Dump Lingers As Parties Dispute Responsibility For two months, a huge pile of debris has been entrenched in a vacant lot at the corner of Tennessee and Butler streets, spilling out into the road, in full view of tourists riding the riverfront trolley, while a landowner and the city point fingers at each other. "The debris came from construction of the bluffwalk," says property owner Alvin "Buddy" Lazarov. "The city was going to take care of it before the Memphis in May barbecue [contest]. We were going to park cars [in the lot]. We've called the Mayor's Action Center and gotten no results." But according to Judith Johnson, executive director of Memphis Heritage -- which several months ago attempted to purchase the old Tennessee Brewery -- the trash came from Lazarov's own property adjacent to the brewery. After Judge Larry Potter cited owners Lazarov and Larry Bloch for environmental violations and ordered a cleanup of that lot, the material -- including lumber, tree limbs, tires, and a satellite dish -- was simply moved across the street to the lot on Butler. Director of public works Benny Lendermon confirms that the city didn't put the trash there. "We've checked with our inspectors and contractors, and that debris did not come from clearing the bluffwalk," he says, adding that there are other developers in the area and it's conceivable that some other company is the culprit. But it doesn't matter who's at fault. "The landowner is responsible for cleaning his property even if he didn't put the debris there," Lendermon says. At the request of The Memphis Flyer, whose offices are located on Tennessee Street, fire inspector Ben Watson came out and looked at the debris June 22nd. "I called the Mayor's Action Center and they told me they would make it a priority," he says. (Earlier calls to the center by the Flyer had proved futile.) As of June 29th, the pile -- now more than 6 feet high and stretching 100 feet along the curb -- was still there. -- Debbie Gilbert Female White Officers Appeal Court Decision Five white female lieutenants with the Memphis Police Department are appealing the decision of a federal court, which threw out their race- and sex-discrimination lawsuit. The officers contend that, had the police department's promotional system worked fairly in 1996, at least one of them would have been promoted to major. Instead, five female black lieutenants were promoted to major. The officers suing are: Brenda Maples, Sharon Cox, Pat Lovett, Patricia Pendleton, and Candace Hale. In a department that has been battling various discrimination lawsuits for more than a decade, these five officers had a hard time gaining respect. Their case was rejected by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which did not grant them standing to sue. Attorney Everett Gibson filed suit anyway, only to have it thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Turner. Turner ruled that the officers filed too late, long past the statute of limitations. Now Gibson says he has taken the case to a federal appellate court in Cincinnati. He'll be filing motions on his arguments in a couple of months. -- Phil Campbell Kool-Aid Splashed Across City Buses If you occasionally see multicolored images of the Kool-Aid man as you drive through Memphis, it might be the effects of heat, stress, or hallucinogens. Or it could be a city bus. Since early June, the windows of 38 Memphis Area Transit Authority buses have been covered with posters that depict the happy yet slightly sinister image of the Kool-Aid man superimposed on bright solid-color backgrounds above the slogan, "Keep your Kool-Aid." The MATA bus ads are part of a two-month campaign that is running in just five cities in the U.S., says Thano Chaltas, senior brand manager for Kool-Aid. The other cities are San Antonio, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Denver. Chaltas says Memphis was chosen because it has the highest per-capita Kool-Aid consumption in the country. The repeated images and the bright colors in the ads are reminiscent of Andy Warhol's paintings of Marilyn Monroe, Campbell's soup cans, and other pop-culture icons, but Chaltas calls the resemblance coincidental. "Kool-Aid represents fun, fruity flavors, bright colors, and smiles for kids," he says, adding that Andy Warhol imitations aren't a good marketing tool for children. That's a relief, because it would be strange indeed if a maker of processed foods imitated the artist who imitated the makers of processed foods. -- Daniel Connolly Reaction Is Mixed To Supreme Court Disability Ruling Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on four cases that could drastically change enforcement of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and local reactions ranged from jubilation to wariness. Memphis ADAPT, a disabled-rights organization affiliated with the Memphis Center for Independent Living, declared a victory in the Olmstead v. L.C. decision, which ruled that two mentally disabled women in Georgia could not be forced to live in a state psychiatric hospital after their doctors judged them eligible for community-based care. For years, ADAPT has been lobbying the state of Tennessee to spend more of its federal Medicaid funds on home-care programs for the handicapped. "It's five times less expensive than nursing homes, which is where Tennessee spends 95 percent of its long-term-care funding," says Tim Wheat, ADA coordinator at the Center for Independent Living. "The Olmstead decision, I hope, will have a major impact. In Tennessee, there are about 35,000 disabled in institutions who could be moved to home programs." The other three Supreme Court decisions will have no impact on the severely disabled but could have a huge effect on those whose impairment is marginal. Basically, the Court said that if a person's disability is correctable -- for example, poor vision that can be "fixed" with eyeglasses -- then that person is not considered disabled under the ADA. Employers were generally pleased with this ruling, since it could prevent a flood of discrimination lawsuits. Had the Court ruled in the opposite direction, some 160 million adult Americans could be considered "disabled." "I'm sure there have been frivolous cases, but the ADA's definition of disability just invites controversy," says Dr. Thomas Miller, a professor of management at the University of Memphis. "The gray area has been very broad in the past, and this might narrow the range a bit." However, the decision has created a paradox: Legions of workers who are disabled enough to be fired from a particular job, yet not disabled enough to sue for discrimination under the ADA. Such was the case with the two female pilots who could not get hired by United Airlines because they needed glasses. Since their vision with glasses is 20/20, they are not considered impaired under the new definition. Yet they were denied jobs because of their impairment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the ADA, is not at all happy about the ruling. "The government's position," says Katharine Cores, regional attorney for the EEOC in Memphis, "was that you make the determination about a disability without considering mitigating measures that ameliorate the effects of impairment." Cores emphasizes that the ADA is a civil-rights law. "When dealing with a law that has remedial purposes -- to correct a previous wrong -- it should be interpreted broadly." No one has yet figured out how to address the issue of the "temporarily abled." Under the Supreme Court's definition, a diabetic whose condition is controlled with insulin is not disabled. But what if that person suddenly doesn't have access to insulin, or for some reason the treatment is no longer effective? How can someone have a life-threatening disability at certain times and not at others? The Supreme Court's job is only to interpret the law as it exists; in order to clear up the confusion, Congress will have to rewrite the ADA to spell out exactly what it means by "disability." In the meantime, says Cores, some pending ADA-discrimination lawsuits may be dismissed before the plaintiffs get their day in court. -- Debbie Gilbert Grand Jury Indicts Pair for Kidnapping Editor A federal grand jury indicted two men with kidnapping the editor of an Albuquerque newsweekly who was in town last month for a convention hosted by The Memphis Flyer. Weekly Alibi senior editor Michael Henningsen hadn't spent two full days in Memphis when he was assaulted in the parking lot of Amnesia, a dance club at 2866 Poplar Avenue. Henningsen had driven to the club late at night to pick up a few of his friends, who were also in town for the national convention of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Henningsen was hit over the head with the butt of a gun and what he thinks was a piece of asphalt. He was later forced at gunpoint to withdraw money from an ATM before being shoved into the trunk of his rental car. "I actually convinced them that I only had $100 from my bank account, which I got back from the bank," Henningsen says. "[The bank] called it an unauthorized withdrawal. I would agree with that." Henningsen was back in town last week to give federal prosecutors more information. He also talked to an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gang ties are suspected with at least one of the defendants, Alexieus Montgomery. The other defendant, James Gilmore, had never been arrested before, according to the Memphis Police Department. If convicted, the pair could get life in prison. "We sat around for about three hours and they had me recount my recollections of the events," Henningsen says. "I read over my previous statements I had given police. Through the weeks, there have been little minor details they wanted me to fill." Henningsen says the prosecutor was sizing him up, to see if he would make a good witness during the trial. If not, he would be used during the grand jury indictment hearing. "[The prosecutor] felt I had a pretty good understanding of the incident. I'll be called back, he thinks in September, for the trial," Henningsen says. The weekly editor also learned more from prosecutors about what happened to him while he was locked in the trunk. "I didn't know they had taken me down I-55 south. Up until that point, there had been some blanks. [Meeting the prosecutor] helped me put some closure on a couple of the questions I had." The U.S. Attorney's office is taking this case because Henningsen was carried over the state line into Mississippi. In all, Henningsen was stuck in the trunk of his own rental car for about four hours. Henningsen's ordeal finally ended back in Memphis. After driving into Mississippi, Gilmore and Montgomery allegedly got into a high-speed chase with police, which ended after they wrecked the car. Henningsen was not injured in the crash. A traumatic experience, for sure, but Henningsen has not become embittered about his victimization. Instead, he's developed a wry sense of humor regarding the unfortunate experience. "Next time I rent a car, I'm renting a Lincoln," he says. Henningsen, at 6'4", was renting a Toyota Camry. -- Phil Campbell Making a Difference in Millennial Memphis In 1996, Bill Clinton said he wanted to build a bridge to the 21st century. In 1999, the volunteers of the Vollintine-Evergreen Greenline want to build a bridge across two creeks to join their Greenway trails. Vollintine-Evergreen Greenline is the recipient of the fifth Making a Difference in Millennial Memphis grant. The Vollintine-Evergreen Greenline is a committee of the Vollintine-Evergreen Community Association Community Development Corporation. In 1996, they purchased a 1.7-mile stretch of land that was abandoned by the L&N Railroad and was being used as a dump. Volunteers transformed the area into biking and walking paths. Currently, Greenway users have to go around Lick Creek and West Creek to cover the entire area. The grant will be used to buy supplies for the first of two bridges that will span the creeks. As part of its 10th-anniversary celebration, The Memphis Flyer is giving away $50,000 in grants of $1,000 each. The money is provided by an anonymous Memphian who hopes to encourage what might be called "good works" -- little things that improve the quality of life in Memphis. The grants are dispersed by the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. Grants are available to any non-profit in the Memphis area. To apply, send a proposal on the organization's stationery to: Making A Difference The Memphis Flyer P.O. Box 687 Memphis, TN 38101

			Fly on the Wall Direct Marketing With the Lord's hip "God Speaks" branding campaign slathered all over billboards in Memphis, it's nice to know that the Almighty can still work the hard sell, as on this signpost in Adamsville, Tennessee. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAVIS That's Quite A Velvety Voice You Have There, Mr. Bland This weekend, Clarksdale, Mississippi, will play host to the River City Music Festival, "one of the largest blues festivals ever staged in the Mississippi Delta," featuring performances by Bobby "Blue" Bland, Lynn White, and Tyrone Davis. A good time, surely, for the some 30,000 fans who are expected to attend. Who they've picked to host the event, however, gives one pause -- none other than Ken Osmond, famous for creating the role of smarmy sycophant Eddie Haskell on TV's ever-soulful Leave It To Beaver. Did we miss a season or something? Laws of the Land The new laws are here, the new laws are here! This Thursday marks the beginning of a new fiscal year, which is when the laws passed by the latest session of the Tennessee General Assembly go into effect. Some of them seem fairly useful, allowing citizens to block unwanted calls from pesky telemarketers or exempting people from civil lawsuits for actions taken to prevent violent crimes. Here, then, is a sampler of other laws that go into effect July 1st: · Minors must now have parental permission before having any body part pierced that doesn't happen to be their nose. · Aiming a "laser pointer device at a law-enforcement officer engaged in official duties with intent to place officer in fear of serious bodily injury or death"? That's a crime now. · The General Assembly has abruptly redefined the word "riot" to include disturbances in penal institutions, an idea perhaps suggested to them by the vernacular phrase "prison riot." · It used to be that you had to be at least 6 years old to ride in the bed of a moving pickup truck in Tennessee. The General Assembly has gotten tough on that sort of nonsense, however, upping the age to 12. Youngsters engaging in agricultural activities and/or parades are, thankfully, exempt. · For reasons we didn't care to look into, Sullivan County has been exempted from a law "abolishing constables," presumably so as not to interfere with the county's annual Anglo Days Festival & Parade, known to area 7-year-olds as an event packed with legal pickup-truck-riding opportunities. Licentiousness In addition to the new statutes outlined above, the General Assembly apparently spent a lot of time worrying about license plates. Maybe a little too much time. The plates authorized this session include: "Animal Friendly" plates, the revenues from which will go toward animal sterilization programs; a plate commemorating the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers' three consecutive national basketball championships; a plate for the Nashville Predators NHL franchise; a Special Olympics license plate; a cultural license plate for combat infantrymen; a license plate for the city of Oak Ridge; and an Adult Baseball League Association specialty plate. The Native American Indian "cultural license plate" has now been reclassified as a "new specialty earmarked plate," with proceeds going to the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs. It looks like we got that "prison riot" thing cleared up just in time.