party chair (and fellow This Week panelist) Gray Sasser to share Gill's indignation at recent remarks by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin about John McCain’s military family upbringing—remarks that Republicans have been laboring without success to spin as downright treasonable.
Here’s what Harkin said during a May 16 conference call with reporters:
"I think one of the problems John McCain has, is that his grandfather was an admiral, his father was an admiral. He comes from a long line of just military people so I think his whole world view, his life view has been shaped from a military viewpoint, and he has a hard time thinking beyond that, and I think he's trapped in that. And I think that can be pretty dangerous. It's one thing to have been drafted and served or volunteer and serve for a few years or something and get out and get on with your life. [It's] quite another thing when you come from generations of military people, that's just how you're steeped, that's how you learned, that's how you grew up, it's hard to shake those things."Here’s Gill’s overreaction Sunday on Mueller’s show:
"I’m…offended that the Obama team has not responded in a week to what Tom Harkin, their leader in Iowa, the U.S. Senator from Iowa, [who] came out with some disparaging statements about our troops, those who have volunteered to serve us in uniform, those who come from a military family. He calls them dangerous. He says that those people who come from a military mindset are dangerous, and those who volunteer rather than being drafted are people that we should suspect [sic]. I think that those statements are a lot more vile than anything that was done to Michelle Obama, and Obama hasn’t spoken on that nor has the Democratic party condemned those statements....[addressing Sasser] Will you call for Tom Harkin to be condemned and stripped of his duties when he’s a guy attacking our troops, attacking our all-voluntary military force?"People from a military family are dangerous? An attack on the all-volunteer military? Yo Steve, did you bother to read Harkin’s actual remarks, or just the Fox News talking points? Harkin’s meaning was clear enough to anyone with sixth-grade reading comprehension skills: the "danger" is narrow-minded thinking arising from narrow life experiences. Reasonable people can disagree about whether this applies to McCain as a potential president, or about whether it was an artful rhetorical moment for Harkin. But spinning it into an act for which Harkin should be “stripped of his duties” borders on unhinged. Are we to understand that conservatives now want to impeach public officials for their exercise of free speech?
Friday, May 23, 2008
By the Way / Crazy Crap / Legislature / Media / Politics / Whopper of the Month Against the Waller
Posted by Matt Pulle on Fri, May 23, 2008 at 1:48 PM
Lobbyist Tom Lee's clumsy dust-up with Will Pinkston, a top aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen, reminded me of another time Lee's firm found itself on the wrong end of an inane political firestorm.
In 2005, three of Lee's colleagues at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis emailed city council members in support of a controversial new Wal-Mart in southern Davidson County. Conveniently, they forgot to mention that their firm represented the big-box retailer. The Scene's John Spragens wrote how these three brilliant legal minds, Rose Drupiewski, Justin Wilson and John Faldetta, contacted the entire Metro Council (from Yahoo! accounts) to let them know how great the proposed Super Wal-Mart would be—even though they lived nowhere near the planned store. Their intentions were clear: to convince the Metro Council that they were merely concerned citizens who desperately wanted a Wal-Mart in their neighborhood, not hired guns surreptitiously shilling for their big-time client.
Unfortunately, they weren't as as surreptitious as they should have been...which is why you're reading about it now. It didn't help that two of them actually sent identical emails, which somewhat spoiled the appearance of a faux grassroots campaign. Incredibly, one of the attorneys explained to Spragens that she wasn't doing the bidding of her law firm—she just really, really would "like more Wal-Marts in the area.”
Awesome.
So why am I rehashing this now? I'm a little worried about the fine, upstanding lawyers at Waller. They're supposed to be the most politically savvy firm in town, lobbying for powerful, well-heeled interests, but they are developing a bit of a reputation for small-town lawyering. It was less than a year ago, during the mayor's race, that Waller attorney and lobbyist James Weaver tried to send Bob Clement and Karl Dean a confidential memo suggesting that they keep a possible new deal for the Nashville Predators under the radar. Instead, Weaver's memo ended up on the front page of The Tennessean. Oops.
Now I'd like to talk directly to the partners at Waller, after the jump. Just me and them. Everyone else stop reading. You're on the honor system. So go outside and enjoy our beautiful spring weather and log off now, k?
Media / Presidential Politics Tucker's Hot
Posted by Liz Garrigan on Fri, May 23, 2008 at 12:57 PM
If this happened, it would certainly give the ladies (and some gentlemen) more presidential-election eye candy. Bare all, Tucker. Your politics, that is.
By the Way / Legislature / Media / Politics More on Briley
Posted by Matt Pulle on Fri, May 23, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Who would have thought? Bill Hobbs, whose dismissal from Belmont I applauded, is my new BFF. I loved his final take on state Rep. Rob Briley's now infamous farewell address, in which the boozing adulterer lashed out against reporters and bloggers for having the temerity to write facts.
That's right, the alcoholic ex-legislator who trades his wife and children for a fling with a lobbyist and now slams information publishers for having the audacity to publicize it, will practice law in a section of downtown Nashville named for its historic connection to printing and publishing, and also famed for its booze and strippers.Standing. Hands clapping.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Media Ferrell Strikes Again
Posted by Liz Garrigan on Thu, May 22, 2008 at 11:24 AM
And this time the former Scene publisher is getting into the altweekly business. From a release:
SouthComm Communications, Inc., a Tennessee-based media and publishing company, has acquired LEO, an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Louisville area, from Times Publishing Co. of Pennsylvania. LEO, the Louisville Eccentric Observer, was founded in 1990 by John Yarmuth to provide news and commentary on current affairs as well as a guide to regional entertainment and recreation opportunities. The paper is distributed for free at more than 850 locations in Louisville and Southern Indiana and reaches more than 179,000 people. “We’re very pleased to bringing LEO into the SouthComm fold,” said Chris Ferrell, Chief Executive Officer of SouthComm Communications. “Our vision is to build a family of niche publications that produces quality products for distinct audiences. With its strong track record of insightful and relevant coverage of the Louisville area, LEO fits that mold perfectly.” As part of the deal, Pam Brooks will remain publisher, a position she has held since 2003. SouthComm Communications was formed late last year to develop and acquire media properties around the Southeast. Its initial portfolio company was SouthComm Publishing, a custom publishing company based in Atlanta. Since then, it has grown to include business and political new site NashvillePost.com, Music Row magazine, BusinessTN magazine and Medical News Papers. The company also has signed an agreement to acquire The City Paper in Nashville and plans this summer to launch Her Nashville, a regional women’s magazine. “LEO has evolved into the Louisville area’s most urbane and challenging newsweekly by looking beyond the surface and delivering locally relevant information that can’t be found elsewhere,” said Brooks. “We look forward to tapping the talents of the SouthComm team to help us provide even more value to our readers, advertisers and publishing partners.” Chris Ferrell is no newcomer to the alternative weekly world, having formerly served as publisher of the Nashville Scene. Prior to that Ferrell served eight years as a councilman at-large in Nashville-Davidson County.
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