The Knoxville Homeless Collective plans a march downtown tomorrow to deliver a letter to Mayor Madeline Rogero, protesting “harassment and constant eviction by the Knoxville Police Department.” On its Facebook page, the grassroots group of homeless and recently-homeless accuse Rogero of allowing the police to criminalize the homeless, push private property owners to evict them, and then destroy or sell their possessions. They’ll be meeting at the corner of Broadway and Depot Avenue at noon.
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The Knoxville chapter of Black Lives Matter is calling on its members to “pack the courtroom” at the Thursday sentencing of Dennis Lowry, who was convicted of theft and faces a long prison term because of a law that increases penalties for crimes committed by gang members. The law was struck down this year by an appellate court, but Knox County prosecutors have not abandoned its use.
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Baseball could hardly being stirring up more controversy in the Knoxville area if Randy Boyd had knocked one right through the Sunsphere glass. His purchase of a huge parcel in the Old City, and subsequent revelations about how long he’s been talking to Knoxville officials about moving his Tennessee Smokies baseball team back from Kodak, have Knoxville boosters excitedly connecting the dots, but they’ve also raised questions about how his plans might interfere with his job as state Commissioner of Economic and Community Development.
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Insurance woes drove Ijams off an unexpected cliff this week: The nature center closed Knoxville’s only outdoor rock climbing area, the Crag, which had been created through thousands of hours of volunteer effort from local climbers.
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The News Sentinel made some history (perhaps dubious for its tardiness) by hiring a woman to cover Vols football for the first time ever, then wrote about it. Shocking!
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Also on media watch: Jamie Satterfield at the News Sentinel continues to uncover endless victimization of the poor in rural courts. Judge Amanda Sammons of Campbell County is finally indicted, so the focus turns to Scott County, where defendants facing minor charges are ordered to wear electronic ankle monitors and jailed if they can’t pay fees to a private company for the privilege.
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In the latest gut-punch to the UT Pride Center, the vandalism of one of its flags brought the victim a university reprimand for displaying flags on the building in violation of a minimally- enforced campus rule.
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NARAL Pro-Choice America, which last month launched an effort to strengthen local abortion rights groups in Tennessee, is hoping an ad campaign related to mosquitos will bite Republican Sen. Bob Corker in the butt. The advocacy group’s ad (get ready for some major capitalization on current events) links the threat of zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause major birth defects, with Corker’s opposition to abortion access. (The message is: Women who get pregnant during a public health crisis deserve a full range of options, including abortion—and Corker should apparently come empty standing water from your bird bath.)
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In other animal health scare news, if you haven’t vaccinated your neighborhood raccoons for rabies lately, the state of Tennessee and the feds are on it. Fishmeal-coated “vaccine packets” (yum!) are getting dropped by airplane and helicopter in a 20-county area along the state’s borders next week, as part of a 15-year program (!) to fight rabies in the wild so it doesn’t get transferred to humans. Don’t take the bait!
S. Heather Duncan has won numerous awards for her feature writing and coverage of the environment, government, education, business and local history during her 15-year reporting career. Originally from Western North Carolina, Heather has worked for Radio Free Europe, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London, and several daily newspapers. Heather spent almost a dozen years at The Telegraph in Macon, Ga., where she spent most of her time covering the environment or writing project-investigations that provoked changes such as new laws related to day care and the protection of environmentally-sensitive lands. You can reach Heather at heather@knoxmercury.com
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