Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Animal Husbandry

Beleaguered KUB officials, weary of wading through the doo-doo being shoveled their way by Mayor Victor Ashe over overflowing sewers and exploding manholes, are probably making reams of copies of a story that ran in the Commercial Appeal April 19. Here's the poop: The story, written by reporter Tom Charlier, says that although state regulators pooh-pooh the theory, Memphis city fathers are blaming much of their water pollution problem on animal waste, not human sewage.

"In a study tracing fecal-coliform bacteria collected from South Cypress Creek in Whitehaven, analysts found 35 percent came from wild animals like deer, opossum and raccoons. Birds accounted for 24 percent, while pets were blamed for 10 percent," the story says. No word on whether KUB has ordered up excremental tests to sort through the evidence.

Fresh Beer

The Downtown Grill and Brewery opened back in December, expecting a short wait for the necessary paperwork that would allow them to begin brewing beer on the premises, hallowed as the site of Knoxville's first modern brewpub. However, Homeland Security and the restructuring of the old bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms added unanticipated delays to the licensing process. For four months, the word Brewery in the restaurant's title has seemed a melancholy appendage as the bartenders inside have been pouring kegged North Carolina imports. However, managing partner Mark Harrison and brewmaster Al Krusen announce they've been inspected and approved by the licensing authorities and expect to be pouring beer at a long-delayed grand opening in mid-May, starting with a fresh-brewed IPA and a porter.

Prince Mark

Being gossip mavens of the most responsible sort, we went straight to the source last week when we heard the rumors that Mark Cawood, the county commissioner from Karns with the prankster's reputation, was getting married. After a bit of dodging and weaving, he coughed up the name Sharon Castleberry, whom everyone but Cawood knows as Sharon Roberts ("Mark doesn't recognize my marriage," says Roberts) and said he'd known her since second grade at Karns Elementary School when she was his running mate in his first political race—"I was a prince and she was a princess." Years later, in last summer's political season to be exact, she saw one of his campaign signs on Oak Ridge Highway and decided to send him an email about a political question. They went to dinner, discovered that they were both divorced, and the rest is history—almost. Mark says he's given Sharon a "friendship ring," but Sharon just laughs.

Everyman Hall

Last week, when City Council member Steve Hall announced that he was appointing a campaign treasurer for his mayoral campaign, the News-Sentinel adorned his press release story with a mug shot...of Register of Deeds Steve Hall. A few days later, local political junkies received the latest edition of the magazine Politics and Elections, and beheld an article on the most recent Knox County sheriff's race called "Shoot-out: Tooth and Nail." The case study told the story of Democratic candidate Jim Andrews' race against Republican incumbent Tim Hutchison. Written by Andrews campaign manager Mark Harmon, the story was illustrated with a picture of Andrews and Hutchison supposedly debating. Only one thing wrong with the picture—in it, "Hutchison" is actually Steve Hall, mayoral candidate. Hall has a weekly political talk show on local access cable TV and was photographed interviewing Andrews.