Dark Bilious Vapors

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Feb. 4: The court rules in the Sen. John Ford support case, upping the Senator's support to $1,900/month. An appeal will "certainly" follow. Later in the week the Senator addressed leaders of the Tennessee NAACP, blaming "the white media" for his problems, and asking the NAACP leaders to issue a statement in his defense. The NAACP leaders reportedly sidestepped the request. Meanwhile, in the Memphis blogosphere, Mike Hollihan and The Pesky Fly give us a little point-counterpoint on the issue (as well as on a column by Commercial Appeal columnist Wendi Thomas). Make sure you catch Pesky's second post reacting specifically to Mike's position (if you're interested); as of yet Mike doesn't have a response to Pesky, but we'll link to any response if Mike posts one in the next couple days. UPDATE: Mike's got a two part reply in the comments to Pesky's second post (note, that's two separate links in the preceding sentence there). And in the lovely and wonderful way of the blogosphere, Pesky has two responses of his own shooting back. More as developments warrant. :-)

A walker in Overton Park found a decomposed body near the park's golf course. Abby, who lives near the scene, blogged about it; you can find a precis and links to all her posts on the incident here.

Feb.5: The birth parents of Anna Mae, subject of a hotly contested child custody case, are appealing the court decision terminating their parental rights.

Feb. 6: The Memphis City Court Clerk thinks that extending the one year statute of limitations on collecting parking ticket fines is perfectly fair. Unfortunately (at least for him; fortunately for Memphis parking scofflaws), the Shelby County legislative delegation isn't cooperating with him.

Feb. 9: Meanwhile, testimony began in the trial of former Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith, as police officers testified as to the bizzare discovery of Smith, bound with barbed wire and attached to a bomb, on June 2, 2002.

Mayor Herenton pushes school consolidation hard; the next day he claims (though some sources have characterized his demeanor as "joking") that he will resign his office if consolidation of metropolitan government services takes place.

The Shelby County DA has ordered assault charges dropped against a pair who caught the victim attempting to break in to a local residence and "roughed him up".

Feb. 10: Just about a week after the Memphis Flyer publishes a cover story on earthquake preparedness in the area, a magnitude 4-4.2 (depending on sources) earthquake hits the area at approximately 8:05 AM local time. The epicenter of the quake was in Northeastern Arkansas approximately 47 miles northwest of Memphis. I congratulate our friends at the Flyer for their timing; they couldn't have timed this one better if they'd planned it that way.

Meanwhile, in the O.C. Smith trial witnesses questioned the extent of Smith's injuries, which were apparently not consistent with his description of what happened to him prior to his discovery on June 2, 2002. And the state GOP's request for an inquiry into the legal residency of Tennessee State Senator John Ford was delayed because state GOP chairman Bob Davis failed to swear his complaint letter to the Senate Ethics committee before a notary public, as required by Senate Ethics Committee rules.

Len on 02.10.05 @ 10:14 PM CST