Tag Archives: drinking

New State Library Exhibit: ‘Prohibition in Tennessee’

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News release from Secretary of State’s office:
It was the constitutional amendment that tried – often unsuccessfully – to put Americans on the path to sobriety and in the process created a booming market for Tennessee’s providers of illegal moonshine whiskey.
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which launched the Prohibition era in 1920, was called the country’s “noble experiment.” That experiment ended 13 years later with the ratification of the 21st Amendment – the only amendment to repeal another amendment – which halted Prohibition and brought imbibing back out of the shadows.
Now a new exhibit in the lobby of the Tennessee State Library and Archives building chronicles the history surrounding the passage of both amendments.
This exhibit, entitled “The Saloon and Anarchy: Prohibition in Tennessee,” surveys the brewing and distilling industries in Tennessee prior to Prohibition, chronicles the rise of the Temperance Movement in the state and the impact it had on the passage of the 18th Amendment, examines the effect that the 18th Amendment had on moonshining in the state, and recounts the passage of the 21st Amendment.

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Phony drivers’ licenses flood bars (but not voting precincts?)

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Phony drivers’ licenses from overseas have swamped bars and clubs around the University of Tennessee campus — so many some bars now ask for two kinds of identification, reports the News Sentinel. For teenagers, they’re a license to drink and to party.
For police and for bar owners, they’re a neverending headache.
“I’ve seen trained law enforcement officers look at them and not spot the difference,” said Trevor Hill, owner of The Hill bar on Forest Avenue in Fort Sanders. “We’ve gotten them from different states and from 12 or 14 countries. It’s rampant on campus. My collection right now’s right around 300, and that’s not counting what we’ve turned over to the police. I’d say we’ll take up several hundred more in the first month of school.”
…ID Chief, the leading forger, operates from China and advertises its bogus wares on a website based in the Philippines.
Each fake comes with a duplicate for emergencies.
“If you lose one, you don’t have to pay for another,” the site explains.
Pick a name, state and address. Scan and send a photo and clear copy of your signature. Fill out the order form and pay by credit card or money order, then sit back and allow up to 10 business days for shipping.
Don’t worry about what happens to your personal information.A pair of fakes cost $200. Three pairs go for $600.Find enough friends and get a price break — special discounts for 10 or more. The site offers Christmas, Halloween and back-to-school sales.

TN Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Congressman (he’d been drinking)

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From the News Sentinel:
A Lenoir City man has struck a deal to plead guilty to telephoning threats to a Virginia congressman’s family.
According to court documents, Glendon Swift, 62, has admitted that he left two anonymous telephone messages at the office of U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va) in October, and said he was drunk when he did so. Swift was ordered detained Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley pending a Dec. 20 hearing at which he is expected to plead guilty to one count of threatening a federal official’s family.
The plea deal calls for a 13-month prison term. But U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan must approve it at an April 4 sentencing.
When FBI agents from the Richmond, Va., field office first questioned Swift about the calls, he readily admitted he had made them, court documents state.
Swift “immediately responded that he was aware of why the agents were there and stated that he ‘got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,’ ” a court document states.
Swift, after consulting with an attorney, has signed a plea agreement. He has also agreed to have the case handled in Knoxville instead of Virginia.
The calls were made on Swift’s cellphone. They were “laden with the screaming and ranting of profanities,” and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.
In one of the calls, Swift says: “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife.”
Available court documents do not indicate Swift’s motive in making the call.