News - Friday, January 12, 2024

On Dec. 30 at 5:49 p.m., Mark Hite published a photograph of the sun setting on the waters that border Key West, Florida, on his Facebook page. “The end of a beautiful day in North America,” Hite posted above the image of a horizon burning with hues of orange and yellow above a dropping ember, which he possibly captured from a vantage point near the condominium he owned there.

In 2008, a chance meeting between a space-faring mercenary and an alien hunter took place in an Atlanta hotel. This collision of two diverse universes birthed a romance neither foresaw and produced equally unexpected spinoffs.

Neither Jayne Cobb of the starship Serenity nor Gwen Cooper of the Torchwood Institute expected to meet a future spouse as they arrived at Dragon Con that year. Or rather, beneath their sci-fi gets-ups, neither Kellan Potts of Tennessee’s Possum Creek nor Katie Marcinkowski of upstate New York had matrimony on their mind as they participated in the pop culture event, held each Labor Day in The Big Peach.

Robert Frost wrote about standing where two roads diverged and taking the one less traveled. As a young person, Pam Parsons found herself standing in a similar yellow wood, but she made a different choice.

Parsons wanted to be a novelist, or at least she thought she might try her hand at it, she recalls. She loves the poetry of words and the rivers of meaning that course through beautifully crafted prose, so she left her childhood home of Chattanooga and attended Hollins University, a liberal arts school in Roanoke, Virginia, that was producing more Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists than any other college at the time, she says.

As the holiday glitter gets swept up, it’s time to get our homes back in order. But aside from putting away decorations, where do you start? Gabriela Barkho at Houselogic.com has five tips that will save time, money and hassles all year long:

Excitement is building as we approach the highly anticipated 57th annual Tri-State Home Show, set to take place Feb. 16-18 at the Chattanooga Trade and Convention Center.

Proudly sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Greater Chattanooga, EPB Fiber Optics and J103, this premier event is a cornerstone for the local home industry, boasting 200-plus booths featuring an array of products and services catering to new home construction, whole house renovations, flooring, bathrooms, kitchens, landscaping, remodeling and more.

National law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings recently welcomed Chattanooga attorney Eric Setterlund as a partner.

Setterlund serves as co-chair of Bradley’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Practice Group and has experience with matters related to privacy, security protections and regulatory compliance.

Wonder of wonders, a Republican legislator pre-filed a bill that qualifies as gun control. Or gun safety. Gun good sense, let’s call it.

The bill, sponsored by Adam Lowe, a state senator from Calhoun, would render someone convicted of felony firearm theft permanently ineligible to buy a firearm in Tennessee. The theory, I suppose, is that a bad guy with a gun is ipso facto not a good guy with a gun.

When you plan to retire at a certain age, you can follow a strategy that incorporates your investment moves, your health insurance and other factors. But what happens if you’re forced to retire earlier than you anticipated?

Unfortunately, this situation is not that uncommon. About 40% of Americans say they have been forced into retirement, according to a recent survey from Edward Jones and Morning Consult, a research firm. If this were to happen to you because of a layoff, company downsizing or a health issue, would you be prepared to maintain your lifestyle today – and in the future?

Widows and widowers are often told not to make any major decisions for a year or more after a spouse’s death. Grief can cause you to make choices you later regret.

Some financial tasks, though, shouldn’t be postponed. Revising your budget, meeting with a tax pro and securing access to credit can help protect you from unpleasant surprises later.

The storybook ending on the field, complete with running back Derrick Henry thanking fans for “the greatest eight years of my life,” was just the first sign that an era ended at Nissan Stadium Sunday.

Henry and quarterback Ryan Tannehill closed out one of the more successful overall chapters of Titans football Sunday, turning back the clock one last time to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, derailing their longtime rivals’ playoff hopes.

With football time in Tennessee winding down for at least a few months, the attention span of many Midstate sports fans reopens to what’s happening on the ice at Bridgestone Arena.

As the Nashville Predators hit the midway point of the 2023-24 season, they are holding their own in the standings in a season that many thought might be a down one. Last offseason was one of significant changes in Smashville, starting at the top of the organization.

Last week, the NHL announced the first round of players who will participate in the league’s All-Star weekend the first week of February. A player from each of the league’s 32 teams was named. Nashville’s honoree was forward Filip Forsberg. This will be Forsberg’s second All-Star appearance, with his first coming in 2015.

The Predators have enjoyed some time at home lately, but they are set to head out on the road for seven of the 10 games they have remaining in January.

First Period

Back-to-back games Friday (1/12) at the Dallas Stars and back home Saturday (1/13) against the New York Islanders are on tap this week. It will be the second trip to Dallas in less than a week, after the Predators took down the Stars 4-3 Saturday, thanks in large part to a pair of goals from Forsberg. The Islanders are coached by former Predators assistant Lane Lambert, and it was also Trotz’s last coaching stop before eventually transitioning to the general manager’s job.

Many of us will renew our vows to self-improvement in the form of New Year’s resolutions. For many of us, those commitments will unravel before summer. But if buying a new car is in your plans, why not tie it to a goal to last all year?

There might be no better motivation than a daily reminder – your car – to stick to your resolution. Whether you want to venture deeper into your local wild lands or just check out more happenings in town, the car experts at Edmunds have suggestions for cars that can help make those promises stick. All the prices below include destination and handling.