For those who have not seen it, take a look at it here.

This is a new beginning for us here at Graphic Edge. New things will be popping up on the new site shortly…like new t-shirts, coffee mugs, and more bumper stickers. Keep checking back with us, and please post your comments on what you think of our new site and keep your support comments and emails coming in.

bbishop@johnsoncitypress.com

If you had trouble accessing JohnsonCityPress.com on Monday, you weren’t alone. Heavy traffic volume generated by links on national Web sites to a Johnson City Press article about a vendor’s eviction from The Mall at Johnson City caused JohnsonCityPress.com to bog down through most of the day, making it difficult for visitors to connect. Press Staff writer Brad Hicks wrote the story about the plight of Dan Fuchs, owner of a small printing company called the Graphic edge, which specializes in novelty items like bumper stickers, coffee mugs and T-shirts. The number one seller for Fuchs was anti-Barack Obama merchandise, which accounted for over half of his merchandise. Fuchs was seeing an increase in business at his kiosk when The Mall gave him an eviction notice last Friday. Fuchs said he was given no reason for this termination and was shocked and upset. Thursday evening, Fuchs said mall officials met with him and told him to take down the anti-Obama items on display by closing time or face immediate eviction. “I was upset about it, of course,” he said Friday prior to receiving the notice. “That’s my livelihood.” Now it appears Fuchs is out of business at the mall, but mall officials say this decision was not based upon political views. Friday afternoon, Fuchs was handed a lease termination notice by mall officials and signed by Mall General Manager Tembra Aldridge. The letter stated that the option to terminate the lease agreement was effective 11:59 p.m. Friday and that he must vacate the mall premises and remove his property before then. Marsha Hammond, the mall’s marketing director, has a different take on that meeting. She said that Aldridge and Melinda Davis, the mall’s specialty leasing representative, suggested that Fuchs also display items in support of Obama. The mall had received several complaints from customers regarding the anti-Obama items, she said. Hammond also said that it was Fuchs’ decision to remove the items completely from display. “That is not true,” Fuchs said. “I was given no choice. I was given, (Thursday) night at about 4:30, the option of taking it down or get out, receive an eviction at closing time.” Fuchs said that while he never anticipated any, he was aware of customer complaints prior to Thursday’s meeting. Hammond said, and Fuchs confirmed, that several weeks prior to Thursday’s meeting, Davis came by the kiosk to suggest Fuchs display pro-Obama items that would allow him to continue to display anti-Obama items. Friday, prior to receiving the termination notice, Fuchs said he would comply with this suggestion. The anti-Obama merchandise sold at the kiosk is not necessarily his viewpoint, Fuchs said. He again said most were completed upon customer request and were displayed as work samples. “I support his office,” he said “I might not like him, but I support his office.” When the article ran on JohnsonCityPress.com, it was picked up by the well-known Web site drudgereport.com. The resulting Web hits have climbed to levels nobody could have predicted, causing a crash in the newspaper Web site. “They link straight back to that story on our Web site, that has caused our servers to get vastly overloaded,” Press Information Technology Director Alan Broyles said. “We received over 40-thousand unique visits and over 50-thousand page views from the time Drudge posted the link around 9:10 Monday morning through 5:15 Monday afternoon.” The real numbers of Web visitors cannot be estimated because the server overload leaves many of those trying to view the article unable to access the site. “We apologize for any inconvenience to our regular Web visitors and to those who are interested in this story and that’s about all we can do at this point,” Broyles said. “We only have a certain amount of resources at our disposal and at one point today we were getting roughly 5,500 hits per hour. We are making every effort possible to keep things working on our end.” The server overload has affected some internal capabilities of the Press Web team as well, hampering daily operations. “This has also impacted our ability to update the site with fresh news items throughout the day,” Internet and Special Projects Editor Sam Watson said. “We hope the situation will resolve itself soon and allow regular visitors to continue accessing JohnsonCityPress.com for breaking news and other articles as they normally would.” Web hits continue to climb on JohnsonCityPress.com. There were 55,000 unique visits recorded by 9:15 Monday night which is five times the normal daily traffic for the site and that number does not indicate potential visitors who could not access the site due to the increased traffic.

Graphic Edge has reopened online http://www.graphicedgeonline.com , and a portion of the proceeds from sales will go to our legal fund to help in our fight against our wrongful eviction from the Mall at Johnson City.

The website will be expanding and evolving over the next several weeks. Please keep checking back, as we will be adding new merchandise and special offers.

For those who wish to have a custom order, please contact us by email at graphicedgeonline@gmail.com

Thanks again, Team Graphic Edge

Original link: http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/graphic_edge_terminated_owner_says_decision_was_political/33060/

UPDATE 09/29/09 2:26 p.m.:

The owner of Graphic Edge contacted us earlier today and wished to say the following: “We would like to thank all the viewers of WJHL for their ongoing support. Your responses, emails and telephone calls have been overwhelming.”

Graphic Edge has reopened online, and a portion of the proceeds from sales will go to their legal fund.

If you would like to leave a comment for the owner, you may do so here.

Original link: http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/graphic_edge_terminated_owner_says_decision_was_political/33060/

Updated Monday at 5:55 p.m.

Tembra Aldridge, General Manager of The Mall at Johnson City, released the following statement to 11 Connects Reporter George Jackson:

“The tenant [Dan Fuchs] previously had been notified, in writing, of operational issues that violated the terms of his kiosk lease.  It was an accumulation of these problems, and his refusal to cooperate, that brought his lease to an end.  It’s disappointing that the tenant has attempted to turn this into a political story, and used inflammatory language to try to grow his business.“

Fuchs planned to file a civil suit in Washington County Court Tuesday. 

“I’m working out of my garage,“ he said.

It’s everywhere. 90% or more of the comments on blogs or articles are in favor of Graphic Edge and our First Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech.

Take a look at this site: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2348711/posts

or this one : http://afticker.blogspot.com/

Here is that blogs comment section:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=901299750848770534&postID=3203168301602282691

It appears that our given rights are there…but under whose authority and jurisdiction? Maybe FOXNEWS or CNN or some national news agency should exploit the wrong doings of literally “censoring” our given right, which was granted to us over 200 years ago.

But wait… Do we change the laws, like changing the rules of a game while it is in the middle of being played?

Please post your comments…

By 8am, we had anticipated shutting down early on Saturday and had almost decided to not even open for business that day.  However, an unexpected flood of supporters nearly overwhelmed us within minutes of the mall opening for business at 10 am.

For those of you who came in to show your support, Dan, Fallon, and I personally thank all of you for coming by to speak with us and show your support.

We have made a lot of friends and clients during our short-lived time here, and look forward to serving again, online and at a new location.

We also embrace those who had the courage to stand up and speak their given right and voice their opinion to the mall staff and service desk clerks.

Currently we are taking custom orders by phone or email.

If you wish to contact us via email you can reach Dan, Fallon, or John at this email address: graphicedgeonline@gmail.com

or by phone: (423) 773-4746

Our website address is http://www.graphicedgeonline.com and will be up and fully running in about 2 or 3 days.

When our new location is set up, I will post the address here.

This blog is intended for public use and the public’s First Amendment Right to FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Please feel free to voice your comments, concerns, or support here.

One of Fuchs' anti-Obama T-shirt designs.

By Brad Hicks
Press Staff Writer
bhicks@johnsoncitypress.com

Dan Fuchs said business was just starting to pick up at his kiosk in the Mall at Johnson City.
Fuchs’ business, the Graphic Edge, printed slogans and pictures on items such as coffee cups, bumper stickers and T-shirts. He said more than half of his business came from the sale of anti-Obama merchandise. Bumper stickers with slogans such as “SOS: Stop Obama’s Socialism,” “Nobama,” and “Chicago got the party, but the country got the hangover” were displayed around the small stand.

Now it appears Fuchs is out of business at the mall, but mall officials say this decision was not based upon political views.

Friday afternoon, Fuchs was handed a lease termination notice by mall officials and signed by Mall General Manager Tembra Aldridge. The letter states that the option to terminate the lease agreement is effective 11:59 p.m. today and that he must vacate the mall premises and remove his property before then.

Fuchs said he was given no reason for this termination and was shocked and upset. Thursday evening, Fuchs said mall officials met with him and told him to take down the anti-Obama items on display by closing time or face immediate eviction.

“I was upset about it, of course,” he said Friday prior to receiving the notice. “That’s my livelihood.”

Fuchs had been in business at the mall for around two months and hadn’t initially set out to create anti-Obama items. One day, he said a customer asked for an anti-Obama shirt to be printed. A few days later, he said another customer asked for another similar item.

The some of these items were put on display and most were completed upon customer request, Fuchs said. He said that around 60 percent of items being sold out of the kiosk was anti-Obama merchandise.

By Friday morning, Fuchs said these items had been take down.

Marsha Hammond, the mall’s marketing director, has a different take on that meeting. She said that Aldridge and Melinda Davis, the mall’s specialty leasing representative, suggested that Fuchs also display items in support of Obama. The mall had received several complaints from customers regarding the anti-Obama items, she said. Hammond also said that it was Fuchs’ decision to remove the items completely from display.

“That is not true,” Fuchs said. “I was given no choice. I was given, (Thursday) night at about 4:30, the option of taking it down or get out, receive an eviction at closing time.”

Fuchs said that while he never anticipated any, he was aware of customer complaints prior to Thursday’s meeting. Hammond said, and Fuchs confirmed, that several weeks prior to Thursday’s meeting, Davis came by the kiosk to suggest Fuchs display pro-Obama items which would allow him to continue to display anti-Obama items. Friday, prior to receiving the termination notice, Fuchs said he would comply with this suggestion.

The anti-Obama merchandise sold at the kiosk is not necessary his viewpoint, Fuchs said. He again said most were completed upon customer request and were displayed as work samples.

“I support his office,” he said “I might not like him, but I support his office.”

Fuchs also said that he would have printed anti-Republican items at customer request and has refused to print some vulgar items. He said that his stand wasn’t exclusive to the display of anti-Obama items, but bumper stickers with slogans such as “Support Our Troops” and “ETSU Pride” were also on display. Still, he said the anti-Obama items typically got a good response from mall patrons passing by.

“People would look at them and laugh or whatever, and I would always ask ‘what do you think about it? Do you approve?’ or some silly little remark,” he said. “And I would say that probably 95 percent were positive, only 5 percent were not.”

While Hammond said the mall is a private property and officials do not wish to see it used as a political forum, she said the mall does not conduct its business based on political views and that the termination of Fuchs’ lease is due to a matter between him and the mall.

Before he received the lease termination, Fuchs said his lease was set to expire Dec. 31 and that he planned to be around for the holiday season.

“I certainly hope I’m here to take care of the Christmas business,” he said.

Since receiving the notice, however, Fuchs said he now intends to continue to sell anti-Obama items via the Internet.

Published: September 25, 2009

Original link: http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/graphic_edge_terminated_owner_says_decision_was_political/33060/

Johnson City, Tenn.—Two months ago, Dan Fuchs set up shop in the Johnson City Mall.

He said business at ‘Graphic Edge’ was slow until a customer approached him with a request.

That customer asked Fuchs to print an anti-President Obama bumper sticker.

He did, and the idea stuck, so Fuchs expanded his anti-Obama offerings.

The selection became an issue when customers started offering complaints to the mall office.

Dan Fuchs said the merchandise constitutes 60-percent of his sales over the past few weeks.

“I do support the President of the United States,“ Fuchs said.  “In no way did I intend to offend anyone, and I haven’t.  We have freedom of speech,“ he said.

Fuchs said the mall approached him three times in that same period, each time in response to a customer complaint.  During the third visit, he said, the mall issued an ultimatum.

“They could not have any more complaints and I had to take it down immediately or face eviction within 24 hours,“ Fuchs said.

Tembra Aldridge, General Manager of The Mall at Johnson City, said that’s simply untrue—that Fuchs decided to remove all the anti-Obama material himself, and they simply requested a more balanced display.

“We suggested he also sell pro-Obama so that he stays very neutral.“

The issue came to a head Friday.

After Fuchs’ interviewed with 11 Connects and the Johnson City Press, the mall handed him a termination letter.  They instructed him to shut ‘Graphic Edge’ down in the next 24 hours.

Aldridge confirmed the termination and made the following statement: “We’re not going to use our private property as a political forum.  That’s what {Fuchs has} turned this into.“

To view a video version of this report, click the play icon above.