Chattanooga: Stories that shaped a decade

The Times Free Press was born at the start of a 10-year span brimming with news. A new century dawned, terrorism changed the national mood, and wars and economic turmoil rocked the nation and the region.

Here are some major headlines from the region since January 1999:

n 1999 — Amid the Washington, D.C., sex scandal linking President Bill Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, The Chattanooga Times and the Chattanooga Free Press merged operations under new ownership, and the University of Tennessee Volunteers football team became national champions.

n 2000 — Tennessee’s Al Gore failed to carry his home state in his bid to become president, setting off a disputed election that set the tone for a politically polarized decade.

2001 — The terror attacks of Sept. 11 dominated the news. Then the anthrax scares began, including at least one call locally that brought spacesuit clad first responders to CARTA offices in East Chattanooga.

Near Manchester, Tenn., seven people died and 35 were injured in a Greyhound bus crash after a Croatian native used a box cutter to slash the throat of the bus driver.

In Knoxville, University of Tennessee President Wade Gilley resigned under fire when e-mails showed he had a relationship with Pamela Reed, whom he had hired and planned to name as the director of a new university institute.

2002 — The Chattanooga region made national headlines several times, beginning with the gruesome discovery of hundreds of discarded, decomposing bodies at Tri-State Crematory in rural Walker County, Ga.

A month later, two chain-reaction pileups in a dense fog on Interstate 75 near Ringgold, Ga., killed five people, injured 38 others and wrecked 130 vehicles.

Young Chattanooga police office Julie Jacks, named Rookie of the Year in 2001, was gunned down with her own revolver as she tried to subdue an escaped detainee who had been undergoing psychological evaluation at Parkridge Hospital.

2003 — The year started with Erlanger hospital under investigation and ended with the city’s one-way streets becoming two-way thoroughfares. In between, residents witnessed the worst flooding in 30 years and the shooting of a young Chattanoogan after the Bessie Smith Strut.

At the University of Tennessee, then-president John Shumaker came under fire for extravagant spending, including nearly $100,000 on a walk-in closet for the university president’s mansion. He later resigned.

In Nashville, legislators approved laws to establish the Tennessee lottery, and Gov. Phil Bredesen was sworn in.

2004 — Members of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, more than 3,800 from the ranks of the Tennessee National Guard and units from five other states, were dispatched to Iraq. The unit returned in 2005.

2005 — The city’s $120 million 21st Century Waterfront Plan, which included additions to the Tennessee Aquarium and the Hunter Museum of American Art, a new pier and expansive green space, was completed.

Former or current lawmakers and government officials were arrested in connection with the federal Tennessee Waltz public corruption investigation. Among those implicated were Sen. Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga; former state Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland; Hamilton County Commissioner William Cotton; and former Hamilton County Board of Education member Charles Love.

2006 — Former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, a Republican, edged U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a Memphis Democrat, in the race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who did not seek re-election.

State Rep. Newton and former county commissioner Cotton began prison sentences for bribery and extortion convictions in the Tennessee Waltz sting.

2007 — The Market Street Bridge reopened in August after a two-year, $13 million restoration project.

Former Sen. Crutchfield pleaded guilty to bribery, admitting to taking $3,000 from an undercover agent during the Tennessee Waltz sting, ending a political career that spanned five decades.

2008 — Chattanooga won a $1 billion Volkswagen manufacturing plant. Tennessee offered its biggest incentive package ever. Local officials gave VW a developed site to build upon; pledged to pay for worker training and upgraded roads and rail lines; and provided up to 30 years of tax breaks.