Move over, Ironman
This weekend may be all about the Ironman triathlon when more than 2,500 people from around the globe swim, bike and run through Chattanooga and North Georgia in a world-class event, but coming Thursday -- from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. -- the new Stringer's Ridge Park "pump track" will open. This will give local folks a new safe cycling training area where they can learn skills for the wildly exhilarating mountain biking track in the 100-acre Stringers Ridge Park -- from now on, day in and day out, year-round.
On Thursday, cyclists will offer free demonstrations, and residents can see and enjoy the new Spears Avenue trail head. For convenience, there also is a 20-space parking area.
Pump tracks are short convoluted loops of flowing bermed turns and rollers that cover less than an acre. Advanced riders can practice using momentum and body position to "pump" through the loop without pedaling (hence the name) while novices and kids will enjoy just riding around the turns, whoops and the rollers.
This pump track and the Spears Avenue trail head, on two acres generously donated by Greg and Carlene Vital, also double as a green infrastructure demonstration project. The site is designed not just for biking, but also for managing stormwater, reducing flooding and recharging our water supply. It uses land forms as a way of holding "the first inch" of rain runoff.
The 100-acre Stringer's Ridge Park in the center of North Shore's Hill City was already a wonderful jewel. Next week, thanks to the Vitals and the Trust for Public Land, the park will get even better. Visit Thursday at 5:30 p.m. for the whole view.
Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Jan. 29, 2014, file photo.Eric Holder will be missed
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the 82nd attorney general and the first African-American to serve in that position, has officially announced his resignation but will remain in office until a successor is confirmed.
Holder has been a lightning rod for controversy, but he also has been a beacon and tower of strength for progressive hope -- and, at times, the conscience of this nation.
Holder has been the most prominent liberal voice of President Barack Obama's second-term administration, and he has led the push for equality in both same-sex marriage and voting rights. He joined with liberal Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans to advocate for the most sweeping liberalization of sentencing laws since the beginning of the War on Drugs. As a result, the federal prison population declined this year for the first time since 1980.
He drew venom from both the media and Congress, however, for subpoenas directed at journalists to find administration leaks and for his approval of the CIA's killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen working with the Al Qaida branch in Yemen. Holder also took heat, and rightly so, for signing off on the National Security Agency's authority to sweep up the phone records of millions of Americans not charged with any crime.
But for the most part, Holder has been a champion of true justice, even while being a man conservatives have loved to hate.
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., in a statement Thursday, said: "During his nearly six-year tenure, Eric Holder vastly overstepped his bounds as attorney general" and "abused the power of his office. It is my sincere hope that Holder's successor will have a greater commitment to the rule of law."
And Tennessee's U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander was more biting: "I hope the president will nominate an attorney general this time who will faithfully apply the laws Congress has passed and not seek to impose policies the president wishes Congress had passed. The role of the top law enforcement officer in the country is to enforce the law--not to advance the president's agenda."
Voting rights and equality are the law, folks. And Eric Holder is a giant. He will be missed.