Davenport derided for handling of UT athletics; former Nashville mayor failed to apologize

Tennessee Chancellor Beverly Davenport drew some ridicule from respected veteran sportswriter John Adams in his recent column for paying suspended athletic director John Currie a salary for doing nothing.

Davenport’s tax-paid public relations team had better take note that when the public is laughing at and not with their boss – it can become a public relations nightmare. Lawmakers in Nashville are still shaking their heads over Davenport’s recent testimony, when she openly dodged questions from Sen. Mike Bell.

Currie and his family recently moved from their home on Cherokee Boulevard to a home on Keokuk, also in Sequoyah Hills. Currie is still being paid over $60,000 a month as AD by UT because Davenport is unable to make a decision on when to end the ridiculous situation of two people being paid to be athletic director while only one is working.

More:How will Tennessee celebrate anniversary of John Currie hiring?

Former Nashville mayor failed to apologize in resignation speech

It is a sad set of circumstances when an elected executive official such as former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry squanders the public trust through a consensual affair with the head of her security detail. It sinks to a new low when she and her security officer plead guilty to a felony each. The officer’s otherwise outstanding police career is ruined. His wife sues for divorce and his daughter wonders if she can keep the job in the city law department that Barry created for her fresh out of law school.

Up until the guilty plea, Barry acted as if this was purely a personal indiscretion that no one should bother about. Well, the TBI and DA both devoted considerable time and personnel getting the facts out, resulting in a felony conviction. Crimes had been committed by the mayor and a police officer.

What is most disturbing is in her final remarks to the public – her total failure to apologize for committing a felony at taxpayers’ expense and a recognition that she and her security person had betrayed the public trust by stealing public money. She put a lot of people through a tough time, including Nashville – the city she says she loves. She never once has said she is sorry. She may love Nashville, but she also used Nashville to further her own personal goals.

More:Barry should join those who have resigned over ethics

Hall qualifies to run in register of deeds race

Former State Rep. Steve Hall, who tried to sell Lakeshore Park as a state legislator, has qualified to run for register of deeds in the GOP May 1 primary against Nick McBride, who has worked over 25 years in the office. McBride actually knows how the office operates and has a clean record. But he is not as well known to voters as the name of Steve Hall.

Hall hopes he will be confused with another Steve Hall, who was also a state representative and register of deeds. This current Hall also served on City Council, where he was best known for his silence. It is difficult to recall anything he championed on council or supported.

After four years in the state legislature he was defeated in 2014 by State Rep. Martin Daniel. He failed in a comeback effort in 2016. He currently draws a state and city pension and will secure a county pension if he has eight years as register of deeds.

More:Shopper News blog: Community news updated throughout the week

President Benjamin Harrison

Over Thanksgiving, I was in Indiana along with my wife, Joan, and our children visiting her mother in West Lafayette. In Indianapolis, I saw the home of our 23rd president, Benjamin Harrison.

While he is one of our lesser known presidents, he was the only grandson of a president (William Henry Harrison) to be elected president.

The first Harrison lived the shortest period of any U.S. president, having taken office on March 4 and dying 30 days later on April 4. It is the only time in American history when three men served as president in a single year. They were Martin Van Buren, Harrison and John Tyler.

Benjamin Harrison was also the only U.S. president to defeat a sitting president (Grover Cleveland) and then be defeated himself four years later by the same person. Harrison won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote to Cleveland. Cleveland, who was mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., was one of only three presidents who were mayors. The other two were Republicans: Tennessee’s Andrew Johnson, mayor of Greeneville, and Calvin Coolidge, mayor of Northampton, Mass.

The home is a few blocks from the center of Indianapolis and easily accessed from the interstate. One must visit the house with a docent, and the tour lasted a little over an hour. It is worthwhile to observe a period home built shortly after the Civil War and where a president lived.

More:Marsha Blackburn slates local breakfast; 'Mike Chase for Mayor' T-shirts printed

City Police Chief David Rausch has signed onto Law Enforcement Officials for Randy Boyd for Governor, according to a Boyd news release. Sheriff Jimmy "J.J.” Jones is backing U.S. Rep. Diane Black for governor in the GOP primary.

Rausch apparently has the approval of his boss, Madeline Rogero, to do this, although she will be an advocate for Karl Dean or Craig Fitzhugh for governor, depending on which Democrat wins the nomination.

More:Georgiana Vines: Fifty years of news coverage, politics in Knoxville

Greg Mackay, 64, former Election Commission administrator, is visiting Russia as part of a delegation of over 400 people to monitor the elections in which President Vladimir Putin seeks another term. Mackay now works for Coldwell Banker in real estate.

BIRTHDAYS: March 14 – Local radio talk show host and PBA member Hubert Smith is 64. March 15 – Former governor Don Sundquist is 82. He lives in Townsend. March 16 – State Sen. Mike Bell is 55. March 17 – Former Knoxville first lady Mary Pat Tyree is 70, while Judge Deborah Stevens is 64 and former U.S. attorney John Gill is 76. March 18 – Retired UT attorney Ron Leadbetter is 71 and MPC Commissioner Patrick Phillips is 67. March 19 – Knoxville businessman Gaines Pittenger is 75.

More:Shopper News blog: From Davy to Dolly, 'Magnificent Tennesseans' showcased