After we made our supporters aware of the horrifying steps taken by WRLH Fox Richmond to destroy a colony of feral cats living behind their television station last week, we were overwhelmed with the heartfelt support expressed to us in so many ways.Your swift and powerful backing of our defense of these innocent animals has made a great difference in their prospects for the future.I now want to provide you with an update on their situation.

History
The feral cat colony in question has lived behind the businesses in the 1900 block of Westmoreland Street for at least 30 years and has been well cared for by at least two caregivers.Many had already been trapped, brought to the Richmond SPCA’s spay/neuter clinic for surgeries and given appropriate inoculations.While most of the adults are feral and run from direct human contact, some of the adult cats are sociable and were probably strays that somehow wandered into the colony over the years.

What Happened to Them
We have had confirmation that Critter Control, the pest control company that was hired by Fox, trapped and killed three adult cats before we were ever aware of Fox’s efforts to destroy the colony.Critter Control wisely decided to cease its trapping activities.That was when Fox undertook to bulldoze the habitat in which the cats have lived for decades.When I heard from the station manager that the bulldozing was underway, we asked local media to come to the scene.They filmed the destruction in process and, I assume due to the discomfort of conducting this brutality in front of television cameras, Fox decided to stop after having destroyed about half of the cats’ home.

What is Happening Now
Since that time, Fox has continued to tell the story that they are working with local humane groups to trap and remove the cats but they have never contacted the Richmond SPCA nor any other humane organization of which I am aware for such assistance.Henrico County has said that they are investigating the matter and whether criminal charges will be brought.We are working in a strong partnership with SOS, Somebuddies and other humane organizations and volunteers to care for and manage the colony in the proper way through a trap-neuter-return program.

Kind volunteers are trapping the cats, taking them either to Prevent-A-Litter or to the Richmond SPCA for spaying and neutering and for basic veterinary care and inoculations.The cats that are not truly feral but exhibit sociable behavior will be adopted to responsible and loving homes and the same will be true of the kittens that are small enough to socialize.The feral adults will be returned to the colony to live there and be managed under our ongoing partnership trap-neuter-return program.That is, unless Fox takes further steps to remove or kill them.

Our Approach
Relocating a feral colony is a difficult proposition that is usually not in the best interests of the cats.The cats are usually very frightened and disoriented and will not stay in the new location unless they are provided with a large condo unit to keep them there until they recognize it as home.This often takes a long time. If they are not kept in such a unit, they will run away and find themselves in a location where they do not know how to take care of themselves.The well recognized best practice is to allow the colony to remain in place and be managed in a TNR program. Since there are a number of other feral colonies in the area, relocation is likely to be totally unproductive since the other cats will probably just move into the vacated territory.

We have released a joint statement with our partner organizations working on this matter explaining our approach to the public. Click here to read the statement >>

What Happens Next
We do not know what Fox plans to do next. If any further steps are taken to hurt the cats or destroy their habitat, you may be assured that we will be there to do all in our power to protect the animals.And, we will ask for your help. If you are interested in adopting one of the kittens or sociable adult cats from the colony, please contact SOS or visit their website for pictures and adoption information (http://www.saveourshelters.com/ or http://www.sos-penpals.com/).

Your compassionate response to this situation through your massive numbers of outraged calls to the media and to WRLH, signing of online petitions, blog postings, and expressions of your heartfelt support to us has been incredibly powerful.I have received copies of numerous messages from local businesses saying that they will be pulling their advertising from WRLH because of their treatment of these innocent creatures.Because of your support for the Richmond SPCA and your deep caring concern for the companion animals that share our world, we are a force for animals.

Gratefully,

Robin Robertson Starr
Chief Executive Officer
Richmond SPCA

Peter Griffin, Homer Simpson, Judge Judy, and Charlie Sheen: I couldn’t think of more appropriate company to place the caricatures called the Fox news team. It isn’t enough that Sinclair Broadcasting-owned Fox Richmond violates our community nightly, along with our other local *news* outlets, with superficial and utterly useless broadcasts of weather warnings, traffic alerts, and crime-porn. Now they are inflicting violence and ineptitude on the kittehs, moving to exterminate a colony of feral cats living on their property despite offers of assistance from local animal groups. Here’s the real kicker–after howls of protest from the community, lead by the Richmond SPCA–they lied, and continue to lie, about partnering with local groups to humanely relocate the remaining colony (the ones they didn’t kill).

Go to the Richmond SPCA site for more info. Most of all you can STOP WATCHING.

I should say props to WRIC news for actually covering, and continuing to cover, this local story.

Afterward, I reluctantly fulfilled my promise to Elaine that we would stop for some local BBQ. Using our handy Kreature Comforts Rock-n-Roll Travel Guide to Memphis, we located A&R BBQ along a pretty beat-up stretch of Elvis Presley Blvd. The place was hopping, with a long lunch line and legendary slow service at its most molasses-like. Besides a fine selection of BBQ, the menu also offered up a comprehensive offerings of fried delights, including fried pickles, which seem to be on almost every menu in Memphis. Elaine went for the BBQ and I ordered a fried catfish sandwich. It came crackling hot and slammed between two slices of white bread and was hands do the best meal I had in Memphis.

National Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum is located in the South Main Arts district of Memphis, housed in the former Lorraine Motel, the place where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. We spent a good two hours exploring the exhibits of this engrossing  museum, which followed the Civil Rights Movement from its nascent beginnings during the height of slavery in the US to the post-MLK days after the passage of the Civil Rights Act when the movement fragmented. The new annex across the plaza is in the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed and from where he shot Dr. King. This part of the museum addresses the many conspiracy theories surrounding MLK’s assassination and suggests, with no real concrete evidence, that others were possibly involved. The conclusion seems to be that the assassination was a contract hit.

Memphis Rock-n-Roll Tour
If you’re in Memphis and you want to get a real up-close-and-personal tour of the Memphis music scene, call Preston of The Ultmate Memphi Rock’n Roll Tours. He ain’t cheap, but he’s definitely worth the spendage. Besides getting some early history of the Memphis blues scene, we also saw where Isaac Hayes went to high school, the former site of American studios, Poplar Tunes, the subsidized public housing where the Presley’s lived when they first moved to Memphis (you can rent their old apartment for the night!), Argent Studios, Hi Records, so forth and so on.

Sun Records/Phillips Studios
Sun Records, formerly known as Memphis Recording Service, is a straight shot east down Union and easy to miss because it’s so small. The tour is unremarkable–a local hipster takes you past a few cases of rock memorabilia, mostly centered around Elvis. Then you head back downstairs to stand in the small studio, which is still in use. It’s hard to describe the feeling of just being in the place where so much life-changing music happened: Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis. You can walk a few blocks and see the second studio opened by Sam Phillips, Phillips Recording.

Memphis food
Fried.

For more pictures of the trip, check out my Flickr Memphis photoset:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardsebastian/sets/72157605587287894/

We got into town early, and rented a car-a necessity in this town since there is little public transportation and many of the must-see sites are pretty far from the downtown center. We did have some trouble at Hertz as we had no *proof* that we were married since (gulp) we both have different last names. It was going to cost us $10 a day until the manager got involved. We drove into town and checked in to our hotel. The Peabody is truly a grand hotel, with an ornate lobby, luxurious rooms, and polished, professional service. Unfortunately, we’re staying across the street at the Holiday Inn Select. They have free coffee and a nice view of the Peabody.

We drove to the Cooper-Young neighborhood, a funky arsty district with lots of yoga studios, organic restaurants, and co-op galleries. We ate at the Young Ave. deli, the first of many businesses in Memphis named after things they aren’t. There is the Young Ave. Deli-not a deli but a club that sells food. Then there’s the Beauty Shop-a restaurant. Earnestine & Hazel’s Sundries–a bar. The Lorraine Hotel, site of MLK’s assassination, now a museum. Things here are adapted and retrofitted rather than rebuilt, and often the old names remain.

After lunch, we stopped at Goner Records where Elaine bought some 45s and we got directions to Stax.

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music

While I had known about Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & the MGs, Rufus Thomas, and Otis Redding, I didn’t know about Stax until I met Elaine, who owned several colorful cardboard boxes full of soul 45s, most of them of Stax artists. The museum is a recreation of the old studio, which was housed in an old theater in the middle of a neighborhood that was at the time transitioning from white to black. Living in the neighborhood were Memphis Slim, Aretha Franklin, Booker T. Jones, and jazz greats Calvin and Phineas Newborn, among others, who provided the natural homegrown talent that defined the Memphis soul sound.

The Stax story, like the story of Memphis itself, is both glorious and sad. The original studio is gone, having been abandoned after the label went bankrupt in the mid-70’s due to a perfect storm of problems–bad business deals, the assassination of MLK, the loss of the rights to their recorded masters, the death of Otis Redding–one thing after another that made it impossible for the label to survive. The building fell into disrepair and was eventually torn down. The current museum, a recreation of the original, is well worth a visit, though the exhibits were a bit text heavy. Some highlights include a replica of a “shotgun shack” church inside and, of course, Isaac Hayes’s gold and turquoise Cadillac. What is most amazing about the Stax story is the DIY ethic that made Stax happen. They tapped the raw local talent foud in the neighborhood and the region and didn’t care that they weren’t professionals. During the short few years they were recording music, the folks at Stax created a lasting sound that defines American soul music. Next door to the museum is a music academy as well as a charter school. The neighborhood surrounding Stax has been hit hard over the last few decades, and the extreme poverty of the area is evident: foreclosed homes, liquor stores, abandoned businesses are common.

After Stax, we headed to the South Main Arts District, the area of town where much of the movie Mystery Train was shot, including a scene shot inside of South Main’s Arcade Restaurant, “Memphis’s Oldest Diner.” It’s an odd part of town, with new, trendy bistros and coffee shops sprouting up alongside gutted, windowless buildings, including the behemoth, abandoned Hotel Chisca, home of Dewey Phillip’s insanely chattering radio broadcasts.

After a relatively disappointing “wood-oven” pizza at Spindini’s, one of the trendy South Main restaurants, we headed to the Bigfoot Lodge for after dinner drinks and dessert. We didn’t fully grasp the Bigfoot theme until we ordered: everything is bigger than life. I received what was a human-head sized glass of wine and an entire peach cobbler. Elaine was able to climb into her cocktail glass and drink it from the inside. And lest you think that bigger is better, it’s not.

Day 1 in the bag, we headed back to “The Select” and hit the hay, excited about the next day’s visit to Graceland and our afternoon appointment with Preston for the Memphis Rock-n-Roll Tour.

(to be cont’d)

The partnership between the Virginia Department of Education, Comcast Cable and Cox Communications was announced yesterday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Nearly one in seven adults over age 18 in Virginia lack a high-school or equivalent diploma, said Julie Grimes, Education Department spokeswoman.

The most common obstacles to getting a GED are scheduling conflicts, transportation to and from classes and lack of availability of child care or the inability to pay for it, experts say. In a statement, Kaine said the on-demand service “provides convenience and flexibility for adults who want to increase their income potential by earning a GED.”

On-demand adds to the ways people can study for GED certification and builds on the state’s Race to GED program, said Randall Stamper, communications specialist at the education department’s adult education office. Race to GED seeks out folks who may need just to brush up on certain skills before testing, to help them earn certification faster.

People can take classes at adult learning centers, cram via the Web or watch scheduled programs on Public Broadcasting Service stations. The on-demand option lets people watch half-hour lessons — 39 of them — at any time.

Of course, not all adults in need of a GED subscribe to digital cable, but at least this project makes these programs available to those that do. And hopefully the success of this partnership will lead to other coordinated projects between adult education and the business community

If Romney’s was the most visible campaign, Paul’s was the loudest. A Paul parade snaked through the grounds at noon, chanting the congressman’s name. In front of one RV, emblazoned with the slogan “Say Yes to Dr. No,” a Paul supporter was feeding a monkey in a diaper.

No snark needed.

Go to Ustream.tv to get a free account.

Explaining how to create a city-wide network can become mind-boggling, but here’s the gist. First, get a few people living on the same city block interested in sharing an common Internet connection. Each person then goes online and purchases a “Meraki repeater node” – a piece of technology that lets the Internet signal “bounce” between other nodes on the community network.

Each person then goes to their home or office, plugs in their node, and registers the node’s unique ID number and their street address on [the] RFW website, richmondfreewifi.org.

With enough participants, the nodes overlap and provide the city with more or less blanket wifi coverage.
It is good to see this exciting project getting some attention, especially this early on in the project. Getting the word out the the larger Richmond community will be an important part of making this project a success. While the wifi acees will be a free public commodity–part of the Richmond commons–it does require a handful of citizens to step up and be willing to support their little piece of the network by buying a repeater and sharing some broadband bandwidth.

The educational implications of this project are especially exciting. Free wireless, especially in and around poorer communities, is yet another way to provide lower-income students with much needed access the Internet.

If you are interested in hosting a repeater, fill out the contact form on the RFW site.

 History lesson
George Washington was more than silver dollars, wooden teeth and cherry trees. Did you know he was almost 7 feet tall and had atypical gonads? Find out more amazing facts about the father of our country in this entertaining educational music video (See the disclaimer above)
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/b0X7-9Wl9jk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]