In a new book, called Safari As A Way of Life, we get to see more detail about the art, drive, and special young person Dan Eldon was beyond the artwork he left behind in his journals. He also bequeathed a life story that has inspired students, teachers, artists, and creative activists—as well as a forthcoming film, an apparel line, and the Spring 2011 collection from Tom’s Shoes. Raised in Kenya, Dan grew up with a unique outlook on life. Through adventurous safaris and benevolent crusades around the world, he crafted a philosophy of curiosity, creativity, and charity. This unique visual biography showcases previously unpublished artwork from Dan’s acclaimed journals, letters, and snapshots that takes readers on a journey through Dan’s life and beyond, exploring the impact made by this remarkable artist on everyone who has encountered his story.

Take a look at these books – they really are amazing and inspiring.  While you’re at it, read a story I wrote for an art magazine that can be found at Dan Eldon’s website here or on my blog here.  Also, take a look at all of the great creative activism taking place around the world by artists, journalists, photographers and writers today through programs inspired by Dan Eldon at Dan Eldon: Artist, Activist, Adventurer, The Dan Eldon Debut Collection and Creative Visions Foundation.

The epitaph on Ernest Hemingway’s memorial quotes (roughly) from a eulogy he wrote for one of his friends.  It reads:

“Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills
The high blue windless skies
Now he will be a part of them forever.”

There is no more appropriate sentiment to wrap up my feelings about the seasons.  Of course, mine would have to say, “Best of all, he loved his family,” – but if it weren’t for them, I would wholeheartedly agree with Pappa.

The best time of year is looming just over the horizon.  I felt it this morning.  In the morning, there was a hint of moisture and coolness that said, “Just hold on a few more weeks, I’m almost there.”  Grab your tent, build a campfire and fix a steaming hot cup of coffee.  Hold your feet to the fire and breath deeply, because this is rare.

Some people live for spring and summer, and I’m not immune to the giddy joy that comes with hot days, blooming flowers, glaring sun, screaming kids and romps in the ocean.  But fall feels like the moment you hit the bed after an 18-hour work day.  Cold sheets when you first climb into bed.  It is the release of everything hectic and hard.  It is a big sigh of relief with a warm embrace.  It is a comfortable sweatshirt and cold dew on the grass that completely wets your bare feet and leaves that crunch and smells one-hundred times better than the most expensive perfume.  It is the violins that kick in after the first verse of “Yesterday” by the Beatles.  It is unshaven, grown up and mature … it signifies ends and beginnings.  It’s sad, but comforting.

Spring is happy and fun.  Summer is living and playing hard.  Winter is refreshing.  But fall, oh fall, it is the time to relax, release and renew.  It can be found on a hike, a hunting trip, a nighttime football game, a drive with the windows open and darkness that falls before dinner.  It surprises you when you’re least expecting it – and you know life gets no better than that.  It is orange and brown, crisp and cool and real.  It is bright blue skies almost entirely covered with huge, dark-bottomed clouds and a brisk wind blowing the leaves from the trees.

“Best of all, he loved the fall.”  Yes Poppa, you got it right one last time.  We should not be surprised.

LIFE OVERFLOWING
The Art of Life – Dan Eldon’s Journals
by Rick Laney

Dan Eldon

Dan Eldon was the poster-boy for living life to its fullest. Born in England and raised in Africa, he was on a mission to experience everything the world had to offer. Even at an early age, Eldon’s art journals mirrored his own overflowing life – bursting at the seams with photos, drawings, and everyday items that held special meaning.

“Dan’s journals would end up weighing five or six pounds,” said Kathy Eldon, Dan’s mother. “There would be feathers sticking out of them and things hanging out of the sides. One of them was actually held together with a leather belt because he had so much packed in there.”

The seventeen journals Eldon left behind offer a snapshot of a life lived to its fullest.  Through collages of ticket stubs, paintings, matchbook covers, photographs, newspaper articles, spaghetti boxes and anything else that caught the artist’s eye, viewers get a moving glimpse into a life lived at 500 miles-per-hour.

When it came to understanding the people of Africa, Eldon was on a quest. He spent countless days and nights living with the Masai Tribe and became close friends with many villagers. His genuine interest in the people and their culture was apparent in his evolving journals. By high school, Eldon’s simple scrapbooks developed into true works of art. His growing photography and design talents were also becoming obvious.

At nineteen, Eldon created a mission statement for himself: “Safari as a Way of Life.” It summarized his thirst for adventure, desire to explore, and his fascination with beauty and danger. While most students would be content spending the weekend camping with friends, Eldon wanted his “safaris” to be more meaningful. He once raised and delivered $20,000 to help refugees in Mwanza build wells for drinking water.

“Dan thought everyone should live a full life, not just for themselves, but for others too,” Kathy Eldon explained. “He had a way of making altruism fun. Everyone wanted to be a part of the things Dan did.”

Following a semester at college in California and an internship at Madamemoiselle magazine in New York, Eldon returned to Africa unsure of what the future would hold. It didn’t take long before Reuters – the world’s largest international multimedia news agency – hired Eldon as a photojournalist. At the time, he was the youngest photographer Reuters ever hired.

Although Somalia was his first real assignment, Eldon’s photographs appeared in countless magazines and newspapers around the world, including TIME and Newsweek. The gamble taken by the editors at Reuters with the young photographer paid off, and Reuters planned to move him to new assignments.

On July 12, 1993, the day Eldon was scheduled to leave Somalia, U.S. helicopters bombed a house in Mogadishu where a warlord was thought to be hiding. Eldon grabbed his camera and raced to the scene with other members of the press. When they arrived at the bombed-out home, the journalists found a large group of people piling dead bodies of men, women, and children into the backs of pickup trucks. The warlord was not in the home at the time of the bombing. Outraged, the crowd quickly turned its hostility toward the foreign journalists.

When the violence was over, Eldon and three other journalists were dead. In a bitterly ironic turn of events, while trying to draw international attention to the pain and suffering in Somalia, he lost his life at the hands of the people he spent years trying to help. Eldon was 22 years old.

Weeks later, a large nylon bag arrived at the Eldon home in Nairobi. Dan’s sister Amy went through the contents, finding many of Dan’s personal belongings and, at the bottom, an unfinished journal. Unlike the other journals he created, this last one did not seem complete.  Whereas most of his journals had vivid collages and endless variations of color and texture, the last book was mostly comprised of single, haunting photographs.

“That final book didn’t have all of the drawings and sketches that most of his journals had,” Kathy Eldon said. “There were simply photos – but the photos were so stark and powerful, they stood alone. Nothing more was needed.”

More than a decade after his death, Dan Eldon still provides inspiration to thousands of people. In recent years, he has been the subject of a book, a television documentary and his journals were published in a book titled Dan Eldon: The Journey is the Destination by Chronicle Books. A major motion picture about his life is now in the works.

“You have to wonder if Dan didn’t somehow know that his time here would be short,” said Kathy Eldon. “He did so much living in so little time.”

Eldon’s philosophy of living an overflowing life strikes a chord with many people who desire a full and meaningful existence. Fortunately, he lives on through the wonderful pages he left behind.

See www.DanEldon.org for more information.

Living Christmas Tree an all-year production (Part One)

By Rick Laney
November 10, 2007

The Living Christmas Tree

EDITOR’S NOTE: In coming weeks, Rick Laney will provide an ongoing “behind-the-scenes” look at The Living Christmas Tree.

In August, with temperatures hovering in the mid-90s, hundreds of people from Knox and Blount counties were busy singing Christmas songs and preparing for the holidays in shorts and T-shirts. Preparation begins for The Living Christmas Tree in January — and regular practices get into full swing during the summer.

Anyone who has ever attended the Knoxville Living Christmas Tree (which used to be known as the Sevier Heights Living Christmas tree) knows it is a major production. For those directly involved in the show, it is a major commitment that becomes a focal point of half their year — and the reason many of them are humming “Deck the Halls” while sitting at the pool in July.

Arguably the largest holiday production in East Tennessee, last year’s Knoxville Living Christmas Tree drew nearly 60,000 people to the University of Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena from 23 states. One family travels from California every year to see the performance after discovering it while vacationing in the Great Smoky Mountains almost 15 years ago.  Read the complete story here.

Living Christmas Tree a ‘big production’ (Part Two)

By Rick Laney
November 17. 2007

Editor’s Note: This is part two of an ongoing “behind-the-scenes” look at The Living Christmas Tree.

November is a frantic month for those involved with the Knoxville Living Christmas Tree. Even though practices have been under way since the summer, a new sense of urgency takes hold as Thanksgiving approaches.

For hundreds of people involved in the choir, orchestra and drama at Sevier Heights Baptist Church, the number of weekly practices grows rapidly as opening night approaches. Rehearsals that were once two hours long grow to three hours or more, and there’s a more intense focus on the work at hand.

Eddie Smith, the Living Christmas Tree event coordinator for Sevier Heights Baptist Church, is accustomed to the pressure and intensity, having managed The Living Christmas Tree for the past eight years. Under Smith’s guidance, the production has grown from 100 people total (including the choir) his first year to well over 1,000 cast, choir and crew members this year.  Read the complete story here.

Blount families in Living Christmas Tree (Part Three)

By Rick Laney
November 24. 2007

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part three of an ongoing “behind-the-scenes” look at The Living Christmas Tree.

Daughter2Me in The Living Christmas Tree

While thousands of people attend performances of The Living Christmas Tree at Thompson-Boling Arena as part of their annual holiday tradition, many Blount County families’ Christmas routine involves actually being in The Living Christmas Tree.

The Living Christmas has grown from a cast of approximately 80 when it was first presented by Sevier Heights Baptist Church in 1989 to well over 1,000 people who are part of this year’s show called “One Solitary Life.”

Blount County residents are involved in almost every aspect of this year’s Living Christmas Tree as part of the 300-member cast, the 250-member choir, the 60-member orchestra or more than 300 behind-the-scenes workers.

Alcoa native Larry Ervin will once again sing, dance and act in this year’s production. Ervin, who has served as director of multicultural affairs at Maryville College the past 17 years, has been in The Living Christmas Tree since 2002.  Read the complete story here.

Writer for Living Christmas Tree has year-round work (Part Four)

By Rick Laney
December 01. 2007

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part four of a four-part “behind-the-scenes” series about The Living Christmas Tree.

Unlike Hollywood’s writers who are out on strike, Glenn Greene is swimming in work preparing for this year’s production of The Living Christmas Tree called “One Solitary Life” which follows a script he wrote.

A few years after joining Sevier Heights Baptist Church in 1989, Greene showed one of his scripts to a Sunday School teacher who later forwarded it to the church’s music director. That script, called “The Christmas Shoes,” became the drama for the 2002 Living Christmas Tree at Thompson-Boling Arena — an event attended by tens of thousands of people. Greene has written the script for the holiday production every year since that time.

With a show that changes every year, Greene finds himself writing, rewriting and fine-tuning his scripts 12 months out of the year. A Knoxville resident who works for the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB), Greene is not a professional writer, but has been writing scripts for years.  Read the complete story here.

By Rick Laney
July 08. 2007

Most people don’t think of commission-only, no expense reimbursement or door-to-door sales when they see advertisements for “executive and management” job opportunities.

However, that’s what many local professionals and recent college graduates say they applied and interviewed for with a Knoxville-based marketing firm targeting Blount County job seekers.

Winstead Marketing constantly advertises local job openings that are misleading, according to those who have had direct contact with the firm.

A Google search for “Winstead Marketing” turns up thousands of results, almost all of them advertisements for job openings. The prolific advertiser says it is one of the area’s “top marketing firms.” Recent newspaper and Internet ads from Winstead Marketing offer “Maryville Jobs,” “Townsend Jobs,” “Alcoa Jobs” and “Blount County Jobs,” although the company is located in a fifth-floor office at 408 N. Cedar Bluff Drive in Knoxville.

People who have interviewed for the advertised job openings with Winstead Marketing say the company hires strictly commissioned door-to-door sales representatives. One local man who interviewed with the company says the company “felt more like a cult than a corporation.”

Robert Lawrence FitzPatrick, a respected author and expert on multilevel marketing (MLM) based in Charlotte, N.C., said, “I’m not familiar with Winstead Marketing, but this type of hiring ad is usually false, and it’s usually a scam.

“Multilevel marketing is a plague that has come into the marketplace. The entire business model for multilevel marketing — as it is generally practiced — is a fraud, and it’s illegal.”

According to FitzPatrick, multilevel marketing companies are regularly prosecuted under a Federal Trade Commission Act pertaining to unfair and deceptive trade practices. He said in recent years, about 20 multilevel marketing companies have been prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission and another 20 multilevel marketing companies have been prosecuted by individual states.

“If they are advertising for jobs, but they are really looking for independent contractors, that’s deceptive,” FitzPatrick said.

“It all depends on where their money is coming from. If it’s coming from the product or service they’re selling, it’s not multilevel marketing or a pyramid scheme. If the money isn’t coming from the product or service they’re selling, it is.

“It is a myth that anyone is making money with multilevel marketing … unless you’re at the top. The fact is that 99 percent of those involved never make any money at all, 72 percent of them quit within the first year, and 96 percent quit within the first five years. It’s just a myth.”

FitzPatrick, who has written books about multilevel marketing and testified before courts and regulatory commissions on the subject, said multilevel marketing fits the definition of a “pyramid scheme,” although most companies practicing multilevel marketing try to disguise the practice behind some form of product or service.

“It has nothing to do with sales or marketing,” FitzPatrick said. “It’s all about the 40 or 50 levels of managers and management that they have.

“Corporations are trying to eliminate layers of management — no real company has 50 layers of managers.”

FitzPatrick also believes the entire practice of door-to-door selling (or “face-to-face selling” as Winstead Marketing calls it) was abandoned by most successful businesses years ago.

“With the Internet and telephones, who uses door-to-door salespeople?” FitzPatrick asked. “By the time you cover the travel expenses and mileage, and pay the salesperson’s commission, there’s no money left — door-to-door selling simply doesn’t exist anymore.”

Winstead Marketing tells job seekers it has opportunities for “executive and management” positions, “sales and marketing manager” openings, “public relations” jobs and “account manager” positions. Some advertisements state “entry level” while others seek college graduates and experienced managers. There are even opportunities for “sports minded” individuals.

Winstead Marketing has been a regular advertiser in East Tennessee’s major daily newspapers and on respected Web sites including Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com virtually nonstop for the past two years.

While the countless job opportunities listed in local employment advertisements would imply Winstead Marketing has a large staff of employees, the Winstead Web site lists only two individuals under the “Our People” tab; Mike Palomba, the company’s president and founder, and Shanda Wyatt, the company’s human resources manager.

Wyatt told The Daily Times that her company “is associated with a larger company that acquires clients for Winstead.” While Wyatt would not disclose the name of that “larger company,” a regional sales manager with CareerBuilder.com, one of the companies Winstead Marketing advertises heavily with, said that Winstead Marketing’s parent company is Cydcor, a large multilevel marketing operation with a long history of problems and legal challenges.

Founded in 1994, Cydcor says it has more than 1,500 employees working out of 125 offices nationwide. The company started in Ontario, Canada, but is now headquartered in California.

Wyatt said the merger of AT&T and BellSouth had created great opportunities at Winstead Marketing. She attributed the company’s ongoing need for more managers to the merger.
A wasted day

“I wasted a whole day with Winstead Marketing,” said one man who interviewed with the company recently. The man, a University of Tennessee graduate, did not wish to be named because he does not want his current employer to know he applied for a new job.

“I responded to an Internet ad and sent them my resume in an e-mail. They called me almost immediately, and I agreed to meet them for an 8 a.m. interview.

“The interview only lasted about 5 minutes. It was very rehearsed and just seemed fake. I was uncomfortable from the start.

“After the short interview, they had me sit in their waiting room for about ten minutes before they came out and told me I got the job. Then they told me my training would start in about ten minutes.

“They called it a field interview, but it was really just driving around to different businesses in Sevier County making sales calls. The thing I didn’t like was that I had to ride with them in their car — so I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.”

The man who interviewed with Winstead Marketing said the company pays no base salary, covers no travel expenses, does not take taxes out for its workers and claims people are making tremendous amounts of money working for them.

“The numbers just didn’t add up,” the man told The Daily Times. “I did the math, and even if you worked seven days each week and called on the largest accounts, you couldn’t make the kind of money they were claiming people made.

“What they were really pushing was becoming a manager — where you have people working under you. They said that’s when you would really start making money. If you succeed as a manager, and the people under you start bringing other people into the company too, then you could become an owner, and you’d get your own office.

“It was really weird and entirely focused on bringing more people on board.”

Winstead Marketing’s Web site says it was founded in 2005 and works with “some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the world.” The only client Winstead representatives named was AT&T. The company also say it plans to “triple in size” during 2007.

Cathy Lewandowski, the AT&T market manager for Tennessee and Kentucky, acknowledged that AT&T has a relationship with Winstead Marketing. She said, “The products and services offered to customers through our door-to-door sales program are the same that customers can get through any of our other sales channels, including through our sales centers and online at www.att.com.”

Calls to East Tennessee’s largest marketing firms, advertising agencies, public relations firms and marketing associations turned up not a single person who knows anything about Winstead Marketing.

Cynthia Moxley, co-president of Moxley Carmichael, in Knoxville, said, “Advertising and marketing is a close-knit community. If there was a firm in town handling major national accounts or Fortune 500 companies, I’m pretty sure I would be familiar with them, but I haven’t even heard of Winstead Marketing.”

Dorothy Smith, the president of the American Marketing Association, Knoxville Chapter and Smith Marketing, could not recall ever hearing of Winstead Marketing or having contact with anyone who had worked for them.

The University of Tennessee Career Services Department reportedly had problems with Winstead Marketing and has restricted the company’s access to UT students for recruiting.

“We had students who came back from interviews very upset,” said Mary Mahoney, an assistant director in the UT Career Services Department.

“We restricted their access to our students and blocked their access to our students’ resume database.

“They were posting the same job listings three times each week. We told them they had to stop it.

“I really have reservations about them.”

By definition, multilevel marketing is “a sales system under which the salesperson receives a commission on his or her own sales and a smaller commission on the sales from each person he or she recruits to become a salesperson.”

Most companies involved with MLM convince recruits that the majority of their income will be generated by others working under them — so the focus of the business becomes recruiting rather than selling.

Critics charge that the endless chain structure of MLM businesses inevitably dooms the vast majority of its participants to financial loss. This is because more than 90 percent of the participants will always be in the bottom ranks where there are not enough recruits below them to provide an income. This is how the term “pyramid scheme” was developed because each level of new recruits requires more individuals “down line” in order for the top levels to make money.

An MLM company that requires each employee to bring in just five new recruits will need nearly 4,000 employees by the time it reaches five layers of managers. Even with 4,000 employees, only the top three layers (just 25 employees) would earn money from the sales generated by the other 3,975 employees. By the time the company created an eighth layer of managers, the company would need more employees than the number of residents of East Tennessee and only the top 600 employees would be generating money from the down-line sales.

While commission-only sales jobs are common, most companies advertise the positions as such and focus on selling products or services rather than recruiting new employees and managers.

“I felt like I was tricked,” the UT graduate who interviewed with Winstead Marketing recently said, “and I was uncomfortable with it from the very beginning.

“The phones at their office were ringing nonstop, but the calls had nothing to do with their business. All the calls were from people responding to job ads. I had never seen a business like that before.

“While I was out for my field training, the Winstead guy told me the company was like a family, and that he had completely stopped hanging out with all of his old buddies after he started working there. He said his only real friends were his colleagues — I thought, ‘OK, this is weird.’

“After I had been with this guy all day, he walked me out to the parking lot and stood there and talked to me for about 45 minutes. It was like he was reading from a script, telling me how great the company was and what a fantastic opportunity I had with them.

“I got home after being with that guy all day, and he called me again that night to see how my day had been and what I thought about Winstead. It was just creepy.”

The UT graduate decided to stay with his current employer.

© 2007, The Daily Times

By Rick Laney and Jessica Stith
November 30. 2007

A year after The Daily Times first reported a Blount County employee attended an unaccredited university under a county tuition reimbursement program, the county still has no formal tuition reimbursement policy.

While Alcoa and Maryville have standard tuition reimbursement policies in place, Blount County is still drafting, revising and reviewing its program.

The Blount County Sheriff’s Office implemented its own tuition reimbursement policy in 2002. Blount County Sheriff James Berrong and Assistant Chief Jeff French said the courses had to be job-related and the employees were reimbursed according to their grade-point average. One thing the 2002 policy did not address was institutions’ accreditations.

In August, after discovering another tuition reimbursement payment for an unaccredited college for Maryville Police Department Capt. Sharon Moore, The Daily Times requested tuition reimbursement reports from the past five years from the city of Alcoa, city of Maryville and Blount County. The only payments identified were for Moore and Blount County Circuit Court Clerk Tom Hatcher’s tuition that was discovered in 2006.

On Nov. 20, The Daily Times requested that Berrong research reimbursements that were directly paid to individuals for out-of-pocket tuition payments to unaccredited schools. Berrong confirmed that Detective Lt. Danny Wilburn, Lt. Patrick England, K-9 Deputy Gary Perkins and Sgt. Rick Baker had all submitted invoices for tuition reimbursement from Columbus University and received reimbursement from the county.

Neither the U.S. Department of Education nor the Council on Higher Education Accreditation recognizes Columbus University as an accredited school. It is commonly referred to as a “diploma mill” by both organizations.

At the same time Berrong researched reimbursements at the sheriff’s office, The Daily Times asked the cities of Alcoa and Maryville and other Blount County department heads to again review their tuition reimbursement invoices. Available records did not reveal any other tuition reimbursements for unaccredited schools, according to city and county officials.

Wilburn, who has worked at the sheriff’s office for 11 years, said he was researching information on furthering his education when he discovered Columbus University.

“I found it on the Internet,” Wilburn said.

In hopes to better himself for his family, the sheriff’s office and the community, Wilburn said he signed up for the program in 2003. He said the university had a professional Web site and he began a program to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree for approximately $3,500.

Baker said Wilburn told him about the university and he also signed up for the program in hopes of obtaining a master’s degree. He said he was working two or three jobs at the time and had a newborn child at home, making an online program his only option.

Baker got his bachelor’s degree from Lee College (which later changed to Lee University) in 1988. The master’s program he signed up for with Columbus University cost between $2,500 and $3,000, according to Baker.

Wilburn and Baker said they bought books, took difficult tests, wrote papers and corresponded with Columbus University professors. They both said they were working hard for what they thought were degrees from an accredited university.

Deputies England and Perkins declined an offer to discuss Columbus University with The Daily Times.

In November 2006, The Daily Times published a story about Hatcher obtaining degrees from Columbus University. The degrees cost Blount County taxpayers $3,910, but Hatcher paid the county back in full just three days after The Daily Times reported the story.

After he paid the county back for his tuition, Hatcher said he would be happy to work with Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham, the commission and other officeholders to develop a policy that would allow county employees to pursue continuing training and education, but avoid “a bad experience” similar to his experience with Columbus University.

A year ago, Cunningham said work was “already under way to develop an overall policy manual” covering things including the use of county vehicles, travel, credit card use and tuition reimbursement for continuing education and training. Today, that policy is still in draft form and has not been formally adopted by the county.

Cunningham would not comment on the additional Columbus University tuition reimbursements, telling The Daily Times it was “old news.”

Dr. Robert Ramsey, chairman of the Blount County Commission, said he doesn’t recall anything ever being brought before the County Commission pertaining to tuition reimbursement.

Ramsey said, “The mayor or the human resources department could bring a recommended policy to the budget committee — that’s the way it should be done.

“Nothing would stop a single commission member from recommending it, either. It could be a policy dealt with entirely through the budget committee.

“I’m disappointed someone hasn’t taken the initiative — it needs to be addressed.”

In 2004 following a CBS News exposé, the state of Louisiana shut down Columbus University. A few months later it relocated in Picayune, Miss., where it operates today. Many online universities and colleges operate out of Mississippi where there are few regulations pertaining to accreditation — the Mississippi Office of the Attorney General said it is taking steps to correct this.

Diploma mills are commonly defined as colleges or universities that require little or no course work from students. Many claim to offer credits for life and work experiences, and most operate exclusively on the Internet and by mail and have no campus.

While online diploma mills typically provide bachelor’s and master’s degrees for less than $5,000 over a period of months, the College Board, a nonprofit association founded in 1900 to work with students and educational institutions, estimates that the average cost of a bachelor’s degree from a public university is now “$87,000 to $115,000 depending on the amount of student aid offered” and takes the average student 6.2 years to complete. Private university bachelor’s degrees now average $200,000.

Various state and federal government Web sites monitor colleges and universities and categorize schools as either “accredited” or “diploma mills.” More than 200 “diploma mills” operate in the United States or foreign countries and take in at least $200 million a year from selling bogus degrees.

The U.S. Department of Education and Council on Higher Education Accreditation also maintain master lists of more than 7,000 academic institutions that have proper accreditation.

Both Wilburn and Baker said they were surprised when they learned about Columbus University and immediately stopped working toward their degrees.

“I was stunned,” Wilburn said. “I actually felt victimized.”

“It was very disheartening,” Baker said. “We’re all the time dealing with victims. All of a sudden — we become the victim.”

Baker and Wilburn said Columbus University was “very misleading.” They said they would recommend that those interested in taking online courses should “study accreditation.” Baker said he would get in his car and drive there himself to see the institution.

A prospective student who drives to Columbus University would find an empty storefront at its address in Picayune, Miss., with a small “Columbus University” sign taped in the window.

Jeremy Pittari, a reporter for the Picayune Item newspaper, told The Daily Times he has investigated Columbus University in the past.

“Columbus University has a building here in Picayune,” Pittari said. “But I’ve never seen anyone working there.

“There was a paper sign that said ‘Columbus University’ taped up in the front window for a while and a small sign on the front door instructing people to deliver any mail or packages to a business across the street.”

The business across the street from Columbus University’s address is a massage parlor and “body sculpting” studio.

Baker pointed out that although the school was not properly accredited, he spent a lot of time on his work. He said many schools, police departments and sheriff’s offices across the country are not accredited, but that does not mean that “they are bad” or that employees do not work hard.

Wilburn said Columbus University had not deterred him from continuing his education. He said he finished getting his associate’s degree at Roane State this year.

The Daily Times asked Baker and Wilburn if they had ever taken steps to pay the county back for the tuition reimbursement, and both said they had not.

“I don’t feel like I’ve violated any policies that were in order,” Wilburn said, and Baker agreed.

Berrong said that a revised tuition reimbursement policy has been implemented for his department that is more detailed and addresses accreditation.

The policy states that employees requesting tuition reimbursement follow specific guidelines including taking courses that, “are job-relevant, college-level courses taken at an institution that is accredited (as recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education).” It also requires that, “such courses must be presented to his or her immediate supervisor and then to the assistant chief deputy over the appropriate division or unit for consideration and approval.”

Although the sheriff’s office is implementing a revised policy, the county still does not have one in place. Betsy Cunningham, the director of human resources for Blount County for the past four years, said the county wants to be proactive and establish a policy that eliminates problems with tuition reimbursement.

“We have drafted a policy,” Cunningham said. “It requires all schools to be accredited, and the county employee would have to get pre-approved for the program before enrolling. The draft is currently being reviewed.

“I anticipate that we could possibly implement our new policy — based on final approval — on or around January 1, 2008.”

After paying the county back for his Columbus University diplomas, Hatcher retained an attorney to pursue a refund from Columbus University.

“We wrote to Columbus University and demanded our money back,” Hatcher said.

“They lied to us; they defrauded us, and we wanted our money.

“It took two or three months, but they did issue a refund.”

Hatcher recommended that others who attended Columbus University look into the possibility of obtaining refunds for their tuition.

“This school is a fraud,” Hatcher said. “They sell themselves as an accredited school and they’re deceiving people.

“I think it would be worthwhile for others to pursue refunds.”

Berrong said there “was no discussion” on whether the deputies should pay back the money or ask Columbus University for a refund. He said he “would like for them to try to obtain a lawyer to ask Columbus to do the same that they did with Tom (Hatcher).”

“I think that’s something that we can pursue,” Berrong said. “I think a letter would be relatively inexpensive to have an attorney, if we could find one, that would do that.”

Berrong said the deputies felt they were “scammed” and that “the county lost some (money) on it for them trying to better their education.”

© 2007, The Daily Times

By Rick Laney
September 27. 2007

A group of Blount County hunters say two Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) officers were hunting bear over a baited area early Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon, TWRA said that four men — including two Tennessee wildlife officers — have been accused of running dogs and hunting near a 20-gallon drum covered with sticks.

Billy Hackler (second from right) and James Sheehan (right) discovered bear bait on Chilhowee Mountain.

Willard Perryman, the TWRA wildlife officer supervisor said, “We did find bait in there. It was a plastic barrel that was buried and half-full of fresh donuts.

“The first TWRA Wildlife officer to arrive, Jeff Pierce, did not participate in the investigation because two of the men are his colleagues.

“We have to decide if we can actually conduct the investigation or if we need to turn it over to an investigator from Nashville because it involves our people.

“If we do the investigation here, the first thing we’ll do is go out and interview the accused.”

TWRA did not identify the accused officers pending the investigation.

The bait was found on property off Montvale Road on Chilhowee Mountain. A drive for off-road vehicles was used to access the area.

Lennie Mason, one of about 25 hunters who saw a truck enter the baited area Wednesday morning, said, “After we saw the truck go in, we started hearing dogs up there.

“We’ve seen game warden trucks going in there before. We called TWRA and everyone we could think of, but it took hours to get anyone out here who would do anything about it.

“The two game wardens and the other two guys who were hunting in the baited area with them took off and left around 10 a.m.

“Hunting over bait is hunting over bait — it doesn’t matter if you’re a hunter or a game warden.”

The hunters said that Billy Hackler and James Sheehan found the barrel and donuts Monday, but didn’t report it until they heard someone hunting near it.

One hunter who reported the baiting incident, 70-year-old Thomas Franklin Lewis, was arrested at the scene by Blount County Sheriff’s deputies and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and interfering with police officers. He was freed at 3:30 p.m. on his own recognizance pending an appearance Oct. 5 in Blount County General Sessions Court.

Witnesses said Lewis was getting ready to leave when deputies pulled him from his truck and handcuffed him.

Bear season (dogs permitted) opened on Monday and continues through Sunday. Bear baiting is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and loss of a hunting license.

According to Perryman, about 20 people are charged with bear baiting each year in Tennessee, and approximately 30 are charged with deer baiting.

“I’m not aware of any other instance when a wildlife officer was accused of hunting over bait,” Perryman said.

Mason, who was charged on Monday with hunting bear over bait on Chilhowee Mountain, said, “My dogs ran into a baited area and I went after them. They charged me with it just because my dogs ran up the hill.

“I’m starting to think they took my guns so they could sneak over here and hunt over bait with them.”

© 2007, The Daily Times

By Rick Laney
January 9, 2008

Does a company have responsibility for people — other than its own employees — who are exposed to harmful agents from its facilities? That is the question the Tennessee Supreme Court tried to get its arms around Tuesday in Knoxville.

In late 2003, Maryville resident Amanda Satterfield, who was 23 years old at the time, filed a lawsuit against ALCOA Inc. and Breeding Insulation Co. in Blount County Circuit Court.

In her suit, Satterfield charged that she “was exposed to harmful asbestos dust and fibers from the day of her birth from her father’s use of asbestos products and inadvertent introduction of dust and fibers into their home and personal environments.” Satterfield had mesothelioma, a rare cancer directly associated with asbestos exposure.

On Jan. 1, 2005, at the age of 25, Satterfield lost her battle with cancer.

Doug Satterfield and his daughter Amelia, 18, during the hearing.

Doug Satterfield, Amanda’s father and the representative of her estate, continued with the suit after her death. With his 18-year-old daughter Amelia at his side, Doug Satterfield cried throughout the hearing in the Tennessee Supreme Court Building in downtown Knoxville.

Doug Satterfield hauled asbestos for ALCOA, starting his career with the company in 1973. He served in the military from 1975 to 1978 and then returned to work at ALCOA. His lawyers have maintained that Doug Satterfield was exposed to asbestos at ALCOA Tennessee Operations and that he brought home harmful dust and fibers on his clothes, resulting in Amanda contracting mesothelioma.

The lawsuit sought $10 million in compensatory and $10 million in punitive damages — although Satterfield has said the case is about justice and doing the right thing, not money.

ALCOA, represented by attorney John Lucas of Knoxville, argued that the ramifications of what the court is considering go far beyond this case, and could possibly create “an infinite universe of potential plaintiffs.”

Lucas referred to Satterfield’s allegations as the “conduit theory” — stating that, by assigning responsibility to companies for third-party contact with harmful agents, the court would define Doug Satterfield as the “vehicle” that transmitted asbestos into his home.

Tennessee Supreme Court Justice William Koch Jr. asked Lucas how that differed from an employee who drove an ALCOA truck into a neighborhood and exposed residents to asbestos.

“How is it negligent for ALCOA to let asbestos fly out of a truck and not negligent for ALCOA to allow employees to go home with asbestos dust on their clothing?” Koch asked.

ALCOA made a similar arguments during a coal tar pitch-related lawsuit in Knox County Chancery Court last year, charging that it would open the “floodgates of litigation” and that Tennessee would become a “plaintiff’s Mecca.” That case is now proceeding with a class action certification hearing following the conclusion of discovery depositions.

Knoxville attorney Greg Coleman, who represents Satterfield, said the real question was “what did ALCOA know, when did they know it, and what did they do about it?

“Public policy should at least extend to the home,” Coleman said. “ALCOA may not have known if an employee would stop at the Waffle House on his way home from work — but they did know that the employee would eventually end up at his home.”

Satterfield’s case has been in the legal system for more than four years. Originally heard — and dismissed — in Blount County Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young’s court, the Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed Young’s decision, reinstated the lawsuit and charged ALCOA with the cost of the appeal in April 2007.

The Tennessee Supreme Court Justices are expected to issue a written opinion on the case within three months. They can either return the case to Blount County Circuit Court, where it will proceed, or dismiss it entirely.

After the hearing, Doug Satterfield told The Daily Times, “It seems like ALCOA is trying to change the law to protect itself.

“It’s unthinkable that public policy shouldn’t protect the children of workers.”

Amelia Satterfield, Amanda’s younger sister, said she believed the hearing went well, but said her family was nervous about the court appearance.

Coleman said: “ALCOA is trying to reverse what the law should be. They’re saying the greater the magnitude of the harm and the higher the mortality rate, the less responsibility they should have. Where I come from in Ducktown, Tennessee, that’s called bologna.”

The Tennessee Supreme Court should issue its written opinion by early April.

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UPDATE: Months after this article was published, the Satterfield family and ALCOA Inc. reached a settlement in the asbestos exposure and cancer lawsuit.  The amount of the settlement and terms of the agreement reached between the family of Amanda Satterfield, who died four years ago, and the aluminum company were not revealed.

“A confidential financial settlement was obtained,” said Greg Coleman, attorney representing the Satterfield family.

© 2007, The Daily Times

By Rick Laney
February 17. 2008

According to Martha Ridings, Blount County workers accidentally caused her home and business to burn to the ground last year. But because of a state cap on property damage claims against local governments, representatives from the county say she can only be paid $100,000 for her losses.

Ridings said a Blount County Highway Department truck caused the fire five months ago when it accidentally hit a power line while dumping a load of brush behind her home. The county has not disputed Ridings’ version of events, which are also detailed in a police report dated Sept. 6, 2007 — the day the fire occurred.

Martha Ridings sits in front of her burned out home.

“There were two highway department dump trucks, one yellow one and one green one,” Ridings said. “They asked if they could dump behind my house because I’d let them do it before, and I told them that they could.

“I went back inside and was watching the news when my power flickered out for a few seconds. I went to the porch to see what happened but the power came back on, so I went back inside.

“When the second truck started to pull back out, I could see that it had stopped and the driver had opened his door and was standing on the running board looking toward the shop next door to my house. He looked really worried.

“Then a county flag man came up to the house and told me there was smoke coming from the shop — I could see the smoke coming out everywhere.

“I know it was an accident, and I don’t want anyone to get in trouble or lose their job over this. I’m not saying anything bad about anyone.

“I tried to call 9-1-1, but my phones were out by then — so the flag man called out on the radio from his truck.

“By that time, flames were leaping through the roof of the shop and the wind was blowing it toward the house.”

Ridings said that after the fire spread to her home, she realized her 2-year-old cat, MoJo, was still inside. Against the wishes of firefighters, she ran back into the burning house.

“I wasn’t going to let the cat die in that fire,” Ridings said. “By then, you couldn’t see the house from 50 feet away because the smoke was so thick.

“Just as I started running to the house, the Lord lifted that smoke up and I could see right up to the house. The cat was just inside in the dining room, so I picked him up and started back out — but the smoke had filled in again behind me and I couldn’t see where to go.

“As I was heading out, the Lord lifted the smoke again and I walked right through the door and out to the road.”

According to Ridings, who carried no insurance on the property, the fire started a few minutes after noon and firefighters were on the scene until after 5:30 p.m. When the fire was out, Ridings’ business — which manufactured wooden handles — and her home were destroyed.

For more than 30 years, Ridings lived in the home at 749 Blair Loop Road in Walland. She raised her three children and five foster children there. She ran a successful business next door to her home for nearly 15 years, and her mother still lives in the hollow behind her.

Ridings has a spectacular view of Chilhowee Mountain, which, from her side yard, looks close enough to reach out and touch. From the 10- by 18-foot trailer she now lives in, she can clearly see the ridgeline where the Three Sisters developers plan to build multi-million dollar estates. Next to her trailer sits the burned out remains of her home and business.

The inside of a home that has burned is surprisingly dark, even in the middle of the day. Ridings’ floor is black, the walls are black, the ceilings are black, the furniture and household items are black and the windows — the ones that didn’t shatter from the heat — are covered with thick black soot. The only clean surfaces are the spots where pictures used to hang on the walls, and the white outlines where magnets clung to the now jet-black refrigerator.

The county offered Ridings a settlement of $120,000, in writing, in October. Ridings then got her own appraisal from Tennessee Valley Appraisal Services showing the property was valued at $230,836.12.

In November, Ridings said the county came back to her with another settlement proposal of $157,100, and said it was their “final offer.”

In January, Ridings was notified that due to the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act, which caps property damage claims at $100,000, she would only receive $100,000 from the county for her home.

Don Stallions, who heads the Risk Management Department for Blount County, said the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act protects the government from being sued out of existence.

“The government used to be immune from law suits,” Stallions said. “People need to realize that the government isn’t like a business. When you sue a business, you get money that was generated as profit by an income-producing company. When you sue the government, it’s the people’s money you’re dealing with.

“The Tort Liability Act allows counties in Tennessee to do business. Without it, our counties wouldn’t be able to function.”

Stallions said Blount County has had numerous property damage claims in the past, but none that he can recall involving a claim on an entire home.

“We haven’t had anything to this extent before,” Stallions said. “Most of the property damage claims we deal with involve auto accidents and vehicle claims.”

Although no lawsuits have been filed, Stallions said the county’s attorneys advised him not to discuss Ridings’ situation. Stallions also said he was advised by attorneys not to discuss the two prior offers made to Ridings that exceeded the $100,000 cap.

Tennessee’s statute regarding governmental liability is detailed in the Tennessee Code under Section 29-20-403. The statute limits property damage claims against the government to $100,000 and bodily injury or death claims against the government to $300,000.

Tennessee Code Section 29-20-311 says no judgement or award may exceed the limits unless the government entity expressly waives the limit in its contract of insurance — which Blount County has not done.

Liability limits for government entities differ greatly by state, with states at the lower end, like Tennessee, capped at $100,000 and other states capped at $500,000 and more.

Until recently, Ridings did not have an attorney, but she has now retained Costner & Greene of Maryville.

“I didn’t hire an attorney for a long time because the people from the county kept telling me that they were going to take care of me,” Ridings said. “They told me they would do the right thing and make it right, but I’ve been living in a little trailer with no hot water for five months now.

“It’s just a shame. We elect these people because they tell us how they’re going to take care of the citizens of Blount County.

“Once they get into office, the only thing they want to take care of and protect is the government — not the people who elected them.

“I may not be able to do anything to change my own situation, but maybe because I’m telling what happened to me, something will change and this won’t happen to anyone else.”

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© 2007, The Daily Times

By Rick Laney
October 10, 2007

A Maryville woman who went to court on Aug. 14 for a child custody hearing says she was persecuted because of her religious beliefs at the hands of the Blount County judicial system.

According to Jo Anne White, what was supposed to be a standard child custody hearing turned into an almost hourlong “Bible study” in the courtroom in spite of the repeated protests of her attorney, Kevin W. Shepherd.

Jo Anne White

After a detailed discussion of her religious beliefs — documented in court reporter transcripts obtained by The Daily Times — and a brief recess to chambers, Blount County Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young awarded temporary custody of White’s two children to her ex-husband. The custody will be reviewed again in Circuit Court on Dec. 11.

While Young questioned White about one specific aspect of her religion, attorney Craig Garrett, who represented White’s ex-husband, asked numerous probing questions about her faith. Of the 65 pages of court transcripts reviewed by The Daily Times, 41 pages deal directly with White’s religious beliefs.

“We were discussing specific Scriptures and the details of end-times prophesy,” White said. “My attorney kept protesting, but the judge kept it going for almost an hour.

“At one point, I told the judge, ‘I didn’t write the Bible — so why are we discussing this?’

“He just wouldn’t stop, and I thought I would go to jail if I didn’t respond to his questions — so I went along with it even though I knew they were inappropriate questions.

“We talked about my religion for so long that I wasn’t even allowed to bring my witnesses to the stand.”

White is a Seventh-day Adventist who married her now ex-husband 17 years ago in a Seventh-day Adventist Church. With the exception of its observance of Saturday, the “seventh day” of the week, as the Sabbath, Seventh-day

Adventists also have beliefs that are similar to most mainstream Protestant churches.

The description “adventist” is based on the belief that a second coming of Christ is near. Seventh-day derives from the contention that the Bible requires observing the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, Saturday. The denomination is traceable to the preaching of William Miller, a Baptist layman who said the Book of Daniel revealed that the end of the world would occur in the mid-1840s.

According to the church’s Web site, there are currently 14.3 million Seventh-day Adventists who attend more than 60,200 Adventist churches worldwide. The denomination operates 22 churches within 50 miles of Maryville.

While judges in most states are allowed to investigate religion in custody cases, they are not allowed to base decisions on religious beliefs unless there is proof that the children are endangered by the religious practices.

Garrett said, “I did get on her about her religion because she’s so over the top.

“My purpose was to show her fanatical characteristics — but the judge’s decision about custody was not based on religion.”

When asked if White’s children were ever endangered because of her religious beliefs, Garrett said, “No, they were never endangered because of it — just aggravated and harassed.”

Calls from The Daily Times to Young’s office and home were not returned.

Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and expert on both child custody and religion in the courtroom, said, “A judge can’t say ‘this religion isn’t good for the children’ — you must have evidence.

“You have to be able to demonstrate that it isn’t in the best interest of the child.

“I think it’s inadvisable to investigate someone’s religion in depth in the courtroom.

“This is not the kind of behavior we want to see from judges, but it doesn’t necessarily constitute grounds for reversal.”

While transcripts of the court proceedings do not state why the judge awarded temporary custody to White’s ex-husband, they do show that religion was the primary topic of discussion in the courtroom that day.

Two letters written by Jo Anne White were submitted to the court as exhibits and were the subject of the initial discussion about religion. In one letter, submitted to The Daily Times as a letter to the editor in 2006, White offered $1,000 to anyone who “can prove that the Bible says God changed the Sabbath to Sunday.”

Mark of the beast

At one point during the hearing, after Garrett asked White what the Bible says about the “mark of the beast,” Shepherd voiced his objection to the questioning.

“If it’s something said to the child or involving the child, then I think it’s fair game,” Shepherd says in the transcripts. “But to just tell me what she believes the Bible teaches about salvation, the mark of the beast and hell — I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

Young told Shepherd that “she was volunteering” the information.

Then Shepherd said, “Well, I still don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss doctrine in churches in the courtroom unless we’re talking about things that she may have said or may have done that affected the children.”

Young replied, “Well, straighten me out. What is this mark of the beast stuff? I don’t understand it.”

At that point, the courtroom discussion turned to worship, the Ten Commandments, biblical history and an in-depth conversation about the mark of the beast and end-time prophesy (continuing for more than 20 pages in the transcripts, some of which are available by clicking the link in the box next to this story). Later, White was questioned by Garrett and the judge about the Roman Catholic Church.

Judge Young asked, “And so the pope then was the beast?”

White said, “No, the pope — the pope is …”

Shepherd interrupted again and said, “Your honor, I’m going to object. I feel like the court is attacking my client’s religious beliefs.”
Young said, “I’m not attacking anybody. I just want to understand what she’s talking about.”

Shepherd said, “As far as what she believes, I mean, we can bring a witness today to talk about what the church teaches and believes.”

Young replied, “I don’t care what the church teaches and believes. I want to know what she is talking about when she says ‘the mark of the beast,’ and I have yet to have it explained to me. I don’t understand it.”

Shepherd then said, “But, I mean, I see that as appropriate to discuss among individuals, but to make it part of the court record for a custody hearing, I don’t see the relevance.”

“Well, I would like to understand it, I really would,” Young said, “and I’m not trying to harp on you or put you in a box. But you’ve got to tell me — you’ve got to explain that to me.”

After additional discussion about the mark of the beast, the Book of Daniel and Babylon, Young said, “Let’s stop right here. When somebody says ‘beast’ to me, I’m thinking lion, tiger, gorilla — some sort of monster. Is that what you’re talking about?”

Again Shepherd protested, saying, “But, Your Honor, church doctrine is not the place to be in a courtroom for the court to decide what does the Bible say about the mark of the beast or hell. This is not the place to be litigating whose faith is right or wrong.”

Eventually, the judge abandoned the line of questioning and said he didn’t want to know what the beast is.

“I have never in my life felt so humiliated, mocked and degraded,” White said. “They were enjoying themselves at my expense.

“Judge Young decided he wanted to have a biblical study in the courtroom, and I ended up having to pay for it.

“These people had nothing bad they could say about me — so they decided to make the whole hearing about my religion.

“Craig Garrett tried to make me look like a religious nut. Nobody should be discriminated against or religiously persecuted like that in a courtroom.

“I feel like the decision had been made before I ever set foot in that courtroom.”

Religion and custody

While discussions about religion are permitted in child custody cases, most states prohibit religion from being a deciding factor unless there is evidence of potential or present harm to the child, such as if the parent engages in unusual cult activities or has an unorthodox lifestyle that endangers children, according to Nihara K. Choudhri’s book “Complete Guide to Divorce Law — Divorce Law for All Fifty States.” Religions that prohibit medical treatment are also regularly examined in child custody cases.

The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, outline specific rights including freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The “Establishment Clause” refers to the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the Constitution stating that the government cannot make laws respecting the establishment of a religion. Together with the “Free Exercise Clause,” which says the government can’t prohibit the free exercise of religion, the two clauses make up what are known as the “religion clauses” of the First Amendment.

Many state courts have gone so far as to prohibit judges from restricting a visiting parent from exposing children to his or her own religion, even when the custodial parent is teaching a different religion, unless the judge can prove “likely serious harm to the child” because it violates the Free Exercise Clause.

The International Religious Liberty Association, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and inside the United Nations Headquarters in New York, is the legal arm of the Seventh-day Adventist church charged with protecting religious rights. The association was contacted by Jo Ann White prior to her talking with The Daily Times.

Todd McFarland, associate general council for the International Religious Liberty Association said, “We’re certainly interested in what took place. Decisions cannot be made in the courtroom based on inquiry into someone’s belief system.”

A final ruling has not been made. The circuit court is expected to make a permanent custody ruling for the case in December.

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UPDATE:  This story resulted in a Golden Press Club Award for Rick Laney for investigative reporting in 2007.

© 2007, The Daily Times