Chattanooga Times Free Press
Area braces for ice storm
An ice storm warning has been issued for the western Tennessee Valley and the Chattanooga region from 1 p.m. Saturday through 7 p.m. Sunday as forecasters call for potentially crippling icing problems until heavy rains and higher temperatures bring...
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WINTER STORM DRAWS CLOSER
Significant snow is almost out of the forecast for most of the Chattanooga region, and more focus is on higher elevations where a quarterto a half-inch of ice could coat roads, trees and power lines on Signal, Lookout and Monteagle mountains. As...
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Winter worries
Mother Nature may be about to put your weekend plans on ice. It all depends on where the snow-ice line ends up this weekend as an arctic front sweeps into the South, dropping a wintry mix on Tennessee. Too far south, the winter storm system could act...
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Infusion for The Bend
The Bend, a highly anticipated and delayed mixed-use project on Chattanooga’s Westside, received a $47.5 million loan from an out-of-town company to help fund the next phase of development. The loan from Chicago-based financial services firm Hilco...
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Erlanger resident reflects on his journey, US intervention
Today, Aaron Barreto-Diaz, 29, is a family medicine resident at Erlanger hospital, but 12 years ago, he was living in Caracas, Venezuela. The recent U.S. incursion into Venezuela comes with complicated feelings for him, but not for his parents,...
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RECRUITING RETAIL
River City Co., a nonprofit that leads development efforts in downtown Chattanooga, has entered a three-year contract with a national consultant it says will help recruit major retailers to the heart of the city. The nonprofit will work with...
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DRIVING HAZARD
People charged with operating a vehicle without a valid driver’s license in Whitfield County made up half of all transfers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody from the county’s jail last year, data shows. An additional 15 individuals, 4%,...
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Sky lift project needs OKs to get off ground
Rock City wants to build a gondola lift up the side of Lookout Mountain, Georgia, to expand its tourist attraction while shifting vehicle traffic from the small town above Chattanooga to the valley below it. A property Rock City has owned for decades...
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Big problem for big rigs
The 1978 International Transtar II, a flat-faced semitruck with its engine positioned under the cab, started its life in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It worked in a gravel quarry in Muncie, Indiana, idled for long time in a barn and then hauled grain before...
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COMMON SENSE
NEW YORK — Some 250 years after “Common Sense” helped inspire the 13 colonies to declare independence, Thomas Paine might receive a long-anticipated tribute from his adopted country. A Paine memorial in Washington, D.C., authorized by a 2022 law,...
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New Ringgold hospital to open Sunday
A new state-of-the-art hospital is opening Sunday in Ringgold. The hospital at 4710 Battlefield Parkway is owned and operated by CommonSpirit Health, which has centers in Chattanooga, Hixson and now the new building in North Georgia. The...
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Enterprise South plans canceled
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp has dropped his proposal for industrial development on 500 acres of Enterprise South Nature Park, his office announced Tuesday. Wamp’s original plan to open up 500 acres of the nature park to industrial development...
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DIVIDED REGION
MEXICO CITY — In his celebratory news conference on the U.S. capture of Venezuelan strongman leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump set out an extraordinarily forthright view of the use of U.S. power in Latin America that exposed political...
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Split project on track for spring 2026 finish
Construction remains behind schedule on the $161.6 million second phase of Chattanooga’s monstrous road-building project, the Interstate 75/Interstate 24 interchange at the Tennessee-Georgia state line. Work will continue into 2026, months beyond the...
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Trump: US will ‘run’ Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — Hours after an audacious military operation that plucked leader Nicolás Maduro from power and removed him from the country, President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and...
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AMONG THE HIGHEST
Tennessee has transferred more people from its jails into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in recent months than almost any other state in the country. Only Texas, California and Florida, the country’s three most populous states, had more...
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Chattanooga-based winners, losers on 2025 stock market
Three of eight publicly traded companies based in the Chattanooga area reported rising share prices across 2025, as the broader stock market pulled off gains despite added uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s tariffs and fears of an artificial...
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From tattoo shops to traffic stops
Tennessee has several new laws set to take effect in the new year, spanning from tattoo shops to traffic stops. Key 2026 laws address immigration and human trafficking in the state. “The laws taking effect on Jan. 1 reflect the priorities and values...
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UTC AVOIDS BIG HIT
Graduate-level nursing students, particularly those pursuing advanced specializations, could have a harder time paying for training after the Department of Education removed the profession from a proposed list of degrees eligible for large federal...
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ONE TREE AT A TIME
For more than 20 years, conservationists have been fighting a tiny insect killing the region’s hemlock trees. Efforts to protect the trees through insecticide and the deployment of natural predators have been tedious and largely ineffective, and until...
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Priority shift
Arecent city-funded study on the best use for the former Harriet Tubman public housing site in East Chattanooga recommends a shift away from large-scale residential use to commercial development after a decade of debate over whether new housing would...
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GROWING PAINS
As the December meeting of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission stretched into its fourth hour, Commission Chair Ethan Collier expressed frustration that every residential project heard by the planning board during the meeting...
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‘THAT’S A BIG JOB’
A high-profile herd of hungry goats that has been grazing on invasive plants on Chattanooga’s Maclellan Island is taking a winter break so volunteers can dig into the work of rewilding the urban oasis with native plants. “We’re only able to do a...
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‘Get to the root cause’
When describing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — known as “forever chemicals” — Shaw Industries’ Kellie Ballew, likes to use apples as an analogy. “There’s a tremendous number of varieties,” Ballew, vice president of environmental affairs, said...
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Wamp signs letter in support of summer food aid
County mayors across Tennessee, including Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, have signed on to a letter urging Gov. Bill Lee to restore the state’s participation in a summer nutrition assistance program before the deadline to apply is up. The federal...
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Homegrown developer
Across the street from the CommonSpirit Memorial Hospital Chattanooga campus, a handful of new houses stand out on Chamberlain Avenue. They’re Thedric Lester’s billboard promising change in the area. “I pay more, but I think the vision and the impact...
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‘PLEASE TELL ME YOU DON’T HAVE TRUMP STUFF IN YOUR OFFICE’
Accusations of racism stemming in part from a local educator’s Donald Trump campaign pin set off a staff revolt at one of Hamilton County’s top schools, spawned an ongoing lawsuit and has now prompted a federal claim that he was discriminated...
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Letter grades released for local schools
The typical Hamilton County school again received a C under the formula Tennessee uses to assign letter grades to every public school. Of the 81 county schools — including charter schools — that received letter grades for the 2024-25 academic year, 13...
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Local Jewish celebration grows after Bondi attack
Led by a blue-and-white Ghostbusters van, over 40 vehicles topped with light-up menorahs paraded across downtown Chattanooga on Wednesday, from Coolidge Park to Ice on the Landing at First Horizon Pavilion. The menorah parade and ice menorah lighting,...
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Zoning board vote may be put on hold
The Hamilton County Commission may be hitting the pause button before it even takes the first step toward dissolving a regional zoning board. Commissioners are set to vote on a resolution from Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, during their...
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Rural health providers could be damaged by $100K visa fee
Bekki Holzkamm has been trying to hire a lab technician at a hospital in rural North Dakota since late summer. Not one U.S. citizen has applied. West River Health Services in Hettinger, a town of about 1,000 residents in the southwestern part of the...
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Water testing excludes taps
Lawyers suing major employers in Northwest Georgia aren’t testing tap water for contaminants that they’ve accused the companies of dumping into water. Instead, they’re sampling dust, dirt, wells, ponds and creeks on residents’ properties as they...
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More connections coming to airport
Rather than ballooning into a major hub, the Chattanooga Airport needs to be “good enough” to avoid being a hindrance to economic development, Mayor Tim Kelly told a roomful of local leaders. It’s on its way there, he said. “We’re not going to catch...
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Tennessee executes man by lethal injection
NASHVILLE — Tennessee executed Harold Wayne Nichols by lethal injection Thursday in Nashville for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State Community College. Nichols, 64, had confessed to killing Pulley as...
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Quantum hub draws Vanderbilt presence
Hundreds of Vanderbilt University faculty and students will live and work in Chattanooga at a quantum institute launched through a partnership with EPB after Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and other officials invited the powerhouse university to work with...
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CULTURE CLASH
KYIV, Ukraine — For a few weeks this fall, it felt as if Kyiv had been taken over by Kazimir Malevich, the 20th-century avant-garde artist whose “Black Square” painting helped to revolutionize art. Movie theaters in the Ukrainian capital screened a...
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TVA gives YouTuber access to film nuclear reactor
When engineer Destin Sandlin posted his latest video to his popular YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay, fans could hardly believe what they were watching. Sandlin had not only taken cameras inside an operating commercial nuclear power plant but had also...
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‘Shiny ball syndrome’
Even as the number of logistics firms in Chattanooga has proliferated over the past 15 years, one member of the industry said local politicians have been enamored with other, emerging fields that don’t lean into the region’s existing economic...
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ROAD WOES
Chattanooga commuters wasted more time and gas than ever before while sitting in snarled traffic in 2024, and Tennessee’s fourth-largest town ranks in the top 101 U.S. cities for delays, with commuters as a group logging more than 14 million hours...
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‘Pattern of deceit’
The Chattanooga tow operator accused Tuesday of 28 auto crimerelated offenses previously served a nine-year federal prison sentence and owed over $4.28 million in restitution after pleading guilty to defrauding over 400 vehicle dealerships nationwide,...
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‘JUST AS GUILTY’
Red Bank officials had time to double-check the city’s property tax rate for months, according to Hamilton County Property Assessor Marty Haynes. The city is expected to experience an $800,000 shortfall in its $11 million budget this year because it...
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Tow company owner has history of trouble
The Chattanooga tow truck company owner accused of illegally selling vehicles across the Southeast has pleaded guilty to thefts in the past and is connected to a trail of bankruptcy, debt and property foreclosures in several states, public records...
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Tow operator faces charges of auto theft
A Chattanooga tow company owner accused of running an illegal vehicle theft and reselling operation in multiple states was arrested Tuesday on 28 charges while the Chattanooga Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office executed two...
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2020 election looms over Georgia midterms
The election interference case against President Donald Trump in Georgia was dismissed last week, but the ghosts of the 2020 election are still looming over the state as next year’s midterms approach. Trump’s Justice Department has been investigating...
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Broadband in orbit
Tennessee could see more satellitebased internet connections in rural areas in coming years as the state adapts its broadband expansion plans to meet new guidelines from the second administration of President Donald Trump. The Broadband Equity, Access...
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THE MASTER
ATLANTA — From what used to be a parking lot where Georgia Power stored electrical equipment at the heart of America’s eighthlargest metro area, a stylish hotel, office tower and apartment complex rise in a semicircle like members of a giant...
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Sports bets under threat
Tennessee’s online sports gambling market, the largest in the country, has seen over $19 billion placed in bets, generating more than $345 million in tax revenues since 2020. The revenue has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for educational...
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Dazzling displays
Lyla Robinson, 3, peers in to the EPB Holiday Windows Celebration on Wednesday at 10 W. M.L. King Blvd.
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‘He became a Daltonian’
DALTON — Luis Soriano stood in front of several classes of children at Eastside Elementary school last week. He clawed at the air, growling, impersonating a tiger who had lost his eyes. He was telling a bedtime story his grandmother used to tell...
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In step with Chattanooga
One spring Sunday, Hope Henchey’s morning began in the rain, at 3:30 a.m. She started walking. Nineteen hours later, she finally stopped. Once she reached home again, she jumped into the Tennessee River, blistered and aching. She’d done it: 100,000...
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IN WORD, NOT DEED
“Forever.” “In perpetuity.” The language in the deed by which a former military site became Enterprise South Nature Park preserves all 2,750 acres for recreational use, for keeps. But a plan proposed by Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp would carve...
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‘Have a backup plan’
Although there have been a handful of local flight cancellations, the burgeoning wave that has hit major hubs across the United States has not trickled down to the Chattanooga Airport. However, one industry analyst said air travelers should remain...
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COLD PLUNGE
Chattanooga got its first snow flurries of the cold season Monday morning after high temperatures fell by around 25 degrees in one day following a cold front from the north. The forecasted high temperature of 38 degrees Monday was the lowest for Nov....
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STATE LOOKING TO SPRUCE UP PARKS
If you’ve been itching to tell state officials what needs to be done at 86-year-old Booker T. Washington State Park or the new North Chickamauga Creek Gorge State Park, you’re about to get the chance. Major improvements are already underway at Booker...
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TVA CEO salary set using private peers
The Tennessee Valley Authority hires a consultant to help set compensation for its CEO in line with amendments to its founding law, which require an annual survey of pay at government-owned public agencies and investor-owned private companies for...
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GRADUAL TAKEOFF
Major airports appeared to be working largely as normal Friday as airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the United States, but concerns that disruptions could worsen deepened after a warning from the transportation secretary that mandated flight...
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RUSSIA CLOSES IN ON UKRAINIAN CITY
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is concentrating its firepower and troops on the small, battered city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, apparently pushing its forces close to capturing what has become a gateway to the war’s most fiercely contested region. After...
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‘You’ve got to survive’
On the 14th of each month, retired warehouse worker and housekeeper Carla Sims receives a $273 deposit from the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The benefits, sent to her electronic benefits card, help defray some of the...
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Stadium planners want to preserve site’s character
The team of architects and developers united around the former U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site where the Chattanooga Lookouts’ new stadium is under construction are like the Avengers of historic reuse. Their past projects include the High Line in New...
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FLOOD INSURANCE UPDATES COMING
A packed house gathered in Chattanooga on Monday night, eager to hear how new federal floodplain maps could affect them. Many of them came after getting cards from the city in the mail, notifying them that their property could now be considered at...
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GNOME GROWN
After Rock City launched a new logo in August featuring a jolly gnome, the parent company of the 93-year-old Lookout Mountain attraction learned how many people didn’t know the old logo. Many people thought Rock City Enterprises had somehow gotten rid...
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Smith asks Trump for prison reprieve
Former state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, is hoping for “grace in the form of a presidential pardon” from an eightmonth prison sentence, arguing she was unfairly targeted for prosecution due to her high-profile political past, according to her attorney,...
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LAND BANK SEEKS PROPOSALS
Chattanooga’s land bank is trying again to get developers interested in six free pieces of land where they could build affordable homes. The city is also trying to sweeten the deal for developers with some extra money and looser affordability...
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Jamaica begins its long road to recovery
The storm flattened and flooded seaside communities, leaving piles of brick, wood and twisted metal. Floodwaters gouged asphalt roads and knocked cars into muddy pits. An elementary school still stood, days later, but roaring winds had sheared the roof...
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‘WE’RE FACING SOMETHING HUGE’
As many as 60 Chattanooga area churches, alongside other community organizations, attended a Zoom meeting in anticipation of an increased need for food assistance as federal food aid benefits are set to lapse Saturday amid the ongoing government...
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UAW members casting ballots
Josh Epperson, a 13-year employee at Volkswagen Chattanooga, remembers going to Waffle House with a friend at 4 a.m. to drown his sorrows in an omelet after a 2019 vote to join the United Auto Workers union fell short. “We had the loss in 2019, but...
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Far East face to face
TOKYO — President Donald Trump began one of his busiest days of his Asia trip Tuesday by meeting with the new Japanese prime minister, with plans to later speak to U.S. troops aboard an aircraft carrier and mingle with business leaders. Although Trump...
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Residents weigh in
The land behind Renee Eldridge’s Ooltewah home was brown when she first moved into the third and last house on her street decades ago. Her backyard was on an overgrown hillside where, not far off, bunkers for a defunct U.S. ammunition plant were...
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Total costs unknown for Lookouts stadium
Taxpayers in Chattanooga and Hamilton County know down to the penny how much it will cost to pay off public debt that covered the original $80 million price tag for the Lookouts minor league baseball stadium under construction. But an additional $26...
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SMITH SENTENCED TO EIGHT MONTHS
NASHVILLE — Former state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, was sentenced Friday to eight months in federal prison for her role in a corruption conspiracy described as a scheme to steal from Tennessee and its citizens through the General Assembly’s...
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Union prepared to poll members
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga will hold a strike authorization vote Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a post on social media by the United Auto Workers union. The UAW and the German automaker have been in a stalemate over the past month as...
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Some VW workers pushing for a vote
Angelo Robinson has worked at Volkswagen Chattanooga for more than 15 years — ever since the company opened its production plant at Enterprise South — and job security never crossed his mind until his coworkers voted to join the United Auto Workers...
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TVA PIPELINE PROJECT STARTS
A $1 billion, 122-mile natural gas pipeline that will run below eight East Tennessee counties to supply fuel to a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant is under construction after years of planning. East Tennessee Natural Gas, the local subsidiary of...
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MAYOR ADDRESSES PARK DEVELOPMENT
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp took to social media over the weekend to address concerns about a proposed land-use swap involving McDonald Farm and Enterprise South Nature Park. The proposal would slate about 1,300 acres of the farm in Sale Creek...
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