Running With the Big Dawg

There was hardly anywhere to park in the garage under the City County building Wednesday morning because it was crammed with sheriff's cruisers. And while it wasn't exactly the showdown at the OK Corral, it was what passes for drama at County Commission when the high sheriff came in with his posse. Finance Committee chair Frank Leuthold didn't have a striped shirt and a whistle as he attempted to referee the proceedings, but for most of an hour he labored to keep things civil as the committee agreed to void the illegal action it unwittingly took in December stripping more than $300,000 from the sheriff's budget. Sheriff Tim Hutchison, who had emphasized his point by parking the cruisers Tuesday, sparred with county finance director Kathy Hamilton, who had asked the committee to approve the transfer that law director Richard Beeler subsequently ruled violates the county charter. Several dozen uniformed deputies hissed Commissioner Bee DeSelm as she suggested funds be transferred from the penal farm and that Huchison's problems were "made-up rather than real." Hamilton defends the action as a legitimate accounting procedure aimed at saving money. Hutchison, when asked if the scene demonstrated his political clout, tartly responded that "It helps to have the law on your side."

You'll Never Park in this Town Again

Knoxville Police Department brass are majorly concerned these days with accountability. Media accountability, that is. During a recent meeting with selected representatives of various media outlets, KPD deputy chiefs Bob Coker and Jerry Day and flack Foster Arnett served notice that the department will be looking into complaints against the news media. Bad reporters could suffer the maximum penalty of having their KPD ID badges (which give them the privilege to exercise all the First Amendment rights enjoyed by any other citizen) revoked. Arnett, fresh off being reprimanded for spreading the falsehood that there was cocaine found in the late Andre Stenson's car the night of his death, will be in charge of such investigations. Perhaps he could start with Channel 10's story about County Commissioner Diane Jordan's "son" being arrested on an assault charge. When the story proved false, Channel 10's approximation of a retraction insisted it came from KPD "sources." Maybe it is a coincidence that the story about Jordan, a frequent critic of KPD policy, emerged right after the "accountability" meeting with media managers.

Mystery and Magnetism

We just knew that new book whose first chapter is called "Knoxville" would get raves in high places. Amazing Grace, David Leeming's biography of East Knoxville born-and-raised artist Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) ranked a 1,000-word review in Sunday's New York Times Book Review, headlined "Painting Shadows: The black painter Beauford Delaney was brilliant—and maybe crazy." Emphasizing Delaney's tortured life more than Leeming's book, author Mel Watkins' review calls Delaney "enigmatic, multifaceted...one of the art world's most elusive figures." Included in the review is some discussion of Delaney's Knoxville years and his mentor, artist and "local celebrity" Lloyd Branson.

A week before, the Washington Post Book World ran an even longer complimentary review, illustrated with two of Delaney's better-known paintings. Reviewer Jabari Asim remarked that "most scholars and followers of African-American art" consider Delaney "one of the most gifted men ever to wield a brush." It concludes that Delaney "must remain equal parts mystery and magnetism."

Leeming, who did much of his research in Knoxville, was at the KMA last month viewing their Delaney exhibit and signing copies of his book.