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Seven Days

Wednesday, July 10
The Associated Press reports that an energy consortium is thinking of establishing a billion-dollar uranium enrichment plant near Erwin, Tenn., and reveals that a TVA contract already has 33 metric tons of blended uranium coming out of Erwin to fuel the Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama. How does all that hot stuff get from Northeast Tennessee to Brown's Ferry without being shipped through Knoxville? Uh, well...the risk is minimal, you know, minimal.

Thursday, July 11
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission recommends a 7.5 percent tuition increase for state college and university students this fall, following a 15 percent increase last year. Leading gubernatorial candidates Van Hilleary and Phil Bredesen continue to maintain there's no real state revenue problem. Well, there may not be, if Philleary Van Bredesen can keep getting the students and their parents to cough up the big bucks for the privilege of trying to get an education in Tennessee.

Friday, July 12
After fierce competition from other cities to house the world's largest pleasure boat manufacturer, Brunswick Corp. says it will move its Brunswick Boat Group headquarters to Knoxville. What the announcement does not say is that the issue was decided at the pool table—8-ball, two out of three.

Saturday, July 13
It's disclosed that Alexia "Shulie" Levison of Knoxville, the press secretary for Gov. Don Sundquist during his period of constant embattlement, has been named deputy press secretary for First Lady Laura Bush, starting next month. She may be only 28, but Shulie's earned that reprieve. It should feel like a vacation.

Tuesday, July 16
American Medical Response gave up the ghost in its struggle to wrest the local ambulance contract from the grip of Rural/Metro. AMR officials cited a lack of County Commission support. The original 17-2 Commission vote against accepting AMR's bid must have tipped them off.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
We swear it's not rigged. It's just the alignment of the stars or something. We can't explain. But last week, our friend Councilman Rob Frost was first to respond to Knoxville Found. This week it's Knoxvillian Dana West, another FOP (Friend of the Ol' 'Pulse). Every other Knoxvillian seemed to know what it was too, but she was first to identify it. The "it" in question is, of course, the frequently grafitti-ized rock (known, with startling originality, as "The Rock") on Volunteer Boulevard near Fraternity Row. In recognition of her quick-draw keyboard capabilities, Ms. West receives a point-of-purchase countertop Chick-fil-A display and matching "plush cow" ("recommended for children 4 years of age and up.") We believe Ms. West qualifies. But we recommend she "dispose of the bag" it comes in immediately, "to avoid danger of suffocation."

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

COUNTY COMMISSION
Monday, July 22
2-7 p.m.
City County Building
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular monthly meeting.

CADES COVE OPPORTUNITIES PLAN MEETING
Monday, July 22
5:30-8 p.m.
The Candy Factory
6th Floor
1060 World's Fair Park
The Park Service and the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization are holding this meeting to get public input on the plan. Go to their website for more info.

CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, July 23
7 p.m.
City County Building
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION
Wednesday, July 24
9 a.m.
City County Building
Small Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

Andrews and the Law
A string of credentials for sheriff

Jim Andrews drips confidence like a foundryman drips sweat. He is running as a Democrat for sheriff of Knox County against a veritable Republican political institution, yet he stays brimming with enthusiasm for achieving the office in the Aug. 1 election.

His campaign has raised about $140,000, and he has just concluded a round of forums he and the sheriff attended—the Chamber Partnership's last Friday, and two joint television appearances Sunday on Channels 6 and 10.

"He's running scared," says Andrews of Tim Hutchison, the three-termer looking for a fourth. "I'm going to win," he says, dark eyes gleaming beneath his shock of white hair. "I've lost 40 pounds in this race, but that's all I'm going to lose."

Where does a 56-year-old lawyer making his first run for public office get such a winning attitude? From a lifetime of involvement in law enforcement, for starters. "I was always interested in the law and law enforcement, from the time I was a kid," he says.

Andrews enlisted in the Army in 1963 right out of high school in southern Maryland. "I tried to apply for military police school, but they said I was too young," he remembers, and they sent him to the Army Security Agency to study Russian at the Defense Language Institute. He was 17.

"I was too young to be an MP, but they said I was old enough to be a spy," he says, recounting his six years in the service, where at 21 he had 90 soldiers working for him on communications intelligence problems in Cold War Berlin, 96 miles behind the then-Soviet lines. In 1968, he was called back to Germany from the National Security Agency's headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to set up an intelligence-gathering site on the German border with the former Czechoslovakia, when Russian tanks and troops were sent there to quell what amounted to an incipient anti-Soviet revolution.

Out of the army the following year, he joined the District of Columbia police force and graduated first in his 16-week training class at the D.C. Police Academy. The training gave him 12 hours of college credit in criminal justice subjects and the class rank earned him scholarship awards sufficient for 10 college courses at American University. "It jump-started my education," he says, allowing him to gain a bachelor's degree and a start on his master's degree in Administration of Justice.

He was on patrol the night in 1970 when former D.C. Police Chief Jerry Wilson assigned women to ride patrol assignments with the men. It was a success in redefining the role of police officer, he says now, "but it had to be a full-court press—education, training, management and supervision." That's the way to get things done, he says, and Chief Wilson instilled that in him.

He was assigned as a desk sergeant and later as a police academy instructor—mostly in criminal law, he says, and from there went on to the U. S. Department of Commerce as a federal agent regulating offshore fishing fleets. He ended up there as an agent in charge of training, budgets, data processing and field inspections.

He left law enforcement to work a couple of years in the oil exploration business in Kansas, but came to Knoxville in 1985 when his wife was appointed chief federal probation officer for the Eastern District of Tennessee. For a year he did volunteer work, then began a midlife hobby of hiking the Smokies and enrolled in law school at UT. He finished that degree in 1992 and went into private practice for himself, handling everything from divorces and contracts to criminal cases. He also co-authored a couple of hiking books with Ken Wise, an authority on the Smokies.

In 1994, Andrews was appointed as an administrative law judge, hearing special education disputes statewide for the state Department of Education, which he still contracts to do. That and employment law "representing workers in disputes with employers," have been his special areas of interest.

But he longs to be back in law enforcement, and says he is running for sheriff because "I have a very strong belief that it's being done incorrectly in the county."

In the middle of his eight years with the Commerce Department, Andrews took a year out to assist the Justice Department with a research project. The idea was to assess local law enforcement agencies to determine the cost-effectiveness of various specialized patrols, including helicopter, horse, stakeout and disguised units.

He says he helped develop a management model for police chiefs to use to determine cost-effectiveness of special units within their jurisdictions, "managing public money in a way that makes sense...intuition doesn't always make sense."

For example, Andrews says, Knox County's six sheriff's helicopters are the most expensive option in specialty patrol, and he says he would examine that option for effectiveness in enforcement here. "We may have a six-helicopter problem," he says. "If so, we need six helicopters. But, if we do, I'll eat your car with a knife and fork."

—Barry Henderson

Hugging Thugs
Tribe One turns a KPD epithet into a fashion statement

A couple of years ago, Chris Woodhull was talking with a Knoxville police officer about his organization, Tribe One. Founded by Woodhull and the late Councilman Danny Mayfield, Tribe One tries to steer the most troubled inner-city youth—the ones who deal drugs and are in gangs—onto a more productive path.

Woodhull wanted to know what the police thought of his organization. The officer said the group had been dubbed "hug-a-thug" by the KPD.

"I remember thinking, 'I like that.' Because they acknowledged that we were interacting with our target audience," Woodhull says. "We're not sympathizing with destructive behavior, but we do sympathize with them as people."

Today, Tribe One is trying to turn that pejorative into an enterprise. The group—which runs Boom Boom Industries—is producing T-shirts with the KPD's dismissal, "Hug-A-Thug," printed on the front.

"It was probably something initially supposed to be a negative, but we turned it around and made it a positive," says Angel Romero, a committee organizer and street soldier for the group. "We target gang members. We want the same people that the police want. They're our only competition."

The T-shirts are available now for $10 at Disc Exchange and will soon be available via the Internet, at www.tribeone.com. The group aspires far beyond the Knoxville market. They hope advertising in magazines like Vibe will get national attention and put them in league with FUBU clothing.

Although not many have been printed yet, the T-shirts so far appear to be a hit. Romero wore one when she visited her probation officer—he thought it was hilarious and wanted one for himself. Some police officers have also said they like the shirt.

The "Hug-A-Thug" shirts are just one of many T-shirts that Boom Boom Industries hopes to produce.

People involved in illegal businesses—namely, drug dealing—already have a lot of the business and management skills needed to run legit businesses, Woodhull says. Tribe One's philosophy has been to tap into those skills in ways that will benefit the community.

"The basic idea was that inner city areas already had leadership within them—the gang leaders on the corner. So we decided to work on engaging them in critical thinking about their own lives and their communities," Woodhull says. "If [the gang member] could use his entrepreneurial skills on something that's not destructive, that would be a major power move."

So what does the KPD think of the slogan it spawned?

"I think a better slogan would be 'hug a victim, hold a thug accountable.' Often times the victims are forgotten," says KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk. The KPD is involved with its own programs to help convicted criminals reform, DeBusk says, pointing to the Knoxville Public Safety Collaborative, a program targeting paroled criminals.

What does DeBusk think of Tribe One's mission? "Any program out there that's trying to help people get their life back together is good. I just think that sometimes the victims get forgotten."

—Joe Tarr