Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Selection

FINAL UPDATE: Lorrie Ridder named judge.

UPDATE: I swear, I do not know what criteria this Judicial Selection Commission actually does use to come up with its picks (which is another reason, besides the plain meaning of the Tennessee Constitution, that I favor a return to direct election of all Tennessee judges), but here they are: Lorrie K. Ridder of the firm Luckett Pinstein Ridder; Venita Marie Martin of Glankler Brown, and Antonio L. Matthews of Baker Donelson. Now Lorrie Ridder has been one of the handful who tried to put the carpetbagging, inexperienced Nikki Tinker in as your Congressperson; so if Bredesen wants to piss Congressman Cohen off, that's who he'll pick. Come to think of it though, Lorrie as judge would be unable ethically to try again with the queenmaking...nah...Tinker's history; and the Circuit bench in Shelby County is already white enough without replacing a black female with a white person. Bredesen likes that proportional stuff. Back to the original post:

From the Tennessee court system website (I may return to this post with comments; meanwhile, please feel free to comment yourself):

NOTICE OF JUDICIAL SELECTION

Circuit Court

30th Judicial District

Shelby County

Pursuant to the provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated Section 17-4-101 et seq., notice is hereby given that the Judicial Selection Commission will meet on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis Fogelman Center (3700 Central Avenue, Memphis, TN 38152), to initiate the process of filling the vacancy in the 30th Judicial District Circuit Court created by the death of Judge Rita Stotts.

Any member of the public, both lay and attorney, shall be entitled to attend the public hearing, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Tennessee Ballroom, to express, orally or in writing, suggestions of possible nominees and/or such citizen's approval of or objections to any suggested nominee for the judicial vacancy. Any licensed attorney may appear and make a statement, oral or written, in support of such attorney's own nomination.

The application deadline of February 3, 2009, has passed. The following people have applied for the vacancy:

Mischelle Alexander-Best

Shelby County Public Defender’s Office

Eads, TN

Jeff A. Crow, Jr.

Attorney

Germantown, TN

Michael G. Floyd

Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County

IV-D Child Support Attorney

Cordova, TN

Gina Carol Higgins

Higgins & Johnson

Memphis, TN

Sean Antone Hunt

Spicer, Flynn & Rudstrom

Germantown, TN

Monika Lorice Johnson

Memphis City Schools, Director of Contract Services

Cordova, TN

Venita Marie Martin

Glankler Brown, PLLC

Memphis, TN

Antonio L. Matthews

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz

Memphis, TN

Lorrie K. Ridder

Luckett, Pinstein, Ridder, PC

Memphis, TN

Gerald Daniel Skahan

Lucchesi & Skahan

Memphis, TN

The Commission is committed to the goal of a diverse judiciary and encourages all qualified attorneys to apply for any judicial vacancy for consideration without regard to race, ethnicity or gender.

If you require an accommodation and/or have special needs because of a qualified disability, have questions, or need additional information, please contact Sarah Bradley or Libby Sykes at the Administrative Office of the Courts at (615) 741-2687.

This the 11th day of February 2009.

Troubador Tuesday -- Lucinda Williams

UPDATE: The Memphis show was worth the dough! Click here to see the upcoming dates and places for the rest of the tour.

Here's the original post:

Lucinda Williams is the most soulful, raw, and revealing songwriter of recent years. Here's her 2003 Hot Adult Top 40 (#36) hit, "Righteously" (Want the original record audio?):


You have to be truly hot to write words like that. Truly hot is more than being young and displaying the trendiest styles. Lucinda's continuing capacity for sensuality should be an inspiration for all women. As my next exhibit, I submit the title tune off her 2001 album, "Essence" (Want the original record audio?):


I recently watched an encore showing of a September 18, 2007, appearance by Lucinda on Austin City Limits and heard "Unsuffer Me" for the first time. If you're not struck dumb by that song, you haven't lived enough or hurt enough to appreciate it. If you have, you'll cry. The video PBS had up from the program is "Unsuffer Me"! Here it is:



You can also hear the recorded version in this fan video.

Bill Gibbons Blog Button

Readers can click on these buttons to go to Bill Gibbons' campaign website.


To get this blog button to show your support for Bill Gibbons for Governor of Tennessee, copy and paste this code into your template wherever you want it, for a 220 pixel-wide button:

<a title="Go to Gibbons for Governor website" href="http://www.gibbons2010.com/"> <img style="DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="Go to Gibbons for Governor website" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HZLzbjVc4AY/SZpIUgzdUeI/AAAAAAAABFc/z58mjnzvFpo/s320/Gibbons220.gif" border="0" /></a>

If you need a narrower button, then try this 125 pixel-wide button:


by copying this code:

<a title="Go to Gibbons for Governor website" href="http://www.gibbons2010.com/"> <img style="DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="Go to Gibbons for Governor website" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HZLzbjVc4AY/SZpJaso4GKI/AAAAAAAABFk/l2MpfYfoK28/s200/Gibbons125.gif" border="0" /"></a>

Users of the latest Blogger™ software can just click below to autoinstall either the 220 pixel-wide button or the 125 pixel-wide button:

Digital Billboards Under Fire

First it was Republican "Bluenose Mike" Ritz who, as Director of the Memphis/Shelby County Office of Planning and Development, wanted to make his name by devastating the outdoor sign industry to make Memphis as insipid as Germantown.

Now it's more officials with a residential development uber alles mentality, like City Council member Reid Hedgepeth and some bureaucrat named Mary Baker, who want to debilitate the new and wonderful digital signage made possible by twenty-first century technology.

As reported by Andy Meek in the Memphis Daily News:

New rules that are part of the amendments approved by the LUCB this month include that the entire area of signs may not exceed 672 square feet. There generally must be 2,000 feet between whatever electronic signs ultimately get built.

On-premise signs that have electronic elements cannot have more than 200 square feet of a sign featuring the digital component.
. . . .
Hedgepeth, a developer and former member of the LUCB, said he recently had driven by one of the projects approved by the LUCB a couple of years ago.

It was the Value Place extended stay hotel off Riverdale Road, and he did not like the flashing digital sign he saw that was attached to one side of the hotel advertising weekly rates and other specials.

“When I drove by it, I was shocked by what I saw,” he said. “I didn’t know that’s the kind of thing they were going to put up.”

I'm going to say the same thing as when then-County Commissioner Steve Cohen and I discussed this issue many years ago: "Bright Lights, Big City" (which I stole from the Jimmy Reed song of that title).

Here's the sign Herr Hedgepeth was horrified by:

Now here's what a city is supposed to have on its thoroughfares:

I rest my case.

Jump Back Jake

This may be the last time I ever try to help a musician or a band out on this blog, so don't expect anything effusive, because no matter how sterling my praise, I've never gotten so much as a thank you in the comments from any one of them.

This group has remarkable vintage taste in covers and sound, they can play their instruments, and even such a jaded and unkind critic as myself would go hear them again. One of their favorite musical places to go is The Meters, Papa Grows Funk, and the Gamble Brothers -- the NOLA sound, which I don't mind at all (and neither did the MG's). Singer seems to like Ray Davies also. And a band that encores with the 13th Floor Elevators' hit record, with Jake playing the jug part on electric guitar?

Here's their MySpace site, with free tunes (originals); and here's their own band site, where you can stream their entire new album in a popout player. OK, fugue-it, here's a video too, shot the night I first heard 'em:

MPD Anti-Crime Neighborhood Presentation

Here is a series of segments of a fine presentation given by Memphis Police Department Colonel Billy Garrett to the Vollentine-Evergreen Neighborhood Association on how residents can help police fight crime in the 'hood.  You can click on the video embed below to go to YouTube and pick the rest of the eight segments, or you can start at the first of the links below and hit them in order.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bmmHb-2F00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWfBeHti5_M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LewHHka4JY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__oLIcUwyM4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwA1C28FY9M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvU10gnwmM8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC_-SkpH_YU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IO2pClbM_8
Or hit the uploader's channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bvheinz01

Murder In Memphis

I recently saw a well-produced episode of Dateline on ID (Investigation Discovery Channel) that featured the Memphis Police Department's work on a murder case. Detective Marcus Berryman was lead investigator on the case.

As a criminal defense attorney, I've had some useful communications with members of the Homicide Bureau on other cases, and with Assistant District Attorney Jerry Harris as well. What you see on the TV episode, Murder In Memphis, is as good a chance at seeing how things work as you're likely to get, if you're not in the biz. I encourage you to watch the program before it goes off the air. Look for future showings of the series episodes on Memphis' Comcast digital channel 205 (DirectTV ch. 285, Dish ch. 192):

Here's the show's desciption on the channel website:

A single gunshot in darkness and a man is dead. The killer disappears into the night, leaving behind a crying widow and a mystery. We follow a determined detective as he hunts for clues, finds the suspect, and finally makes his move to catch a killer.

Clicking this link and then "Dateline on ID" on that page may help you get a schedule of upcoming episodes.

Having seen this program now, I've concluded the morale-raising value of such coverage to the police and citizens of Memphis far outweighs any bad publicity impact on prospective migrants to the city, regardless of pressure from some ostriches on the Memphis City Council to shut down Memphis Police Department cooperation on shows like this and The First 48. Ostriches still have asses sticking up to be abused; they just don't consider that when they feel like posturing.


I decided to use this post to give a shout out to some of the good cops I've had dealings with who have appeared on The First 48. You can read bios on all the officers in that series by clicking here and then picking Memphis.

Sergeant Joe Stark

Sergeant Mundy Quinn

Lieutenant Joseph Scott

I think Joe Scott got a big promotion; and the other two may have been promoted too.  Thanks for the professionalism, guys.

Before the Music Dies