Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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The Bill & Phil Show Anti-abortion rights legislator Bill Dunn got some ink in the Tennessean Sunday in connection to a brouhaha over what Gov. Phil Bredesen's going to do with a bill authorizing license tags with the message "Choose Life." The bill passed both houses of the General Assembly with substantial majorities, yet there seems to be some suspicion among Dunn's anti-abortion cohorts that Bredesen is mulling a veto. Dunn told Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez that he'd warned Bredesen that a veto would thrust unwilling Democratic lawmakers headlong into a nasty abortion fight in 2004—an election year. The lawmakers would have to decide whether to sustain the veto, creating what is certain to be a hot-button issue when Democrats who voted for the tags last session vote to sustain a Bredesen veto the following year. Dunn evidently feels quite secure about the public support for his side of this argument—despite the recent special election loss of his friend and protégé Mark Goins, a former House member and a high-profile abortion rights opponent who saw his bid for a state Senate seat turned back by a Democrat who was in trouble with the IRS.

It's Only Money

So the $6 million appropriation for the fancy botanical gardens at Lakeshore Park is a done deal? Not necessarily.

Even though City Council, by a 5-4 vote, approved the 2003-'04 budget with the $6 million intact, the money for the park was not included in the city's Capital Improvement Plan, which means that it must go back to the Metropolitan Planning Commission for approval, and then return to City Council, where a two-thirds vote will be required. That translates into six votes, which, at this point, are not there.

Mayor Victor Ashe, whose homeboys Tom McAdams and Caesar Stair are the leading proponents of the botanical-garden deal, hinted at his park-pushing strategy at Tuesday's Council meeting, when he kept mentioning the Lakeshore Park scheme in the same breath with other capital improvement projects, such as the Tennessee Theatre and a newly-acquired park in South Knoxville.

Watch for Ashe to bundle all these projects into one agenda item, requiring one vote, thereby requiring Council members to kill all the projects if they vote against Lakeshore Gardens.

Just a Good Ol' Girl The regulars at Toddy's Back Door Tavern got a big surprise Saturday night when country music star Deana Carter strolled in and started pouring cold ones. Carter, who was fresh off her Neyland Stadium gig as one of the acts in the Kenny Chesney concert, worked at the Back Door back in the day when she was a UT student, and the boys in the backroom were delighted to see her. She got high marks for her down-to-earth manner and her willingness to sign autographs. Who says you can't go home again?

$niff for $cratch

A breath of fresh air is no longer out of the question, despite recent reports of the city's pollution ranking. Where Buds 'N' Suds once stood at 2114 Cumberland Ave., O2 Airheadz, Knoxville's first oxygen bar opened this week. Gaining prominence in the 1990s, oxygen bars boast great health benefits—that is if customers are up to paying $1 a minute to stick plastic tubes (cannulas) up their nostrils. This trendy practice is said to alleviate stress, increase energy and alertness, decrease debilitating hangovers and reduce sinus problems, among other things. At O2 Airheadz the aroma choices are many, but owners Derek Winters and Sonya Eldridge will gladly let you sniff around before choosing.