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Chattanooga events make AP’s list of top 10 stories in state

Larry Drain comforts Tracy Foster, left, of Clinton, Tenn., and Michele Fardan after Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee proposal was voted down in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in Nashville. Americans for Prosperity, based in Arlington, Va., reported spending more than $1.1 million in Tennessee last year, including buying radio ads attacking Insure Tennessee.
Larry Drain comforts Tracy Foster, left, of Clinton, Tenn., and Michele Fardan after Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee proposal was voted down in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in Nashville. Americans for Prosperity, based in Arlington, Va., reported spending more than $1.1 million in Tennessee last year, including buying radio ads attacking Insure Tennessee. Larry Drain comforts Tracy Foster, left, of Clinton, Tenn., and Michele Fardan after Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee proposal was voted down in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in Nashville. Americans for Prosperity, based in Arlington, Va., reported spending more than $1.1 million in Tennessee last year, including buying radio ads attacking Insure Tennessee.

By Associated Press 2 min read

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Making headlines: Chattanooga area’s top 10 stories for 2015

NASHVILLE – Several Chattanooga events made The Associated Press’ Tennessee Top 10 news stories for 2015.

The AP’s top story was the July 16 fatal shooting of four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga.

Also making the list were reports on Chattanooga-made Volkswagen sedans being among those caught in a diesel emissions cheating scandal and the United Auto Workers winning a labor vote at the German automaker’s lone U.S. plant.

Another top story statewide was the Supreme Court’s decision effectively legalizing gay marriage in Tennessee and around the country. The high court’s decision was based on cases in four states including Tennessee, where three couples had sued to have their out-of-state marriages recognized.

The ruling “changes the definition of marriage and how the state looks at family,” said Tammy Phillips, the news director of WMC-TV in Memphis.

Blake Farmer, the assistant news editor at WPLN-FM in Nashville, said the landmark ruling will long be remembered.

“We’re just going to look back on this year as the year same-sex marriage was legalized,” Farmer said.

Also high on the top-story list was the Republican-controlled Legislature’s rejection of Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans.

Haslam called a special session to take up his Insure Tennessee proposal. Under the two-year pilot program, hospitals would have covered the $74 million state share to draw down $2.8 billion in federal Medicaid funds. But the governor ultimately was unable to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for a program tied to President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Rounding out Tennessee’s top 10 stories were:

* A Nashville judge granting a mistrial in the case of two former Vanderbilt football players convicted of rape.

* Haslam signing a bill into law to strip the power of cities and counties to ban people with handgun carry permits from being armed in parks.

* The Tennessee Titans selecting Heisman winner Marcus Mariota with the second pick in the NFL draft.

* The death of former actor, lawyer and politician Fred Thompson.

* Five thousand people being evacuated after a Maryville train derailment.

* Jim Strickland’s election as the first white mayor of Memphis in 24 years; Megan Barry becoming the first female mayor of Nashville.