News - Friday, May 29, 2026

At first glance, the small conference room inside Chattanooga startup incubator Brickyard looks too cramped to sustain Daniel Rau’s ambitions.

But for a stretch of time, it was also where he slept.

Rau gestures toward a cushioned bench tucked against a wall, laughing at the memory.

For Ila Wills, a childhood fascination with homes never faded. Long before she was helping buyers envision their futures in new Chattanooga communities, she was sketching floor plans as a little girl in North Carolina, paging through real estate magazines and admiring the polished Realtors smiling from glossy ads.

Jacki Madding came to a Chattanooga Realtors luncheon May 13 with both a warning and a pitch: Teachers, firefighters, restaurant workers and other working residents are increasingly being priced out of homeownership, but the city hopes a new $3 million down payment assistance program can help reverse that trend.

Buying or selling a home already comes with a lot of moving parts – and now there’s an added challenge many people do not expect.

Online scams are becoming more convincing, including the use of deepfakes, which can make a message, voice, photo or video seem real when it is not.

In our last article, we discussed how the Declaration of Independence laid the foundation for the rule of law and the concept of equality under the law. In this article, we discuss how the Declaration also foreshadowed one of the most essential components of democratic self-rule and the rule of law – trial by jury.

Crown Automotive Group has promoted Trevor Turner to pre-owned sales manager at Crown Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. Turner will oversee used vehicle inventory, manage sales staff and assist customers with vehicle purchases.

Turner joined Crown Automotive Group in 2016 as a sales and leasing consultant and has twice been named Best Salesman of the Year. Company officials said his decade of experience with Crown CDJR and his customer relationships made him a strong fit for the leadership role.

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, state agencies and AAA are encouraging parents and caregivers to use Tennessee’s free Baby in the Back car hangtags to help prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths among children during the summer months.

The city of Chattanooga’s Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy will host a series of public performances and artist-designed sidewalk murals across the city. Funded by the Tennessee Arts Commission, the initiative is designed to create spontaneous cultural experiences and highlight local performers through four designated performance zones featuring temporary murals by artists Lexi D’Ambrosio, Angie Jerez, Gavin Bird and Nathan Brown. Debut performances will include Chattanooga Street Dance Network from May 30 10 a.m.-noon at the Downtown Public Library Plaza, Ayeyoty from 1-3 p.m. on Frazier Avenue near Jimmy John’s and Hair Benders and Ashly Dilbeck from 1-3 p.m. at St. Elmo Avenue and the Tennessee Riverwalk across from the Incline Railway. Brown’s installation at Renaissance Park near Cardboard Hill is expected later this summer.

The sweeping rehabilitation of Chattanooga’s iconic Walnut Street Bridge remains on track for a September reopening after workers undertook one of the most extensive structural repair efforts in the bridge’s 136-year history.

City officials say the $47 million project required replacing and reinforcing enormous portions of the historic pedestrian bridge’s steel support system, a task made even more challenging by the structure’s age, location over the Tennessee River and historic significance. Yet despite uncovering far more corrosion than initially anticipated, the city says the bridge will reopen Sept. 26 without requiring additional local tax dollars.

Erlanger has announced plans for a major expansion and renovation of Erlanger East Hospital, a project leaders say will increase access to advanced healthcare services for residents across Southeast Tennessee.

The centerpiece of the project is a three-story, 52,000-square-foot medical building that will add 22 patient beds to the hospital and create room for future growth.

Given the ever-evolving landscape of college athletics, University of Tennessee softball head coach Karen Weekly could have already walked away from the sport with her Hall of Fame legacy firmly in place. She could have left others to deal with revenue sharing, NIL deals and the constant transfer portal moves.

Key takeaways 

• Despite their tax advantages, just 14% of adults include a 529 plan in their education savings strategy, according to a 2025 Edward Jones and Morning Consult study.

• 529 funds cover college, vocational programs, registered apprenticeships and can be used toward K-12 education. 

The Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade have been among Edmunds’ favorite three-row SUVs for many years now. They boast roomy seating, classy designs, a generous number of features and pricing that can potentially undercut the competition by thousands of dollars.

Major League Baseball owners made their long-expected salary cap proposal to the players' association on Thursday, a system the union has vowed never to accept, setting the sides on course for a confrontation that threatens the 2027 season and perhaps beyond.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Brittany Howard and Joan Baez will headline a star-studded protest festival set for the Washington, D.C., area a month before the midterm elections.

Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello announced the festival Wednesday while performing together at Nationals Park in Washington as Springsteen winds down his Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour.

NEW YORK (AP) — Saying it was time for a new approach and a new chapter, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has replaced the executive producer of "60 Minutes," naming outsider Nick Bilton, a longtime technology journalist and documentarian, as the show's new leader.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the 3-month-old war by 60 days and launch talks on Iran's nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market pushed to more records Thursday as profits keep piling up for companies like Dollar Tree, Snowflake and Hormel Foods. A tentative deal to extend the ceasefire in the war with Iran by 60 days also helped lift the market and rein in oil prices.

In April, President Donald Trump announced a project to revamp the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, hiring a contractor to coat its massive granite basin at a cost of what he said would be $1.5 million. He criticized his predecessors' efforts to fix the site at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, claiming they spent "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that his department has prepared the design for a $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump, anticipating the passage of stalled legislation in Congress to put the president on a new denomination of legal tender.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a new partnership with the United States on Thursday, just weeks before President Donald Trump decides on whether to renew the free trade agreement between the countries.

NEW YORK (AP) — A day after the President Donald Trump -affiliated Freedom 250 announced the "first wave" of performers for "The Great American State Fair" shows on Washington's National Mall in June and July, the lineup has been hit with a wave of cancellations. Young MC, Morris Day, the Commodores and Martina McBride are among the scheduled acts who have said they will not be appearing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from processing or paying any claims through a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for the Republican president's allies who believe they were victims of a weaponized government.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied Thursday evening that his office had opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago, hours after multiple news organizations reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether she had lied during the course of civil litigation against Trump.

NEW YORK (AP) — The former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll has been battling President Donald Trump in court for nearly seven years over her allegation that he sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a fancy Manhattan department store in 1996.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is assessing damage to its launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing, creating a giant orange fireball seen and felt for miles around.

The company fueled the massive New Glenn rocket Thursday night, hoping to briefly ignite the engines ahead of a satellite launch next week. But the 321-foot (98-meter), rocket blew up, taking part of the pad with it.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin exploded during a test at the launch pad Thursday night, shaking nearby homes and briefly painting the sky orange.

Blue Origin said its New Glenn rocket exploded during an engine-firing test being conducted ahead of a satellite launch planned for next week. No one was hurt, according to officials at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Have you applied for a new job? If you've been shortlisted, get ready to be interviewed by artificial intelligence.

Deluged by a flood of AI-generated job applications from easy-apply job boards, recruiters are turning to AI to cope. Companies are using chatbots to interview candidates, typically at the screening stage, through phone calls, text messaging or video chats with on-screen avatars.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Local TV stations owned by ABC across the United States blasted the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday for launching an "unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional" early review of their broadcast licenses as a dispute between the network and the Trump-controlled agency intensifies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he's holding a White House Situation Room meeting with his advisors as he looks to make a "final determination" on moving forward with a deal to extend the Iran ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

CAIRO (AP) — The United States and Iran appear to be closing in on a deal to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators on Thursday reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire in the 3-month-old war by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran's nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tomatoes, ubiquitous in everything from fast-food burgers to haute cuisine, are taking on a new role beyond the plate: A nagging reminder of rising costs.

Prices for those red orbs have soared more than any other food product over the past year to cement a spot as one of the consumer headaches du jour.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi stood behind the Trump administration's release of the case files on Jeffrey Epstein as she testified Friday before House lawmakers scrutinizing a process that was delayed and included personal information of potential victims.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's Republican-controlled Senate is poised to pass a plan Friday to help the GOP maintain control of the U.S. House in November, potentially becoming the latest Southern state to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district that elected a Democrat.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Democratic leaders in a handful of southern states are lobbying for South Carolina to reprise its role as the party's first-in-the-nation state to cast primary ballots in 2028, arguing that the state best represents the initial playing field for presidential candidates to build the coalitions needed to win.