Blake’s Blog

Well, looks like crime on the mean streets of Memphis (or at least the mean streets of its suburbs) won’t be off the air for long.

Memphis Police Department officials recently decided not to continue working with the producers of "The First 48," a documentary-style program that airs on the A&E channel.

However, as a story in today’s newspaper noted, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office is about to have its street crimes and narcotics units featured on "Real Vice Cops Uncut," a new program that is scheduled to premiere on Spike TV in August.

Hmmm. I wonder a little bit about this one. Since Memphis and the suburban cities have their own police departments (except for Lakeland, of course), I wonder what hotspots of criminal activity the sheriff’s office will spend most of its time patrolling.

"Eads Vice" doesn’t have quite the same ring to it that "Miami Vice" did.

It hasn’t even started yet, and already former state Sen. John Ford’s trial in Nashville is shaping up to be a weird one.

Monday, the judge granted a delay because one of Ford’s attorneys had an inflamed finger that required surgery over the weekend.

I’ve heard of trials being undone by hung juries, but hangnails?

Horn Lake was abuzz last week after there were several reported sightings of a black bear around the DeSoto County town.

Officials from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said the bear, estimated to weigh between 450 and 800 pounds, may have hiked north from a refuge in Louisiana.

Horn Lake Police Chief Tom Long said that if the bear continues his northward march, "we’ll do what we have to to give him a free path into Memphis."

Now, Chief, what if Memphians took the same attitude toward encouraging our "riffraff" to migrate south?

Please indulge me, readers, but this one is just too good to pass up.

Amtrak service through Memphis has been disrupted for weeks because of a sinkhole that opened at Central Station.

And according to a story in yesterday’s newspaper, City Atty. Elbert Jefferson wants to delay repairing the sinkhole until someone can locate a late 19th Century contract with the railroad that might clarify who is responsible for paying for the repair work.

I have to say it because who knows when I’ll get another opportunity like this: Jefferson obviously doesn’t know the city’s financial liabilities from a hole in the ground.

We don’t often get to say this in Memphis, but it may be time to start pitying poor Nashville.

To handle construction of a new $595 million convention center, our neighbors to the east have selected a company with a name that should be familiar to some Memphians:

Clark Construction Co., the Maryland-based firm that served as general contractor for the Cook Convention Center expansion and renovation a few years back.

Although some of us may have tried to erase the details from our memories, the Cook Convention Center project in Memphis was marred by delays and cost overruns.

To be fair, many of those problems were Clark’s fault. Faulty design drawings, which Clark didn’t create, were among the project’s biggest headaches.

Even so, reading Clark’s name in a news account about the Music City Center project almost sent a cold shiver down my spine. If history is any guide, at least that project should keep Nashville reporters busy for a while.

Memphis City Council members are taking their lumps for their decision two weeks ago to cut $66 million from the city school system’s budget. Some council members more so than others, though.

Today’s newspaper featured a photo of a woman who was holding up a poster at Tuesday’s council meeting, with a "Hall of Shame" listing the names of the council members who voted to cut the school funding.

But to add insult to injury, the woman not only included Councilman Shea Flinn on the list, but she also misspelled his last name as "Flynn." (Not that Blake’s Blog has ever had any problem with people giving Councilman Flinn a rough time.)

Interestingly, though, the sign listed only nine of the 10 council members who voted for the cut. For some reason, Councilman Bill Boyd’s name didn’t make the list.

Oh well. Maybe he’ll be a late inductee.

After watching TV footage of President Bush shooting hoops with schoolchildren during a stopover in Northern Ireland, I now see a way that the Los Angeles Lakers could win the NBA Finals.

Although the Lakers have to do is convince Bush to sign an executive order that would allow him to suit up for the Boston Celtics.

That resounding thud you may have heard yesterday was the sound of the other shoe dropping for Memphis City Schools.

As reported in today’s newspaper, MCS stands to lose $423 million in state funding if the school system can’t find a way to balance its budget in the wake of a $73.3 million funding cut from the Memphis City Council.

Which poses some financial challenges for the school system, to put it mildly.

I know, I know. MCS has had its share of issues with waste, fraud and mismanagement. Many of them have been chronicled by this newspaper.

Yet unless MCS officials have been pouring half a billion dollars into a wood chipper every year, it’s hard to imagine that they’re wasting THAT much money.

When the dust settles from all this, I wonder if the school district will be able to afford the salary of about $260,000 a year for its newly-hired superintendent, Kriner Cash.

My suggestion: It’s not too early for local PTAs to start organizing their "Raise Cash for Cash" bake sales.

Or, as Deputy Viewpoint Editor Suzanne Kerr noted, perhaps it’s time to revisit those olden days when the town schoolteacher was given free room and board with a local family.

To be sure, that would test the limits of parental involvement in a child’s education.

Well, OK, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Mayor Willie Herenton is going to be drafted to serve as the next Memphis City Schools superintendent.

Although MCS still has to finalize a contract with Kriner Cash, the school board’s unanimous pick for the job, the behind-the-scenes "Draft Herenton" movement seems to have flopped.

But if Herenton’s heart really isn’t in finishing out his term as mayor, there are plenty of other opportunities out there for him.

For instance, the General Assembly recently approved legislation setting up a state Athletic Commission to regulate mixed martial arts and other forms of pugilistic competition.

With Herenton’s track record as a former boxer, he would seem like a natural for one of the commission’s executive posts.

I’m just sayin’.

Still upset that Bass Pro Shops hasn’t closed a deal to set up shop in The Pyramid?

Well, consider this:

The National Sporting Goods Association reported today that it expects national retail sporting goods to top out around $87.3 million this year, down from the $90.8 million in reported sales last year.

That drop is mostly attributable to an expected decline in sales of bicycles, pleasure boats, recreational vehicles and snowmobiles this year.

So maybe this isn’t an ideal time for a sporting goods store to be expanding anyway.