News - Friday, November 30, 2012

Attorney James Fields seems to have a quick joke for early everything. Take, for example, his age. Having just turned 58, Fields makes a crack about the health issues he’s overcome, including quintuple bypass surgery in January of this year.  “The really bad year was 40. That was when my warranty ran out,” he says, a smile spreading across his face.

The struggling economy is still squeezing court system budgets across the country, and scaling back operations won’t fix the growing gap between reduced court services and growing public demand for court access. So state courts are turning to other solutions, according to a gathering of state chief justices, court administrators and legislators in Washington D.C. on November 15.

Shelby R. Grubbs has been appointed to the International Business Advisory Board of The University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. Founded in 1992, the Board has been comprised of business and campus leaders bound by a commitment to assisting the College of Commerce in furthering its international initiatives. Culverhouse College is recognized as a premier business school in the state and one of the leading programs in the Southeast and nationally.

Jerry H. Summers and the law firm of Summers & Wyatt announced last week that Jimmy F. Rodgers, Jr., has been named to the “Mid-South Super Lawyers” list as one of the top attorneys in Tennessee for 2012. Super Lawyers selects no more than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state.

A ribbon cutting was held on November 20 in celebration of Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter’s new designation as a Parents As Tender Healers (PATH) training facility for Southeast Tennessee. As a result of a $25,000 donation from Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel for facility renovations earlier this year, the state of Tennessee awarded Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter a PATH contract to train foster parents throughout the region. Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter aims to preserve family unity and to help prevent the dependency, neglect, abuse and delinquency of children by responding to the community’s childcare needs. The organization operates an early childhood education and child care program that provides care for children while their parents work or attend school. In addition, the Chambliss Shelter serves as a safe haven for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, abandonment, neglect, or for those coming out of the Juvenile Court System. Today, the Chambliss Shelter not only provides for these children, but also recruits and trains foster families, so that children may be cared for in a home environment. For 125 years, Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel has served as counsel for regional, national and international businesses, financial institutions, local governments and nonprofit organizations. (Photo provided)

The Tennessee legal community is mourning the loss today of Chancellor Billy Joe White, who died November 20, 2012 after a short illness.

“Chancellor Billy Joe White served the state in the great tradition of country judges – full of common sense, wise counsel and fair dealing. While his many friends among the bench and bar mourn his loss, we also cherish our memories of this good man.  The prayers of the entire judiciary go out to the family and the people of his district,” said Chief Justice Gary R. Wade. 

The Young Lawyers Division of the TBA and the Young Lawyers Division of the CBA invite all young lawyers to a night of eating, drinking and merrymaking on Thursday, December 6 beginning at 6 p.m. on the Delta Queen.

With the help of Green Form Construction, the Young Lawyers Divisions of both the TBA and CBA have teamed up to construct a children’s area complete with bookshelves at the Juvenile Court located at 1600 East Third Street in Chattanooga.  

[Note: All I want for Christmas is for you to like my new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/viewcheapseats. Thanks!]

I like to eat breakfast. I have a habit of getting on one particular breakfast food and staying with it for a while. Eventually, I will try something else, and that will be the food of choice for starting off the day. Because Sonic is right down the road from my office and easily accessible, that is the source of my breakfast food most days during the week.  

Most customers who visit local Christmas tree farms in the coming weeks won’t notice, but growers without irrigation this summer saw significant losses in seedlings planted over the 2011-2012 fall and winter.

According to Kyle Holmberg, marketing specialist with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, some growers reported new seedling losses up to 80 percent. Losses of mature trees ran between 10 and 20 percent in areas subjected to significant drought combined with excessive heat.

The Judicial Nominating Commission met in Chattanooga last week to review the 11 applicants for the Court of Appeals Eastern Section vacancy, which serves 13 judicial districts in east Tennessee. The vacancy was created by the retirement of Court of Appeals Judge Herschel P. Franks (pictured) on December 31, 2012. After holding a public hearing and interview for each applicant, the Judicial Nominating Commission has recommended the following three candidates to Governor Bill Haslam: Jerri S. Bryant, chancellor, 10th Judicial District, Athens, Tenn.; Michael A. Faulk, solo practitioner, state senator, Faulk Law Office, Church Hill, Tenn.; and Thomas Radcliffe Frierson, chancellor, 3rd Judicial District, Morristown, Tenn. For more information, visit www.tncourts.gov. Source: Judicial Nominating Commission. (Photo provided by the office of Judge Herschel P. Franks.)

In a recent newspaper article, a basketball coach is quoted: “I think our guys are champing at the bit to get back on the court.” The context was aptly suggested by the lead: “It’s been a long break between games....” The team hasn’t played in nine days. They’re eager to get back into competition. They are champing at the bit. Congrats, coach! Your usage of the phrase is perfect!

I’m getting older, and dealing with insomnia is just one of the problems with which the senior generation has difficulty; however, being unable to sleep is not limited to just one age group. People of all ages have sleep problems.

There are hundreds of medications to help aid sleep – both OTC and prescription drugs –but most of them are habit forming, even though they claim otherwise. So what if you don’t want to take a drug to help you sleep?

There are places you go to eat because you love the food. There are places you go because you love the people. Every once in a while, both happen simultaneously. For us, The Longhorn, an ancient diner near the North Shore of Chattanooga, became our first foothold on “belonging” in Chattanooga.

Something about a southern girl

Make me feel right

In a Mississippi morning

She’s an angel in flight

In a blink of an eye

She’ll be out of your sight 

November 28 is a highly celebrated day in my life. It’s not my birthday, or anniversary, although those are important. (Well, not the birthday one, unless for some reason I start getting younger).

So why is that day so important for me? It is National Chocolate Day and National French Toast Day! What could be finer? Two of my favorite foods celebrated on the same day!

The holidays can bring serious buyers. Many homeowners tend to believe the holidays could be a bad time to sell their home. But the potential buyers that are looking are most likely very serious buyers. Holiday home buyers have a different motivation, like using vacation time to scout for homes. They are doing it because they are motivated to buy rather than just wanting to buy. Also, job transferees use the holidays to house hunt because January is the biggest corporate transfer month of the year. While it’s true that the holidays can mean reduced activity for showings to buyers, don’t give up.

Under the leadership of 2012 President Mark Hite, the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors continues to focus on providing value-added services to its members and MLS Participants. As part of that ongoing effort, GCAR is partnering with Tennessee Real Estate Education Systems to provide free continuing education classes in 2013. Said classes will be held at the GCAR office at 2963 Amnicola Highway and will cover numerous topics, including but not limited to the Georgia and Tennessee contract forms, fair housing, mortgage fraud, foreclosures, short sales and property management.

Dear EarthTalk: 

What are the new nutrition standards for school lunches that have some

students boycotting their cafeterias and discarding the food?

– Melissa Makowsky, Trenton, NJ

The Critic's Corner
As precise as math; as imprecise as faith

Based on the 2001 fantasy adventure novel by Yantel Martel, “Life of Pi” follows an Indian boy nicknamed “Pi” as he explores the issues of faith and reason. The centerpiece of the film is his 227-day journey across the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat on which he and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker become stranded when the ship on which they are traveling sinks during a storm.