News - Friday, October 16, 2026

Kelsey Grammer has spent decades bringing fictional characters to life. Now, the award-winning actor wants to make sure Americans don’t forget the real people who helped shape their country.

During an appearance Oct. 10 at Chattanooga’s Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, Grammer discussed his plans to direct a Civil War drama about a Union soldier whose descendants are seeking a posthumous Medal of Honor. He also revealed that he’s developing a mobile app designed to reconnect Americans with their history.

Kelsey Grammer has spent more than four decades entertaining audiences, most famously as psychiatrist Frasier Crane on “Cheers” and “Frasier.” But these days, the Emmy-winning actor is pursuing projects that reflect another long-standing passion: American history.

Thrasher Elementary School on Signal Mountain is working with Chattanooga’s Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center to develop what could become the nation’s first Medal of Honor elementary school designation, an initiative that could eventually serve as a model for schools across the country.

At 40 years old, James Marcum found himself alone on a Colorado mountainside, struggling to breathe as crushing pain gripped his chest.

The Chattanooga cardiologist had been skiing with friends when an artery supplying blood to his heart suddenly went into spasm, cutting off circulation and causing a clot to form. Marcum immediately recognized the symptoms of a heart attack.

What will be known for the rest of this generation as the Long Horn Restaurant building has undergone its second makeover, this time bringing a touch – or, more accurately, a full-on body slam – of casual Mediterranean cuisine to the North Shore.

The Chattanooga Public Library is hosting The Tivoli Foundation: Your Ticket to History, an exhibit celebrating the history and restoration of Chattanooga’s Tivoli Theatre. The exhibit opened Oct. 10 on the first floor of the Downtown Library and will remain on display through Feb. 26, 2027.

Tennessee Realtors has named Travis Close the 2026 Realtor of the Year.

The award, presented during the association’s annual Fall Convention in Memphis, recognizes the member who best represents the character and professional profile of a Realtor.

John P. Franklin Funeral Home will host its annual festival Sunday, 2-4 p.m. in the funeral home parking lot, 1101 Dodds Ave. The free event will feature food, music, dancing and activities for all ages. Families, neighbors and friends are invited to attend.

The appraisal is an important part of many real estate transactions, but it can also be one of the least familiar steps for buyers and sellers. With changes underway in appraisal reporting, this is a good time to understand what might look different and what questions to ask.

Finishing your estate plan is a big step, but failing to notify the people involved can lead to confusion and complications when it’s time to use it. Since the events that bring those plans into action, such as an accident, serious illness or hospitalization, rarely come with a warning, talking with your family about your estate plan before a crisis occurs can provide clarity and help reduce uncertainty, conflict and stress later.

Tennessee stands at a fork in the road, faced with a vexing choice: Should the state stop trying to kill people or just get better at it? Opinion appears sharply divided.

Two botched executions using lethal injection protocols got us here. In May, officials fumbled for an hour without being able to establish an IV line for Tony Carruthers, resulting in a one-year reprieve for his death sentence.

As the Tennessee Titans ended the 2026 preseason, new head coach Robert Saleh told reporters he would stake his job on Cam Ward being a success.

“This kid’s not going to fail. Obviously, I put my job on that one, but he’s not going to fail. He’s special,” Saleh said Aug. 30.

When the Titans took Cam Ward No. 1 overall in last year’s draft, they probably had no idea the results would be like this after 22 games.

Based on his results at three different collegiate stops – Incarnate Word, Washington State and Miami – Ward was the NCAA’s all-time leader in career touchdown passes with 158. 

The reopening of Chattanooga’s Walnut Street Bridge is serving as the inspiration for a new exhibit at the Jewish Cultural Center that looks beyond bridges as physical structures to explore the connections they can represent.

“Bridge,” on display through Nov. 20, uses artwork to examine the ways bridges can connect generations, cultures and traditions while also representing passages from fear to safety, barriers to communication and the divide between seeing a need and responding to it.

DeWayne Brown II may have felt a little lonely last spring as his former University of Tennessee men’s basketball teammates either graduated or transferred. At one point, Brown was one of only two returning scholarship players remaining, along with sophomore guard Troy Henderson.

Fall is typically when automakers release the majority of their models for the new year. Most will be continuations of prior designs, but there’s also a good number that are all-new or getting major redesigns. 

If you’re thinking about buying a new vehicle in the next six months, it might be useful to know which ones have major changes or offer notable breakthroughs. To give you an inside scoop on what’s coming in the next few months, the automotive experts at Edmunds have picked five vehicles that promise to be well worth the wait.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a lawsuit from John Brennan that sought to force the Justice Department to preserve investigative records so that the former CIA director can challenge any eventual criminal case against him as a selective and malicious prosecution.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — At least eight states are suing artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, saying the company's popular chatbot model violated state consumer protection laws by hurting children and deceiving adults.

The company's chatbot model, ChatGPT, is giving dangerous medical advice, encouraging paranoia and coaching people to hurt others or commit suicide, Iowa's lawsuit said. At the same time, the chatbots are pretending to be agreeable and compassionate while preying on the vulnerable, according to the lawsuit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration sued California election officials Thursday, asking a judge to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots for next month's midterm elections from people the federal government has identified as "likely" noncitizens until their status can be confirmed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI employees fired for their roles in the investigation of President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents at his Florida estate sued on Thursday to get their jobs back, calling their terminations unlawful acts of "political retribution."

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials are moving ahead with a plan to allow specialty pharmacies to produce certain peptides, a class of largely unregulated injections that have become popular among followers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other wellness influencers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Open enrollment for Medicare plans begins Thursday and enrollees will face a slew of changes that go into effect in 2027.

During the enrollment period, which ends Dec. 7, people will have the opportunity to choose between traditional Medicare and privately run Medicare Advantage plans in their area, as well as prescription drug plans. Those changes go into effect on Jan. 1.

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV met with a top aide on Thursday and resumed working from the hospital, as doctors reported his lung had recovered well from surgery to remove a cancerous nodule.

Leo's post-operative tests remained within normal levels and his physiotherapy session Thursday involved full mobility exercises, with the pope going about his daily activities independently, said the update from Leo's personal doctor, Dr. Luigi Carbone, and the head of thoracic surgery at Gemelli hospital, Dr. Stefano Margaritora.

WASHINGTON (AP) — High gas prices are intensifying inflation and vacuuming up more of Americans' dollars, yet consumers are still digging deep to spend, powering the economy, at least for now.

A slew of economic data Thursday showed that inflation accelerated last month as more expensive oil and gas began to lift prices in other parts of the economy, including shipping and warehousing, before the increases reach most Americans.

NEW YORK (AP) — Don't count out U.S. shoppers when it comes to shelling out money for the winter holidays despite higher fuel prices and other financial pressures.

The nation's largest retail trade group said Thursday that it expects American consumers will collectively spend $1.01 trillion this November and December, which would be 4.2% more than during the same months last year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale inflation rose more than expected last month on a big jump in fuel costs as rising prices become a bigger economic challenge for millions of Americans, and a growing political problem for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes muscled higher following a shaky day of trading.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% Thursday after erasing an early-morning loss and pulled closer to its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.1%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia defended her legal background and justified her truncated inaugural briefing as she navigates a rocky first week as the president's chief spokeswoman.

Zacharia sat down for an interview Thursday with the conservative Human Events outlet. In it, she said she did not have time to get fully prepared ahead of her first briefing on Tuesday and that it was always the plan to keep it short because President Donald Trump would field questions from journalists later that morning.

The Indianapolis Colts need Jonathan Taylor to become a big-play threat again.

He's gone 12 straight games without rushing for 100 yards. He's been held scoreless two of the last three weeks. And after he was held to a season-low 45 yards in last week's loss at Pittsburgh, the Colts will do everything they can to get him running right Sunday.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Macklin Celebrini scored the only goal of a shootout to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.

Mason Marchment and Will Smith scored, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 33 saves to help the Sharks snap a two-game losing streak. Nedeljkovic has won both of his starts this season.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean "Diddy" Combs has been moved to a federal prison in Pennsylvania after reports that the hip-hop mogul was living the high life and was injured in a fight at his New Jersey lockup, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A judge of Brazil's top electoral court ruled on Thursday that Meta must adopt measures to immediately secure equal treatment of the two presidential candidates ahead of an Oct. 25 runoff.

The ruling comes shortly after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running against Flávio Bolsonaro, filed a complaint that accused the tech company that owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favor opposition candidate Bolsonaro ahead of the election.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The only English words 4-year-old Alaisha Sandoval knows are courtesy of "Peppa Pig," but that could soon change.

The Trump administration is proposing that Head Start programs teach exclusively in English, rejecting the federal early-childhood program's practice of incorporating the languages students speak at home. Alaisha's father, Hansel Alejandro Sandoval, smiled when he heard the news: The policy, he said, would help open his daughter's world.

CHICAGO (AP) — Tesla has unveiled its new Roadster sports car, which can thrust itself up in the air. But drivers shouldn't expect to take it for a spin anytime soon.

Elon Musk's car company this week debuted the latest bells and whistles of its second generation Roadster — chief among them, as shown off at a Thursday event, are a set of cold gas thrusters and a "multi-mode" suction system that can fling the car in the air for short spurts and spin the vehicle mid-flight.

HONG KONG (AP) — China on Friday said it plans to restrict or ban exports of 40 technologies that span artificial intelligence, chips and solar power as its technology race with countries including the United States intensifies.

The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly published a draft document with the proposed updates for China's catalog of technologies subjected to export bans or restrictions.

The United States is making an unprecedented attempt to revive three shuttered nuclear plants to meet rising energy demand, including from large-scale data centers.

No commercial nuclear reactor is known to have resumed generating electricity after beginning the decommissioning process that takes one out of service, though some reactors have restarted after long outages.

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV's recovery from lung surgery has progressed so normally that the Vatican on Friday stopped providing morning updates confirming he had woken up and had breakfast, even as questions swirled about what his cancer means for the future of his young pontificate.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump says he wants voters to pretend that he's on the ballot in this year's midterm elections.

His rivals are doing their best to help his case.

Democratic candidates and their allies have spent more than $163 million since Sept. 1 on television advertising that mentions the Republican president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from AdImpact, which charts media spending.

BANGKOK (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said Friday he won't prejudge what the U.S. central bank will do about interest rates at its upcoming meetings in October and December.

The Fed increased its key interest rate by a quarter-point to about 3.9% in September, its first increase in three years, and stubbornly elevated U.S. inflation will likely lead it to hike that rate again in coming months to slow spending and help cool price pressures.

BANGKOK (AP) — Guardrails are urgently needed to contain potential risks from the boom in artificial intelligence, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Friday, likening the technology to a Formula 1 race car that might go off the track and run people over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Investments in pharmaceutical companies made on behalf of President Donald Trump increased significantly after he returned to the White House last year, with his portfolio adding millions of dollars in stock in firms that benefited from a Republican-backed law that shields certain medications from Medicare price negotiations, according to a report from congressional Democrats.

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned Thursday that the United States is trying to break Canada so it can "own us" as he urged oil-rich Alberta not to begin a process toward separation in Monday's referendum.

The NCAA sued the governor of Ohio on Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving the state's universities the option of allowing athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth year of college ball in defiance of the NCAA's new eligibility rule.

The NCAA has passed many controversial rules in its long history but few have led to as much angst as the one approved over the summer giving athletes five years to play five seasons.

The change has resulted in confusion, lawsuits and the once unthinkable notion of players leaving college, signing with professional teams and then turning around to head back to college.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Katie Zacharia is departing as White House press secretary, a person familiar with the matter said Friday, after a short and rocky tenure that was defined by questions about her professional background and lack of polish in fielding questions from journalists.