Tonight, we are airing a special Messed Up segment that will briefly touch on a story we reported a while back on the challenges facing residents in Overton County. They don’t have an animal control department. What fills the void is a nonprofit called the Animal Awareness Association of Overton County .
Here a little about the AAAOC from their website:
The Animal Awareness Association of Overton County is a Not-For-Profit 501(c)3 tax deductible charitable organization. We are an Overton County No-Kill Association providing Rescue/Foster Care/Adoption and Re-homing for adoptable pets in the Overton County Region. You can read our mission statement to learn more about our goals.
Here’s a special message from AAAOC Executive President Vicky Smith on how you can help their efforts:
We have a building that the City has leased to us for $1.00 a year. It needs renovations, so we are in need of supplies like wood,nails, chain link fencing for kennels, paint, some block and cement or someone to pour cement for us for the runs. We have been working hard to get the stray animals off the streets, we have had adoptions and are doing transports out of state. We have been working on Spays and Neuters with grants thru Pickett County Humane Society, which is helping cut down on unwanted animals. If anyone would like to donate money to us they can do it by mail at aaaoc P.O.Box 72 Monroe, TN. 38573 or they can go thru paypal and send money to aaaofovertoncounty@yahoo.com. We have a web site at www.aaaoc.org they can go to it and see what we are doing. We are in the process of putting our animals that are up for adoption on there. We are also trying to start a Food Pantry for animals, that way the people who can’t afford to feed their animals could come to us and get food to help them keep their animals, not set them out. Hopefully this will help alittle more on unwanted animals in are area. If anyone would like to donate food for this, have them contact us by email or call us at (931) 823-3228 We would appreciate anything you could do for us to help us get this shelter up and running.
Mule Day festivities begin next week in Columbia and pictures of mules are going up all over town.
Mule Day events are planned and the excitement is building.
One of those festivities involves the crowning of the Mule Day Queen.
The crowning ceremony took place March 7 on the campus of Columbia State Community college.
It’s here that 2008 Mule Day Queen Jill Brooks crowned this year’s Mule Day Queen, Rachel Ethridge.
The event was going well until the end, when the spirit of the pageant was ruined by a back stage thief.
Jill Brooks is a student at the college and joins me in front of the building where it happened.
“I was crowning the next Mule Day Queen,” the 19-year-old says. “I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. I just noticed that my stuff was gone when I came back.”
“What did you lose?” I ask.
“Nine pairs of earrings,” she says. “In the pageant world, earrings are expensive. I lost blue jeans. That’s my thing. I saved all my Christmas money and I lost some cash.”
“So you lost $1,000 worth of cash clothes and jewelry.”
She nods, “Yes, I am pretty angry.”
She says the theft occurred behind the Cherry Theater, in the green room.
Brooks admits the door was not locked.
She says she saw her earrings in her tackle box, right before she took the stage as part of the final ceremony.
When she returned to the green room, she says all of her belongings were gone.
“Do beauty queens trust each other?” I ask.
“It is not something we worry about. When I am away I might worry more but I know all these contestants. I was not worried at all.”
According to the Columbia police report, witnesses reported seeing a woman wearing a brown pageant dress and brown, pointed toe heels enter the green room.
Witnesses tell investigators the white woman had long, straight black hair. She had a tattoo going up her leg and another large tattoo on her left arm.
The police report indicates the woman was the only unauthorized person seen around the green room at the time the items were taken.
“You know this isn’t even a crime of opportunity,” I say to Brooks. “This is like a planned thing. This is like I know the Mule Day people will be in here doing their queen thing and I am going to dress up like a pageant person, sneak in and steal all this stuff and run that is what makes it messed up in my mind.”
“I am glad it was not a contestant,” she says. “Nobody affiliated with Mule Day was involved. It doesn’t shed a bad light on Mule Day. I have no harsh feelings. I’m upset that my stuff is gone and I wish they could get it back, but nobody was hurt.”
The teenager tells me that the woman described in the police report is known to pageant officials but police have not disclosed how, why or even if she is involved.
In the meantime, Columbia police have made no arrests in the case and welcome any tips from the public.
Today’s Messed Up Email of the Day is a little different. We’re asking for your help. News 2’s Teresa Weakley explains:
This is my attempt to use the notorious Andy Cordan’s wide influence to further my journalistic needs.
I’m looking for anybody who has been called to serve or has already served jury duty and who either was excused due to economic hardship, or actually served and felt an economic strain because of the obligation.
Everyone remembers where they were the morning of September 11th 2001.
I was in my living room, getting ready to go to work at Channel 2.
Good Morning America was in breaking news.
The imagery was surreal.
There was a fire in one of the upper windows of the World Trade Center.
Diana Sawyer was reviewing the video over and over again.
She was calm, and hazarding guesses as to whether this was a small plane or an explosion. At this hour, it was unclear that a jet liner was the cause of the chaos.
The insanity of what was to unfold was only now begining to reveal itself.
I got into my car and began driving to Nashville.
I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew that today would unfold like no other.
Just then, my boss called and he was frantic.
"Cordan, are you seeing this?"
All I could say was yes.
"Get to the airport," my boss hollered. "Get on a plane and get to New York City."
He hung up.
Get to New York City?
How the hell am I going to get to New York City? I wondered. Who am I going with? How will I pay for the tickets? Where are we going once we get there? A multitude of questions raced through my mind.
If this was Nashville, it’s a no brainer, I’m on it. I know the streets and the players and how to engage, even a story of this magnitude.
But NYC?
The moment I get off the plane in the Big Apple, I’m behind the eight ball. Local Crews have been on the scene for ½ a day all ready. The Networks have saturated coverage wall to wall. I would be a kindergartner in a calculus class at MIT.
This is arguably the biggest story of our generation, and running off to New York City with no plan didn’t seem like a good way to start the day.
I drove to the airport anyway, prepared to do whatever it took.
I parked in short term and my phone rang again.
It was the assignment desk.
"All the planes are grounded," the assignment editor shouted. "Start interviewing passengers."
That sounds more like a Nashville version of this tragedy, I remember thinking to myself.
I met Chris Bundgaard and some photographers and we scrambled back and forth talking to passengers whose flights were literally ordered out of the sky.
As it turns out, ABC news broke into coverage and didn’t give it up for hours.
All the interviews I would do that morning, would not air for a long long time.
I am thinking about this moment as I begin to interview Tena Coons-Cherry.
It’s been 8 years since that terrible day, but the way we live and breathe in airports is a direct result of the evens of this day.
Coons-Cherry has an 89 year old mother who needs wheel chair assistance when traveling in the airport.
On this morning, it is 13 degrees. My crack weather staff informs me it is the 2nd coldest day of the winter.
Coons-Cherry tells me that her brother is driving her vehicle. With his 89 year old momma inside, he pulls to the curb. He reportedly gives the bags to the sky cap. Then he runs inside and gets a wheel chair. He gets his mother into the wheel chair and here comes the dilemma
Does he leave his 89 year old mother in the icy conditions and go park the car, or does he push her into the terminal, into the warmth, leaving his car unattended for just a few moments?
In today’s Messed Up email of the Day, Joe ponders the value of buying a small drink fro the same price as a large.
When I caught this this it really made me Mad. the Mcdonalds Ad for there soft drinks say this “any size soft drink for a 1.00″ well if you think about it and most People don’t Your being ripped off by Mcdonalds. I would think if you buy a small drink you should pay less. Why would you pay a Dollar for a Small drink and pay a 1.00 for a large drink. See most people don’t see this when they order there food. yes there are free refills but still you should not have to pay a 1.00 for a small drink because you are getting less. it should be a small is is around 50 cents. Read the Ad and see if you Don’t agree with me.
Virginia Nixon and her 22-year-old daughter Martha are season ticket holders at the Nashville SuperSpeedway.
Mrs. Nixon tells me that Martha loves NASCAR, especially Dale Jr.
She recently paid $303 for two season seats at the top of the speedway.
This would be the fourth year she has done this.
Because Martha has Spina Bifida and has been in a wheel chair all of her life, Nixon chose row 69 which is wheel chair accessible and has a great view of the track.
To get to her seats, you take the elevator to the top level and exit through the Premium Plus area.
Premium Plus customers pay more and get a buffet and other perks. It’s off limits to non-Premium Plus race fans.
“Here is a weird question,” I ask Nixon. “In the past three years when you have gone to these races have you ever used the restroom?”
She smiles. “Oh yes.”
“Have you ever been stopped by someone who says, ‘Sorry ma’am, you cannot come through here with your disabled child?’”
“No, nobody ever stopped us from using the restroom.”
But that all came into question after Nixon says the speedway sent her a notice that the bathrooms Martha has used for three years are for Premium Plus ticket holders only.
Nixon grows angry as she explains.
“For three years we used these restrooms. Then, we get an email. It’s a big deal because instead of using an accessible restroom, we have to cross all the way across the track. We have to go to the elevator, go down stairs to another floor to get to another restroom. Then, we have to fight the crowds and make it all the way back.”
Nixon says the news is so upsetting, Martha doesn’t want to come back to the races.
“They are penalizing this child in a wheel chair because we didn’t pay twice the ticket amount to use the restroom.”
Nixon says the racetrack offered to move their seats to row 35 but Nixon says they like row 69 and that is why they have paid four consecutive years to be season ticket holders.
She looks into the camera to talk directly to the SuperSpeedway officials:
“What you are doing is unfair and uncalled for. This is one person. I am willing to go to row 35 myself but you are penalizing her for being in a wheel chair and making her go through hoops just to go the bathroom.”
I go to the SuperSpeedway where I am greeted by a friendly man named Cliff Hawks.
Hawks is the Vice President and General Manager of the race track.
He takes me to Virginia Nixon’s seats in section 69.
We sit in the metallic bench seat and gaze upon the track. The view is spectacular.
“I can see why they don’t want to move their seats,” I exclaim.
Hawks laughs. “These are great seats.”
To get to these seats we take the elevator and walk through the Premium Plus section.
On our way Hawks explains a bit about this section and what he has learned in the few days he has personally been involved in this degrading situation.
“We are on the Premium Plus level. Individuals who buy this ticket get VIP parking, a buffet and stadium style seating. We have ADA style seating as well for individuals in a wheel chair.”
Posted throughout the speedway I see handicap logos.
“The facility meets all ADA requirements from parking to seating to restrooms,” Hawks says.
“In addition to Premium Plus, we also have ADA seating. It begins on row 69 and ADA seating on row one and row 35. Mrs. Nixon is on row 69, at the top of the facility, and they access these seats via the elevator we just took. We meet all the requirements.”
Hawks tells me that each customer is valued and this all just a miscommunication that he is now personally working to correct.
“I wanted to understand all the issues. I think the miscommunication in the policy is: the restroom, the Premium Plus seats and the buffet, they are all exclusive to premium plus ticket holders, but as you can see there is ADA seating that you access on this same level when you access the elevator. We will not keep ADA patrons from using the restrooms on the Premium Plus level.”
“So what you are saying to me is you won’t make her wheel a million miles away to use a bathroom?”
“Exactly,” says a dead serious Hawks. “She can go right into these bathrooms on the Premium Plus level as she has done over the last three years. The issue we get is the patrons below us who want to come up into this exclusive level. That is where we have to draw the line. People have paid more for premium seats but when it comes to restroom use and ADA seats, we will not deny them access to these restrooms.”
I call Virginia and report the positive results.
She cautions me that this was not a miscommunication. She says things only began to change when Messed Up got involved.
Maybe that is true. Perhaps it just happens to coincide with the time that Hawks became personally vested, trying to ensure that the Nixon’s were happy.
Either way, Virginia Nixon tells me that they plan to attend the races this year and sit in the seats they have always sat in.
And when nature calls, they will wheel through Premium Plus race fans and buffet lines and stadium seats and use the bathroom.
It is systematically upgrading its meter reading technology a few houses at a time.
The city says it is installing wireless transmitting devices that will allow meter readers to get quick and accurate readings at a customer’s home.
Officials tell me there are 9,000 customers and upgrading the entire system will take years, at the pace the agency is currently moving.
Because economic times are tight, the city is doing the upgrades using existing manpower. Because the city is using its own people, the upgrades only happen when crews are not busy.
This is why gas crews can’t let consumers know in advance when they’re coming to your house.
Utilities Director Jack Reinhard admits this to me in the lobby of City Hall.
“We do it as we can. We have a limited number of people and we do it with our personnel. So
It is when they have time outside their normal work calls. As they have time, they keep a list and they know, say over time that over weeks, we’ll be in this area.”
To complete the upgrade, the gas man needs to relight the pilot light. They can only relight the pilot light when a resident is home.
“It requires us to cut the gas off,” Reinhard tells me, his voice echoing in the busy city hall foyer. “We do that to be safe, we have to have a person home to turn it back on. When we do this, if no one is home, we leave a door hanger to let them know we did work on the meter and they need to call us and schedule for us to come back.”
Nolensville resident and Smyrna Utility customer Jamie Camp says this policy is all Messed Up.
“I think there should be notification,” she says. “If they are going to turn off your gas and they know it, they could let the consumer know.”
From her Spartan office in Nashville, Camp holds the door hanger before her.
The simple paperwork says: Your gas man has been here.
She reads from the slightly weathered placard.
“Your gas has been cut off.”
“Did you know it was going to be cut off?” I ask.
“No,” she says with a sense of angst.
She tells me that she had just paid the bill, and that was not the problem.
“There were numerous other notices on mailboxes,” she says.
It all starts when Camp gets a call from her husband.
He doesn’t usually go home for lunch, she says. When he got there, this was hanging from the mailbox.
“He called [the gas company]. They said they turned it off to replace a piece of equipment and we needed to have some one there to turn [the gas] back on.”
According to Camp, the gas company representative indicated it was lunch time and coming to the house to relight the pilot at that moment was not possible.
Camp is perturbed as she recounts the next series of events.
It starts with her husband asking her to deal with this, and her calling the gas company.
“I asked, was there any notification? Did we miss something in the mail? They said, ‘No, no notification was sent out.’ We were told we had to be there for them to turn it back on, it could not be after hours and not at our convenience and if it was after hours, they would charge us a fee.”
Camp is a working woman. She’s a wife and a mother and says her family normally arrives home at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.
She says had her husband not been home, her family would have gone home only to find a house with no gas, no hot showers and not heat; a major inconvenience to be sure.
“We were lucky,” she says from her desk.
She is holding the placard before her.
I zoom through the circular opening in the card and see her eyes gazing at the words before her.
“We went home and found this. Normally we arrive at 8 p.m. that night to find this with kids who need showers and we would have to turn it on and pay a fee. I saw several of these out on mailboxes. We have many people in our community where both adults work. They would not have the opportunity to be home when this happens. It is messed up,” she says with emphasis.
Camp asks the customer service people if they can come to her home to relight the pilot on her schedule, around 7 p.m.
She it told not without incurring an afterhours charge.
Already upset and not wanting to suffer a deeper blow to her checkbook, Camp decides her best option is leave work, travel all the way to Nolensville and wait on the gas man to finish lunch and then relight her pilot.
Is she pissed? You bet!
“I didn’t understand. It had to be done. It had something to do with the meters, but I think we could have been told in advance to make plans for it, so we didn’t have to come home to a surprise and no gas,” she said.
I go to the city hall and talk at length with Mr. Reinhard and the city’s finance director, Mark Tucker.
They don’t know I’m coming and I’m pretty sure they are put off by the questions I am posing, but that’s the job.
It’s now that I learn that the gas company is maximizing efforts to upgrade technology using existing manpower.
“There is limited manpower and we are trying to save dollars by not contracting this out,” Tucker tells me. “When they have down time or there are no emergency calls or other service calls they have to make, they upgrade.”
It seems a little unusual to me. Not know when you are going to upgrade your system, but after listening to their logic, I can buy into the premise.
The idea is simple: maximize results over time without a huge capital outlay.
So what about charging after hour fees?
Camp is emphatic that when she asked the customer service rep about after hour fees, she was told it would cost her extra.
“There should not be a charge,” the utilities director says. “Particularly when it is something we have done on routine basis. We would not charge the customer for this.”
This is where the city could send out a memo and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
I suggest to the city leaders that its plan needs to be uniformly addressed with all city employees so when the next “Jamie Camp” calls, they will know the policy and how to relay that to a customer.
Camp insists she only went home and blew off the better part of her work day because she was told she would have to pay an extra fee if she didn’t.
Tucker tells me that after hours fees run about $20.
When I tell Camp that, she rolls her eyes.
“If I had known that,” she says with a hint of frustration, “I’d have just paid it.”
Perhaps Camp didn’t ask. Maybe they didn’t tell.
Either way, the city official tells me there is no after hour charge for something like this.
So why are your people telling your customers there is?
Warren Elliott is a General Contractor in South Nashville.
When Elliott walks out the back door of his office, he enters an alley. Across the alley is the Music City Mortuary and Crematory.
It is a cold blustery afternoon, the day we enter the alley. The sky is grey and the wind is howling.
He points to the top of the building.
I see a smoke stack.
There is no activity. No smoke.
"We don’t mind them doing their business," the soft spoken business man says. "but we have health concerns."
Elliott shows me photos that his office workers took earlier in the week. The sky is blue and the day is warm when these photos are taken. There is a thick plume of smoke emminating from one of the three stacks, that I will come to learn is the cremation unit for pets.
"Just the smoke, and, you can smell it in your building," he says describing that day. "It was the horrible smell and nasty taste you get. it is awful. We go outside for lunch. So it is abad taste when you go to eat. You have to wash your mouth out.It is that bad"
Elliott tells me that his partner is a cancer survivor. He says his office assistant is asthmatic.
"We are concerned, health wise," he says. "My partner had throat cancer. He recovered. But My assistant, she has asthma. She has had to go home. She sits in the back. She couldn’t work. Some days it is that bad. Before we reported them, it was a non stop smoke. Since then, it is hit and miss. It might be They do it 30 or 40 minutes and then they stop."
I go to the crematory and introduce myself. I ask for the owner who steps forward. He does not want to go on camera, but he is responsive to my questions and he seems concerned about the neighbor’s complaints and the fact that a news guy is in his lobby asking questions.
"In a crematory, at certain times, you will get a little smoke. And that probably lasted all of five minutes. That was probably the container the animal was in. It’s a pet crematory," Jeff Murphy says.
"Should the smoke be that dark?," i ask.
"No, it shouldn’t be but that was about 5 minutes worth of smoke burning. That is what that is. Every time it smokes. We have a neighbor that calls."
I thank him for his comments and visit with the Metro Health Department.
"We went out and looked at how they operate. They keep a temperature log," Health Department PIO, Brian Todd says. "We looked at that based on what you provided and the photos and decided there was a problem in the bay - the crematory where the animals are. We said shut it off till you get it fixed."
After 45 years, a broadcasting school abruptly shuts its doors. The Connecticut School of Broadcasting known as (CSB) filed for bankruptcy.
The shut down affects students, teachers and staff members at 26 locations in 16 states including Nashville.
Students who have paid thousands in tuition feel blind sided. They didn’t get certificates or the training they need to secure jobs. They were promised studio access and demo tapes and help with placement. Now they are left with bills in the thousands.
The decision to close CSB came swiftly. Many learned via text messages and email. The sign on the door is short and sweet.
CSB SCHOOL OF BROADCASTING OFFICIALLY CLOSED UNTIL FUTHER NOTICED. DETAILS TO FOLLOW.
Teachers and staff who lost their jobs are still shell shocked.
Former Channel 2 Traffic Reporter, and now ex-campus director Chris Maze sent out this email:
All~
It is with great sadness that I convey the following news. Effective at the close of business on Wednesday March 4, 2009, CSB School of Broadcasting is officially closed. Our corporate office has instructed our doors be closed until further notice with details to follow. As confusing and startling as this is to you, I am equally affected. I wish I had more information to convey, but unfortunately I do not at this time.
On a personal note, this news grieves me on so many levels. We have been a family since the beginning and the thought of not being here to see you thrive with your dreams and soar with your passions hurts me in ways you will never know. For what it’s worth, being as uninformed as we all are, the only source I have to offer is the corporate phone number: 1-617-237-1673.
I know I speak for my staff when I say we wish you all the very best and we all believe in you. Please know that we keep you in our prayers.
All the best always,
Chris Maze
Campus Director
CSB® School of Broadcasting
The glass doors are locked. The offices are dark. When I show up there are several UPS post its. Officials from the State Board of Education have also been to the site and posted this note:
The Division Postsecondary School Authorization Staff regrets to inform you that, due to no fault of our own, the owner of CSB School of Broadcasting, GCP CT School of Acquisition LLC, has decided to close the institution effective, March 4, 2009. Their decision to close the institution is not in accordance with the Law and the Rule so the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. Therefore, Postsecondary Staff will be providing assistance to students who have been misplaced by this occurrence. For inquires, please call Postsecondary Staff at 615 741 5293.
Imagine driving onto a remote country road with a box of puppies or a beloved pet. Imagine opening up the door and pushing these animals onto the side of the road.
Now imagine driving away leaving the animals to fend for themselves.
A growing number of people don’t have to imagine this because they are doing it.
According to the Metro Animal Control, the economy is forcing more and more citizens to make hard decisions like this.
Taking care of my pet? Taking care of myself or my kids? These are questions that are now being asked routinely by families around America.
Antoinette Welch knows this all too well.
The woman lives in rural Davidson County. She tells me that since Christmas, 5 dogs have been dumped in her White’s Creek community.
On the day we meet her, she is bringing a female Rottweiler to the shelter.
The dog is skinny and needs a bath.
The animal’s tongue is hanging out and she looks very friendly.
She is on a leash and she is unaware of the sadness that is about to unfold.
"How does this make you feel?"
"I’m sad. People should take them to the pound or find them a home."
Camera man Al stops shooting for a moment to scratch the animal’s head. She closes her eyes and seems happy for the human interaction.
"There is a myth that a dog in the country can survive on their own. They are domesticated animals. They need medical attention. They need food and water and medical attention. In country won’t get it and will probably get hit by a car, or freeze to death, or Attacked by coyotes."
The woman tells me that this is the 2nd dog that has been dumped near her home this week.
"If you can’t take care of your animal, bring them to the pound. At least then, there is an opportunity to be adopted or humanely euthanized so they don’t die of starvation or hit by a car."
She tells me about the two puppies dumped into a nearby cow field. They were starving, she says.
"They were maybe 6 weeks old. I found them homes and got them neutered."
Welch says her final goodbyes and helps the animal control officer get the dog into a nearby cage. The animal grows anxious and perplexed. Life is suddenly changing for the domesticated dog.
Billy Biggs is a senior officer in Metro Animal Control.
Biggs says there is no doubt in his mind that animals like this are being dumped because of a spiraling economy.
"The reasons are just that," Biggs says. "They can’t afford them. Many people are moving to an apartment. They are downsizing. Many apartments won’t let people have dogs and cats."
Biggs tells me that recently, the agency took in 69-animals. He says that a majority of the animals were "owner-releases" for some reason or another.
"This is painful. It is painful. To give up your pet cause you can’t afford it, that is messed up," Biggs says trying to scratch the animal through the cage.
"What is sad is when the pet watches the person leave, out the window. That is sad."
Biggs tells me that this animal will be tested for adoption. He says there is a 50-50 chance this dog will still be euthanized.
by
This is my attempt to use the notorious Andy Cordan’s wide influence to further my journalistic needs.
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