The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 21

1 aw 4 -J -M-4- SERVING THE COMMUNITIES IN AND AROUND GREATER MEMPHIS MID-SOUTH MEMORIES MEMPHIS REGION I DEATHS I B6-7 SECTION AN EDITION OF THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL I SUNDAY DECEMBER 10 2006 r-i BrlMnnuloNH pay which still reapproval will be within Mayor Willie Herenton's administration On Nov 6 the mayor named city school board president Sam Lewis as special assistant in Charge of youth and community services earning $75000 annually Official shifting will pad some retirement while others lose benefits Division Her quires City Council $126000 Some have questioned whether all the recent moves are simply a way for some to pad their retirement checks But Herenton described the recent shuffling as simply career advancements Here's how it all shakes out: Lewis retired from the city schools after 30 ftMMMf PENSION B7 $106000 On TUesday City Council chairwoman IkJuan Stout Mitchell announced sheU stepping down from the council seat held since 1999 to take job She'll make $85000 And Wednesday Gale Jones Carson Hep entonli executive assistant announced she was leaving to leaving City Hall at the rad iff the year to head the corporate communications office for Memphis light Gas and Water Some officials involved in the recent musical chairs at Memphis City Hall will receive substantial pay raises from their promotions But whether their pensions will get the same boost depends on whom talking about In die last four weeks four political appointees have moved in or out of top jobs Days before Dottie Jones announced she is leaving the city as admii tergovemmental relations to to join Mayor A of the division of i Whartonk staff as director community services The county job pays Sound of silence Midtown 1-40-240 project wraps up 3 1 ii if mmm tm 7 Dangerous curves led to deaths of 8 in 1988 "5 Almost 18 yean to the day after it was the site of one of Memphis' most horrific accidents the Interstate 40-240 interchange in Midtown has been rebuilt and will be fully open to traffic this week state officials say Crews during the past several days have been wrapping up a three-year $53 million project tO rfangpnm curves and accommodate heavier traffic loads at the interchange The southbound 1-40 portion of the work was finished last week while the remainder of the interAange should be fully open early this week said Pamela Marshall spokesman for the Tbnnessee Department ofltans-portathn The completion of the project should mean less congestion for commuters and tenders heading in and out of the Downtown and Midtown areas she said think as motorists get back to using that area be pleasandy surprised' Marshall said certainly help The rebuilt interchange also riiminafa some inadequacies that became glaringly obvious on Dec 23 1988 That morning a propane tanker truck struck a bridge abutment aa it rounded a ramp too quickly triggering a massive fireball that killed the driver six other motorists and a young girl who was in a house tint was en-gulfed Pleas te PROJECT B7 i Ljticc MurphcyTh Conyiwrdal Appeal conductor with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra has been the victim of some racial comments by musicians In the symphony Vincent Danner MSO musicians should have 1 racially offensive comments I II HIM else complained about it Thart wnat Dotners uk iNoooay eue compiaiiieu hug MEMPHIS Symphony Orchestra associate conductor Vincent Danner had just begun to wear his hair in dreadlocks when he CN THE WEB came to a September For vidflo nf rehearsaL A musician Wnrant saw him and joked out ivnnpr of Daimerk earshot SSSSiSm Danner Not even when the musician who had compared Danner's hair to that of the chief pickaninny on the 1920's Uttle Rascals' films struck again At the same September rehearsaL he said is still the South' when a scarf used as a prop by a dancer performing with the symphony hung behind Dannert podium at a rehearsal a comment that was perceived by both a listener and an MSO administrator as a reference to a noose So Danner who was told later by others about the scarf comment took his concerns to Ryan Fleur president and CEO does it say about who and what we are PUcut WENM B7 unkempt hair bulging white eyes and protruding red lips TVvo weeks later yet another musician assumed like to hear a Buckwheat joke just before rehearsaL much to Datmerh disgust But just as painful was this: None of the orchestra members who heard these racially disparaging comments confronted the offenders His colleagues stood by like many do in such moments offended but unable to insist upon an environment tolerant of differences particularly those outside the Caucasian norm WEN DIC THOMAS BuckwheatT That same evening Danner was shocked when another musician told him he looked like a golliwog doll a 19th century pitch-black caricature of a minstreL with mounds of MY LIFE punchlines aim directly at the hearts of black youngsters Ci6 OSctt MIDTOWN DOWNTOWN Dr Bil Cosby spoke to Honoring veterans Comedian talks tough at LeMoyne-Owen students it LsMoyno Owen Cosby was joined by auffiorand educator George McKenna and Marguerite LaMotte a member of the Los Angeles school board It was Yo! executive director Dr Marie Milam who Alpha Omega honored area veterans with "An Evening with Tommy John" i bs called Cosby (they met a few years back) and asked him to talk to our children He continued: need confidence and if you don't give it to them how are they going to know that they can do something?" If Cosbyls October visit to Memphis aimed to entertain his most recent jaunt to town intended to hupirc innerdty students He spoke on education and personal responsibility to about 400 parents and students at LeMoyne-Owen in a symposium sponsored by Yb! Memphis a Memphis charter school and communities INSIDE Bill Cosby augucoat his words the sitcom star author comedian and former JettO spokesman told a crammed 'cafeteria at LeMoyne-Owen College Saturday that new Ku Klux Klan happens to be us die Ku Klux Klan and we have not protected Memphis youth Cosby agreed to speak for free He aim donated planners to the charter school Milam said the historically black college was chosen as die speech site because have started here and we're hoping Pleat COSBY BS Holiday cash For 110 workers: Crittenden County settles an employee overtime lawsuit I B4 Justin Shaw The Commercial Appeal This is your life This is your site commerdalappeaLcom Memphis Online WWE8 WJP- 1 mgn yr-AWEv-v n-vf MMEWplWHHlVl MU Mil'' lili.