Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Term-inology

Former 2nd District City Councilwoman Jean Teague's name will be on the ballot as a candidate for an at-large City Council seat in the next city election. Or maybe not. The anti-annexation group Citizens for Home Rule lost the first round, but will shortly be heading to court to challenge the legitimacy of Teague's candidacy. Teague held office for 28 years, but her tenure ended when a new term limits law forced her out of office two years ago. She plans to run for an at-large seat in this year's elections. CHR argues that the City Charter means what it says when it declares, "No person shall be eligible to serve in any elected office authorized or created by the charter of the City of Knoxville if during the previous two (2) terms of that office, the person in question has served more than a single term..." Teague argues that the Charter provisions don't apply to her since she is running for a different seat this time around. But she didn't have to make the argument to score a victory when the Election Commission, relying on a precedent set 24 years ago by a case involving Victor Ashe, voted Tuesday that they must place the name of Teague—or any candidate who submits a legally valid qualifying petition—on the ballot. The battle is just beginning, say CHR officials. Two city-dwelling CHR members say they will file the suit.

Minits of the Liberry Bord

Until Tuesday night, the emergency measures put in place to ensure that East Tennessee's largest public-library system would have a competent director seemed to be working. After a months-long process, professionally conducted, the committee chose L.J. (Larry) Frank, of Chicago, a man with 21 years of public-library experience, excellent recommendations, and two masters' degrees.

The Library Board has been maligned as incompetent and more or less out to lunch for over a year now. Maybe they were smarting about that Tuesday night, when, given the chance to approve Frank and get the whole sorry mess over with, they didn't all show up, and a majority of those who did abstained. Under search committee chair Steve Roberts' questioning, the board members were vague about what motivated their abstentions.

By state legislation, County Mayor (will we ever get used to calling him that?) Mike Ragsdale will soon—no one knows just how soon—take over the board's responsibilities for the library. It may be a chance for Ragsdale, who's still an unknown quantity to most librarians and library supporters, to show he's a good guy and confirm Frank on his own. As far as we know, the next conspiracy theory will be that Ragsdale orchestrated the board's latest fumble to prove that he deserves the administrative powers once reserved for the board.

Nippit In the Bud

According to the Birmingham Business Journal, Knoxville is soon to have a new entry in its long-beleaguered apparel industry. A company called Nippits, Inc., manufactures special adhesive tape that helps fashionable ladies in thin dresses conceal their nipples from unwanted detection. The Nippit� has reportedly already been worn by some of the most fabulously breasted women of Hollywood, including Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, and Angelina Jolie, and by Carrie-Anne Moss in the new sequels to The Matrix. Developer Sheila Johnson, a Birmingham entrepreneur and former model, and her physician husband Kraig Johnson have reportedly bought "manufacturing capacity at a factory in Knoxville, Tenn." They have sold more than 300,000 of the accessories at $5-10 per five-pair pack.