People who had a way with words in the news last week:
“Not only are you rude and your mama should have taught you better, but what you’re doing is you messing with other people’s civil rights.”
— Step Rep. Greg Martin, R-Hixson, on a bill in the Tennessee General Assembly that would make it a crime to interrupt a worship service by blowing a whistle or yelling or similar actions.
“There was blood in the floor in the living room, there was blood in the floor in the hallway upstairs. There was blood in just about every room except for, I believe, one room we didn’t find any blood in.”
— Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office detective Brian Lockhart testifying in a hearing in the case of ex-NFL player accused of murder.
“That’s the smell we were hoping for this morning.”
— Chattanooga Lookouts President Rich Mozingo on the smell of sod being rolled out at Erlanger Park.
“The Tennessee Valley Authority has gone in a very stupid, very bad direction. The head of it, it’s considered sort of semiprivate. It’s supposed to be semipublic, but it’s semiprivate. It’s the highest-paid, government-type official in history. … well, Trump is on the scene now. We’re gonna make his life miserable.”
— President Donald Trump criticizing TVA and its CEO, Don Moul, at a White House event even as he praised the utility’s board for voting to keep two coal-fired power plants running longer.
“I would like to see a new jail, but the reality I’d say is going to mean adding on. If they could just get us a few more beds to get us to around 100.”
— Meigs County Sheriff Jackie Melton on potential solutions to create more space in the county jail to segregate nonviolent female and male inmates from violent ones, and to add more beds to accommodate future growth.
“And it was at that moment that he said that he’s Jesus. And so I told him that if you get up, I’m going to help you meet Jesus.”
— Steve Ellis, the witness who, with the help of a firearm, held the Soddy-Daisy man accused of setting fire to and killing a woman in a November camper fire until authorities arrived.
“I’m not convinced, especially at the cusp of having something to show for it, that people are interested in reversing course. I feel like it was a lot more noise than it was a threat to the people who were interested in having union representation.”
— Josh Epperson, cochair of the UAW bargaining committee, about an effort to decertify the union in Chattanooga.
“It feels like a chance for that parish church to continue to be used for worship, which is really good.”
— The Rev. Canon Joe Woodfin with the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee on the sale of the former St. Thaddaeus’ Episcopal Church building to the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville.
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