Dave Flessner is the business editor for the Times Free Press. A journalist for 35 years, Dave has been business editor and projects editor for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, city editor for The Chattanooga Times, business and county reporter for the Chattanooga Times, correspondent for the Lansing State Journal and Ingham County News in Michigan, staff writer for the Hastings Daily Tribune in Nebraska, and news director for WCBN-FM in Michigan. Dave, a native of Lansing, Mich., joined the Times Free Press in 1999 after working for 19 years at The Chattanooga Times. He covers energy, business and special projects, including the Tennessee Valley Authority. Dave has previously covered police, county government, politics and education. A 1979 graduate of the University of Michigan, Dave also studied economics at Michigan State University's Graduate School of Business. He has won more than a dozen journalism awards for business, breaking and investigatory reporting, including first place honors for education coverage in 2007 from the Tennessee Press Association, investigative reporting in 2006 and project reporting in 2005 from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists, deadlline reporting in 2002 from the Georgia Associated Press Association, and health care reporting in 2001 from the Tennessee Hospital Association. Contact Dave at 423-757-6340 or dflessner@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/chattreporter.
A year ago, the Tennessee Valley Authority revamped the utility's employee concerns program to offer what officials said was a more proactive way for workers to raise concerns and for TVA to address nuclear plant problems.
by Dave FlessnerEPB expects to save nearly $10 million in what it pays the Tennessee Valley Authority for its power in the next year due to the 3.1% discounts TVA will pay back to EPB for signing a long-term power purchase agreement with the federal utility.
by Dave FlessnerUnemployment in Tennessee and Georgia declined last month from the record highs reached in April, but more than 300,000 Tennesseans and 678,00 Georgians continued to receive jobless benefits last week due to layoffs from the coronavirus pandemic.
by Dave FlessnerA new partnership between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee has won a $20 million prize to help propel a $100 million effort to recruit, train and utilize top scientists in East Tennessee.
by Dave FlessnerAn Erlanger nurse upset with working conditions and staff cutbacks is trying to unionize nurses at Chattanooga's biggest hospital.
by Dave Flessner and Elizabeth FiteAfter outsourcing 120 information technology jobs over the past year, one of the biggest labor unions at the Tennessee Valley Authority says TVA may cut another 100 IT jobs from its staff and turn such work over to contract programmers and data support specialists operating outside of the Tennessee Valley.
by Dave FlessnerWith the economy slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and government spending boosted to record highs to fight the virus and its economic fallout, America's national debt is projected to exceed its annual output for the first time in modern history this year.
by Dave FlessnerOne of the biggest employee unions at the Tennessee Valley Authority is planning demonstrations Tuesday in Knoxville and Wednesday in Chattanooga to protest the outsourcing of data programming jobs to outside contractors.
by Dave FlessnerAs the federal deficit approaches a record $2.2 trillion in the current fiscal year, millennial business leaders are uniting in a new effort to find ways to limit the national debt and its potentially catastrophic long-term consequences.
by Dave FlessnerMore than $5 million of federal disaster loans have been granted to those who suffered losses when a series of tornadoes swept through Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia on April 12-13.
by Dave FlessnerThe coronavirus pandemic has claimed another casualty in Chattanooga's hospitality industry.
by Dave FlessnerKimberly Lloyd started her own business eight years ago providing many of the janitorial and support services she used in her previous job as a property manager.
by Dave FlessnerNursing homes and long-term care facilities in Tennessee that have tested their staff and residents for COVID-19 and been free of any infections for the past month will be able to admit visitors again starting next Monday under new state guidelines.
by Dave FlessnerFord and Volkswagen will each offer a small city van, a larger cargo van, a small pickup truck and an electric vehicle as part of their global alliance announced last year.
by Dave FlessnerIn the biggest acquisition ever by a power cooperative of a municipally owned utility, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Coop will take over Murfreesboro's municipal electric system to create one of the biggest distributors of power generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
by Dave FlessnerThe coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the economy this spring, but to keep the lights on in the Tennessee Valley TVA had to proceed with massive maintenance and refueling projects at all three of its nuclear power plants this spring.
by Dave FlessnerAs the economy reopens and motorists return to the road, Chattanooga gas prices rose last week by the most of any week so far in 2020.
by Dave FlessnerJeff Lloyd and his wife have lived most of their life raising their family and building a successful commercial contracting and facilities management business around the San Francisco Bay area.
by Dave FlessnerAs electronic commerce grows amid the coronavirus pandemic, a Chattanooga-based digital signature company is adding more staff and users, especially in notarizing documents remotely.
by Dave FlessnerHome-bound Americans may be spending more time in their La-Z-Boy recliners, but the company that makes La-Z-Boy chairs and furniture is cutting 850 jobs to streamline its operations amid the slowing U.S. economy this year.
by Dave Flessner