The Chattanooga Politico, June 27

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Council Mission Statement

Tuesday, the Chattanooga City Council approved a mission statement and goals for the 2009 fiscal budget, following several months of discussion and debate. Now, the legislative body will be working alongside the mayor's office to draft a budget. No word yet as to when the final budget will be complete. In the meantime, the City will be operating under an interim budget that was passed on June 2.

Mayor Littlefield: "We live in interesting times"

Mayor Littlefield gave his annual State of the City address to a 300+ crowd on Thursday. He spoke of the challenges currently facing the city, state, and federal governments, and how Chattanooga should rise above those challenges to become the "best midsize city in America." Surprisingly, he didn't really discuss annexation—a hot button topic in Hamilton County right now. County Mayor Claude Ramsey introduced the city mayor, joking that the only reason he agreed to do so was under the condition that Littlefield not talk about annexation. The line got a good laugh from the crowd, but then again, Littlefield stuck to that premise during the address.

Maybe you haven't heard about this?

Obviously, Chattarati had a great deal of coverage of the mayor's address due to our webcast and liveblog. Providing that kind of coverage for a local, political event was a big learning experience for all of us. And we look forward to doing it again for future events—political or otherwise. Many thanks to Donald Sayers, Daniel Ryan, and Cameron Adams for their excellent work on putting this coverage together. State of the City Redux: Video and liveblog (en route), photos, Council member interviews, and transcript. 

Michael Joseph Jackson (1958 - 2009)

While we were celebrating Chattanooga's past and future during the State of the City address, news began to trickle in of Michael Jackson's tragic demise. Andrew Sullivan penned a brutally honest and sincere assessment of Michael Jackson's life and work:

I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.

When I was 5 years old, my grandmother bought me a copy of Thriller—the first record I ever owned. 25 years later, I still listen to it. I still enjoy it. As a musician and fan of Jackson's work, I'm saddened by the loss.