Lost a good one.
A remembrance of founder Katie Allison Granju’s dad Hank Allison, dead at 64.
I never met Hank Allison, but if St. Peter takes into account a girl’s view of her dad, he’s surely in a good place now. Katie always had great stories about about him during her time over at the 10. The world’s the poorer for the loss.
Your new wallpaper
The geeks over at Wired ran various conventioneers’ speeches through Wordle to produce darn cool images.
Aesthetically, I prefer the clouds produced by Pres. Bush and Joe Biden, although the John McCain one is pleasantly evocative of a Rocky and Bullwinkle segment I half remember.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, I think I’ll rotate ‘em.
A sort of pre-pre-Kindergarten
State Rep. Stacey Campfield, not a fan in particular of the state-funded pre-K (views as free daycare on the sly) is proposing a requirement on the parents to obtain the state-funded pre-K: come to some classes yourself. The way Campfield sees it, the parents get their free daycare, and the state gets more involved parents.
On the one hand, the notion of getting parents more involved in their child’s school life is extremely appealing. Involved parents help make great schools. On the other, is there really any way for an outside force to stimulate (or even mandate) a more involved parent? Or do you see this proposal as a more cynical one, aimed at reducing the number of kids enrolled?
Closing the enthusiasm gap
The GOP convention has energized the McCain campaign, with VP nominee Sarah Palin clearly lending some spark. The USA Today/Gallup poll puts McCain up 50-46 over Obama.
Will the spark last, and can McCain turn Palinthusiasm into a significant election-day return?
(Palinthusiasm: the worst political term since Joe-mentum.)
Attention selfish drivers…
As I’ve long suspected, research is indicating that selfish driving patterns result in more traffic for everyone. I’ve contended that the jerk waiting until the last second to merge is making it worse for all of us, and in weaker moments, uttered a few unkind words about what his parental lineage must be.
I’m happy to see research into this topic. It ties into another topic I’d really like to see researched: patterns of group behavior based on unspoken communication and the inability of some individuals to successfully navigate said group behavioral systems.
You see it all the time–the huge backup headed up to a road construction site. You see the cars long before you see the signs. Most of us see our opportunity to get into the appropriate lane and do so instinctively. Then there’s the guy who goes coasting by, oblivious until he practically smacks into the construction, who then struggles to get into the appropriate lane. Fellow drivers usually presume he’s the sort of rascal who thinks the rules don’t apply to him. In calmer moments, I have another theory: I think he’s clueless.
Another scenario in which you see widespread unspoken group communication is in the Metro stations in DC. During the most crowded times, you’ll notice that people waiting to get on the trains dynamically gather near but not in front of the doors. Instead they form “tunnels” of egress for the people getting off the train–and the more impressive part is that those tunnels typically point toward the exit of the station, funneling the disembarking passengers out.
No words are spoken, yet people seem to spontaneously organize.
And then there are the people who don’t get it. The person standing haplessly in the middle of the tunnel, practically getting knocked over by every disembarking passenger. The person who absentmindedly is constantly in someone else’s way. The person who wonders why there’s no one ahead of him in the left lane but dozens immediately behind him.
Here’s my premise: I think there’s a specific type of social intelligence, devoted to the navigation of non-explicitly arranged social situations. And I think some people just don’t have it.
Now to get that research grant…
Snooper trooper fired…
…is the headline I originally thought of for this story. But, had to play it a bit closer to the vest, as Lt. Shirley hasn’t been convicted of the snooping.
On a side note, investigators said one of the people Shirley checked on was Tennessean reporter Brad Schrade, after Schrade reported on the Cooley ticket-fixing scandal. The investigation has found none of the background checks were politically motivated–but suffice to say, Ronnie Shirley probably didn’t like being in that spotlight. That’s kinda creepy.
Roundup of Knox happenings.
Here’s a roundup of Knox County happenings this morning, then a few regional happenings.
–Eric McLean headed to trial: McLean said he shot 18-year-old Sean Powell because the teen was having an affair with his wife. She was said to have met Powell while a student teacher at his school. McLean would later talk to Matt Lauer on the Today show. Court TV/TruTV crews are in town to cover this one. Expect a lot of national attention for this one. (Alleged teacher sex–huge draw on the web, which has moved to television. Murder by an allegedly cuckolded husband–a timeless dramatic theme. Mom on the run with the kids–additional family drama.) Jury selection starts today in Judge Liebowitz’s courtroom. Prosecution has expressed concerns over Bruce Poston’s TV appearances and the jury pool; defense has expressed concern over pins being worn by members of victim Sean Powell’s family (no word yet on what those pins say).
–Knox County Election Commission workers are in the process of aggregating all the current voter registration cards to compare them to the signatures on charter amendment petitions. This is one of those things that’s still done old-school: they’ll be comparing signatures on petitions to signatures on voter cards and everything. I’m not sure who has the more arduous task ahead, the signature verifiers or the eventual McLean jurors.
–A hearing over mulch is set to bring Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale to the stand. A citizen has brought suit on behalf of the county to try to collect what he says Natural Resources Recovery owes, in regard to its operation of the Solway Greenwaste Facility. The county’s position is that both NRR and the county have had shortcomings with regards to the prior contract, but that they consider the whole thing squared away. The county and NRR both put aside prior breach of contract allegations with a mediated settlement. Law Director John Owings may also take the stand. The suit may go forward from today’s hearing, or it may end here.
–Tennessee’s first female Supreme Court Chief Justice, Janice Holder, will speak at UT today.
–Gov. Phil Bredesen will speak at Central High School today. Central is where 15-year-old Jamar Siler is accused of shooting and killing 15-year-old Ryan McDonald.
–Up in Scott County, a former deputy is set to appear in court on a laundry list of charges related to official misconduct. He was supposed to be in court for a plea agreement yesterday but said he got caught up in Hurricane Gustav evacuation traffic. Judge E. Shayne Sexton has said Donnie Anderson had better show up today or be prepared to go to jail and have that plea agreement taken away. No details yet on the nature of that plea agreement.
Your Sarah Palin updates
The details of her life are simply too interesting to not be a news rockstar.
You’ll be happy to know that, despite being a moose hunter, sometimes commercial fisherman, former beauty queen, and former sports reporter, Sarah Palin is not a hacker. All your base are not belong to her.
Sarah Palin is, however, to be a grandmother. Daughter Bristol, 17, and the young man now revealed to be her boyfriend plan to get married.
Bristol’s pregnancy may or may not staunch the rumors young Trig is actually Bristol’s child–I’m going to lean toward ‘no,’ as your typical conspiracy theory is fueled by evidence against it, rather than being deterred. (Keep an eye out for some to try to make hay out of Bristol’s boyfriend’s age, despite the fact that the age of consent in Alaska is 16.) The fact that all this is even buzzing on the Internet is a true sign there’s no insanity like political insanity.
And in what we can only hope will lead to Chuck Norris campaigning for her as he did Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin has become an Internet phenomenon of little-known facts.
Blogging Gustav
Tennessean business editor Randy McClain, a native of New Orleans, is blogging Hurricane Gustav’s arrival from Louisiana.
Oh, she went there
In her first public address as a VP candidate, Sarah Palin full on and overtly invoked Hillary Clinton and said “the women of America aren’t done yet!”
I suppose that’s something of an elephant in the room: will some of Hillary’s supporters cross over to vote for the ticket that includes a woman?
My initial thought: no. Aside from the second X chromosome, Clinton and Palin don’t offer any of the same things, really.
From what we know of Palin, their politics are miles and miles apart on just about everything with the possible exception of economics. A voter who’s drawn to a ticket because it includes a woman is likely doing so because they feel a woman is more likely to understand women’s issues–said voter seems less likely to be drawn to a ticket because they feel a woman is more likely to understand a woman’s role in the economy.
If Palin was a calculated pick to snag Hillary supporters, I can’t help but feel this one’s gonna fall flat. Starting and ending at ‘women will vote for a woman’ would be too simplistic a strategy to be effective.
No safe choice for McCain…
Sarah Palin presents assets and a risk for John McCain.
She’s known as a bit of a maverick Republican up in the great white North. That would seem to help shore up the folks enamored with McCain’s old-school maverick image, even as he moves more toward the “classic conservative” campaign image.
She’s young (44) and a family woman (mother of 5) and an avid sportswoman (including hunting moose, at least in the past). Voters concerned with McCain’s age will take comfort in the first. Family values voters will love the second. And the gun rights folks will like the third.
She’s a former journo–a sports reporter at two stations in Anchorage. Will the press take an interest in an old journo going government and having a shot at VP? You betcha. Her appearance will also help on the TV angle. To be frank–viewers tend to like pretty people, and TV likes to show what viewers like to watch.
She’s female. Here’s the question: will the support Sarah Palin shores up for McCain exceed the votes he might lose from voters who just plain aren’t ready for a female VP (and a female pres being a heartbeat away, so to speak)? Do those voters exist in great numbers these days?
Update with what I forgot: the labor aspect! A former union member and married to a union member. Seems likely to appeal to more than it might deter.
Also, one of her kids is infantry in the military–McCain has military experience, but it still shores up the ticket’s military laurels.
Butts will be kicked, names will be taken
Former Knox GOP Chair Brian Hornback doesn’t care for Barack Obama smooching another man’s wife.
Fairly common these days we see politicians give a peck on the cheek, but how often do you see one right on the kisser? I always run into those situations where two people’s paths cross, and both end up trying to go to the same side, then the other side, and they end up sort of dancing. I wonder if it was one of those, but with faces.
Or, is it part of an insidious plan to kiss the spouse of all his former political rivals? Bill Clinton should look out.
That being said, thank heavens he didn’t give Jill Biden the fist bump. That’s just a bit too much intimacy.
Manufacturing a controversy?
Randy Neal senses the press may be exaggerating a possible divide over the Obama nomination. Randy’s in Denver at the convention and said Tennessee went 51 to 32 for Obama.
Feelings among the general population of voters may, of course, vary. The media seems to do a fine job of finding the few dissenters and making it all about the controversy.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. Current notions of press balance often have reporters identifying two sides of an issue and giving them equal time, regardless of the number of people on the two sides and of the level of factual evidence supporting a side’s position. (This, in addition to the likelihood of creating a false dichotomy when there are more often a range of positions.)
There’s also just plain the possibility that a divide makes a better story and “fits the narrative.”
What do you think?
The other Joe: Don’t pick me
Robert Novak reports Joe Lieberman is sending word through go-betweens that John McCain should not pick him for a running mate, sensing it would be a disaster in shoring up GOP support.
However, the McCain camp’s spirit of transcending the party line ain’t dead:
The Republican operative who urged Lieberman to dissuade McCain from picking him believes that there is still a very useful role for the maverick Democrat in this campaign: as McCain’s secretary of state. While an announcement in St. Paul of Lieberman as vice president would bring groans from the assembled Republicans, placing him at the State Department would evoke a standing ovation.
I’d like to take myself out of consideration for the vice presidency as well, but if Secretary of the Interior or somesuch is just lying around, gimme a call.
What are your thoughts on McCain’s VP pick? Should he go for an attention getter or what’s more likely to be viewed as a safe choice?
Oh mercy, it’s still going
So. Have you seen the dustup over on the Founder’s new digs? (We’ll consider this the official greeting to the Founder’s new gig, too–this webmonkey tends to procrastinate, as you’ve well noticed. Welcome!)
The comments are still going, days later.
Time for a confession. I…was a teenage boy. This decade, even!
It seems Katie’s post about teenage boys not being so bright stirred a hornet’s nest of gents who feel teenage boys are wilting violets whose honor needs defending (by launching into histrionics typical of the negative stereotypes of the opposite gender, no less!)
Here’s my take. If Katie is guilty of anything in the post, it’s hyperbole by means of simplification.
Is it fair to say teenage boys are idiots? Perhaps not in the grand scheme of society. In terms of various forms of raw intelligence, teenage boys can be quite bright.
Do teenage boys have a poorer capacity for decision-making than the men they’ll grow into? Without question. (With the exception of those who fail to grow beyond that box. See above.)
When I think of some of the decisions I made as a teen, I’m lucky to have made it through relatively unscathed. Teenage boys, as I was, aren’t all that great at assessing incentives and risks. It has a negative effect on decision making.
Pretending teens are adults and have adult decision-making capacities does them no favors. We might like cookie dough, but we don’t call it cookies. It’s not done yet. An appropriate approach for teens respects them as people and respects their growing independence without pretending that they have the judgment they’ll have as adults.
–Jake.
Meeting notice re: Ragsdale investigation
John Gill, with office of the Knox County District Attorney General, has called a meeting set for 3 today to discuss the investigation of Mayor Mike Ragsdale’s office.
Several commissioners have been invited. No word yet on whether it will be public meeting.
Addressing a rumor…
Over on the other dotcom, a commenter made a blog post asking the following:
What a terrible tragedy with the Central High School shooting today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the shooting victims family and to all students and faculty. I have heard from various people today that a rape happened at Halls High School. Is this a fact or another rumor?
I talked to Halls Principal Mark Duff this morning. He’s interested in dispelling this rumor. Duff said he has “no evidence whatsoever” that the rumored incident occurred. He’s talked with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office about it, and he said they don’t have any evidence such a thing occurred.
(The intent here is not to give this rumor a higher profile than it might have already had but to keep it from taking on a bigger life of its own in the rumor mill.)
So, the official word is–rumor.
Jake.
Update–confirmed: student killed in shooting at school.
Knoxville Police have confirmed the victim of this morning’s shooting has died from his wounds.
One of our producers said she just heard Commissioner R. Larry Smith on the Hallerin Hill show, saying he’d been at the command center and heard the student hit in the school shooting had died. We have not yet independently confirmed; are working….
Where Central High parents should go…
And now, our reporter on the scene at Central Baptist said parents there have been cleared to return to the school.
We’ve received some calls into the newsroom that radio is reporting that law enforcement is telling students not to go to Central Baptist but instead to go to Central High School.
According to KPD PIO Darrell DeBusk, that ain’t so. Dunno where the wires are crossed, but the best information we have at this time is that parents should go to Central Baptist at Broadway and Gresham.
UPDATE: Shooting at Central High School…
Parents are being sent to Central Baptist Church in Fountain City. (688-2421)
One student has been hit, taken to UT Medical Ctr, no word on condition at this point.
Suspect in custody, a short distance away, about 6 minutes after shooting.
School canceled for the day. Students who need to meet up with parents will be taken to Central Baptist via bus. Classrooms still locked down; to be released one at a time.
Students driving will be checked, then sent.
Parents of Central High students should congregate at Central Baptist in Fountain City, at Broadway and Gresham. That’s where authorities are asking them to gather.
Suspect is now in custody.
KFD confirms shooting just after 8 at Central High School.
No word yet of any injuries.
Keep these folks in your prayers.
One of our photogs witnessed them taking someone into custody, no word at this point whether that person is a suspect.
–Jake.
