It's A Small World After All
Last week's vote by the Southern Baptist Convention to boycott Disney and
its affiliates because the company provides benefits to same-sex partners
may leave many who support the boycott with their work cut out for them.
Disney's sphere of influence in the world of media is so large, it will
be difficult to avoid. Take the case of Dr. Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue
Baptist Church here in Memphis. By voting for the boycott, Rogers has put
himself in what appears to be a predicament. Bellevue Baptist airs an hour
of programming each Sunday morning on WPTY - Channel 24. WPTY is Memphis'
ABC affiliate, and ABC is owned by -- that's right -- Disney. Looks like
it is a small world after all. Attempts to garner an official statement
from the mega-church were unsuccessful.
Fighting Tooth and Tooth
With the announcement last week that Nashville will gain a National Hockey
League expansion team in 1998, the dental status of the folks up in the
capital city has all of a sudden become punchline fodder. "This will
be the first time in the history of professional hockey that the players
have more teeth than the fans," quipped cell-phone-pitching comedian
Dennis Miller on his HBO talk show. Understandably, The Tennessee Journal
ran the gag the other way around, suggesting as a possible slogan for the
team: "Every player has fewer teeth than you -- guaranteed."
The Money Train
Webster Franklin, executive director of the Tunica County Convention and
Vistors Bureau, says Amtrak has agreed to add a stop in Tunica County to
the route of the City of New Orleans passenger train if and when
a station is built. He says a station is currently being planned 4 miles
east of the intersection of routes 61 and 304, a site with easy access to
the casinos. He says he hopes ground will be broken for the new station
in the next three months. Right now, southbound passenger trains leaving
Memphis don't stop until Greenwood, Mississippi.
Here Comes the Flood
The world media continues to heat up for the 20th anniversary of Elvis' death. Sunday, The New York Times ran a giant article waxing every which way about the legacy of the King. Here's what it had to say about the imminent media blitz: "Tribute Week, known to detractors as Death Week, is a canonical once-a-year human-interest story, like Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa. America's editors don't expect much by way of hard news. But something funny or weird could happen in Memphis." Something weird? Come on. Thousands of people carrying velvet paintings and crying past the grave of a lounge singer? What is the Times thinking?
State Continues Pursuit of Topless Clubs
by Jacqueline Marino
lmost a year
after law-enforcement officers raided eight Memphis topless clubs and temporarily
shut them down for prostitution, drug use, and other alleged violations,
the state is still trying to permanently close the clubs.
Last month the state filed a petition for abatement against the owners of Pure Passion on East Brooks Road. The petition calls for a permanent injunction and forfeiture of club property. A hearing has been set for early August.
Assistant
District Attorney Amy Weirich says the state plans to take similar actions
against indicted owners and managers of the Menz Club, Tiffany's Cabaret,
The Gold Club, King of Clubs, Valentines, Ebony and Lace, Babes, and Platinum
Plus. Indictments for prostitution, public indecency, distributing obscene
material, and other violations were issued in December when District Attorney
General Bill Gibbons decided to prosecute the cases as criminal, rather
than civil, matters.
Topless-club attorneys have filed motions to dismiss the indictments because they say the DA's office received private money to investigate the clubs, and because the special prosecutor, Larry Parrish, received compensation from private individuals. Parrish, a Memphis attorney with the firm Parrish, Shaw & Brandon, is well-known for his prosecution of adult films in the 1970s, when he was an assistant U.S. attorney.
"We believe a public prosecutor must be free of private interests that would hinder him from seeking justice," says Mike Pleasants, an attorney for the clubs. "He has a duty to be impartial and to enforce the law in an ethical manner."
Weirich says the DA's office has not solicited or received any money from private sources. Parrish says his involvement in the case sets a precedent.
"I don't know of any reason why private citizens shouldn't be able to contribute," he says. "If there is a reason, the courts should tell us. If there isn't a reason, the courts should tell us. Then it would be a clear matter without dispute."
Defense attorneys also say Parrish has not divulged the names of all the individuals paying him. In July of last year, when the Flyer learned Parrish was being compensated by private individuals and filed a Freedom of Information request, former District Attorney General John Pierotti released the donors' names to the media. Since then, Parrish periodically updates a list of donors and sends it to Attorney General John Knox Walkup.
According to the latest list, dated March 21, 1997, Parrish has accepted $246,177.87 in donations. The largest contributor is the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, which donated $51,500. However, Beth Dixon, the foundation's vice president of development, says one or several individuals made the gift through the foundation in the foundation's name. Dixon says they made the donation to Citizens for Community Values, a nonprofit group that provides counseling and financial assistance to topless dancers. She says the foundation will not release the names of the donors without their permission.
Parrish also received $46,000 from "unnamed donors." He says all unnamed donations have been or will be returned. In August, Pierotti said Parrish would have to return all donations from individuals wishing to remain anonymous.
Parrish says he recently received $125,000 from the National Coalition for the Protection of Families and Children. Other major donors included in Parrish's list are Barnhardt Crane & Rigging Company, $20,000; John C. Dobbs, $20,000; and Gil Brandon Jr., $10,000.
From December 20, 1995, to March 17, 1997, Parrish says his firm has spent 6,036 hours on the topless-club case. For out-of-pocket expenses, which include court reporters, postage, and long-distance bills, his firm was reimbursed more than $92,000.
Memphis Groups Respond to President's Race Message
by Tanuja Surpuriya
LAST WEEK, PRESIDENT CLINTON URGED Americans to engage in a nationwide conversation on race, but some Memphis organizations are one step ahead of him, with plans for race-relations dialogue and diversity awareness events already in the works.
The Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) and the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ) have both been holding discussion forums on improving race relations. MIFA held its second Barrier Breakers meeting last week, in which about 70 people joined a panel made up of Jewish and Christian leaders to discuss ways of breaking down religious, cultural, racial, and geographical barriers.
First held in April, Barrier Breakers is the brainchild of Marianne Williams, who works with MIFA Urban Ministries. "It's not a political issue," she says. "It's about people taking the time to really learn the language of others. And the best way to do this is for people to work on a project side by side so they can get to know each other."