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Daily Dose for May 22, 2008
Session Wraps Up
Session Wraps Up -- Lawmakers have wrapped up this year's legislative session, ending with quick approval of a compromise budget and lottery surplus bill. The later lowers the GPA requirement to retain the lottery scholarship to 2.75 through the first two semesters of the junior year and includes a GOP-sought allotment of funds for K-12 capital expenses related to energy efficiency. The $27.7B budget includes job cuts for 2,011 people. More here, here, and here.
E. Ford Acquitted -- Former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr was found not guilty on all six counts in his extortion and bribery case. The verdict was the government's first setback in a three-year string of successful prosecutions in corruption cases stemming from undercover FBI sting operations involving informants and hidden cameras. However, Ford faces another federal bribery trial in August with former city utility chief Joseph Lee III. They are accused of trading favors while serving in their official positions between 2004 and 2006 when Lee was the president and CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division.
Plan Would Shake Up Knox Co. Ethics Panel -- A plan proposed by Knox Co. Commissioner Mike Hammond would remove elected officials from that county's ethics panel. Hammond says the move is needed to get fresh faces who are not connected to politics into the process of weeding out ethical violations. If Hammond's proposal is adopted by County Commission, it would mean Hammond himself, Commissioner Paul Pinkston, Knox County Sheriff's officer Mike Duncan, school board member Thomas Deakins, Knox County Education Association member Kim Waller and Criminal Court Clerk Martha Phillips no longer could serve on the Ethics Committee.
