Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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No WMDs?

The murder-suicide that left a Loudon County deputy and a troubled teen-age boy dead also left many questions unanswered. The first question was why the boy’s family had such a huge “arsenal” of firearms in the house. Another is why we thought they had such an arsenal, considering that they didn’t.

The rumors that 16-year-old Michael Harvey had access to an “arsenal” were widespread all weekend, disseminated in the national media. The rumors contributed to the evacuation of neighborhoods and the stopping of river traffic in the vicinity. The Loudon County Sheriff’s office is investigating how the exaggerations got started.

We don’t know for certain who started the rumors, but most of us heard it first directly from Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison. At a time when the house was surrounded by a reported 100 law-enforcment agents, Hutchison was on camera Friday, on more than one local news program, and was quoted in the daily newspaper Saturday, saying Michael Harvey had as many firearms “inside the house as we have outside the house.”

Investigators were reportedly surprised to find only five firearms in the home; among them, besides the assault rifle believed to have killed Deputy Jason Scott, were a shotgun and a pistol.

A Man about a Dog?

A rumored political feud between a couple of well-known Republican stalwarts is to be nothing more than a practical joke gone awry, says deputy Jay Witt, whose influential family has long been active in the GOP.

Talk is that Witt and his cousin, County Commissioner Scott (“Scoobie”) Moore, got crossways with each other, and that Witt’s branch of the family was out looking for an opponent for Moore come next election. The rumor evidently began back during the holidays when the exasperated Witt shocked a bunch of onlookers when he up and kicked the crap out of Moore at a West Knox Republican Club Christmas gala. Witnesses said Witt became angry enough to give Moore a swift kick in his lower anatomy after Witt took a call on his cell phone.

Further investigation indicates that Witt suspected Moore of having placed an ad containing said cell phone number in a local bargain hunter’s guide. The ad announced the giveaway—just in time for Christmas—of a litter of purebred German Shepherd puppies.

Witt confirms parts of the story, but emphatically denies that he is out to unseat Moore. “I got 300 calls because of that ad,” Witt says. “And because Scoobie and I’ve been playing tricks on each other for years, I told him ‘If I find out you did that, I’ll kick your ass.’ Well, I got another call about those dogs while he was standing there, and it went on from there....”

When the story reached the ears of Sheriff Tim Hutchison, Witt found himself summoned before Internal Affairs. “I was accused of assaulting a county commissioner,” Witt said. “The whole thing went way overboard.” He says it’s time to let doggone bygones be bygones, even though he still has his suspicions: “Lord, no, I am not looking for somebody to run against Scoobie. And he denies he [placed the ad], even though I got three people who say he did. But I believe when a joke lands me in Internal Affairs, it’s gone too far.”

Speaking of Dogs

What will Rep. Bill Dunn go after next: Moonpies and R.C. Colas? Tying junebugs to strings? The Knoxville Republican’s bill to ban the state’s dogs from riding in the backs of pickup trucks made the Congressional Quarterly’s online newsletter recently. Here’s what CQ said:

“The dog days of summer just might be getting even doggier for Tennessee canines who love open-air touring, as the traditional practice of leaving dogs unrestrained in the back of a pickup may be falling by the wayside. ...A state legislative committee is expected to hear testimony [this] week...in support of a bill that would require an animal to be either tethered or caged while riding in the open area of a motor vehicle...Dunn, the bill’s sponsor, cited a 1988 study by the Massachusetts Society for Protection of Animals that found 141 vets had treated 592 dogs that fell from truck beds that year. Opponents say Dunn’s bill is well-intentioned but transporting one’s dog should be a matter of personal choice....”

That last sentence represents an interesting word selection, since nobody has ever accused Dunn of being pro-choice.

Public-Private Partners

The Niswonger Foundation, whose multi-million-dollar efforts to improve educational opportunities in some of East Tennessee’s poorest public school districts were chronicled in Metro Pulse two years ago, has taken over the state’s Teacher of the Year honors program. Philanthropist Scott Niswonger, the Greeneville trucking and freight-forwarding magnate, says the Tennessee Department of Education agreed to his sole sponsorship of the awards this year, with foundation-provided cash awards of $5,000 to the top honorees in each of the state’s three grand divisions and $1,000 prizes to first and second runners-up to each. In return, the foundation gains more input into the criteria for selection, including more emphasis on their professional development, their mentoring of younger teachers, their students’ achievement and their communication skills.