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Doing Good
News-Sentinel editor Jack McElroy probably figured he was in good shape Monday when he left his office for an appointment to moderate a Media Day panel for Community Leadership (a Leadership Knoxville program for non-profits sometimes known as "Do-gooder Leadership"). He got to the Luke Ross Center with time to spare. Only thing wrong was there was nobody there. He returned to his office—which was a good thing, since the Leadership meeting was at the new News-Sentinel building, and the panel he was supposed to lead had convened without him.
McElroy made a graceful save, telling everyone present that "I've heard that the best moderator is one who lets the panel run itself—so I feel like I've done the right thing."
Speaking of the News-Sentinel: On Jan. 29, the paper's top brass is hosting a party to show off its spiffy new building to big cheeses like the mayor, chamber head, etc. The party is taking place in the newsroom between five and eight p.m.—right when most reporters will be working on deadline. It will feature mixed drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and a musical quartet. No word yet on whether reporters, who aren't allowed to drink alcohol or eat hot foods at their desk, will be able to take part.
Staying Put
There is a hot rumor making the rounds that City Council member Mark Brown is about to run for city judge (a job made more attractive in the past year by a Council vote to give the judge a pay raise). The position is now occupied by John Rosson, for whom Mayor Victor Ashe makes no secret of his disdain.
Anyhow, Brown says he positively, absolutely is not considering making a run for this position, although he acknowledges that anyone who knows him knows of his long-standing ambition to be a judge some day.
"I am happy as a councilman, and I hope the people are happy with me," says Brown, who believes that running for the job would require him to resign from Council.
Brown is on the periphery of another rumor. His sister-in-law Diedre Stewart is a finalist for Election Commission registrar, and is believed by many to be the favorite for the job. Stewart is now an administrative assistant to the president of Hood Theological Seminary. Brown, a former election commissioner, says Stewart is an organizational whiz who pays attention to details and has a resume that speaks for itself.
"This is not a case where I am pulling strings to try and get her something. I think she will do real well on her own."
Back In Session?
It's been a while since the old federal courtroom in the post-office building on Main Street has seen a big crowd. But Tuesday morning, over 100 showed up in the small but elegant second-floor courtroom. The cameras were rolling. The courtroom was, for a day, a movie set.
The shoot was not Oliver Stone's revisionist reenactment of the Butcher banking-scandal trials, but a UT Department of Theatre project. The plot, interestingly enough, involves "an overzealous developer who wants to tear down historic property in a small Tennessee downtown area to build a super-mall." The post office building itself has been the subject of some zealous development proposals in the last year or two, but fortunately they don't involve tearing it down.
The film is mainly an ambitious class project. No one was getting paid. But there were hints, as there always are, that it may have further potential. The director was the drama class's teacher: one David Keith, who is said to have been a big-shot actor, himself.
January 9, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 2
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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