Metro Pulse

Ear to the Ground: Thomas Baer, who was narrowly defeated in a race for state representative last week, lost his son 20 years ago. He was killed at a party on the University of Tennessee campus. The Baer family spent years publicizing campus safety, and their efforts led to legislation improving security and crime statistic reporting on campuses Full story »

Ear to the Ground: The Republicans and the Democrats are holding conventions this month to select candidates for Criminal Court Clerk—at least. Some of what happens at the convention will be influenced by what happens today Full story »

Ear to the Ground: Local media scrambled on a normally quiet Sunday morning to cover the gruesome shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, but most reporters soon found some familiar faces to interview. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: They had a fund-raising auction at the Front Page Follies last weekend, and one of the items was a lunch with Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale. Lewis Cosby, the retired CPA and “citizen auditor,” was in the bidding, but lost out in the end to his friend, developer Alex Schubert Full story »

Ear to the Ground: Look for a suggestion at a Knox County Commission committee meeting next week that proposed charter amendments be put on the ballot. Confusion over the bundled items in the two charter petitions has prompted re-thinking about putting them on the ballot. There may be a proposal at the Commission Intergovernmental Committee meeting next week to offer each of the items as a separate ballot initiative and put them on the ballot for the November election. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: An examination of purchasing card receipts reveals that County Mayor Mike Ragsdale’s favorite wine is called “Stag’s Leap,” $97 a bottle at the Palm restaurant in Nashville. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: Seems someone called the estranged wife of a local politician and told her the husband had parked his car in the lot of a Broadway restaurant on a recent Thursday night and then left with one of his staffers. The wife went to the parking lot with a friend and waited. Full story »

A few locals take the time to give us their insiders' short-lists on the topics they know best. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: In the negotiations that ensued after police officers demanded local activist Bob Grimac limit his visuals to what he and fellow war protesters could carry on April 28, Grimac thought about mentioning another group that’s not similarly restricted. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: The East Tennessee History Museum is struggling to open a major permanent exhibit of local history, potentially a huge draw for downtown, since Knox County has reneged on its financial commitment. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: When The New York Times’ “36 Hours” travel piece on Knoxville hit the Internet last Friday (the print version was in Sunday’s paper), the Knox blogosphere immediately attacked the opening line: “Knoxville is often called ‘the couch’ by the people who live there.” KnoxvilleTalks, KnoxViews, No Silence Here, and denizens of KnoxBlab all wondered about (and mocked) the mysterious reference: Where’d those Yankees get that crazy idea? Full story »

Ear to the Ground: Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols has brought in a special prosecutor from Shelby County to investigate phony receipts turned up in an audit of county government, but William Bright isn’t just a prosecutor. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: General Motors executives have scheduled a June retreat at the Blackberry Farm resort in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and it has local limo companies scrambling. Seems the company needs about 40 vehicles, but they all have to be GM products—so no Lincoln Town cars and no Crown Victorias, often used as cars for hire. The vehicles of choice are likely to be Suburbans. Full story »

Ear to the Ground: Some of them are puzzling over a Security and Exchange Commission filing before the bankruptcy that indicates insiders in the company were approved for golden parachutes of up to $1 million should the company reach a point where they can’t sell their stock. (Holding stock in a bankrupt company would seem to qualify.) Full story »

Regular patrons of the Knoxville Farmers’ Market might have been surprised last Saturday to find that a private corporate event had pushed the Farmers’ Market off of Market Square and into the confines of nearby Krutch Park Full story »