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.
After winning highly contested election contests during his first three campaigns for Congress, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., has yet to attract any announced opponents for his re-election bid this year and appears headed toward winning a fifth two-year term in the U.S. House.
by Dave FlessnerChattanoogans are increasingly falling in love with new trucks — or at least Sport Utility Vehicles and crossover vehicles built on truck chassis.
by Dave FlessnerThe Chop House in East Brainerd is closing this month after 25 years in business.
by Dave FlessnerTVA said precipitation totals in the Tennessee River basin averaged nearly 15 and a half inches above normal during 2019, and included the wettest February on record when the rain-swollen river in Chattanooga rose 12 feet above its normal levels.
by Dave FlessnerInsisting that President Donald Trump did "absolutely nothing wrong" in his dealings with Ukrainian President Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky last summer, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., called the impeachment vote in the U.S. House last month one of the saddest days in his 10 years in Congress.
by Dave FlessnerThe retail chain closings that happened in 2019.
by Dave FlessnerWhen EPB launched its Internet, video and phone services a decade ago in conjunction with efforts to build a smarter electric grid, the city-owned utility projected it would speed internet service and attract about 30,000 to 35,000 customers for its telecom services.
by Dave FlessnerTennessee continued to lead all states in employment growth among small businesses in the past year, growing jobs among employers surveyed by the payroll firm Paychex by 2.11% in the past 12 months.
by Dave FlessnerLife Care Centers of America, Inc. has agreed to pay $170,000 to a former employee at its nursing home in Puyallup, Washington, to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought against the company for putting a pregnant woman on unpaid, involuntary leave after refusing to accommodate her request not to life more than 15 pounds late in her pregnancy.
by Dave FlessnerDespite the addition of thousands of new apartments and condominiums in Chattanooga over the past three years, outside investors continued to bid up the value of apartment complexes in Hamilton County during 2019.
by Dave FlessnerA handful of gas stations in Ooltewah and Cleveland, Tenn., are offering the cheapest gas in the Southeast, selling regular gas below $2 a gallon on Monday, according to a surveys by the online service GasBuddy.com.
by Dave FlessnerThe biggest projects of the year in East Tennessee were:
by Dave FlessnerA Philadelphia-based real estate equity fund has purchased the Rainbow Creek Apartments in East Brainerd and is looking to acquire additional rental properties in the Chattanooga market.
by Dave FlessnerThe jobless rate in Catoosa County fell to 2.3% and unemployment fell to 2.5% in neighboring Walker County during November.
by Dave FlessnerLuxury vinyl tile has been the fastest growing segment of the flooring industry, growing steadily in less than a decade to comprise nearly 20% of all new floors in the United States.
by Dave FlessnerRhea County's biggest bank is expanding to Meigs County with a new branch scheduled to open in downtown Decatur by March,
by Dave FlessnerTennessee and Georgia employers continued to add jobs this fall at a faster pace than the U.S. as a whole, cutting the states' jobless rate during November to 3.3% in both states, or 0.2 percentage points below the U.S. average.
by Dave FlessnerHome prices continued to rise faster than wages in the past year in Chattanooga, but the Scenic City remains a more affordable housing market than most U.S. cities, according to a new Home Affordability Report prepared today by ATTOM Data Solutions.
by Dave FlessnerThree years after the Chattanooga Housing Authority first approved the renovation of the Cromwell Hills apartments, city and state officials gathered at the 45-year-old housing complex Wednesday to mark the start of a nearly $20 million upgrade of the 200 apartment units.
by Dave FlessnerFour months after the Tennessee Valley Authority adopted a budget plan to help reverse rising electricity prices, the head of America's biggest government utility says he is even more confident that electricity prices will remain stable over the next decade.
by Dave Flessner