After decades, a Nashville Electric Service (NES) utility pole begins to rot and tilt precariously.
Residents in one Antioch neighborhood say they complained about the pole numerous times.
When the residents on Charmaine Court don’t think NES hears their concerns, they call that is messed up.
If there is a leader of the cul de sac group, I would suggest to you, her name is Lisa Coffman.
Coffman is a energetic mother and grand mother who lives in a home right next to the leaning utility pole.
“A week ago this pole was straight,” she says.
“Now you can see it is leaning.”
I’m no utility pole expert, but the pole does seem to be something short of 90-degrees with the cul de sac.
Coffman tells me that she and her daughter and other women in the cul de sac began calling NES.
“They told me not to worry about it. When it falls it falls.”
“When it falls it falls,” I echo aloud.
I can’t imagine anyone who wants to keep their job saying something like that, I think to myself.
Coffman tells me that the pole threatens children in the neighborhood.
Coffman’s daughter is also standing with us. Charity Abrams tells me about one youngster who has lost sleep because of it.
“The little boy who sleeps in that room is scared, he thinks the pole will fall into his bedroom,” she says pointing to the house in the shadow of the pole.
These women claim they call NES for help, but those calls they say have fallen on deaf ears.
“I talked to NES 15 times,” Coffman says bluntly.
“What do they tell you?,” I ask.
“They tell me not to Worry about it till the pole falls. It makes me angry.”
Coffman’s daughter kicks the rotting pole at the base. Chunks of wood splinter onto the grass.
I relay all this information to NES spokesman Tim Hill.
I’ve known Mr. Hill a long time, and I know he takes issues like this one seriously.
Hill tells me, he spends an hour discussing this very issue with customer service.
“If they called 30 times to report a broken pole,” he says by phone. “Surely one call would get through.”
Today’s email of the day comes from a man complaining about the quality of Cannon County jails. Here is his email:
cannon county jail is put inmates are being put in harm with mold in cells staff infection hiv inmates in with other inmates plus the tenn law states no jail or judge can make a inmate do a day by day sentence a 11 29 gets good time gets out in 9 months iknow if you went up there they would not let you in to see the mold and if you would like to have a copy of the tenn law i will fax them to you plus they just transfered a in jail in winchester tn as a inmate swap that i have never heard of i am going to file a federal law suite tomorrow
Today’s email comes from a citizen who doesn’t understand why we’re building meeting facilities at the Governor’s Mansion in the middle of a budget deficit.
We are in a $8 million dollar budget defcit for the state. How much of this deficit is attributed to the Bredesen Bunker? The average taxpayer will never visit or have access to this luxury. So how many taxpayers will be affected by layoffs due to this luxury type of living. That is messed up.
That song lyric just sort of sums up the existence of Tabitha Connolly.
Ever since she was knee high to a Malibu Barbie, Connolly has been collecting the smiling figurine.
Her mother made it a point to give her Barbies for every major occasion in her life.
Birthdays and Christmas and Graduations.
Connolly had a Barbie for all of it.
Years and years of collecting, began adding up.
Over 17 years she acquired hard to find dolls, from hard to find collections.
Brunette Barbies were a specialty in her collection, Connolly tells me. They are very rare, she says.
While doing this story, Connolly shows me photos of special occasions where Barbie Dolls are figured prominently.
I see Tabitha as a grade school kid standing on a chair at her 5th birthday party. She is clutching a Barbie doll still in the bright pink box. Little Connolly is smiling.
I see more photos of Tabitha Connolly as a teenager. Again the huge smile as she proudly displays another Barbie for her collection. Again it is in the box, never to be touched by human hands.
I see photos of her getting ready for the prom. Behind her there is a procession of Barbie dolls stacked on shelves. Each doll in its own specific, hermetically sealed box.
Connolly is now 23 years old, but her inner child cries like that little girl on that 5th birthday party. That’s because her entire Barbie Doll collection is gone.
Today’s email of the day comes from a Tennessean who recently found themselves unemployed and dealing with an uncooperative state wesbite.
OK Andy,
This is messed up!!! I have been tyring to certify my unemployment claim for the past 6 plus hours. It is now 10:27 pm on Sunday night. I am supposed to certify on Sunday according to the rules and regulations of the State. However, as of 8 minutes ago, I was not able to do this. I keep getting the same error message over and over again. (Each time I report a message error.)
Please be advised that this is not the first week for this crap.
I chose to file over the net, but, when my State offers an on-line service I expect it to follow through.
That means I expect to be able at anytime on my certification day, to file my certification and not have to spend my time trying to get a less than desirable amount of money.
I have already seen the WKRN story on overload on the phone system at the unemployment division, I DO NOT GIVE A FLYING FIG.
If the State knows because of the nationwide state of affairs, and who does not, that there are people being laid off from their jobs, then you should be prepared for ANY contingency; phone or internet.
This is my third (3rd) week to deal with this, and today and night has made me MAD!
It is bad enough that at this time of year, someone is in this position, but to have this much trouble trying to claim a small percentage of your normal income is absolutely sad, sad, sad.
Thank you for any attention you may give to this subject.
I am going one last time @ 10:42 to try and certify my claim. I will be at the local office tomorrow morning, if I am not successful.
When a Spring Hill woman accesses her on line photo album, she is shocked to see her family photos replaced with pornography.
What makes it worse, the woman’s 3 year old son was “reportedly” sitting in her lap when the disturbing images materialized.
When the woman didn’t get satisfaction from her cell phone company, she calls that is Messed Up.
Julie Cockrum tells me that she has been a T*mobile customer for close to five years.
She shows me her new phone and tells me that she really enjoys it.
But the 27 year old woman is quick to tell me what she hasn’t enjoyed is the alleged poor customer service she claims she received from the telecommunications company.
I never got an apology nobody said this was a mistake. It should not have been there I was redirected and I was told I should be a better monitor what I put in front of my child,” she says.
The Spring Hill mother says it all started when she attempted to access her family photos on the t-mobile web site known as my albums. She tells me that her adorable three year old, Nolan, was in her lap.
“He is everything to me the reason I get up in the morning.”
Cockrum says she opens the photo account she has accessed countless times in the past where she says approximately fifty photos were stored.
The site was different this time she says.
“It was like you tube, I thought it was a tutorial how to do videos.”‘
Instead of loving photos of little Nolan popping up…
“I was horrified. Where did this come from? This is suppose to be a private site”
Cockrum claims a sexually explicit video begins playing involving a man in a bathroom stall.
“He said mommy, what is this man doing? It was horrible. You do what you can to protect your kids.”?
Unfortunately, little Nolan is the first to see it.
Cockrum says she is upset and calls customer service.
She says what follows is an exercise in wasted time, bad customer service and ultimate futility.
Today’s email of the day comes from a guy who has an idea on how MTSU can save money as they consider tuition hikes.
MTSU will probably have to tuition next year but they cannot even turn off the lights at the football stadium. Every night the lights at the football stadium and others on campus are on through the night. It seems like they could save alot of money in energy cost by turning off the lights.
Today’s email comes from a viewer upset that a wandering pig was shot in her neighborhood instead of picked up by its owner.
I live in the neighborhood where the 600lb pig was shot and killed. I strongly feel this is MESSED UP, I witnessed this pig calmly waling around my neighborhood. Why couldn’t they have corraled this animal into an appropriate vehicle?
That was going to be the end of it. One story. One issue.
Then I got on the phone with long time law man Billy Weeks, a cop who speaks his heart and his mind.
Weeks is the Public Safety commissioner for the city of Lebanon. He is in charge of all police and fire units in the city.
In a tone that screams “Take no prisoners,” Weeks lets me know that officers in his department don’t speed because if they do, they are reprimanded.
How is that? I query.
Because we have cameras in the cars that activate automatically at 75 miles an hour, regardless of blue lights or sirens, he says so aggressively I feel like he would slam me down on the asphalt and handcuff me if not for the fact this is a phone call.
Just exceeding 75mph activates the cameras? I ask.
They go 75 miles an hour and boom! The cameras come on he tells me.
Weeks tells me the cameras are a great investigative tool and they keep officers on the straight and narrow.
That is exactly the sentiment I get when I meet Lebanon Police officer Steve Green.
The 11 year veteran tells me that he loves the camera system for many reasons, including the fact that it automatically activates at 75 mph.
“What about big brother?,” I ask him.
“I think it makes you a better cop,” he says, his eyes scanning the streets ahead. “It makes you stay in line”
The system is sophisticated. It documents a car’s speed as well as other driving details like braking, light and siren activation; even longitude and latitude.
“We have a responsibility to drive in a safe and prudent manner,” he says.
Why couldn’t an officer who violates policy shut off the camera and back up the video I ask.
All involve tell me that the tapes are never touched by officers. The system is so high tech that as soon as a patrol car gets near the police department, the video is sent via wireless transmitter to the police department’s hard drive where it is reviewed by supervisory staff.
“From a supervisor point of view, you can look at this as performance,” Lebanon Chief Scott Bowen says.
Bowen is the long time chief of Lebanon. On this day, he is seated in front of his flat screen computer monitor where he has instantaneous access to innumerable Lebanon police videos.
“Like I said, one of the greatest liabilities we have in law enforcement is vehicle accidents. We want to look at and review these things to allow us to review our officer’s performance.”
Bowen reiterates Week’s assertion that the system is a great investigative tool. He tells me about the instant accessibility of video and automatic DVD burns for court. He tells me about a video flagging system that allows officers to go back on tape and see notated video. This is particularly useful for chases where a suspect throws out contraband on the side of the road. He tells me about the time and effort the new video system saves over the old system where supervisors literally had to pull tapes and wind them and dub them off.
But Bowen also reinforces the fact that speeding officers have been identified and reprimanded thanks to the new technology.
“When we got the system a supervisor was looking at a video there was an incident where the speed threshold was broken and the video started recording and we spoke with the officer who did not have his emergency equipment on, so the captain spoke with him.”
Weeks tells me citizens have complained in the past about speeding officers. He tells me that he has investigated such allegations, and when found to be true, he has offered John and Jane Q public the chance to sign the speeding citations themselves.
Weeks says that so many complaints poured in about speeding cops coming and going from the law enforcement training academy that he changed the color scheme of his patrol cars to black and white, so he could tell complainants; “yes that’s one of ours, or no sir, that’s another agency speeding.”
With the new system in place, Weeks says these calls are less frequent.
It seems that system reminds police officers to police themselves.
PROSECUTOR: Eric Foster Fitzgerald
DEFENDANT: Michael C. Anderson
VICTIM:
STATE OF TENNESSEE, COUNTY OF DAVIDSON
AFFIDAVIT
Animal - Sexual Activity w/an Animal
39-14-214
Persoanlly appeared before me, the undersigned, [Select one] _X_ Commission ___ Metropolitan General Sessions Judge, the prosecutor named above and made oath in due form of law that [Select one] _X_ he ___ she [Select one] ___ personally observed _X_ has probably cause to believe that the defendant named above on 11/03/2008 in Davidson County, did unlawfully engage in penile sex with a female pit bull dog and that the probable cause is as follows: The prosecution witness, James Waffird, is the owner of the dog. On the date in question he and Mr. Taylor started looking for Mr. Waffird’s pit bull. She was not in the cage and thought that Mike, the suspect, might have the dog because he usually comes and gets the dog to keep him company. As they approached the house where Mike was staying they heard the dog yelping. They were planning on throwing a firecracker in Mike’s room to scare him and Mr. Taylor looked inside to see what he was doing. When he did he saw Mike wearing a woman’s bra and panties on his knees. He was having penile sex with the pit bull that belonged to Mr. Waffird. The dog was yelping and Mike was making noises as well. Mr. Waffird went to the door and when he kicked the door open Mike jumped in to the bed to hide from Mr. Waffird. Mr. Waffird called the dog and when the dog came to him he noticed that she had some type of substance hanging from her bottom.
__________________________
Prosecuto: Eric Foster Fitzgerald 0000003055
200 James Robertson Parkway
Nashville, Tennessee 37201
ARREST WARRANT
Information on oath having been made, that on the day and year aforesaid, and in the County aforesaid, the offense of Animal - Sexual Activity w/an Animal E FELONY, as aforesaid, has been committed and charging the defendant thereof, Court of General Sessions of Davidson County, Tennessee, to answer the above charge.
Sworn to and subscribed before me on 11/14/2008 16:34:01
__________________________
Carolyn Piphus
Judge of the Metropolitian General Sessions Court/Commissioner
by
Loading …
