Free Republic

A new generation of shakedown artists hampers America’s urban revival.___ Barbara Bradley, an editor with the Memphis Commercial Appeal, moved into the River City’s reviving downtown about a year and a half ago, loving its “energy and enthusiasm.” But a horde of invading panhandlers has cooled her enjoyment of city life. Earlier this year, she recalled in a recent column, as she showed some visitors around the neighborhood, “a big panhandler blocked the entrance to our parking area and demanded his toll.” Now a nervous Bradley avoids certain downtown areas, locks her car when fueling up at local gas stations,...

NASHVILLE -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford -- already a YouTube star for her snarling "what you're saying ain't hittin' on nothin' with me" speech last year -- was back at it last week, berating regulators about new state fees on the funeral industry. Acknowledging that she's a licensed funeral director, Ford complained in a legislative hearing Aug. 13 that fees are going to "eat us up and put us out of business." She demanded regulators disclose who imposed a new $150 biannual registration fee on preneed funeral sales agents and what it's for. Turns out that Ford and her legislative...

As fans from all over the world converge on Memphis, Tennessee to celebrate "Elvis Week" it's a good time to remember and reflect. Photo of Graceland at Twilight taken by Aleksandra Rebic August 2007 I first went inside when they had just opened the house on the hill in Memphis. It was the summer of 1982. What had once been just a man and his talent had long since been elevated to legend, and legend had become a full-blown phenomenon. I never met him, never knew him, but there we were, my family and I, going to his house, not...

A racially charged Democratic primary campaign ended Thursday with an incumbent congressman trouncing the opponent who ran an ad linking him to the Ku Klux Klan. Early, unofficial results showed Democrat Steve Cohen with 79 percent of the vote to 19 percent for Nikki Tinker, a black corporate lawyer who was his chief opponent in the district that covers Memphis.

When polls opened at 7 a.m. in precincts throughout Shelby County, coverage of the State and Federal Primary and County General Election had extended to national newspapers and websites closely following Greater Memphis's two contested Congressional elections. Much of the coverage focused on the 9th Congressional District Democratic Primary, where incumbent Steve Cohen was in a rematch of sorts with corporate lawyer Nikki Tinker in a heated campaign that pushed to a boil in the hours before polls opened. State Rep. Joe Towns Jr. is also on the ballot, as are two others. The New York Times ran a 700-word...

The staff of Congressman Steve Cohen called police to his home today after an argument with an Armenian-American activist in town from California ended with Cohen physically pushing him out the side door. Peter Musurlian, a documentary producer for Globalist Films in Glendale, Calif., followed a reporter from The Commercial Appeal into Cohen’s Overton Park home, where the Congressman had invited local media to respond to a commercial from Nikki Tinker, his 9th Congressional District opponent in Thursday’s Democratic Primary, that Cohen called “more mudslinging.” When members of Cohen’s staff realized who the cameraman was – Cohen said Musurlian followed...

A suspect in a car break-in was socked in the face and held for police after the car’s owner and a neighbor interrupted his work. Walter Elliott, 41, is being held in the Shelby County Jail on $25,000 bond. According to a police affidavit, a neighbor called Rubin Whittaker of the 1300 block of Hemlock at 5 a.m. Tuesday and told him somebody was rummaging through his van. Whittaker and another neighbor, Anthony Williams, went to the van and told the man to get out. The suspect began to run, but the escape attempt was aborted when he was struck...

Former Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey said Monday that the Nikki Tinker ad featuring pictures of a Ku Klux Klan rally and denunciations of incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen's vote not to remove the statue and remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest from a Memphis park "has nothing to do with race." Asked if injecting the incendiary television images into Thursday's 9th Congressional District Democratic Primary contest would be seen as racially divisive, Bailey said: "That may be an ancillary side of it, but that's not the main focus, and it's not the intended focus." Cohen's campaign pushed back vigorously on the...

In his two most recent campaign commercials, 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen spends valuable seconds of airtime explaining a most mundane electoral process. "You need to ask for a Democratic ballot on Thursday to vote for me," he says in the latest, created especially to run on Comedy Central's satirical late-night show, "The Colbert Report." He said the same thing in another spot, "Greatest Honor," and Memphis radio listeners have heard Cohen provide instructions in even greater detail. In his attempt to run up votes in the Democratic primary contest against Nikki Tinker, Joe Towns Jr. and two other candidates,...

While first-term U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen was on the floor of the House on Tuesday, guiding passage of a historic resolution apologizing to African-American citizens for slavery and Jim Crow laws, his most prominent and well-funded Democratic primary opponent was out in the Memphis heat trying to win voters. Nikki Tinker likes to wear a baseball cap and athletic shoes to go with a skirt, giving her the look of a woman hard at work, and she would often show voters the tan line on her arms as evidence of it. She said she worked outside at the early-voting sites...

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department. The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar. "In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment," the anonymous bloggers write on the site, "Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to...

NASHVILLE -- A federal court jury convicted former state senator John Ford of all six charges in connection with his $850,000 in consulting work for two major TennCare contractors. Ford, 66, is already serving a 5 1/2 year sentence for a separate conviction on federal bribery charges in Memphis. He faces up to 20 years in the Nashville case but sentencing will not occur for several weeks, possibly months. The middle Tennessee jury deliberated a total of eight hours -- six on Thursday -- before returning to the courtroom where it sat since the trial began on July 1. The...

It didn't take long for Sunday night's Congressional debate to turn to race. In a televised debate on WREG-TV Channel 3, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and challengers Nikki Tinker and Joe Towns Jr. began by telling viewers why each should be elected to represent Tennessee's Ninth Congressional District. But minutes into the debate, the conversation turned to race, a theme that has been a near-constant in this campaign. Some believe the incumbent Cohen isn't qualified to represent the majority black district because he's white; Tinker and Towns are black. For others, what matters is merit, not pigment. "I have never...

Tenn. won't reinstate Ophelia Ford's expired funeral permit

NASHVILLE -- Then-state senator John Ford filed state-required financial interest disclosure forms yearly for 2001 through 2004 without listing any consulting work or income -- and then sought to amend them in 2005 after media reports began surfacing about his consulting income and a formal ethics complaint had been lodged against him, according to testimony today in his federal court trial here. Earlier testimony has indicated that the consulting firm in which Ford was a 40 percent partner received about $1.2 million from a TennCare dental services provider during that time. But under questioning by prosecutors, Senate Chief Clerk Russell...

The U.S. Attorney’s Office this afternoon announced that it is dismissing bribery and extortion charges against former Memphis city councilman Edmund Ford Sr. and Joseph Lee, former head of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. “The Government has re-evaluated the case and stated to the Court that a dismissal is warranted in the interest of justice,” the one-paragraph statement said.

We could write columns for the rest of our lives just enumerating the failures of programs inspired by liberals and liberal philosophy – the Great Society, the destruction of families by Welfare, affirmative action, the destruction of our public education system, forced busing, shutdown of drilling for oil and stopping the building of more nuclear plants, dealing with Islamic terrorists in the criminal justice system, etc., etc. Today I want to focus on liberal programs in the area of housing.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This month's trial of former state Sen. John Ford on corruption charges could last up to a month. Ford is accused of taking $800,000 in consultant payments from TennCare contractors to promote those private companies' interests with the state's expanded Medicaid program. Ford was known for his flashy attire when he was a lawmaker. On Monday he was led into court in a dark green jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back. He was convicted earlier this year of taking $55,000 in bribes during the unrelated federal Tennessee Waltz investigation and is serving a 5 1/2...

News Channel 3 has confirmed the Internal Revenue Service is after former Senator and current prisoner, John Ford. The IRS says Ford owes more than 220,000 in unpaid federal income taxes. The IRS would not comment on specifics but did say the taxes are from 2003, 2004 and 2005. Ford is currently in a federal prison on bribery charges prosecuted under Operation Tennessee Waltz. Ford is serving 5 years in prison. A June 24 trial is set for Ford in Nashville on allegations he took $800,000 in illegal payments.

A psychologist raised in Frayser and trained in South America, Morgan had been rejected twice by the state's psychology licensing board because of his academic record. But Morgan found a powerful ally in then-state Sen. John Ford, who pushed through legislation that forced regulators to hand Morgan a license to practice, according to an examination by The Commercial Appeal. That carefully tailored 1998 law has privately troubled psychology professionals for years yet remained unknown to the larger public. The newspaper uncovered the matter following Morgan's indictment last month. Federal prosecutors contend Morgan offered Ford money in 2005 for legislation that...

A federal court jury this afternoon acquitted former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Jr. on charges of taking bribes in 2006 in return for his vote and influence on a development and billboard project. The jury of seven women and five men returned its verdict at about 4 p.m. after deliberating the better portion of two days. As a smiling Ford walked out of the federal court room, he said in a loud voice, “My Lord, the Savior is awesome. He is awesome. I just love my Lord.” Ford, 52, a mortician, was indicted on three counts of extortion...

A federal court jury is scheduled to begin deliberations this afternoon in the extortion and bribery trial of former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. Federal prosecutors say the 52-year-old mortician accepted $8,900 in bribes from a political consultant in 2006 for his votes and influence in a development project, removal of a city billboard moratorium and the replacement of the chairman of the Board of Adjustment. “Each of these payments was made for official acts,” federal prosecutor Tom Colthurst told jurors as he showed secretly recorded videos of consultant Joe Cooper giving cash to Ford. “You also see...

Wearing a button-sized hidden camera in his shirt and a recorder taped to his waist, political consultant Joe Cooper passed $100 bills to then-city councilman Edmund Ford Sr. in 2006 while seeking approval for a development project. On the tapes presented Wednesday to a federal court jury, Cooper refers to Ford as "the Godfather" and "the master" and encourages him to "work your magic and just make sure it happens." Testifying as the government's key witness in Ford's extortion and bribery trial, Cooper explained how he regularly got such issues approved by the council for well-heeled developers who employed him....

The FBI called it Operation Main Street Sweeper, a relatively short undercover investigation that yielded several indictments, three guilty pleas to date and one memorable quote. After allegedly accepting a $1,900 bribe in 2006 to line up votes to repeal a billboard moratorium, then-City Councilman Edmund Ford Sr. pocketed the money and confidently declared on a secretly recorded videotape: "I'll drum up seven or make somebody walk out." The strength of the government's case against Ford will be tested this week in a trial before U.S. Dist. Court Judge Samuel Mays Jr. Jury selection from a pool of 105 citizens...

County commissioners reaffirmed their stance against the Trans-Texas Corridor, and they took another step toward keeping county government transparent when they met Tuesday. First up on the court's agenda, commissioners heard a presentation by Connie Fogle on behalf of the newly formed Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission. According to Fogle, the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, requires state agencies to coordinate with local commissions to "ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level." "Critical in the code is the word 'coordinate,'" she said. "This does not mean the commission has to cooperate. The intent is to...

Michael Hooks Jr. has been ordered to report to a federal prison facility in Mississippi in two weeks to serve his 30-day sentence for fraud. Hooks, 33, pleaded guilty in January to accepting $1,500 in fees for consulting work at Juvenile Court in 2001 for work he did not do. The small-scale scam led to a wide-reaching public corruption investigation dubbed the Tennessee Waltz that resulted in convictions of nearly a dozen elected officials going to prison. Among them was his father, Michael Hooks Sr., a former Shelby County commissioner who is serving a 26-month federal prison sentence in Alabama...

Former state senator John Ford was assigned to maintenance duty today at the federal prison in Louisiana where he is serving a 5-year prison sentence for bribery. “He will be temporarily assigned to assist the dorm orderlies with sanitation in the dorms,” said Karen Million, spokesman for the Federal Prison Camp at Pollock, La. “After we have a chance to assess his skills, we may assign him to a different job assignment.” Ford, 65, who reported to the camp Monday afternoon, was convicted last year of taking $55,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents in the Tennessee Waltz investigation into...

5 1/2-year sentence is result of bribes taken in Tennessee Waltz sting - MEMPHIS - The Rolex watches, fancy suits and plush hotels are all things of the past for former state Sen. John Ford.Ford, 65, reported Monday to a federal prison camp in Louisiana to begin a 5 1/2-year sentence for taking $55,000 in bribes during the FBI's statewide corruption sting called Tennessee Waltz.Once one of the state's most powerful lawmakers, Ford was known as a flashy dresser with a taste for fine dining and expensive hotels.At the prison camp, he will have half of a double bunk in...

Former state senator John Ford entered the federal prison camp at Pollock, La., at 1:40 p.m. today. Ford, who was convicted last year of accepting $55,000 in bribes as a state legislator, is serving a 5-year at the prison, which is about 400 miles from Memphis. Prison spokesman Karen Million said Ford, prisoner No. 20286-076, will receive an orientation and a medical screening today and will be given a work assignment on Tuesday. Ford was convicted as part of an FBI undercover sting dubbed Operation Tennessee Waltz. He is the 10th defendant to be sent to prison. Two others received...

MEMPHIS, TN - Former State Senator John Ford is scheduled to report to federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana on Monday, April 28, 2008. Ford was convicted in April 2007 on bribery charges; he took more than $55,000 to influence votes in the Tennessee legislature. Ford was indicted during an FBI undercover operation, "Operation Tennessee Waltz," which worked to expose public corruption. The United States Penitentiary in Pollock is a high-security facility in central Louisiana, which houses male offender. A satellite prison camp located next to the main facility houses minimum security offenders. The prison is surrounded by the Kisatchie National...

Its political ranks have thinned, but is there a new crop ahead? In videotaped evidence played at his Tennessee Waltz corruption trial, former state senator John Ford once bragged that he was "the man who makes the deals." For many years, he was also the public face of the Ford family to many Mid-Southerners, a larger-than-life character who had the political skills to back up his overbearing personality. With John Ford scheduled to report to prison Monday, he'll be leaving behind a family facing uncertain political prospects. Harold Ford Sr. and Harold Ford Jr., who represented Tennessee's Ninth Congressional District...

While Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton was preparing to call for a 17 percent hike in city property taxes, he had a little tax problem of his own: unpaid city and county property taxes. This morning, Herenton paid $5,768 in Shelby County property taxes on his home at 5281 Horn Lake. They were due Feb . 29. The amount paid this morning included $168.02 in interest and penalties. City taxes on a property owned by Herenton Investment Co. at 270 Dubois, located in the Banneker Estates subdivision that Herenton is developing and where he lives, were paid yesterday. As of Wednesday,...

Ford family members elevated the dialogue in Steve Cohen's re-election run, discouraging use of the race card - The ability to lead and the willingness to serve are necessary attributes for a member of Congress. When a congressman continues to lead and serve after leaving office, it's a bonus for constituents. Harold Ford Sr. and Harold Ford Jr., who represented Memphis' 9th Congressional District from 1975 to 2007, gave the 9th District a bonus Saturday when they made it clear that U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen's race and religion should not be factors in his re-election bid. Cohen, who is white,...

What a comeback and what a great game.

Reject racially tinged remarks about Cohen by other Fords - Harold Ford Sr. and Harold Ford Jr. on Saturday rejected racially charged remarks made last week by family members Jake and Isaac Ford. Jake Ford, who is trying to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen in the Ninth Congressional District, filed Thursday to run again for the seat as an independent. In 2006, he ran and lost to Cohen. In remarks published Friday in The Commercial Appeal, Jake Ford blasted Cohen, who is white, and said Tennessee deserves to have at least one black congressman. Democrats Ford Sr. and Ford...

His racially charged rhetoric is tiresome, particularly during a week dedicated to MLK's memory - Maybe it would have been asking too much to expect Jake and Isaac Ford to hold their peace, at least for a couple of days. Jake Ford, who filed qualifying paperwork Thursday to run for the Ninth Congressional District seat as an independent, wasted no time in taking his campaign on a detour down the low road. Jake Ford suggested that incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is unable to represent the district because Cohen is white and the majority of the district's residents are black....

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has said he thinks the 9th Congressional District has gotten beyond race in electing its representatives. But independent candidate Jake Ford seemed intent on proving him wrong Thursday. He kicked off the congressional campaign by blasting Cohen, who is white, and saying Tennessee deserves to have at least one black congressman. Still hot from his loss to Cohen in 2006, Ford, younger brother of former congressman Harold Ford Jr., also railed against the news media -- specifically The Commercial Appeal -- for not giving him, or his record, a fair shake in the last election. "This...

Cohen intervenes to request change of prison from Texas to Louisiana -- WASHINGTON -- Former state senator John Ford is going to the big house next month, but after the intervention of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, it will be much closer to Memphis. Cohen confirmed Thursday that his office made a request to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to look into changing Ford's incarceration from a minimum-security federal-prison camp at La Tuna, Texas, to a similar facility in central Louisiana. Ford, 65, is to surrender to federal authorities next month to begin serving a 5 1/2-year sentence after his conviction...

NASHVILLE -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford answered the Senate's roll call Monday night for the first time since the General Assembly convened Jan. 8. The Memphis Democrat told her colleagues in a brief address upon her return to the Senate floor that she had suffered from a "bleeding ulcer" that took a long time to diagnose, but she's ready to return to work. She had been hospitalized with a previously undisclosed illness off and on since the legislature adjourned last June. Walking slowly with the aid of an aluminum cane, she arrived at her legislative office about an hour before...

NASHVILLE -- State Sen. Ophelia Ford is expected to return to the legislature next week after being absent with an unspecified illness since the session started in January. Ford's temporary assistant, Sherwine Lucien, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the Memphis Democrat had contacted her about booking a flight to Nashville on Monday. "As far as we know, she should be here Monday," Lucien said. Ford has been in and out of the hospital with health issues that have plagued her the past year. The 57-year-old said in March that she had a severe case of anemia that had...

As first reported by WREC's Mike Fleming, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton is stepping down on July 31. Sources suggest that he plans to campaign for superintendent of Memphis City Schools. ... Herenton was re-elected last fall and has served as mayor for 16 years. Recently a federal grand jury exploring Herenton’s ties to a city contractor has served subpoenas at the Memphis Area Transit Authority offices.

Jessie Dotson slaughtered six people in a Lester Street home as a result of a lengthy argument with his brother, one of the victims, police said today. At a 3 p.m. press conference, police announced that Dotson will be booked on six counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder in the case that left four adults and two children dead and three kids wounded. Police believe the killings occurred early Sunday, at 722 Lester, just north of Summer in north Binghamton. Cecil Dewayne Dotson, 30; Marissa Rene Williams, 27; Hollis Seals, 33; and Shindri Roberson, 22,...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A suspect in the slayings of four adults and two children found dead at a Memphis residence was under arrest Saturday, police said. The bodies were discovered Monday at a small rental house where three other children also were found critically wounded. Police refused to identify the suspect but scheduled an afternoon news conference to discuss the arrest. One of the dead, Cecil Dotson, 30, was the father of the dead and injured children. Dotson's brother, Jessie Dotson, 33, was arrested Friday night and held in connection with a first-degree murder, court and jail records show....

Tamara Mitchell-Ford, who is serving a drunken driving jail sentence in Collierville, was indicted Thursday on two more drunken-driving cases. The 43-year-old ex-wife of former state senator John Ford picked up the cases before she was ordered in November to begin serving 11 months and 27 days for violating her probation on a DUI case from February of last year. In anticipation of the indictments, her attorney, Juni Ganguli, said recently a tentative plea agreement with prosecutors called for Mitchell-Ford to plead guilty to both new DUIs and to be given concurrent sentences of 11 months and 29 days in...

REFUGIO, Texas - With an abandoned Wild West-vintage town of storefronts slumbering just a block from old US 77, tiny Refugio is a place where myth and reality coexist in a ghostly silence. more stories like this Obama faces heat over aide's NAFTA remarks to Canadians Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination Canada says didn't misrepresent Obama over NAFTA McCain tags Dems on trade treaty NAFTA seen differently in Ohio, Texas And now this South Texas outpost is swept up in one of the more intriguing tests of myth vs. reality in today's political life: the battle over the so-called...

Six people were killed, including two children, and another three children wounded in a shooting Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, authorities said. art.police.wmc.jpg Police and fire units responded Monday after six people were killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Fire Department spokeswoman Melanie Young said firefighters responded to a 911 call at a home at 6:11 p.m. Monday when the bodies and wounded children were found. The wounded children -- a 7-year-old boy, a 10-month-old girl and a 4-year-old whose gender wasn't immediately known -- were transported to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center.

Reported by: Joyce Peterson Email: jpeterson@myeyewitnessnews.com Last Update: 2/26 6:29 am Trucking Company Says It Is Not The Focus of Federal Investigation Documents seized during a raid on two truck driving schools and a Driver’s License Bureau. Memphis, TN - Federal and state agents raided two Mid-South truck driving schools and a Memphis driver's license center on February 25, 2008. Both schools, one on Brooks Road in Memphis, and the other on Veterans Parkway in Millington, are operated by Swift Transportation. The state run license center on Shelby Drive in Whitehaven was also targeted in the investigation. The FBI confirms...

John Ford must report to prison in 60 days, U.S. District Court Judge J. Daniel Breen decided this morning. Ford, 65, has been assigned to a federal lockup near El Paso, Texas. Ford, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for taking $55,000 in bribes as a legislator, looked grim as Breen announced his decision. “Mr. Ford just said ‘Let’s move forward on the appeal,’ ” said his court-appointed appellate attorney, Robert Brooks. “He’s a very practical man. He understands life and its ups and downs.” On Wednesday, Ford argued he needed to delay his imprisonment because he needed...

John Ford fought federal prosecutors to a standoff this morning and will avoid prison for at least one more day. U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen ordered Ford’s attorney to find out when Ford’s ex-wife Tamara Mitchell Ford will be released from a DUI sentence she is serving in Collierville. Breen will continue the hearing at 9 Thursday morning. The former state senator was sentenced last August to serve five and one-half years in prison for bribery, but has remained free because he says there will be no one else to care for his four children if both parents...

#1 Memphis versus #2 Tennessee ......at Memphis.