People who had a way with words in the news last week:
“I think anybody that would make a statement like that is wrong. I’ll say that. Period.”
— Carl Levi, retired National Guard brigadier general, on former President Donald Trump’s statement that the Medal of Honor is a lesser award than the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“We want them to know that we do have their back on this. That we will stand by them if they treat a student and maybe the parent has failed to fill out the form or something. … We just want them to be rest assured of that.”
— Hamilton County school board member Rhonda Thurman on the board voting to update a policy to say the district will defend school nurses who help students in emergency situations where parental instructions are unavailable or parents can’t be reached.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / School board member Rhonda Thurman speaks April 15 during a Pachyderm Club meeting. Thurman on Thursday spoke in favor of updating a school board policy to say the district will defend school nurses who treat students in an emergency situation when parental instructions are unavailable or a parent can’t be reached.“Part of being trauma-informed is really respecting the different backgrounds and different beliefs that the children come with. Some of them might have been really hurt in a church setting or in the name of Jesus, and we have no idea. So we much more emphasize being and showing the love of Christ rather than really talking about it.”
— Alissa Long, regional director of Isaiah 117 homes in Middle Tennessee, on the nonprofit’s approach to religion and the children the organization serves.
“They can literally come through the doors without a spatula and start a whole business.”
— DeJuan Jordan, co-CEO of Launch Chattanooga, on the organization’s Kitchen Incubator and the opportunities it offers entrepreneurs.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / In 2023, DeJuan Jordan, co-CEO of Launch Chattanooga, poses for a photo at the nonprofit’s Kitchen Incubator.“Why don’t you give some of that to school systems so we can pay our people? Our people need help.”
— Chance Nix, Catoosa County Public Schools superintendent, speaking rhetorically during a school board budget meeting, on Georgia’s monetary reserves, which the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute said stood at $11 billion in fiscal year 2023.
“They would just cover it up, and they wouldn’t do anything about it. The floors are just nasty. I never understood how the health department passed stuff.”
— Beverly Payne, former employee of East Ridge Residence, an independent living facility for older adults, on poor conditions in the building when she worked there. Ownership has announced the facility will close in October, leaving residents scrambling to find new places to live.
“It is kind of concerning, especially for thinking about agriculture and plants the last few years. We get these warm periods in January or February. Buds start coming, especially for orchards — things like apples, peaches and blueberries putting out flowers — and then a big cold snap comes in the end of March or in April. In that case, it can be quite bad.”
— William Tollefson, assistant state climatologist at the Tennessee Climate Office at East Tennessee State University, on the trend of warming winters in Chattanooga and elsewhere.
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