News - Friday, January 9, 2026

Lisa Goolsby found the deeper meaning of her business – the undercurrent of purpose beneath the day-to-day operations at Wired Coffee Bar in Ooltewah – while drinking a cup of coffee in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Finding the café where she ordered her cup of brew had been easy. She merely stepped into a mall near the university where she teaches marketing a couple of months each year, took in the cluster of coffee shops inside and chose one almost at random.

For a while now in Chattanooga, nearly every conversation about a newly opened Chinese restaurant has returned to the same refrain: it’s good, but it isn’t the Chinese restaurant the city needs.

What does Chattanooga need from a Chinese restaurant? The same things it needs from any restaurant: authenticity and quality. Everything else – freshness, range, technique, hospitality – harmonizes under those two standards.

As 2025 comes to a close, the Chattanooga Fire Department is marking a year defined by operational growth, expanded training and response capabilities and a significant leadership transition while positioning the department for continued progress in 2026.

I often say to clients, “Every move should feel like a sunrise.” As I prepare to take the reins and welcome 2026, this phrase has taken on a broader meaning, one that reaches far beyond a buyer stepping into a new home.

M-O-V-E. Four letters that make such an impact. By moving, we evolve to set a clear direction and take visible steps (large or small) to make a meaningful difference for our members and the public we serve. When we move, we show up, energize, connect with others and adapt to change.

Millions of Americans are pledging to improve their financial lives as the calendar flips to a new year. But without a concrete plan, those well-intentioned resolutions often fade quickly.

Financial goals consistently top the list of new year’s resolutions. A 2025 Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards study shows that financial resolutions are prominent, with saving more money (45%) and reducing debt (32%) ranking among the top three goals.

Welcome back to Flick Picks, your twice-monthly movie fix. From an animated biblical epic to a conspiracy-soaked arthouse satire and a nostalgic rom-com revisit, this installment runs the gamut of faith, weirdness and pure fun.

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My ears perked when I first learned Angel Studios was releasing an animated film about the biblical David. We’re studying his life at church, and I couldn’t help wondering how a story centered on a warrior king – one whose legacy includes adultery and murder – could be transformed into a family-friendly animated feature.

A slate of new Tennessee laws approved during the first session of the 114th General Assembly will took effect Jan. 1, ushering in changes across commerce, elections, public safety, health care, taxation and government operations.

The legislation reflects policy decisions adopted during the 2025 session and touches nearly every aspect of daily life, from vaping regulations and health insurance coverage to voter registration requirements and paid leave for state employees. Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene for the second session of the General Assembly Jan. 13.

It is both telling and unsurprising that the Oxford University Press Word of the Year for the recently departed 2025 is “rage bait.”

Rage, after all, seems to have become the default emotional setting for many Americans. Most Americans, maybe. Rage bait – the spelling should probably be squeezed together – serves to stoke that condition.

After a season marked by inconsistency and underwhelming results against quality opponents, the University of Tennessee football program is undergoing wholesale changes on the defensive coaching staff and through the transfer portal.

The Vols (8-5, 4-4 SEC) finished the season with back-to-back losses, falling to Vanderbilt in the regular season finale and to Illinois in the Music City Bowl. Between the setbacks, head coach Josh Heupel began the dismantling of the defensive staff by firing defensive coordinator Tim Banks and hiring Jim Knowles to take his place.

There are many types of head coaching candidates out there with varying degrees of experience and expertise. Some have been head coaches before, while others would add a fresh face to the coaching carousel.

So maybe it’s time for the Tennessee Titans to think outside the box with their upcoming hire.

If an electric car stirs your interest but the lifestyle changes sound daunting, consider a plug-in hybrid. A plug-in hybrid is simply a rechargeable hybrid with a larger battery than a standard hybrid that enables a short range of fully electric driving. 

NASHVILLE (AP) — Mikayla Blakes scored 20 points to lead five Vanderbilt players in double figures, and the seventh-ranked Commodores stayed undefeated, beating Missouri 99-68 on Thursday night.

Vanderbilt (16-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) is a win away from matching the 17-0 start by the 1992-93 squad, which reached the program's lone women's Final Four.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Arthur Smith confirmed Thursday that the Tennessee Titans have reached out to interview him for their head coach opening.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored the only goal in a shootout to lift the Nashville Predators over the New York Islanders 2-1 on Thursday night.

Ryan O'Reilly evened the score with a short-handed goal late in the second period and Juuse Saros made 30 saves for Nashville before denying all three Islanders attempts in the tiebreaker.

A starting quarterback at Washington allegedly reneging on a lucrative deal to hit the transfer portal. Another starting QB, this one in the College Football Playoff, awaiting approval from the NCAA to play next season, an expensive NIL deal apparently hanging in the balance. A defensive star, sued by his former school after transferring, filing a lawsuit of his own.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit Thursday against President Donald Trump's administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs, citing concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families.

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is due in federal court Friday for a pivotal hearing in his fight to bar the government from seeking the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI is set to spend $20 billion to build a data center in Southaven, Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Thursday, calling it the largest private investment in the state's history.

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok is preventing non-paying users from generating or editing images after a global backlash erupted over sexualized deepfakes of people, but the change has not satisfied authorities in Europe.

The chatbot, which is accessed through Musk's social media platform X, has in the past few weeks been granting a wave of what researchers say are malicious user requests to modify images, including putting women in bikinis or in sexually explicit positions.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — CES 2026 offered a glimpse of a future that feels straight out of a sci-fi movie: bendable screens, paper-thin TVs and cars and gadgets that can think for themselves as they get to know you and your family's wants and needs.

As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang put it, "The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here."

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal immigration agents shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland on Thursday, a day after an officer fatally shot a woman in Minnesota, authorities said.

The shooting drew hundreds of protesters to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building at night, and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield vowed to investigate "whether any federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority" and refer criminal charges to the prosecutor's office if warranted.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As anger and outrage spilled out onto Minneapolis' streets over the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, a new shooting by federal officers in Oregon left two people wounded, sparked additional protests and elicited more scrutiny of enforcement operations across the U.S.

Misrepresented and fabricated images spread widely on social media in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officers have encountered opposition in nearly all of the cities targeted by President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement campaign. But it was in Minnesota — a state in daily conflict with the Trump administration this year — that a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an immigration officer.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is forecasting that the global economy will grow by 2.7% this year, slightly lower than last year's estimate, citing the impact of higher U.S. tariffs, economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions.

U.N. economists predicted that growth would edge up to 2.9% in 2027. That's still well below the average 3.2% growth between 2010 and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hurt economies around the globe. The estimate for 2025 is 2.8%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a remarkable rebuke of Republican leadership, the House passed legislation Thursday that would extend expired health care subsidies for those who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act as 17 renegade GOP lawmakers joined every Democrat in support.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to claiming that Venezuelan oil is now under his control, President Donald Trump is mincing no words. But no small part of that oil belongs to China under contracts it struck with Caracas years ago, setting the stage for a delicate diplomatic dance in the next few weeks.

BANGKOK (AP) — The United States, which played a major role in ending border clashes last year between Thailand and Cambodia, will be providing $45 million in aid packages to the two Southeast Asian countries in an effort to ensure regional stability and prosperity, a senior U.S. State Department official said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has agreed to display a plaque honoring the police who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, rebuffing House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has said the commemorative memorial does not comply with the law.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday in hopes of securing $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela's ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum — a plan that rides on their comfort in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea on Friday, the U.S. military said, as the Trump administration continues to target sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

The pre-dawn action was carried out by Marines and Navy sailors from the forces the U.S. has built up in the Caribbean in recent months, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared "there is no safe haven for criminals" as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge said Friday that she expects to temporarily block efforts by the Trump administration to end a program that offered temporary legal protections for more than 10,000 family members of citizens and green card holders.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said at a hearing that she planned to issue a temporary restraining order but did not say when it would be issued. This case is part of a broader effort by the administration to end temporary legal protection for numerous groups and comes just over a week since another judge ruled that hundreds of people from South Sudan may live and work in the United States legally.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Drivers for Lyft and Uber protested self-driving Waymo taxis in San Francisco on Friday, urging state regulators to exercise greater oversight of autonomous vehicles, given recent events in which the cars killed pets and blocked traffic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday in hopes of securing $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela's ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum — a plan that rides on their comfort in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal immigration officers are pulling out of a Louisiana crackdown and heading to Minneapolis in an abrupt pivot from an operation that drew protests around New Orleans and aimed to make thousands of arrests, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis school system will offer families the option of remote learning for a month amid federal immigration enforcement in the city, the district said.

Under the temporary plan, teachers will simultaneously deliver lessons from their classrooms to students in the classroom and at home. The district provided the update late Thursday in an email to teachers that was obtained by The Associated Press.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Mikayla Blakes scored 25 points, Justine Pissott added 22 and No. 7 Vanderbilt matched the best start in school history with a 91-51 victory over Texas A&M on Sunday.

The Commodores (17-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) have won their first 17 games for the first time since the 1992-93 season, when they advanced to the women's Final Four. Fifth-year coach Shea Ralph's team has also won its first four SEC games for the first time in 17 years, and its average margin of victory in those contests is 23 points.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Roman Josi scored a goal and added two assists to lead the Nashville Predators to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday night.

Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist, Cole Smith also scored, and Justus Annunen made 28 saves for the Predators, winners of two of three.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New options for testing and treating some of the most common sexually transmitted diseases are becoming available, a trend that experts hope will keep downward pressure on U.S. infection rates.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first at-home test that can detect three common infections in women — gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis — as well as the first home-based kit for the virus that causes cervical cancer.

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.

The strike was taking place at The Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its satellite campuses, with picket lines forming. The other affected hospitals are NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount Skydance is taking another step in its hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying Monday that it will name its own slate of directors before the next shareholder meeting of the Hollywood studio.

Paramount also filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to compel Warner Bros. to disclose to shareholders how it values its bid and the competing offer from Netflix.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk's xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images.

HONG KONG (AP) — China and the European Union said Monday they have agreed on steps toward resolving their dispute over the bloc's imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles.

A "guidance document" released by the EU on Monday gives instructions for Chinese EV manufacturers on making price offers for battery EVs, including minimum import prices and other details. The EU had imposed tariffs of up to 35.3% on Chinese EV imports in 2024 following an anti-subsidy investigation.

Alma Figueroa began to worry when she learned that her gas provider wanted to test a controversial solution to curb global warming: blend hydrogen with natural gas to power her stove and other appliances. Figueroa, who has asthma and recently learned her lung cancer is back, worries about health risks.

Five years ago, video images from a Minneapolis street showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd as his life slipped away ignited a social movement.

Now, videos from another Minneapolis street showing the last moments of Renee Good's life are central to another debate about law enforcement in America. They've slipped out day by day since ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Good last Wednesday in her maroon SUV. Yet compared to 2020, the story these pictures tell is murkier, subject to manipulation both within the image itself and the way it is interpreted.

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook owner Meta has named Dina Powell McCormick, a former Trump administration adviser and longtime finance executive, as president and vice chairman of the tech giant.

Powell McCormick previously served on Meta's board of directors — where, the company notes, she was "deeply engaged" in accelerating its artificial intelligence push across platforms. In her new management role, Meta says Powell McCormick will help guide its overall strategy, including the execution of multi-billion-dollar investments.

NEW YORK (AP) — Mattel Inc. is introducing an autistic Barbie on Monday as the newest member of its line intended to celebrate diversity, joining a collection that already includes Barbies with Down syndrome, a blind Barbie, a Barbie and a Ken with vitiligo, and other models the toymaker added to make its fashion dolls more inclusive.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are increasingly rejecting the two major political parties, according to new polling.

Just under half, 45%, of U.S. adults now identify as independents, a new Gallup survey found. That's a substantial shift from 20 years ago, when closer to one-third of Americans said they didn't identify with the Democrats or Republicans.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared on Monday to be emboldening defenders of the U.S. central bank that President Donald Trump wants to bring under his sway.

The backlash reflected the bigger stakes of a contest about the fate of the Fed's independence, the balance of power within the federal government, and the path of the U.S. economy. Trump has long publicly lashed out against Powell for not slashing the Fed's benchmark interest rates to his liking, but the prospect of a criminal indictment was a step too far for an institution that has an outsized influence on both inflation and the job market.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has threatened the Federal Reserve with a criminal indictment over the testimony of Fed Chair Jerome Powell this summer regarding its building renovations, Powell said over the weekend.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday that the death toll in nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 572.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.

BEIJING (AP) — A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country's fractured relations with the world's second-largest economy — and reduce Canada's dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders, claiming the Trump administration trampled on his constitutional rights to free speech.

Kelly, a former U.S. Navy pilot who represents Arizona, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced on Jan. 5 that he censured Kelly over his participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.

A federal judge ruled Monday that work on a major offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume, handing the industry at least a temporary victory as President Donald Trump seeks to shut it down.

At the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Senior Judge Royce Lamberth said the government did not explain why it could not take action short of a complete stop to construction on Revolution Wind while it considers ways to mitigate its national security concerns. He said it also did not provide sufficient reasoning for its change in position.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration secretly reimposed a policy limiting Congress members' access to immigration detention facilities a day after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, attorneys for several congressional Democrats said Monday in asking a federal judge to intervene.

NEW YORK (AP) — Getting married and allegedly embracing a monogamous lifestyle cannot prove the innocence of a man charged in a conspiracy with his two brothers — both luxury real estate brokers — to sexually assault dozens of women, a federal judge said Monday.

PBS will premiere separate programs on science and foreign affairs next weekend after shutting the doors on its Saturday and Sunday breaking newscasts because of the federal government's cut of $1.1 billion in funding to public broadcasting.

"PBS News Weekend" signed off Sunday, "at least for the foreseeable future," anchor John Yang said. The weekend sister of "PBS NewsHour" began broadcasting in 2013 from New York, and moved to Washington in 2022.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Allegiant Air said it will acquire Sun Country Airlines in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $1.5 billion, including debt, in a move combining two low-cost U.S. carriers focused on leisure travel.

Executives at both carriers said their route networks complement each other and that the larger airline would increase affordable travel options for passengers. The merged airline will serve about 175 cities with more than 650 routes and a fleet of roughly 195 aircraft, the companies told investors Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his confrontation with the Federal Reserve, his Justice Department investigating and threatening a criminal indictment of the independent central bank and serving it with subpoenas.

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump promised in his second inaugural address to fairly apply the law, unlike how he said he'd been treated by federal authorities.

"The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end," he declared on Jan. 20, 2025.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen later this week in an attempt to show unity between the United States and Denmark as President Donald Trump continues to threaten to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of the NATO ally.