Mack made some phone calls this morning about wine in grocery stores. Good!

I called a number of local liquor store owners this morning to ask for arguments against allowing wine sales in grocery stores.  I’ll say this…they are all on the same page, short as it is.  I heard the exact same arguments each time, and I have to admit even the most compelling is probably not enough to stop this legislation.  As a former small business owner, I am well acquainted with the night sweats that occur when you have placed everything you own into your business, or borrowed heavily to start in the first place.  One owner told me he invested in the liquor business based on the laws in place at the time, that is, that only licensed liquor stores could sell wine and spirits.  Changing the rules after the fact seemed pretty unfair to him.  That seems reasonable enough, but as I stated above, absent a viable class-action lawsuit, probably not convincing enough to stop this legislation.

The “what about the kids” argument falls flat.  End of argument.

But the whole approach to liquor sales in this state and in Georgia strikes me as unfair.  One example:  As a bar owner, i was forced to buy certain products from certain distributors.  If the sales rep failed to come by to take my order, I wasn’t allowed too buy that product from anyone else, at any price.  Thats a pretty cozy arrangement for the distributors, is it not?

Read the whole thing at The Coyote Chronicles.

There is also a spirited discussion going on at Kleinheider’s abode about the issue of wine in grocery stores.

Silky In The Middle

She is in the middle of the page, sitting happily on her pillow.

I was there when she was born to her mother (in the foreground), and I was there with her this morning when I had to say goodbye. She had developed pancreatic problems and suffered cerebral edema, and didn’t know who I was. When I picked her up from the emergency clinic this morning to take her back to her regular vet, I knew she wasn’t coming back.

For those like me, who have no children, our pets become our children, and she was mine, more so than any I have had; Lauren would always note that Missy was always everyone’s dog, but Silky was mine, and I loved her.

This actually looks promising because Perry County, which has a 27.4 percent unemployment rate, is thinking outside of the box.

Instead of trying to catch up in a race in which they have already been lapped and, frankly, will likely always be out-resourced by more affluent neighbors, Perry County officials are looking to transfer their efforts to a different race entirely. It’s still about infrastructure and factory base, but in this race, bricks and mortar have nothing to do with it. Vision Perry, an economic development program in Linden funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is instead working to build infrastructure along the digital highway. To that end, and with the help of Nashville-based nonprofit cTechnology, Vision Perry is launching a new kind of factory — a digital one.

Unlike a bricks-and-mortar approach, a digital factory functions as a virtual job site, working remotely for national companies via the Internet or telecommunications. “This is one of the most viable options for a rural community,” says Michael Dumont, Vision Perry’s executive director.

The story is fascinating because it looks at people trying to reinvent themselves. For communities, such as Perry County, that are miles away from an Interstate, this could be the way to go.

Here’s what they are doing.

“Many traditional economic developers don’t understand the global, service-based economy. They think in terms of site-ready incentives,” says Paul Van Hoesen, founding director of cTechnology.

Selected for its technical resources already at hand, Vision Perry houses the pilot training program, which has received funding from the Rural Technology Assistance Grant program and the South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance.

The panhandling ordinances will be discussed at the 3:30 p.m. meeting.

Memphis City Council members will take the first of three votes today on new ordinances that would restrict panhandling Downtown and ban selling single cans of beer in the area.

The council session will begin at 3:30 p.m. today at City Hall, 125 N. Main St. A full agenda is on Page 10.

The single beer sales are tied to the panhandling effort being pushed by the Center City Commission.

The push has resulted from complaints that aggressive panhandlers are disruptive to businesses and visitors and that they use the money they request to buy alcohol.

Memphis Daily News has the whole agenda up here.

The question is do they use the money to save jobs or restoring conservation funds.

Governor Phil Bredesen wants to restore conservation funds that have been diverted for the last two years, even though the money could be used to save state jobs.

Whenever land changes hands in Tennessee, a small portion of the fees goes toward protecting wetlands and adding to state and local parks. The fund generates $15 to $20 million in a given year. Those fees were redirected two years ago to fill a budget gap and the budget situation has only gotten worse since then. But an effort to restore the conservation fund has gained bipartisan support.

The effort has gained bi-partisan support. The entire story is here at WPLN.