DaleRussell's Blog

Standing in front of the Pentagon on September 12th, 2001, I watched as rescue teams removed bodies from the bowels of the symbol of America’s military power.

A producer back in Atlanta asked me what the mood was.

I could barely put it into words.  The overwhelming feeling was one of shock. Followed closely by abject sadness. Numbed, everyone on the scene walked about as if at a funeral.

A funeral for an entire nation.

Later that week, my photographer Tony D’Astoli and I entered the Hart Senate Office building to interview Senator Zell Miller.

As, often was the case with Tony and me, we got lost.  The two of us could get lost in the Fox 5 parking lot.  We ended up on a back service elevator, and made our way up to Senator Miller’s office.

Then October 15th, aides in Senator Tom Daschle’s office opened an anthrax laced letter.

Somewhere in the news, federal agents disclose that the letter made its way to the Senator’s office via a service elevator.

The same elevator Tony and I traveled on a month earlier.

At the time, no one knew how many letters were mailed and when.

My doctor put me on Cipro and the anthrax attack suddenly took on a more personal note for me.

I followed the case closely.  If it’s possible, I believe I was madder at the Anthrax murderer than I was the Al Qaeda nihilists.  Once, it seemed clear the Anthrax was home grown; I couldn’t believe that an American would paralyze the nation with fear at a time, when we were trying to recover from our loss.

Someone had committed murder during our own funeral.

I hated that person. Deeply.  Having covered cowards, who mail or plant death in letters and knapsacks, like Roy Moody, the southeast mail bomber and Eric Rudolph the Olympic park bomber, I felt I knew this man.

Deeply paranoid and narcissistic. He would be a smart man, who blended in with the workforce around him.  Yet, to people who knew him best, there would be an element of fear every time he entered a room.    

Now, the FBI says that man is Bruce Ivins. Earlier they hinted it might be another scientist, Steven Hatfield.

Hatfield was cleared.  The Richard Jewell of the Anthrax investigation. Ivins is dead by a self inflicted overdose.

There will be no trial. No facing your accuser. No closure.  America is left to wonder. Did the FBI finally get its man?

So, the FBI did the best think I think it could do in this situation.  It released mountains of evidence.   As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, once wrote: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

I’ve read the affidavits. A circumstantial case. Some parts strong – other parts purely speculative.

Only 10-12 people in the world had access to Anthrax that killed 5 and sickened 17. Ivins was one of them.

I recommend you read the documents for yourself, then decide.

The case is so convincing at times, I can’t help but wonder, why wasn’t Ivins in the FBI crosshairs earlier?   And why did the FBI focus so intently and for so long on Steven Hatfield?

But, remembering back to the shock and sadness of September 12th and the fear of the weeks of Anthrax injuries and deaths piling up across the country, I can’t help but think:   If Bruce Ivins is the anthrax killer; it makes me livid that he was able to determine on his own time, in his own way, how the story would end.

He was the voice of the Braves, and by virtue of that position, a voice of Atlanta.

I’m not sure I remember the first time I heard him, but I do remember thinking, there is something unique and different about this guy.

Skip Caray came to Atlanta to escape the shadow of his legendary father, Harry Caray.

We were lucky.

I vaguely remember his Hawks broadcasts, but vividly remember his humor, his sarcasm, his deadpan, dead on description of the Atlanta Braves. 

I didn’t know him well, but have never forgotten the first time I met him. 

It was long ago, perhaps 1979, maybe early 80’s.  It was a night, when you end up at a party, at a place, and then travel to another place, and find yourself at a bar with old friends whom you’ve never met before. 

Tom Houck, then a budding journalist, who had written a gossip column (The Tattler) for the long gone alternative newspaper, Atlanta Gazette and was  beginning a broadcast career for WGST, welcomed me over to the bar at Harrison’s.

He was sitting with Skip Caray.  I joined them, and sat with rapt attention as Skip proceeded to tell war story after war story, keeping me in stitches, and forever endearing me to his unique sense of humor.

I was a cub reporter for an all news radio station and he was a big time star.  But, late at night, at Harrison’s, Skip was like that best friend you hadn’t seen since high school.

I remember coming to the time when we had to pay the bill. Tom had left to rub shoulders with another group.  Skip flippantly told the bartender, when he slipped us our bill:  “Put, it on Tom’s tab.”  And, we did.

(Tom if you read this, I owe you for a couple of beers. Well, maybe more than a couple.)

I looked a the clock and muttered, “It is so late, my wife will kill me.”  I was newly married and still hadn’t figured out that boys can’t be boys the same way they could be when they were single.

Skip knew better.   And Skip did a simple thing, I’ve never forgotten.

He wrote me a note.  An excuse.  Just like the kind your mother wrote for you when you were sick and going to miss school.

He wrote it on a napkin.  Addressed to my wife, it began “Please excuse Dale for being out late…..”  I don’t remember the rest, but it was some lame excuse for my late night carousing, during a newly minted marriage.

My wife woke up the next morning, with my note on the kitchen table.  Thank, goodness she has a sense of humor.  

Every time I would see Skip, which was rarely, with often years in between, he’d snap: “Dale, what ya’ doing ?  You going to need a note for later tonight?”  

No, Skip, not this time.   This time, I’ve got one for you.

No excuses, no explanations, just a thank you for forty years of excellence.  You are an integral part of the fabric of our city and you will be missed.   

Atlanta has lost a piece of its soul. 

For the man, who will forever live in our memory and on DVD, screaming “Braves win, Braves win” we’d like to say…..so did we, Skip. So did we.

In May, we did a story on MARTA's idling buses at the Avondale Rail-yard.

MARTA had no written policy for idling.

Odd, for a huge organization that has written policies on how to find the cafeteria.

MARTA also didn't believe they were idling buses at night.

After all, that would be stupid.  It wastes money, pollutes the environment and upsets  some of the neighbors.

But one neighbor counted the idling buses.  He found around 200.  Sitting and idling.  On two different nights.

MARTA investigated and came out with.....(trumpets please) a new written policy.

So, did it make a difference?

Watch tonight and you'll see.

We ran a story last week on Cherokee County sheriff Roger Garrison's charity.

Great idea. Raise money for charity.  Go around the county and give money away to other charities.

One problem, the charity was illegal.

The top law enforcement officer of the county didn't follow the law.  He never registered his charity with the state, as the law requires.

Which could raise a sticky tax issue for the sheriff. If the money wasn't a legal charity, then what is it? 

The sheriff  admits the charity is a political plus for him, but says it was an honest mistake that he didn't register.

I left town before posting about our story, so I invite you to check it out and weigh in.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/De
tail;jsessionid=AC50B51D029F74F14A12A1B272E5BA34?conten
tId=6954635&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&page
Id=1.1.1&sflg=1

When I got back to town, I noticed the political blogs all picked up the story and the debate was raging.

We can't have that without the Fox 5 viewers getting a chance to have their say.

So, tell me what you think.

Mysterious envelopes.

Cash payments.

Furtive phone calls.

Secret meetings.

The I-team undercover team follows the trail of a man of God in his effort to reconnect with the woman suing him for sexual abuse.

Tonight at Six and again at Ten, and always, on myfoxatlanta.com

It began with a plan.

Mysterious envelopes.

Cash payments.

Furtive phone calls.

Covert meetings.

We have the undercover story of Archbishop Earl Paulk's secret settlement talks. 

The story airs Monday and Tuesday at six and ten, and on the internet.

Please pass the word to all who have followed this saga.

The tip was the perfect story for an upcoming July ratings book.

A widow, who just buried her husband, a decorated veteran, was aghast to find that the American flag provided to her for her husband’s burial by the Veterans Administration was made in China.

I didn’t even know the VA provided burial flags for all veterans.

Her husband’s brother, the tipster, was angrier than a Michael Vick pit bull left on a leash.

The woman lived in Ohio. How do we prove what happened?

I’ll give you the Cliff Notes  version, so you can get a glimpse of the joys of investigative reporting:

Check with the VA to find out who the flag vendors are and what the burial flag law states.  This takes days of phone calls, back and forth.

Find out all burial flags have to be made in America.

File a Freedom on Information request for the names of all American flag vendors doing business with the Government.

Call the funeral home in Ohio to make sure there was no simple mistake.

After learning the funeral home gets the burial flags from the local Post Office, call the Postmaster in the woman’s home town.

Talk to the funeral home director three times, the post master twice: convinced there was no mistake at this level. The flag must have been delivered with the “Made in China” tag.

Consider this probable cause to begin shooting video and continue researching the story.

Interview, on camera, the brother and his boss, a veteran as well. They are mortified that the US government would send a “Made in China” flag for a veteran’s funeral.

Set up plane fare to Ohio to photograph the flag and interview the woman.

Shoot video, stand ups, and teases during Memorial Day activities in Duluth. Interview owner of a Flag Company in Duluth; set up for an on camera interview later.

Send photographer on Memorial Day to shoot flag activities and one Memorial service for a veteran. Photographer, on his own initiative, shoots interviews with family members and military commanders at Memorial Day service about the “Made in China” issue.

Contact VA and they begin a preliminary investigation. They can't believe it has happened.

Widow calls to say she’s coming to Atlanta to visit family. She will bring the flag.

Cancel flight plans.

Two weeks later, meet widow at family’s house. She’s not there. Call her. She says “you didn’t get my message.” Feel the bottom of my stomach open up; heartburn soon to follow.

“No.”   Widow informs me that the night before, she unfolded the flag for her family, and couldn’t find the tag. But, she did find a “Made in America” tag. In fact, made in Alabama by disabled workers.

Stomach unleashes torrent; TUMS soon to follow.

While talking to the widow, I see flag in its triangular shaped case next to kitchen table. As she is saying “I don’t know why I thought the flag was Made in China,” act upon a hunch. I pick up the case and turn it over. On the back a sticker: “Made in China”

Stomach unloads; thank God I didn’t charge two plane tickets on Fox American Express card.

July Ratings Story goes down the tubes. Consider going back to teaching. Look at list of other “promising” stories to work on. Another fun day/week/ no, month, in the I-team office.

Well, at least I got a blog out of it.

As we love to say around here: “It’s never easy, even when it’s easy.”

Who would ever have dreamed that seven years after Islamic terrorists flew planes into the Twin towers, America would select as one of its two candidates for the presidency, the son of a Muslim, whose middle name is Hussein?

No matter who wins in November, I’d like to think we have sent the world a message.

That in this country, the content of your character is what matters. In this country, “the sweltering heat of injustice” has truly been transformed. In this country, we all walk, even if only for a moment, together as brothers and sisters.

Just as King dreamed.

So, Scott McClellan, former press secretary to President Bush, writes a tell all book on his former boss.

He says Bush mislead the country about the Iraq threat, used “propaganda” to sell the war, and, among others, gave false information to the America people (through McClellan) on the CIA leak case.

I’ve read the same allegations by other well sourced, talented reporters, like Thomas Ricks in his book: Fiasco.

So the attack and the allegations are nothing new.

What makes this different is the attacker is not Air America, but a long time Bush loyalist.

Well, at one time, a loyalist.

He also bashes the “liberal media” for not standing up to the Bush White House and not challenging the Bush “propaganda” machine during the run-up to the war.

Funny. The man who stood in the pulpit beating up the media for daring to challenge his boss is now beating up the media for not challenging his boss.

This guy cracks me up.

McClellan’s charges are serious and disturbing. But there is something a little unsettling about the "make a million, after the fact, tell all book " from someone who fought so publicly and loudly alongside the very same people he is now bashing.

Perhaps, McClellan said it best when he attacked former Bush White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clark after his tell all book bashed the Bush (and Clinton) White House.

McClellan said  “Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he's raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book. Certainly let's look at the politics of it.”

Good question, Scott.

When researching a story we often get differing opinions on a topic. But, when we set out to find why large transit busses would sit and idle for hours, there was no debate: shouldn’t be done and doesn’t need to be done.

Today’s diesel and Natural Gas buses run too well to need to idle for long periods before starting. And, doing so wastes valuable fuel and taxpayer’s money as well as pollutes the environment.

So, when a resident tipped us off to MARTA idling hundreds of buses over night most of the night, we set out to prove it.

We stayed up, watched, recorded, and talked to residents who did their own investigation.

What does MARTA say? They say that doesn’t happen. Must be a misunderstanding.

Tonight at six and ten and on myfoxatlanta.com you can see the evidence yourself and tell us if you hear what we hear.

I can remember when I thought all this new technology would bring a little extra time and efficiency to my life.

Boy, was I wrong.

I wake up to my office email on my home computer. Wow. I thought when I first got it. That’s cool. Now, I realize, no, it means I’m at work before the coffee has even brewed.

My cell phone rings constantly. Morning. Noon. Night. I get voice messages, call backs, and text inquiries. I talk while I drive and drive while I eat, so I’m now working during my lunch break. 

We have this new web page with streaming video and non stop blogs. Cool, I thought, when I first saw it. Now, I research a blog, while working on a story, writing the story and the blog, keeping the facts separate but equal. (Isn’t there a law against this?)

When a story airs, people post responses, and I respond to the responses, while sitting at my desk, listening to my cell phone and desk phone ring in harmony.  I’d go home, but there are too many posts to read and responses to craft.  I’ll put off going home, stay at work longer, answer the cell phone calls, the desk calls, the viewers questions, and on my way home, I’ll drive and talk, and get home in time to check last minute messages on the home computer, and get a few hours sleep so I can wake up and look for tips on my office computer that now sits on my desk.

I’m 53 and too old for this.

I’m Linked in and My Spaced out. I’ve got a new face on my Facebook and an old face in the mirror.  I’ve been digged, farked, and breitbarted all week long and didn’t even know anyone cared.   I haven’t a clue how an RSS works or why it works and if it did work, what it does.  I get emails warning me about excessive emails. My spam is spoon-fed and PR people leave loving messages all day long.  My analog life is feeling like a digital dinosaur.  I’m a 16 bit employee in a 32 bit world. My bandwidth is not big enough.  My cache is cloudy. I can Google but not Gateway.  My caffeine intake is up. My bottom line is down. I spend money on cell phones and ink ribbons and save money on ties because I don’t have time to put one on. How can I?  I’m too busy tracking my links and linking to my title bar.  My downloads are up and my uploads are down.  I’m a nanosecond away from a head crash.  Frankly, I’m ready to drag and drop.

I need a break. A vacation. Not a virtual trip, but a real time, real world, sun baking, margarita sipping, stroll down a beach.

I’ll do it.  Maybe post some pictures in my blog and write a restaurant review of the little shack on the coastline.  And a live phone report on the hurricane for the News Edge. Feel free to email with questions, because I’ll answer and…..oh, hell, here I go again.

So, Boston Celtic Paul Pierce makes a menacing gesture at the Hawks bench and the NBA fines him $25,000.

The gesture (seen on YouTube) was an odd little, finger roll with the thumb and index finger forming a circle, and three fingers pointing upward.

What did it mean?

The NBA’s operation czar Stu Jackson said: “We don’t know,” but he went on to say the NBA won’t allow taunting, gesturing or doing anything to incite an altercation.

A $25,000 fine for a “we don’t know?” Seemed odd to me. Seemed downright unfair.

After all Celtic Boss Danny Ainge said Pierce did it all the time and it meant blood, sweet, and tears – symbol used by the team.

So I did a little digging. It seems the gesture is similar to gang hand signals that can be found on law enforcement sites all over the internet.    Here are excerpts from one local Sheriff’s office:

GANG HAND SIGNS “Gangs use hand signs as a means of communication. Most often, hand signs are a way to issue a challenge or to throw out an insult. Many gang assaults start with the exchange of gang hand signs between rival gangs. This is sometimes referred to as "flashing" or "throwing" signs.”

 Now, remember the sign Pierce flashed toward the Hawk’s bench. It looked a lot like the one seen in the web site.  (Gang Hand Signs)

 “A hand sign can be a direct threat such as "BK" (Blood Killer) or "CK" (Crip Killer). A Crip gang member would use the "BK" hand sign to mean "Kill a Blood." The small "o" formed by the thumb and index finger and the middle finger are supposed to resemble a lowercase letter "b." The last three fingers spread out and form the "k."

But, things are never that easy.  I found several sites (see sign here)  that had the same sign listed as a symbol representing a gang called “Bounty Hunters”

They are apparently out of Los Angeles.  (See history)   Pierce, by the way, grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles.  

I even found a Bounty Hunter Gang Theme Song on YouTube (listen to the song)

Check out the hand signals from the guys in the background during the chorus.

So, there you have it.  If you were wondering what all the fuss was about, my guess is - and I am only guessing - the NBA has the same kind of information you are reading here.

Probably a lot more detailed and in depth information from law enforcement and gang experts.

I’d guess David Stern wanted to put an end to something before it began.   And a $25,000 fine is a sure way to get someone's attention.

Well, the state DOT is making news across the country.

We may not have the freeways repaved, or any coherent traffic plan for the city but we did make it in the New York Times.

Thought you might enjoy a New Yorker's take on Georgia politics:

ATLANTA — Gena L. Abraham, Georgia’s state transportation commissioner, started her day on Tuesday by making a routine announcement via news release: $75 million would be spent to resurface roads and build bridges around a medical center in Augusta.
It is likely that Ms. Abraham, 39, the first woman to run what is one of the most powerful government agencies in the state, has never been so eager to build bridges.
In the last week, the department has been shaken by two sex scandals that have forced the resignations of the transportation board chairman and his interim replacement and that nearly cost Ms. Abraham her job.
“I said, ‘My God, what’s next?’ ” David Doss, a board member from Rome, Ga., said in an interview Tuesday. “I was afraid to get out of bed this morning because you just don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Last Thursday evening, the transportation board chairman, Mike Evans, shocked members in an executive session with the news that he was involved in a romantic relationship with Ms. Abraham. Department policy forbids intimate relationships between subordinates and their superiors.
Both Ms. Abraham and Mr. Evans, 47, are single.
Mr. Evans, a developer from Cumming, Ga., who had recently won a bitter re-election battle for the board, resigned his post and his seat on the board. The board announced that he would be replaced by the vice chairman, Garland Pinholster, until a new chairman could be elected in May.
By Monday, however, Mr. Pinholster had also stepped down as chairman as news spread of a sexual harassment complaint filed against him by two department employees.
Ms. Abraham had said on Friday that she would resign. But she backed away from that position after Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle raced to the department’s offices and called her into a meeting in a stairwell there, with a guard posted outside the door.
On Monday, the board voted 8 to 3 to reprimand Ms. Abraham for failing to report the romantic relationship in a timely manner, but not to dismiss her.
The revelations about Ms. Abraham and Mr. Evans surfaced just three weeks after she sent a memorandum to all department employees saying she would not tolerate misconduct or violations of department policy.
“The sheer number of offenses that we are discovering is staggering and embarrassing to the department,” she wrote in the memorandum, which was dated March 31, and she added that she would not hesitate to fire employees for unethical or unlawful behavior.
Ms. Abraham later admitted that when she sent the memorandum she was already romantically involved with Mr. Evans.
Ms. Abraham, an engineer who led the Georgia Building Authority, had been praised as someone who could bring change to an agency that had suffered for decades under mismanagement, corruption and political pandering.
“On the scandal meter, this doesn’t make my needle stand up too much,” said Randy Lewis, a political analyst who runs the Web site GeorgiaPoliticalDigest.com. “Because it’s nothing compared to the rest of the sludge at D.O.T. and what has to be done there.”
Ms. Abraham has been struggling with a budget that may be billions of dollars in the red and a culture that has been tolerant of employee abuses of department credit cards, theft and sexual harassment. When she took the helm, she held news conferences reporting that staff members had been unable to tell her how many projects were on the department’s books, what they cost or what their status was.
“I was very hopeful for Gena Abraham, and I still am,” Mr. Lewis said. “It won’t be easy for her to come out of this, but before everyone found out she was falling in love with the chairman of the board, it wasn’t going to be easy either.”
But others believe that Ms. Abraham’s days at the department may be numbered.
“It’s another cloud, another black eye, another headline for the department when we certainly don’t need another headline,” Mr. Doss said.
Still, other longtime employees were philosophical about the drama surrounding the department.
“It’s a little surreal, obviously,” said David Spear, a department spokesman. “But I’ve been around for a long time, and affairs of the heart have their own agenda.”

We did a story in February about DOT Board Chairman Mike Evans and what some called a sweetheart deal he got from the director of the EPD. 

Environmental Protection Director, Dr. Carol Couch, overruled her own staff, failed to follow her own EPD policy,  and gave Evans and his developer partners a certificate saying they could build a Wal Mart on top of what her staff called state protected waters.

A Chattahoochee Riverkeeper law suit put a stop to it. The Wal Mart was never built.

You didn’t read about it in the paper, because they never wrote about it.   Mmmmmm. DOT board chairman accused of getting political favors from EPD director is not a story at the Atlanta newspapers these days.

You can watch it here:

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detai
l?contentId=5883955&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=V
STY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

Evans, a charming guy I’ve known and liked for years, said it was all just a bureaucratic battle.

But there was another angle to the story that was also interesting. The timing.  Dr. Couch – appointed by Sonny Perdue - issued the certificate during the time Perdue wanted Evan’s support for Perdue’s choice for DOT Commissioner: Gena Abraham.

Evans did what the Governor wanted.  He cast the deciding vote that got her the job last October.  

Now Evans and Abraham are back in the news.   He resigned suddenly today, claiming it is because of a budding romantic relationship with the same Gena Abraham.

We were the only TV crew to capture the moment.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detai
l?contentId=6333128&version=9&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=T
STY&pageId=1.1.1

To say this resignation sent shock waves across the state is putting it mildly.

Six months after taking office as the state's first female DOT commissioner we learn Gena Abraham is involved with her boss.  (She answers to the Board of Directors)

My phone is ringing off the hook. 

 When did the relationship start?   What was the relationship when he voted for her as Commissioner?  Who brought this to the board?  Why?  Will this impact on agency morale? How will the Governor respond?  Will she keep her job?    

The scuttlebutt is the Governor wants to bury this story once and for all tomorrow.

I don’t blame him.  I’d want to bury it to, before all those questions are asked. 

The board called a special meeting for next Monday.  I have a feeling there are more fireworks to come before this story is dead and gone.

There are many reasons to watch Fox 5 that you don’t know about.

Some reasons are obvious.

Wonderful, warm, welcome into my living room type anchors.  The kind of people you trust, admire and would be happy to have over for Sunday brunch.

Helicopter flying, reporter running, photographer gunning breaking news with all the action and excitement of a Sylvester Stallone movie, back when Sly’s muscles were a product of youth and not human growth hormone.

Glittering graphics that pop out of your set and make you drool with excitement.

And of course, the I-team.  (Do you expect anything less on my own blog?)

But there are many other reasons to watch Fox5 that you may never know of or see.

One of them is leaving today.

His name is Bud Veazey.  His business card says Assistant News director. The number two man in a long chain of newsroom managers.

To us, he has always been “Easy Veazey.”

It is the kind of nickname you use to someone’s face, not spat behind their back and under your breath.

Bud Veazey is everything a newsroom needs.  For some 20 years he has been the voice of reason, the calm during the storm, the most logical, rational decision maker you could ever dream of.

A newsroom in crisis is not a pretty site.  Screaming, yelling, and cussing are only the beginning.  It is a white knuckle, eyes bulging, vein popping cauldron of insanity.

And in the middle of it all, will come “Easy Veazey.”  Calm, seasoned and reasoned – he will spot the problems, cover the mistakes, move the troops, and pacify the out of control, as easy as if were breathing.

If the news room was the Titanic, Veazey was the guy playing the violin, as the ship began to sink.

The bonus for us, as a journalist, his instincts are spot on. 

I won’t bore you with his resume, but I will tell you he won a George Foster Peabody award as a young TV journalist in Nashville.

The Peabody is our Oscar. There is no higher mountain to climb in TV news.

A copy of it hangs in his office, and the first time I saw it, and commented on how brilliant the story must have been, in his understated, dead pan way he answered:

“I think it was so long and boring, the judges must have thought it was good.”

 I think not. I think it was just one mark of excellence in a career marked by excellence.

A career coming to an end today.

There will be no more visits with the manager who would listen before talking. No more music coming from the back office, when “Easy Veazey” decided to pick up his guitar and pluck a few tunes. No more quick review of an expense account, muttering, “this is BS” then signing it anyway.  And no more eye of the storm leadership.

His office will be empty.  His position unfilled.  And though you have never seen him or met him, you will miss his presence.

And so will we.

Bud "Easy" Veazey