Today’s email comes from the halls of Northeast High School. What’s up, Northeast High!? Are y’all watching Messed Up?
I am a senior at Northeast Highschool in Clarksville, and they have recently started a new policy that many of the students disagree with. The policy is, if any student has to go any where during class whether it be their locker or bathroom!..they must be accompained by an adult/principal. The teacher must call someone from the office to come down and walk the student, many times noone ever shows up. They expect students to go to their lockers and use the restroom within the 6 minutes we are given between classes with over 1000 students in a school bulit for almost half of that. We the students feel we are in highschool and are being treated like kindergardeners. THATS MESSED UP!!
The summer of 2008 will always be remembered as the time when gas soared over $4 dollars a gallon. OPEC had us all over a barrel with prices sky rocketing to $147 dollars a barrel.
Insane in the membrane!
There were long lines and fist fights and widespread panic.
To off-set the incredible fuel charges, domestic carriers like American began charging for bags.
$15 for the first bag. $25 for the 2nd bag. $100 for the 3rd.
Are you kidding me?
Passengers were outraged, but ultimately understood that high gas prices meant everyone had to bite the bullet.
Well, jump ahead 6 months.
Prices are below $1.50 now.
So bag fees went up when gas was high, it stands to reason that when prices are way lower, the baggage fees would go away as well.
That would be too logical.
“The industry is still hemorrhaging money,” David Castelveter, VP of Communications for the Air Transport Association tells me by phone.
The ATA represents most of the U.S. Aviation industry.
“I would sum it up by saying the U.S. aviation industry will lose somewhere between 3 and 6 billion dollars this year for year 2008. There is uncertainty what 2009 will bring. The price of fuel, the price we pay to put jet fuel in airplanes has been high, much longer than it has been low. we are working toward sustained profitability. We have a long way to go.”
Castelveter’s group has heard this common complaint from citizens. Lower prices at the pumps should mean lower prices at the check in counter.
It pays to work for Sumner County Board of Education. You know their hours of business, but according to today’s Messed Up email of the day, they close the doors early on Fridays for ball games.
I went to the Sumner BOE today at 4:05pm for finger printing. I was informed that their hours are 8A to 4:30P. While pulling on the locked doors a female employee was leaving the building and she said they were closed. When I explained that the information sheet that I have says they are open Mon,Wed,Fri from 8A to 4:30p. She informed me that they close early on Friday for ballgames. I could not believe my ears. After taking off from work early because of their limited hours to get my finger printing completed they were close for ballgames.
If you’ve been downtown, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the light poles wrapped in Christmas lights, topped off with red bows. The decorations are courtesy of the downtown partnership and metro public works.
Just one problem. People keep tearing the decorations down. Who is responsible?
Public Works officials speculate that it could be revelers leaving downtown night spots with a belly full of liquor and a propensity for bright shiny objects.
A citizen I stopped on the sidewalk thinks its homeless people who prowl Church Street in the dark of night.
I think it’s the Music City Grinch. That’s right.
With all the fuss in Who-ville fixed, the Grinch needed a new city to terrorize. What better way to belch the hum bug spirit on a community than tearing down festive Xmas decorations.
Gwen Hopkins works with the Metro Public Works Department.
“We put up lights and bows to make the downtown more festive for the holidays.
We decorate Church Street and Commerce Street and 8th and 2nd avenue. It is getting to be a regular occurrence. Folks downtown, we’re not sure who, we assume, those enjoying the night life downtown, who tend to get a little too festive, they cut our light strands. Sometimes they use them as a way to dislodge the bows and steal them and take them home.”
Hopkins says the thefts are minimal financially. I mean how much do bows and lights cost. But she tells me that it goes on every night. She says there were a dozen bows and strands stolen over the weekend.
Metro Public Works crews had to stop their normally scheduled duties and waste your tax payer dollars to put new bows and lights up.
Merry Christmas tax payers!
I talk with a young man wearing a Vanderbilt knit cap. He blames the homeless people who wander the streets.
“I think that sucks,” he says bluntly.
And then there is venerable law maker, Thelma Harper. She is walking down Church Street and I yell for her to join me on this Messed Up issue. The Tennessee Senator didn’t realize the acts of vandalism had been occurring. She is none too pleased.
“People do ruin the Christmas spirit,” she tells me wearing a fur lined winter hat.
“It is so pretty people want it as part of their personal possession. I think
When they take them they should leave some money behind to replace it,” she says.
Public Works officials tell me that they have yet to file a police report. A call to Metro Police yields no investigative gem either.
A police spokeswoman tells me that if a holiday hooligan is caught, they could be charged with misdemeanor theft.
Whoop Dee Doo!
I would rather dress the vandal up like one of Santa’s Helpers and make him or her string lights while wearing a sign that reads: I am a Miscreant.
Considering 530,000 people lost their jobs last month alone, having a mean old lady for a boss might not be too bad. But then…
I live & work in a small town (Van Buren County). The company I work for has only 5 employees. My boss is almost 82 years old and she calls us hillbillies, lazy, stupid, inbred; questions & criticizes our religion & is always accusing someone of stealing something from her or the business (i.e. we work in a HOSTILE environment). I have contacted the TN Dept. of Labor and there is nothing they can do because there is only 5 employees. The human rights organization can’t help because there has to be 8 employees. We cannot afford to leave our jobs due to the economic times - although we are looking. Is there something we can do or what rights do we have - who can we contact?? PLEASE HELP!!! IT’S MESSED UP!!!
Today’s email of the day is from a person who requested we keep their identity private. There was also a sentence we removed that named the husband of the neighbor whose name was also removed.
Hi Andy. I was visiting a friend in pulaski recently. her neighbor, NAMED REMOVED, is running a dog kennel from her home. She has over 35 dogs right now. Most of them are little, lap dogs. She keeps them outside in crates, or stacked up one on top of another through the house. They are filthy. She has had 9 to die from Parvo. And recently we learned that she has acquired yet another litter. I, and my friend, have contacted both Giles County authorities and Pulaski Police to report this. This has been going on for awhile. Isn’t it illegal to have a kennel inside city limits? As well as inhumane to let the dogs live like this? Thank you. Please keep me anonymous.
I hate the ink stains left on your fingertips while thumbing through the want ads.
I hate the depression that can envelope you while Christmas commercials of better, happier times air all day long.
Time slows to a crawl while the bills pile up on the coffee table.
Then there’s the phone calls from the creditors who don’t care how down on your luck you are.
It’s a bitter sour taste that is hard to cleanse from your palate.
Add to all of it the thought that nobody out there gives a damn.
That’s the way Michael Sallee feels.
He lost his job right before Thanksgiving.
The Auto Parts salesman says he has spent every moment since then, looking for work, and dialing the Tennessee Department of Labor over and over and over again, trying to file for unemployment insurance.
His tiny Goodlettsville apartment is filled with the drone of a busy signal as he calls the department at my request.
One call. Busy. Hang up. A 2nd call. Busy. Hang up. A 3rd call. Busy. Hang up. And so it goes for 19 straight calls, before he gets through.
Sadly, he only gets a recording that he has heard before. It drones on about this and that and that and this. The 50 year old tells me the call is so long it sucks his cell phone minutes. The husband and father tells me that he leaves a message, but so far nobody on planet earth has called him back.
“Is this the first time you are out of work,” I ask the good natured man.
“Yes,” he laughs. “In 30 years. Yes.”
“What was it like?”
“It was not good, you don’t know where the next check is coming bill coming in. and no income.”
He tells me that his stress is compounded with every busy signal from the department of labor and workforce development hot line.
“You call the number. You get this big long recording and press the numbers and then you get this message, a recording that says because of all these calls they can’t take your call right then, so you have to hang up and try again. it is very frustrating. i just want to know if I can or cannot get unemployment. That would relieve a lot of stress so I can get out here and find a job, and I am trying to do both.”
And this one comes complete with pictures! You know we had to feature it. By request of the author, we’ve removed the sender’s name.
Dear Andy,
I think that it is “messed up” that a neighborhood business is allowed to erect the most disturbing bright red sign in history outside of Vegas.
I have never seen anything like it on this road ever and I have lived in Nashville for 14 years. In fact, I have lived in this home for 5 years and have yet to complain because I bought this home already knowing some of the down falls.
It is bad enough that I have to deal with increased car insurance rates because of the crime here, or the murders (Bellacino’s), or perhaps the abundance of the 21 and up clubs but not this.
My property value for my modest home already suffers because of this truance and now I have to be concerned that a potential buyer will drive by here at night and think they are buying a home in the red light district. It is not just me.
The red light from this sign lights up my home, the neighbor’s homes, and up and down the street capable of being seen in every direction. In fact, the sign is so bright that it reflects off the apartment building windows behind my home and then reflects right into my bedroom.
The sign is the tallest sign on this road by far and the brightest indeed. I welcome you to drive by and tell me you can’t tell what I am talking about here. Please help me make this news worthy.
Today’s email of the day comes from a lady whose cat is stuck in a tree.
I have a cat that has been in a tree (about 40 feet up) since Friday.
My son called the fire department and was told that if cat was still there on Saturday, they would come out. Unfortunately, my son had to be at work at 8am and worked until close at 9 pm on Sat. I was on my way back from out of town. Today I called the Fairview Fire department and was, kindly, told to call the Rescue department in Franklin because of my address. Rescue station (in Franklin) told me that they don’t rescue cats anymore, and to call the Williamson County Animal Control….which I did. Asking for Tony Fortner, a friend and head of WCAC, Tony was surprised at the response, or lack of, by the Rescue Squad and said, “they’re the ones we see in the news rescueing cats out of trees. Try again, and ask for the Captain.” I did, and was told by Captain Tim Hood that they do not rescue cats any more.
I said, “what do I do…just let him die in the tree?” His reply…”A cat will not die in the tree. Put some food at the base and walk away.
He’ll come down for the food.” My argument was that my cat is so high up, the food will be eaten by other creatures before he’d ever know it was there.
He has been there since Friday, so he has to be weak….beyond terrified…and it will be freezing tonight. Nothing I said mattered, including an offer to make a nice sized donation to the Rescue Squad. I just needed to vent my frustration and thank you for letting me do so. All I really care about right now is getting my cat down.
A man takes his truck in for an oil change. When he returns a few hours later, he says his truck is gone, reportedly sent to an auto auction for sale.
That man is Alex Adams, who tells me he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“they basically told me it was tough and that was the way it was.”
It all starts when the 23 year old brings his ram 1500 to a hickory hollow dodge dealership for a simple oil change and tire rotation
“I was stunned,” the Kroger Meat Cutter says referring to the series of events that is about to unfold.
“They kept asking me did I pick up my truck earlier during the day. I said no. They asked several times I said no. After forty five minutes they were scrambling nobody knew where my truck was. I was in disbelief. They lost my truck over a 3 hour period.”
Unclear where his truck is, Adams says the dealership scrambles to put him in a rental car till they can figure things out.
“Yes I was pretty calm at first. They were nice at first. In the first day, but when it was 3 days without hearing from them.”
After 3 days, adams says the dealership has located his pick up
“It was at an auction house in Dupont in Madison they put it on a trailer to get it out there to be auctioned.”
Adams says when he checks his truck several items are missing including CDs.
“At least 20 CD’s were gone.”
The young man asks the dealership for $200, the approximate price to replace the 20 CDs.
Apparently the dealership felt that finding the truck was sufficient.
“They said they are not going to write me a check for $200.”Their attitude it was my fault that my vehicle was gone.”
“How is it your fault that your truck is missing for a few days?” I ask.
“That is what I asked them and they could not answer anything.”
I call the dealership and ask for the GM a man gets on the phone and asks me why channel 2 is involved.
I try to explain to him that Mr. Adams is upset and he feels like he is getting no satisfaction and they have asked me to see if I could help.
I tell the man on the phone that I need his side of the story. The man tells me that this is not a story for the news, and that he has no comment and abruptly hangs up.
by
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