Home | Entries [Previous |Next]
0 Comments
Daily Dose for December 14, 2007
Hispanic Drivers Stopped More by THP
Hispanic Drivers Stopped More by THP -- Hispanic drivers appear more likely to be stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers than white and black drivers when compared to each group's proportion of licensed drivers in the state. The Tennessee legislature ordered the study in 2005 to determine whether race and ethnicity play a role in troopers' decisions to stop motorists. The comptroller's office analyzed the 239,717 vehicle-stop reports the THP collected in 2006. The Highway Patrol's commander, Col. Mike Walker, said Thursday that the study's results for Hispanics may be skewed because the comparisons are based on each group's proportion of licensed drivers. On a percentage basis, 5.4 percent of Tennessee's licensed drivers who are black and 5.4 percent who are white are stopped but 8.9 percent of Hispanic licensed drivers were stopped.
Thompson Begins Last Iowa Push -- Fred Thompson may have his last chance this coming week to pull votes away from Mike Huckabee. Thompson heads to Iowa on Monday for a final bus tour, before taking a short break from campaigning to celebrate Christmas. Thompson Political Dir Randy Enwright: "We feel pretty strongly that people (Iowa voters) are just now about to really, really focus." Thompson was in fourth place in the most recent Des Moines Register poll conducted in late November, with support from 9 percent of potential GOP caucus-goers. Vandy professor Bruce Oppenheimer seems skeptical Thompson call pull away the same constituency that has attached itself to Mike Huckabee however. Oppenheimer: "Maybe there is a rabbit to be pulled out of the hat, but it is not the best time to pull a rabbit out of the hat."
Ramsey Stays Out of Bunker Controversy -- After questioning the State Architect yesterday, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey decided to stay above the fray in the so-called Bredesen bunker controversy. The ballroom, otherwise known as Conservation Hall, is a planned 14,000-square-foot banquet-type facility that will be placed underneath the front yard of the Executive Residence in the city of Oak Hill. It will cost at least $4.8M in private donations with about $3.86M in state money to pay for additional projects relating to the Conservation Hall. The ballroom itself will encompass about 3,000 of the 14,000 square feet. The dispute over the planned expansion began as a neighborhood conflict, mainly between First Lady Andrea Conte’s team and angry Oak Hill neighbors, but now has become a state-wide issue with Oak Hill residents organizing a lobbying group to oppose to plan based on the state spending money on the underground facility.
73 File in Knox Co. -- By Thursday's noon deadline, 73 candidates had qualified for the 2008 Knox County ballot's 19 offices. The primaries are Feb. 5, but some races already have shaped up as two-candidate face-offs. Most of the races drawing a number of qualifers were the County Commission races, where public interest has peaked in light of the Open Meeting violations and continued ethical considerations.
Anderson Judge Rules Against Throwing Out Election -- Anderson Co. Senior Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood says he won't void an election for Anderson Co. General Session Court judge. The petition to void the election was filed by candidate David Stuart on the grounds that some voters violated state law by staying in the polling place more than 10 minutes or in the balloting booth more than 5 minutes. An Anderson County judge ruled, however, that the right to vote trumps any glitches in the way balloting is done if those goofs - deemed illegal under state voting laws - are technical or unintended. Blackwood: "Illegal is more than innocent negligence .. It means knowingly violating the law."
