News - Friday, January 26, 2024

Kane Shepherd is a man of few words, despite being an attorney. Instead of captivating juries with loquacious arguments or dominating the conversation during negotiations, he prefers to sit silently and review a contract or to sit silently and write one.

While growing up in the mountains of southwest Virginia, Cortland Souther would occasionally bump up against a challenge he was convinced he could not surmount.

Whether it was a school assignment or a craft project, Southern would declare he didn’t have the necessary brains or motor skills. Then his mother would correct him and say, ‘You can do hard things.’”

Miller & Martin’s Women’s Network has formed a community partnership with The Launch Pad, a Chattanooga nonprofit organization offering support to local women in recovery.

The Launch Pad provides residential, 12-step-based sober living to women recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. The organization serves as a safe haven for 49 residents in five group homes.

As the real estate landscape continues to evolve in the Greater Chattanooga area, the recent drop in mortgage rates presents a potentially transformative scenario for the housing market. This rate decrease could catalyze a resurgence in existing home sales in the coming months.

The Labor Department recently revealed the updated Occupational Safety and Health Administration civil penalties for 2024, making violations of safety rules on job sites even more costly. Effective Jan. 15, OSHA’s maximum penalties for violations have risen from $15,625 to $16,131 per violation, while the penalty for willful or repeated violations has increased from $156,259 to $161,323 per violation.

The Tennessee Aquarium has hired Jamie Gross to be the nonprofit’s next director of finance.

Gross will be responsible for the Aquarium’s finance department, where he’ll manage daily financial operations, cash control, tax filings, financial auditing, accounting and recordkeeping, and fiscal policy compliance. His responsibilities will extend to the Creative Discovery Museum and Hunter Museum of American Art, which share business services with the Aquarium.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration has awarded the city of Chattanooga a $500,000 grant to be used for developing strategies around improving workforce outcomes in underserved neighborhoods.

In partnership with Hamilton County, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Chattanooga 2.0, the Benwood Foundation and the Bethlehem Center, Chattanooga is one of 24 cities awarded the grant and is one of 22 finalists for the Recompete Implementation Grant, which is worth up to $50 million of funding.

Plato said one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is being governed by your inferiors.

With this quote in mind, Rep. Greg Martin (R-Hamilton County) has voted in every general election and runoff election since he first cast his ballot for Ronald Reagan in 1984 at the age of 21, he says.

You may have read reports about an impending “debt crisis” in the U.S. Should you be worried about investing in Treasury securities?

Part of the concern over debt has been driven by the cost of government borrowing, which has risen because of higher interest rates. But it’s worth noting that while interest expenses have risen to nearly 2% of gross domestic product, this measure had exceeded 3% in the early 1990s.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a column about how to have a retirement worth saving for. It ended with a quote from personal finance educator Barbara O’Neill, who reflected on how the pandemic disrupted many retirees’ plans.

“It wasn’t just two years lost, it was two good years,” O’Neill said then. “You don’t know how many of those you have left.”

Employees are switching jobs, sticking with the same employer for a shorter time than their parents or grandparents.

In most professions, the concept of sticking with one employer no longer makes sense. In fact, people who stay put are often indirectly penalized by doing so. Employees who stay forfeit promotions and money when they stay for too long.

For some, the new tax season might serve as a stressful reminder of past taxes that have yet to be filed and paid.

Taxpayers owed more than $120 billion in back taxes, penalties and interest in 2022, the IRS reports. And there soon might be more concrete reminders coming: The IRS resumed sending automated collection notices for unpaid taxes in 2024 after pausing them “due to the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic” in February 2022.

For the first time since before the franchise moved to Tennessee, the Titans are going in a completely different direction with a head coach replacement.

The hiring Brian Callahan as their new coach marks the first time the franchise has gone away from a coach with NFL playing experience since Jerry Glanville guided the run-and-shoot Houston Oilers back in the late 1980s.

There should be no member of the Tennessee Titans happier with the Brian Callahan hire than quarterback Will Levis.

In five seasons as offensive coordinator, Callahan has helped turn Joe Burrow into one of the league’s top quarterbacks. The Bengals have won two division championships during that span and had one Super Bowl appearance.

There were plenty of entertaining games in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs last weekend, and coincidentally, the Nos. 1 and 3 seeds survived in both conferences.

Kansas City managed to do what it always does and reached the AFC title game for the sixth consecutive year. They will try to take out the Baltimore Ravens for a chance to defend their championship last year.

With about six weeks remaining before the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline, the Predators will need to decide if they are sellers – again – or buyers with an eye toward a playoff run.

The Predators were active at last season’s deadline, predominantly taking on the role of sellers, shipping forward Tanner Jeannot, defenseman Mattias Ekholm, center Mikael Granlund and winger Nino Niederreiter. Ekholm was the longest-tenured of the Predators who were jettisoned, and the return the Predators received for the Swedish veteran was just as handsome as the beard that adorns Ekholm’s face.

In Nashville’s 3-2 Jan. 20 loss in Arizona against the Coyotes, Predators captain Roman Josi scored one of Nashville’s two goals. The goal was the defenseman’s ninth of the season, but more notably, it was the 167th of his career. That goal moved Josi past Shea Weber for most goals scored by a Predators blueliner and into third place in franchise history for goals scored.

Three games remain for the Predators before their combination All-Star break and bye week will see them not play another game until Feb. 10.

First Period – At Edmonton Jan. 27

That ominous organ music you are hearing may foretell the lack of luck the Predators have had against the Edmonton Oilers in recent history. Before the Predators went into Edmonton Nov. 4 and delivered the home standing Oilers a 5-2 defeat, Edmonton was 9-0-1 in the previous 10 matchups between the teams.

CES provides an annual insight into where and how cutting-edge innovations will reshape how people work, study, communicate and, in many cases, how they’ll drive. This year CES saw a number of automakers present concept vehicles that seem both years into the future and on the very cusp of production.