As a lifelong Chattanooga resident, I have witnessed the Scenic City's dramatic transformation from an industrial town into a city whose cultural offerings and natural amenities are a regional and national draw for residents and tourists alike.
It's not often that a city hosts a nationally notable public gathering of prominent authors and prize-winning playwrights and poets to read to their readers; and to talk about their work, their characters, and the process of creative writing.
The discovery by lawmakers Wednesday that President Obama had tucked away a proposal in his new budget to sell off TVA understandably hit TVA officials, workers and some area lawmakers like a bomb — or, depending on the lawmaker, at least like a pesky mosquito.
In a bid to entice Republicans into a budget compromise, President Obama has proposed to switch the basis for cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security benefits to what's known as the "chained Consumer Price Index."
Under the city charter, Mayor-elect Andy Berke has to fill six critical positions.
Jerry Jones, owner of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, is like many Texans in his love of art.
Before Gov. Bill Haslam and his super-majority Republican Legislature restructured the Tennessee Regulatory Authority to make it more "business friendly" — the mantra of the governor and GOP lawmakers — local governments and business groups like the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association were able to mount collaborative legal challenges against proposals for big rate increases by for-profit utilities.
As the United States’ use of predator drones for assassinations of suspected terrorists has risen, so has the global harm of an American policy that appears to make extra-judicial executions the hallmark of constitutional and democratic hypocrisy.
City elections are rarely single-district affairs, but that's the case today.
Gov. Haslam's rejection of the federal offer to cover all the cost of expanding TennCare/Medicaid for three years, and 90 percent thereafter, is widely reported to leave at least 180,000 poor Tennessee workers uninsured.
Mayor-elect Andy Berke stepped up to another campaign pledge in his second community forum Thursday, promising that the city will be involved, in some way, in early childhood education. "City government will be reoriented for youth development," he said.
Gun enthusiasts frequently claim that gun control is a win-lose situation, that responsible gun buyers would lose under any tightening of gun laws, and criminals would still get all the guns they want.
No matter how much state officials try to prettify their decision to lease the 8,600-acre UT-owned Cumberland Forest for fracking for natural gas, their lame excuses for pillaging and profiteering from a public asset fall apart.
Gov. Bill Haslam quietly scoots away from the nutty ideas of the Legislature's far right. But he isn't shy about the legislative agenda he has steadily put in place to favor high-end tax savings for the wealthy — like his own family's multi-billion-dollar Pilot Oil dynasty — and for business interests generally.
Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee refused to bring President Obama's nomination of Dr. Marilyn Brown for a second term on the TVA board before the Senate for confirmation in early January.
