The most memorable quotes in the Times Free Press for July 28-Aug. 2.
“I don’t think you’ve ever seen a budget more focused on public safety.”
— Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, on his plan to add 40 officers to the city police force
“Just being able to go see the president speak 20 feet in front of you is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
— Charlie Loomis, as he held his 10-year-old son on his shoulders at the Amazon facility in Chattanooga hosted President Obama
“People in Tennessee don’t want a ‘grand bargain’; they want a plan to create jobs that cuts taxes, regulation and litigation.”
— U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., after President Obama’s speech in Chattanooga
“If you hang out with six atheists, you’re going to have six different views of the world.”
— Chris Silver, psychology instructor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, on the diversity of nonbelief found within the atheism community in a recent study
“Everybody’s concerned. You work for 28 years for an amount of money and for a pension promised to you. Now that we are retired, it would be egregious to change it.”
— Mike Williams, retired deputy police chief with the Chattanooga Police Department, on a study of the city’s police and fire pension system ordered by Mayor Andy Berke in hopes of reducing the tens of millions of dollars the city needs to contribute to fund the plan fully