1/23
Lawmaker Hosts 'Survivor: Campfield' in Rental Unit
State Rep Campfield says his reality show builds 'young persons of strong character'
From APB reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Contestants living in a condemned rental house belonging to state Rep. Stacey Campfield say they didn't know they were signing up for a reality show when they agreed to live in the condemned rental property. They also allege the lawmaker has threatened to sue them for "breach of contract" if they try to move and called them "wimps" who couldn't "tough it out."
"Hey, if they just hold out a few more months, they can vote each other off the property and stay within their contracts," Campfield countered Thursday. "They knew the kind of dump they were getting into when they signed on. They just don't want to live in squalor for seven more months because they have no backbone, but 'Survivor: Campfield' is all about having backbone and building young persons of strong character."
But city codes officials deemed the house at 315 Silver Place, which is north of the Broadway-Central Street intersection in North Knoxville, "unfit for human habitation" after a Jan. 8 inspection that found the basement flooded with water and feces, leaking faucets, missing gutters, "bootlegger wiring," no Wi-Fi and other problems. There were 47 violations in all, including "unauthorized use of a residential property for reality television programming," according to city records.
Under city law, the contestants have to leave by Feb. 8, while Campfield has until May 8 to make repairs and prove his "Survivor: Campfield" reality program actually has a chance of being picked up by a network.
The four contestants say they only want to quit the program and move somewhere else, where they might actually have a working furnace and hot water. They allege Campfield threatened to sue them during a meeting at the house Wednesday morning and use his influence to out-muscle them if they tried to spread the word about the situation.
"He said he'd prove he could out-muscle us," said tenant Bill Paxton, a 53-year-old from Salt Lake City, UT. "He challenged us to arm-wrestling matches. He dared us to touch his biceps to see how rock-solid they were. He's telling us if we leave, then we'll never truly have faced adversity, so to teach us how to face adversity, he says he will sue us if we leave..."
1/22
Mixed Reviews for "County Gov Audit: The Quadrilogy" Finale
Critics call it "more of the same," director Ragsdale says cuts during post-production "ruined his vision"
From APB reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. "Review of Community Grants," the fourth and final installment in the Knox County Government Audit Quadrilogy miniseries opened today to decidedly mixed reviews. Director Mike Ragsdale quickly disavowed the final product, saying changes made in post-production took the focus off the wild and unrestrained nature of the community grants program and instead zeroed in on mundane procedural elements. Critical reaction was less than kind. "We've seen it all before," could sum up the sentiment.
"What we did with the grants program was creative and artful," said Ragsdale. "It was all about life and community and outreach and stuff. This audit, it's all about rules and procedures and guidelines, and it's deathly dull, dull, dull. Yes, the grants program was chaotic, sure, the best records weren't kept, and, OK, maybe a lot of the grants were insider-trader-ish. But you know what? So what! We were playing outside the box, drawing outside the lines, coloring outside the boundaries, thinking outside our brains! While we ran the grants program, we lived a lifetime's worth of dreams."
Critic Paul Pinkston, no fan of Ragsdale's work, immediately attacked the piece.
"This is what we've come to expect from Director Mike Ragsdale," said Pinkston. "Nothing new here, just the same lack of focus, the usual inadequate attention to detail, the all-too-common missing storylines and the heavy reliance on the same stock characters. Naturally, it's not going to approach the mastery of Yamada Yoji's acclaimed samurai trilogy, or even the level of Kieslowski's 'Three Colors' trilogy. As conclusions to serials go, I suppose I'd rate it better than 'The Matrix: Revolutions,' and nowhere near as good as 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.' But at least no one gets crowned king at the end of this one..."
1/22
Gaping Sinkhole Opens Under County Pensions
"We're gonna need a bigger stimulus package," says budget chief
From APB Reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. A massive sinkhole opened underneath the county pension funds, and hundreds of county pensioners have already toppled into the ever-widening chasm. The hole threatens to swallow the entire Knox County budget, and finance director John Troyer says more than cash may be needed to fix the problem.
"Normally, when a sinkhole opens under your pension, you just fill it in with money," said Troyer. "But this one is so huge, so enormous, so gigantic, I mean, we're talking drop-a-pebble-in-and-never-hear-it-hit-the-bottom big with a capital "B"-"I"-"G," it's so big, it's a sinkhole that's livin' large, if you know what I mean. So, we may have to look at alternatives."
Troyer estimated the hole to be "Ten to fourteen million dollars deep and several fiscal years wide..."
1/19
Judge Says Knox County Needs Adult Supervision in Relationship with Mulch Contract Suitor
Otherwise, "The neighbors might talk and your reputation could be ruined," chancellor warns County
From APB reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. The relationship between Knox County and her Solway mulch facility suitor should be investigated, and if improper conduct has occurred, Miss County must be found new guardians and her suitor must be banished, a chancellor has ruled.
Chancellor John Weaver won't let Miss Knox County out of a lawsuit to retrieve her dowry from her suitor, Mr. Natural Resources Recovery of Tennessee, or "Nert" for short. The suit alleges that Mr. Nert violated the state's False Claims Act by overstating his prospects and withholding facts about his checkered past and ill-starred reputation.
Weaver also called for an investigation into Miss County's close relationship with the company she keeps, and ordered that future interaction only be undertaken in the presence of a responsible, supervising adult.
"The closeness of the relationship between Miss County and Mr. Nert warrants scrutiny," Weaver writes in an opinion dated Jan. 16. "Was he pitching woo? Did she say 'Fiddle-dee-dee,' or did she lead him on? Were they indulging in unwholesome or unseemly conduct? Did Mr. Nert take advantage of Ms. County's innocence? Were improprieties attempted or her virtue threatened? Or were they just good friends?..."
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