So I pay 100 bucks to adopt a cat from “name removed,” and then all the vet fees to finish up his shots. He’s a fantastic cat and my five-year-old daughter adores him. He’s fed, we play with him, he loves his new home. When the cat people come to pick up a cat carrier they left, they see that he’s outside, as we have a cat door and occasionally the cat goes in and out, as cats do (though he sleeps inside at night). Today, I get a long email, detailing how special the cat is and that they must pick him up before he’s “taken by coyotes,” however, they can offer me another cat who can go outdoors (this one, apparently, they don’t mind being eaten by coyotes?). So despite the fact I’ve adopted a cat and given him a warm and loving home (not to mention paid all this money), they are taking back the cat (they insist he should NEVER be outdoors, even though some other cats can be, so I guess the cat has told them he prefers the indoors?) and I have to try to explain to my broken-hearted daughter why. The best part:
they knew I had a cat door when they left him at my house. Unfortunately, I signed a contract that apparently said he’d be an indoor cat (which technically, he IS) so I can’t do much, but still, what’s messed up is the fact that he has to be back in “foster care” when so many cats need good homes (which mine was). Do I agree that cats need safe and loving homes and should never be mistreated? Of course! But come on, where’s the line of common sense vs. too much??
Raymond Bak needed to vent so what better spot than here!!
Hey Andy, you really want to know what is messed up? now that the price for
a barrel of oil is around $34.00 a barrel we ALL should be enjoying the
rewards from this greatly needed break. but now out of the mouth of T.
Boone Pickens the oil companies CAN’T make any money on gasoline because
the price for a barrel of oil is so low, so now all the big oil companines
are cutting back production of gasoline to drive up the price of a gallon
of gas! THAT’S MESSED UP! our own people stabbing ourselfs in the back.
over the last 2 years they made almost a TRILLION dollars in profits maybe
more and now there crying i can not believe that… we all should be
paying no more than $1.30 for a gallon of gas.. goes again to show you
it’s all about big corporations and GREED!!! this should be illegal. oil
companies should be making gas like it’s going out of style and have huge
gas reserves and WE ALL should be enjoying cheap prices in a time when
everyone needs it.. thanks Andy for letting me vent.. Ray.
Bertha Beech walks around her Franklin home with the energy of a woman half her age.
The 79 year old great grandmother stops and points at a crack between the bath tub and the toilet.
“I was on it and the commode shook,” she says in a voice that is sub sonic in the confined space.
I look down at a series of cracks on the floor.
“That from the blast?” I ask.
“When the blast come, there was a crack down there,” she says pointing.
Before we can even focus on the damage, she moves to the kitchen.
There are a number of religious paintings, a portrait of MLK, and a bare spot on the wall.
“There,” she points.
I look at the discolored section of the wall. She tells me there was a clock hanging there. Then there was a blast. Then the clock fell.
“Vulcan Materials is messed up,” she hollers. “They are the ones who messed it up.”
“I told Vulcan, they need to pray. I said you all need to pray. If it was your house, you wouldn’t have nobody to damage your house like this.”
Beech shows me a crack in the ceiling. She points to a separation in the floor. She shows me nails that push out of the wall. She shows me cracks in sidewalks, and what she says is foundation damage.
I have been around the block a few times in my news life and without even talking to the company, I all ready know they are going to tell me that her house is old and that settling issues are the cause of her problem, not blasting.
“So before the blast no crack,” I say on her front porch.
“No crack,” she says.
“After the blast; CRACK!”
“That’s right,” she says with passion.
“You know Vulcan is going to tell you it is an old house, Ms. Bertha. That is the way it goes. That is an old house.”
I have been laid off since Jan. 20, I work in Springfield Tn. and I live in Russellville, KY. That makes me have to draw TN unemployment. I also go to Western Ky. University. I have been there for a year . But in my unemployment application it asked if I go to school and I said yes. BUT because I said yes that automatically told the computer that I was unavailable for work, which put me in a bracket that I would have to actually call the unemployment office’s direct office in Nashville, but every time I call it says that the call volume is high. It is Feb. 24, I have not recieved a check or I cannot get through. The office in Springfield, where I signed up at says keep trying, I have called them for
3 hrs. straight and no answer because of this. But if they are that busy I dont need unemployment I need a job at the unemployment office. I have four children, Im not in over my head with debt but I will be by the time I get my unemployment. This is really pissing me off to wake up and call some one for three hours for telling the truth that I go to college, everything is on a computer or a machine what is the world coming to?
Businesses on fashionable West End Avenue in Nashville are situated in a high density cluster.
Restaurants and apartments and upscale boutiques co-exist side by side by side.
It is lunch time and cars are thick on the road, bumper to bumper, circling businesses like metallic sharks.
Motorists are driving in a slow motion square dance, looking for that elusive parking spot.
The problem on this afternoon, the cars seem to outnumber the spots, putting a premium on parking.
Behind every business hangs a sign that states :Parking for FILL IN THE BLANK. All others will be towed at vehicle owner’s expense.
I watch as a car pulls into a parking space designated for Panera. The driver enters the business.
I watch another car across the street pull into Which Wich. The driver begins walking into that establishment.
I stop the young woman who is familiar with my show.
She flashes a friendly smile as I ask her about Parking Poaching where you park in one business parking space, only to patronize another nearby store.
Tiffany Cloud-Man begins the interview by telling me parking on West End is terrible.
“As a customer I park where I want, but I understand businesses get mad.”
The young woman seems familiar with the problem of parking poaching.
“You know, you just want to go in and get some lunch.”
“But what if they towed you?” I interject. “You would never come back, would you?”
“If they towed me, I’d probably never eat here again.”
That’s the motorist’s point of view.
Allen Doty sees it differently.
Doty and his partner own Cumberland Transit.
This is an upscale store catering to the outdoorsman. Kayaks and canoes hang from the ceiling. Expensive mountain bikes line a wall. The store stretches for what seems like 100 yards.
Doty takes me out back and shows me a large parking lot that is shared by 2 other businesses and a few Vandy Students who rent an upstairs apartment.
The new Verizon store gets two spots. Doty points to a woman’s boutique next to his. He tells me they share 5 spots. It is unclear to me how many spots the Vanderbilt students get.
Whatever the number, it sure doesn’t allow for a lot of customers at any given time. Economic success in a high end store like Cumberland Transit demands lots of customers. Customers want convenience, which means on site parking. If businesses like Cumberland Transit cannot provide it, then a customer is just as apt to go to the mall.
That’s why Doty and his partner say they have spent close to 100 thousand dollars over the years to maintain another 2 dozen spaces that are dedicated to Cumberland Transit.
Each of these spots is neatly painted: Parking for Cumberland Transit customers only.
I ask Doty about this and he is quick to tell me that PARKING EQUALS CUSTOMERS WHICH EQUALS SALES.
So when parking poaching takes place, this sagacious businessman is not too happy.
“Yeah it hacks us off that we even have to patrol it. At one point we hired an attendant, and that did not go so well. We tried to get our landlord to chip in on parking. We tried to get neighbors to chip in on parking, but nobody wants to. Parking is vital to our survival. If we don’t have parking people will go to the mall or another place. It is a fine line. Am I going to tow a potential customer?”
Today’s Messed Up email of the day comes from a viewer concerned about their father getting paid on time.
My father works for an apartment complex, he’s the supervisor. These last few months they haven’t been getting paid on time… just 2 weeks ago they were suppose to get paid when the owner called and told the staff not to cash them till monday… well monday came and everyone cashed them. Well the owner calls.. oh don’t cash those checks yet…. well it was kinda to late but he didn’t know that. Well they are suppose to get paid this friday when they get a call to cash those last pay checks on wednesday. The manager says we already cashed them.. The person on the other line says…. “Oh, you did… well I guess your payroll will be sent this wednesday. The manager tells the person she needs to talk to the owner now when they reply I’m sorry but he’s out of the country, I can only imagine what your going through…
The longest they have gone without getting paid was 20 days.. which I believe the law is 9 days to give your employees their hard earned money. My dad had the feeling that by saying to cash their checks this wednesday that the owner was trying to put them a whole 2 weeks behind on pay. Not only that but I have heard that he receives final notices on the utility bills. I live on this property and knowing that one day I might not have utilities even though I pay my bills is very scary…
Does a sex offender live near you? Is he on your street? In your neighborhood?
In the Crieve Hall community of Nashville, some parents say the school bus stops in front of a registered sex offender’s home.
Some parents complained to the school system.
Some parents also complained to me.
Callie Waltz is not one of those parents, but as soon as we get together in her driveway, she knows what I am talking about.
Waltz drives her 7 year old daughter to Crieve Hall Elementary School.
"Do you understand why some parents are upset?," I ask her.
"Yes, yes, yes!," she interjects.
Waltz is now expecting her 2nd child and she rubs her stomach frequently during the interview. Mrs. Waltz says it is common knowledge that that a registered sex offender has been living in the house on the corner.
"According to the TBI registry, a sex offender lives right there on the corner," I say pointing in that direction. "And the school bus stops there in front of the house."
"Yes it does," she says.
A quick check of the TBI sex offender registry shows the man was convicted of multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in 2002.
I call Metro Police. The spokeswoman says he has no other arrest history since then.
I report this to Mrs. Waltz.
The soft spoken woman tells me that she has never seen the man do anything inappropriate in the neighborhood. But Mrs. Waltz certainly understands why some parents are upset that a school bus stops in front of a sex offender’s home.
"Well the thing about sex offenders," she says calmly, "is that they have to live somewhere. If my child rode the bus, I would be very unnerved about it."
"You think it is safe, but it seems predatory," I say.
She nods emphatically. "The temptation is there you know. For something to go horribly wrong"
Several parents confirm that the sex offender’s house is the bus stop. On this particular day, the school busses we see all ZOOM by.
"VROOM"
I watch as 2 young boys get off the bus, a few houses down the street from where the sex offender reportedly lives.
I call Metro Schools and ask them what the policy is for something like this.
A spokeswoman tells me that several parents in this neighborhood have all ready complained to the bus driver who reported their concern to school officials.
Today’s Messed Up email of the day comes from a local resident who is mad that they are being asked to give a tip for pick-up or drive-thru service.
What is messed up is restaurants asking for a tip when you pay with a debit card for carry out or drive thru. Whatever happen to just paying for your food. Just in the last week I have gone to a few places that do this practice but I have found it very common. I.e. jim and nick;s bar-b-que, calypso cafe, chili’s….the list goes on and on.
The driver drives and the meter indicates the fare.
You tip the driver based on a variety of factors, including the total on the meter.
That’s the way the chamber of commerce hopes it goes down.
But there is a seedier side to the cab industry.
A side where charges can materialize out of thin air.
To the uninitiated, to the inebriated, to the passenger not paying attention, cab fees can escalate quickly.
According to the cab driver bill of rights, excessive charges, indiscriminately applied, are illegal.
A check with the Metro Licensing commission confirms that cabs cannot charge passengers indiscriminately for stopping at an ATM or going through a drive thru.
According to city officials, if a passenger requests a stop at a McDonalds or a visit to the ATM, a cab driver can legitimately charge the passenger. Officials say, this amount is predetermined.
I’m told there is a button on the meter that calculates the rate at .30 cents a minute. This is the amount authorized by Metro Government. Officials say that the charge is only applicable if the passenger requests the stop.
But the allegation swirling around Music City is some cabbies are making money any way they can.
Ray Novak is a Nashville man who claims a cabbie tried to take advantage of him.
Novak says it happened one recent Saturday night. He and a female friend hailed the cab on Division, headed to Cannery Row”
“I left my female companion in the car. I was in the Tiger Mart getting cash from the ATM. I came out, and my companion was upset. The cab driver kind of wanted to charge an extra 3 bucks for us stopping at an ATM while the meter was running. So he and I got into a heated discussion. The meter was running. Then what alarmed me, he said ask all the Vandy kids. I charge them 5 dollars to go thru drive thru and 3 dollars to go to an ATM. That’s when I asked him to stop the cab and he wouldn’t let us out of the cab. He had an electronic cargo door. And when he did stop, he stopped on the bridge on Broadway. He wanted us to get out then. I asked him to call the police. He told me, he would call the police if I did not pay the 3 dollar charge. I knew it was highly illegal because I use cabs all the time.”
Novak says the 3 dollars is not the issue. He says that he has been riding cabs for years in Nashville and he knows this is unacceptable behavior. Novak says his is main concern is for Vanderbilt students and out of town tourists who are being taken advantage of.
In some respects cab drivers are like ambassadors to the city. They are often the first face you see when you exit the airport, and perhaps the last face you see before heading home. If you get a hefty fare and some mysterious add on charges, you might just go home to anywhere USA and tell your friends Nashville is a lot more than smiling faces and honky tonks.
With this in mind, I go to the cab company which Ray Novak complains to. I walk in and ask officials there about cab number 11. Even though there is no proof the driver acted inappropriately, I am told that the cabbie has been removed because the company has a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior.
The manager says what happened is under investigation, and the cab driver is now driving for another company.
I call Brian McQuiston who heads up the transportation licensing commission office.
McQuiston confirms that the cab driver in question does in deed work at another cab company. McQuiston says they transferred his permit while the allegations are investigated.
McQuiston says there is a formalized investigative process that must be adhered to before this cab driver’s cab permit is pulled, should it turn out he was guilty of gouging Mr. Novak.
I ask McQuiston if this is a big problem in Nashville.
McQuiston tells me that “this has never come up till this complaint.”
A horrible hit and run that left one man in a drainage ditch.
According to Lavergne Police, a motorist allegedly smashed into a bicyclist, and then left him for dead.
Donald Hall is lucky to be alive today.
The 33 years old has a terrifying tale of survival and unanswered questions.
“Am I going to die?”
From his hospital bed at Skyline Medical Center, hall begins to recount his ordeal.
The story begins with him on his back in a drainage ditch, in the freezing cold. He is paralyzed, and scared in the dark of night.
Hall is the father of a 6 year old boy whose pictures cover a wall near his hospital bed.
Hall is weak, but he has the ability to turn his head and see them.
“They give me strength,” Hall says.
Standing beside her only son, is a very emotional Jean Gonazles.
With tears streaming down her cheeks, the Michigan woman clutches her son’s hand, imploring the hit and run driver to surrender to authorities.
“Face up to it. You did something wrong. You will face god”
Hall echoes these words.
“I want you to turn yourself in. You hurt me hurt me real bad”
According to police, the incident happened January 20th / January 21st in the 500 block of Old Nashville Hwy in LaVergne.
It’s a frigid night, with temperatures hovering in the high teens. Hall tells me that he was on his way to work, on his bicycle. The convenience store employee tells me that it’s about 9:30 pm when suddenly he is hit from behind.
He is dazed and confused and wakes up in a low lying drainage ditch that separates the road and a neighbor’s yard.
The police report indicates his bike and personal belongings scatter. Hall lands near the drainage pipe, on his back.
He says he is in pain, and hollers for help over and over.
Hall also says he hears the vehicle that struck him race away.
Hall says he remains in this ditch, freezing, in pain, frightened and unable to move. He is in this ditch from 9:30 at night till about 3:30 in the morning. That is 6 hours of excruciating terror.
Finally, a pedestrian hears his groans for help.
“I seen a shadow walk by, I was screaming all night long,” Hall says. “I screamed and the man said; where you at, I don’t see you. I am in the ditch, I am in the ditch.” Halls voice picks up as the memories surge into his brain. “Follow my voice I am right here right here I am in a ditch.
by
Beech shows me a crack in the ceiling. She points to a separation in the floor. She shows me nails that push out of the wall. She shows me cracks in sidewalks, and what she says is foundation damage.
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