For the second consecutive year, Tennessee tourism leaders are spending their marketing dollars to try to recruit not just visitors but workers to help staff the attractions, accommodations and food services in the state's $22 billion-a-year hospitality industry.
by Dave FlessnerThe Hamilton County Schools Board of Education may soon go before the County Commission to request $10 million in recurring maintenance revenue to begin tackling nearly $1 billion in deferred building repairs.
by Carmen NesbittTwo Hamilton County high schools, Ivy Academy and the Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences, have earned gold level awards from the Tennessee secretary of state by registering 100% of eligible students ages 18 or older to vote.
by Staff ReportThe Hamilton County Sheriff's Office is seeking an increased budget to hire more correctional officers in hopes of adequately staffing Silverdale Detention Center, where assaults and rapes have left District Attorney Neal Pinkston calling it "the most dangerous place in the county."
by La Shawn PaganPresident Joe Biden on Tuesday warned voters unhappy with soaring inflation and his stalled domestic agenda against turning power over to "ultra-MAGA" Republicans in the midterm elections as he increasingly tries to cast former President Donald Trump and his adherents as a political foil.
by ZEKE MILLER, CHRIS MEGERIAN and JOSH BOAK / Associated PressAfter postponing a budget decision last month until state allocations were finalized, the Hamilton County Board of Education passed a fiscal year 2022-23 $456 million budget during a special session Monday.
by Carmen NesbittWith anti-immigrant rhetoric bubbling over in the leadup to this year's critical midterm elections, about 1 in 3 U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.
by ANITA SNOW / Associated PressA new Tennessee law signed by Gov. Bill Lee during the recent legislative session decriminalized the possession of fentanyl test strips, which can rapidly detect the potent synthetic opioid responsible for a continued surge in drug overdoses across the Chattanooga region.
by Elizabeth FiteBrad Raffensperger says the Georgia and U.S. Constitutions should be amended to prohibit voting by people who aren't U.S. citizens. He oversaw a citizenship audit of the state's voter rolls and has announced plans to further integrate citizenship checks into the voter registration process.
by KATE BRUMBACK / Associated PressStocks racked up more losses on Wall Street Monday, leaving the S&P 500 at its lowest point in more than a year.
by STAN CHOE and ALEX VEIGA / AP Business WritersPresident Joe Biden announced Monday that 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to people with low incomes, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households eligible for free service through an already existing federal subsidy.
by AAMER MADHANI and WILL WEISSERT / Associated PressWhile Gov. Bill Lee is in many respects at the top of his game, the Republican governor first elected in 2018 as a political outsider faces mounting challenges from the GOP supermajority, which has dominated the Tennessee legislature since 2011.
by Andy SherSome Georgia district attorneys are concerned they haven't received sufficient evidence to investigate noncitizen voting cases referred to them by the secretary of state's office, even though the issue is a centerpiece of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's re-election campaign.
by Andrew WilkinsKaty and Oscar McGuire spent every Friday night watching movies, dancing, playing and reading books with their young grandchildren until their son Bentley died in an accident in 2020.
by Emily Rubin / Fresh Take GeorgiaAlabama will ban the use of puberty blockers and hormones to treat transgender minors starting on Sunday, barring a ruling by a federal judge on a request to block the law from taking effect.
by KIM CHANDLER / Associated PressIn pulling off his down-to-the-wire win Tuesday to snag the Republican nomination for Hamilton County mayor, Weston Wamp rode a broad wave of support across the western half of the county.
by Colin M. StewartRun the clock back a few years and the likelihood of the name Wamp on a ballot in 2022 seemed slim, at best.
by Wyatt MasseyThe Town of Mason has dismissed its lawsuit against the Tennessee comptroller after entering into an agreement for more favorable terms as part of ongoing state financial oversight.
by Anita Wadhwani / Tennessee LookoutA day after Gov. Bill Lee declined to sign strict truth-in-sentencing legislation, but allowed it to become law despite his disagreement, the bill's sponsors fired back.
by Sam Stockard / Tennessee LookoutThe draft U.S. Supreme Court decision leaked this week shows the justices intend to overturn abortion rights, which would open a likely path for Georgia's six-week abortion ban to be upheld.
by Riley Bunch and Georgia Public BroadcastingChattanooga may pride itself on its many public-private partnerships formed to address local needs and development, but the city is being shut out of $175 million being awarded across the state to public-private groups picked for innovative pilot projects to help more Tennesseans get out of poverty.
by Dave FlessnerGeorgia dairy farmers can sell raw, or unpasteurized, milk for human consumption starting in 2023, providing what some farmers say is a much-needed boost for the state's family farms.
by Alex Guevara / Fresh Take GeorgiaAmerica's employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs.
by PAUL WISEMAN / Associated Press