ear (2005-42)

White Takes Up Tacos

For Adults Only

Bible Belt, Shmible Belt

Candidate Stalker

Stompin’ Ground

Passing Gas

Bug in Our Ear

White Takes Up Tacos

“I want to do for Mexican food what I think Nama did for sushi,” he says. “No barriers, non-intimidating, great food.”

For Adults Only

Sandra Lea , who wrote the book Whirlwind chronicling the rise and fall of Jake and C.H. Butcher’s banking empire, is working on a book about the sex industry in Knoxville. It is an outgrowth of her earlier book in which she says her research revealed C.H. Butcher Jr.’s involvement with the trade. In an article in a Clinton newspaper, Lea recently wrote that Burch moved to Knoxville from Atlanta and that he owned a building he rented to an Atlanta porn king named Michael Morrison to open a Knoxville adult book store, the Inserection Adult Fantasy Store on Broadway.

Burch replied to Lea’s inquiries with an e-mail pointing out that he sold the building. Lea contends he conveyed it a little over a year ago to Simon Cote , a vice president of Terminus Real Estate, Burch’s company. Burch says Cote is “no longer associated with Terminus Real Estate in any capacity” and that “this whole thing is a bunch of baloney.”

Lea has a radio program called Tennessee Confidential , on AM1180, on Saturdays from 9-10 a.m. and writes for The Eye of the Fire , an alternative newspaper in Clinton published by J. Philip Harber , whose primary purpose is sticking it to Clinton city government.

Bible Belt, Shmible Belt

Not surprisingly, a handful of Bible Belt representatives showed up to protest. The first to arrive was Carolyn Groff , whose 26-year-old son Russell died last November of AIDS. Groff blames the “destructive gay lifestyle” for the death of her son, an aspiring playwright. “He wasn’t like that until he got involved in the theater group at Maryville College,” she explains. Six or seven members of Bible Baptist Church also drove in from Seymour to hold up signs and distribute pamphlets bearing the message, “God says please do not go to Hell.” With regard to homosexuality, pastor David Jeffers notes, “We know from the Bible that God has destroyed cities and nations because of this sin.”

Maybe Elgin didn’t hear those condemnations or maybe he’s just taking the high road. “There was a small but polite group of protestors,” he says. “But I don’t think any of the fears that were expressed before [regarding possible frays between activists and protestors] played out.”

Candidate Stalker

Two police officers escorted him out of the meeting.

Stompin’ Ground

Passing Gas

KUB buys natural gas year around, usually one-twelfth of its supply every month. Unlike gas stations, the utility does not raise the price of its stored gasoline when the market goes up. The utility sells the gas pegged to its cost when purchased. So gas purchased during the past summer can be sold this winter at less than the surging national price. If the utility can get through the winter and defer buying more gas until demand eases in the spring, the overall affect locally will be minimized.

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