City claims authority to regulate vehicles for hire
A bus subject to city regulation passes in front of the Realto theater in 1935. The city charter gives the corporation power to tax for-profit vehicles for hire — and boldly claims the power to impose a tax on private “pleasure” cars. (Photo Chattanooga History Center, Picnooga) Transportation administrative notice is supported from an another […]
Notice to Hammond: Reform required even though Haslam, judges, legislators opposed
Sheriff Jim Hammond talks with Greg Luther, left, at a 2014 political event. Mr. Luther is defending the right of citizenry to photograph department officers in any public place. (Photo David Tulis) The following is a letter sent to Jim Hammond, sheriff of Hamilton County, Tenn., regarding an interview about the laws he is charged […]
Cobbler with ‘peach of a wife’ looks for apprentice
Michael Scallia polishes a freshly repaired boot, a job he would have gladly offloaded to an apprentice — if he could only find one for Buddy’s shoe repair in Chattanooga. (Photo David Tulis) All across the Chattanooga area are business owners who would love to have a chance to meet your teenage son or daughter […]
Hammond gets help on key question: Does travel = transportation?
Sheriff Jim Hammond, the most powerful man in Hamilton County, Tenn, declines to answer questions about the scope of authority of the driver license law, but indicates his belief that no one can be on the road without a license, even if that person is non-commercial. (Photo David Tulis) Sheriff Jim Hammond declines to answer […]
How Berke could win all sides by restraining cops, ordering ’open’ city
Mayor Andy Berke speaks with members of the audience at a campaign debate at UTC in 2017. (Photo David Tulis) I realize it will take a while for the policy and political implications of transportation administrative notice to take effect. For busy men such as Mayor Andy Berke and city attorney Wade Hinton, it will […]
Katz says localism seedbed of quasi-independent city-state, prosperity
Researcher Bruce Katz of Brookings Institution and Marcus Shaw of Chattanooga discuss lococentrism at a local economy-boosting event in Chattanooga. (Photo David Tulis) This book argues that in local economy people can exercise self-determination via the city-state and escape an impoverished political and national status quo. (Photo David Tulis) Boosters of local economy and tech-driven […]
State obliterates landmark, rips poor via ‘driver licensing’ regime
Most users of the road are private, but Tennessee imposes a fiction upon them: That no one may use the roadway unless they are common carriers for hire, subject to licensure and taxation, like the trailer truck hauling Target goods. (Photo WikiCommons) The Bible on which governors swear to uphold the constitution forbids the moving […]
Common law society vs. statutory, state-centered society; which is freer?
Chattanooga police officers close off a street after having investigated a suspicious package left in a neighborhood, one that proved harmless. (Photo David Tulis) By David Tulis / NoogaRadio 92.7 In my pursuit of understanding local economy in the Chattanooga area, I have explored the idea of common law versus statutory systems such as Tennessee […]
‘Talking while black’ defendant yields to courageous cops
Talking-while-black victim Cameron Williams, a hip hop musician called G-Grimey, wants to make the most of his bad experience with cops in which he stood in a public place, addressed an officer for a seeming abuse of his authority, and was arrested under the vague disorderly conduct statute and charged, and his girlfriend gassed while […]
With loud thump, Rhea tables ‘police powers’ bill
George Thacker, the besuited county executive, stands among critics of a Rhea County police powers bill tabled by the county commission, with Mr. Thacker’s strong blessings. (Photo David Tulis) More than 70 people throng a Rhea County Commission meeting room Tuesday, most all of them angry at a sweeping plan to give county government harassment […]