Ben Benton is a news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He covers Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia and Northeast Alabama. Ben has worked at the Times Free Press since November 2005, first covering Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties. Ben was born and raised in Cleveland, Tenn., a graduate of Bradley Central High School. He has a bachelor's degree in communications from the the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2014, he placed third in the Green Eyeshade Awards for Disaster Coverage- All Dailies for his story on the South Pittsburg flood, and third place in the Specialized Site category for the newspaper's Civil War 150th anniversary online special section. Ben previously worked at The Daily Post-Athenian in Athens, Tenn., The Herald-News, in Dayton, Tenn., and at the Knoxville Journal, in Knoxville, Tenn. Ben, a lifelong UT fan, lives in Chattanooga with his wife, Lisa, and has been a Chattanooga resident since 1988. Ben has one son, Benjy, who works in town as a web developer. When he's not working, Ben likes to cook and hit the backroads in search of barbecue and the region's natural beauty. Contact Ben at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.
The retirement of 10th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Larry H. Puckett has drawn two applicants for replacing him, one short of the number required under state law, so that means Gov. Bill Lee could throw a third name into the hat.
by Ben BentonDebbie Irwin met her husband, Richard, on the square in Dalton, Georgia, 27 years ago.
by Ben Benton and Patrick FilbinContraband cellphones are instrumental in illicit activities in prisons, ranging from unapproved communications with people on the outside to the orchestration of violent drug rings such as the "reign of violence and drugs" operation inside the Tennessee prison system that federal agents busted last month.
by Ben BentonThe Tennessee Department of Correction will allow visitation to resume at all 15 of the state's prisons this coming weekend.
by Ben BentonWhen National Park Service Ranger Justin Young saw the stark stump of a poached white oak tree on the slopes of Lookout Mountain last fall, it wasn't the first theft of the species he'd seen.
by Ben BentonA federal indictment unsealed Friday charged 27 people - three of them from Coffee County, Tennessee - with a string of federal crimes stemming from a large-scale conspiracy to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine in an operation orchestrated from inside the Tennessee prison system.
by Ben BentonCleveland City Schools and other defendants named in a $10 million federal lawsuit filed in December 2020 have filed a formal answer denying that a middle school student was repeatedly sexually assaulted while officials did nothing and instead saying she was patted on the bottom one time.
by Ben BentonA tornado watch has been issued for Grundy County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama, until 9 p.m. CDT Saturday night, according to WRCB-TV Channel 3.
by Ben Benton and WRCB-TV Channel 3This months's heavy rains and flooding that pushed South Chickamauga Creek out of its banks also carried away more than two dozen large plastic construction barricades from the Interstate 75/Interstate 24 project downstream, where they were left in an unsightly tangle in trees along the creek bank.
by Ben BentonThe National Weather Service has allowed a tornado watch to expire early for Hamilton, Bledsoe, Bradley, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Rhea and Sequatchie counties.
by Ben Benton and Sarah Grace TaylorA Sequatchie County, Tennessee, man has filed a $3 million federal lawsuit against Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie county governments, a sheriff and other law enforcement officers in the counties claiming they used excessive force and violated his civil rights when authorities raided his home in October 2019.
by Ben BentonA donation of 2,000 acres in Tennessee's Bledsoe and Rhea counties by philanthropist George Lindemann will preserve streams and upland forest on the Cumberland Plateau while establishing a research station for habitat and plant studies.
by Ben BentonA local man known to live in the Bryant, Alabama, and Trenton, Georgia, areas has been sentenced to almost a year in jail in the theft of more than a dozen trees, among them old-growth oaks, from the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park on Lookout Mountain.
by Ben BentonA Marion County school teacher who was suspended and reassigned after she posted comments on social media critical of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests after Floyd's death has filed a free-speech lawsuit against the school system.
by Ben BentonThe director of the 12th Judicial District Drug Task Force is on administrative leave as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probes allegations related to the seizure of drugs and money in Sequatchie County last year.
by Ben BentonThe airport in Tullahoma, Tennessee, is second only to the Chattanooga airport in its annual economic impact among the 24-counties in the Tennessee Department of Transportation's Region 2, according to a state study.
by Ben BentonState and federal wildlife agencies are warning pet and aquarium store owners and their customers about the finding earlier this month of invasive zebra mussels in aquarium products known as "moss balls."
by Ben BentonU.S. Forest Service officials in the Cherokee National Forest are calling for outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers to unite Saturday for the annual cleanup event on the Tellico River in Monroe County, Tennessee.
by Ben BentonThe victim in a fatal accident at Lodge Cast Iron's distribution center in New Hope, Tennessee, has been identified as a local volunteer firefighter, according to local officials.
by Ben BentonA Lodge Cast Iron employee was killed Monday in an accident at the company's distribution center in New Hope, Tennessee, according to officials.
by Ben Benton