News - Friday, December 30, 2011

Legal Aid of East Tennessee is partnering with Erlanger Health System to create the Erlanger Health Law Partnership. The program will provide free legal services to Erlanger patients whose household incomes are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

National Newspaper Association President Reed Anfinson on Dec. 14 applauded a decision by the U.S. Postal Service to put off the closings of mail sorting plants and post offices until May 15, 2012, while Congress works on sweeping postal reform legislation. “NNA is deeply concerned about the effects on newspaper delivery from the planned closings,” Anfinson said. “Because the targeted plants have been primarily in smaller communities, our 2,300 community newspaper members have been alarmed at the prospect of much longer highway trips for our mail, and thus slower delivery. Our Postal Committee has been consulting USPS on the details and anticipated effects since late last summer.”

Ann Martin’s voice is quiet as she talks about why becoming a Realtor was a good choice for her.  She says she likes helping first time buyers through the process, enjoys the ability to set her own hours, and appreciates how each day is different.  If any of her clients suspect Realtors are simply out to strike a fast deal, her relaxed cadence would go a long way toward setting them at ease.

“There is no fate but what we make.” Spray-painted in fuzzy white letters in a corner on the back of the old East Lake Elementary School, these words read like a challenge to a community that’s seen better days. Built in the 1930s, the school has stood empty for several years.  In some ways, its shattered windows, particle board barriers and dilapidated playground mirror the community around it. But the people who make up a nonprofit endeavor called OPEN in East Lake see potential for greatness not only in the building but also in the people who live nearby. With this in mind, the group hopes to buy the building from Hamilton County and turn it into “a neighborhood empowerment hub,” as board member Bob Sloan says below.

Home sales down from last month, but outperform 2010. The local real estate market witnessed a decrease in month-over-month performance, according to statistics released by the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors. In November of this year, Southeast Tennessee and the Northwest Georgia area saw the sale of 398 residential units, a 5 percent decrease compared to the previous month’s sales.

I love going to the movies. Although I appreciate the convenience of On Demand and regularly stream rentals on my PC, nothing can top the experience of walking into an elegantly designed theater, smelling freshly popped popcorn, waiting for the lights to dim, and being engulfed by images and sounds that are larger than life. To me, going to the movies is a big deal.

An email scam using the Better Business Bureau’s name and logo continues to proliferate across North America. Most of the emails carry the famous BBB torch logo and come with the subject line “Complaint from your customers.” The emails have a link or an attachment containing malicious phishing malware that steals information, often with devastating results.

Now through Jan. 1 – EPB holiday window displays: A Chattanooga tradition continues with the animated holiday windows at EPB. View animated displays from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. at 10 West MLK Boulevard. Now through Jan. 1 – Hiking and caving adventures at Cloudland Canyon: G3 Adventures and Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia will host hiking and caving adventures through New Year’s Day. Activities will include half-day and all-day hikes, and introductory and wild caving adventures. For additional details, call 706-657-4050.

What was happening in Chattanooga in 1961 and 1962? Saturday, Dec. 30. Three to four inches of snow covered Lookout and Signal Mountains Thursday. The snowfall in Chattanooga measured 1.8 inches, making driving hazardous. County offices closed Saturday for three days New Year's holiday.

It is calm and quiet in my little cubicle on the 23rd floor. Many of the lawyers have fled the Levison Towers for their homelands. Those with young children have wrestled kid, caboodle, and electronic whatsit into minivans. Young associates are off to get a decent meal at mom’s and eat without worrying (at least momentarily) about lost billing opportunities while they chew. They’ve all left behind cases, clients, and Christmas decorations.

It has been about a year since you were last thinking about all the good things you were going to do in the upcoming 12 months. As usual, you had high hopes for the year ahead of you, and I recall that you actually blew all of your resolutions within the first ten days of the new year. That is not to say you had a bad year overall, only that you certainly did not live up to your potential. Luckily, your relatively weak showing over the last 365 days will allow you the opportunity to make a good showing in 2012 without an enormous amount of effort.

It has been about a year since you were last thinking about all the good things you were going to do in the upcoming 12 months. As usual, you had high hopes for the year ahead of you, and I recall that you actually blew all of your resolutions within the first 10 days of the new year. That is not to say you had a bad year overall, only that you certainly did not live up to your potential. Luckily, your relatively weak showing over the last 365 days will allow you the opportunity to make a good showing in 2012 without an enormous amount of effort.

It seemed like a layup idea for the wife’s Christmas present, or a smart one rather, as in smart phone. Siri might say of it, “Well done, master.” OK, she hasn’t actually called me master yet, but maybe someday. And she’s not even actually my phone, because I only have the Siri-less iPhone 4, not the 4s like I planned to buy for Kathy for her birthday/Christmas present. When you’re born on the 18th of December, sometimes the presents tend to run together, like they did this year.

1.  Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score, or the leader, until the contest ends. 2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward? 3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

Well, Christmas is past and New Year's Day is upon us. That's a whole lot of partying going on. However, if (unlike me) you find yourself still longing for a reason to have yet another party, I have found a solution to your problem. Have a food party! Did you know that there is a food honored just about every day of the year? Seriously. The answer to your dilemma is to celebrate the day based on the National Food Holiday.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” is easily the most entertaining movie of 2011.  And if you take each movie premiered during the year, and weigh what the people who made it set out to do against how well they accomplished their goals, regardless of genre, it could also be the best release of 2011.  Yes, it’s that good.

00+: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith”  By Sonia Arrison c.2011, Basic Books $25.99 / $30.00 Canada 251 pages, includes notes.   Every year, there’s another candle. You remember a time when you got excited about it. Another flame on your birthday cake meant that you were getting big, growing up, not a baby anymore. Each candle was one year closer to Big Kid status.

I must say I was taught the value of work, and becoming a contributing member of the family at a very early age, due to the fact that I had my upbringing on a farm in Tennessee. A child growing up on a farm soon learns that there is work to be done most all the time, and everyone who puts their feet under the kitchen table is usually required to help out in some way. It may involve only turning the water on for the cows to drink or seeing that the feed buckets are filled at the end of the day, but even the smallest members of farm families soon are taught responsibility and how to work. At least that is the way it used to be. But, if our federal Department of Labor enforces some newly proposed restrictions, big government may be telling farm families how they can raise their families and when children are ready to learn how to work.

Temper tantrums. If you have children, you have temper tantrums. I remember one  (it was so traumatizing to me that I will never forget it) that one of my children had in a grocery store. I won’t mention names, because I don’t want any of them to hate me! This child was 2-1/2 years old and we were in the grocery store. “Tantrum” was walking contentedly by my side as I was pushing the cart, with “Peaceful” child sitting in the cart. Tantrum picked up a box of cereal and brought it to me, pleading for me to “get this one.”

My first experience with Arkansas came as a young child while visiting my grandmother in Lake Village. We made a couple of trips annually from my home in Alabama. So, when I returned home from a high school baseball game during my sophomore year and my mother sat me down to inform me we would be moving to Arkansas, I was hardly concerned. Heck, I knew every small town along the 305-mile trek, much of which crossed the Mississippi Delta. The University of Arkansas, I figured, couldn’t be far from Lake Village.

The sighting of a rare Asian “Hooded Crane” at the Hiwassee Refuge in Birchwood, Tenn., has birders from around the region visiting the area. First spotted last Tuesday at the refuge, wildlife watchers are mystified by the appearance of this bird, normally only seen in Southeast Asia, China and Japan.