News - Friday, October 15, 2021

We are tired. We locked ourselves down in March 2020 and waited almost a year for a lifesaving vaccine. We got our one or two doses (depending on the vaccine brand) as soon as we could. We stayed masked up and social distanced even after our jabs.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been hospitalized with COVID-19, some for long periods of time. That comes with high medical bills.

Which leads to the question: Are these people turning to bankruptcy for relief from the debt? The answer: Not yet.

When a competitor approached Paul Hatcher earlier this year about purchasing Hatcher Title & Escrow, the 64-year-old real estate attorney replied with a polite “no.”

The news that Hatcher would be retiring this year was beginning to seep outside of his circle of law partners at Duncan, Hatcher, Holland & Fleenor, and parties were starting to express interest in his 27-year-old company.

Daisy Maurya-Ballard smiles as she thinks back on a gift she received.

Any number of things could have birthed her joyful expression. It could have been something nice her husband said to her, her son calling her from college in Boston or a real estate client asking her to help with an investment.

“If you’re walking through a haunted house and start assessing its fair market value,” the meme goes, “you might be a Realtor.”

Every profession has its blessings and its curses, including home sales. While Realtors enjoy a flexible schedule, for example, they often find themselves burning both ends of the proverbial candle – and then looking for new ends to burn when those are gone.

In years past, September home sales tended to reflect the changing temperatures. September usually starts hot, and by the end of the month a shift in weather is usually a sign of fall’s arrival.

Our current housing market has kept a similar trend with the temperature. Locally, there are little signs of any cooling off period. A limited supply of housing and increased selling prices are keeping the market very hot indeed.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Chattanooga is proud to celebrate Careers in Construction Month during October. Professionals in home building and specialty trades are in high demand right now, and these careers can provide lucrative salaries.

Tyler Clark is the new director of operations of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s women’s basketball program.

Clark comes to Chattanooga from Wheeling University in West Virginia, where he was a graduate assistant with the women’s basketball team. The Cardinals finished second in the regular season and reached the Final Four of the Mountain East Conference Tournament.

Southern Adventist University held an inauguration ceremony to install Dr. Ken Shaw as its 27th president on Sept. 30. Representatives from sister schools, friends of the university, faculty, staff, students and family members joined the celebration.

Southern Adventist University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 1 to mark the formal opening of the Bietz Center for Student Life.

The long-awaited addition to campus, which was donor-funded, brings together many student-focused services and resources under one roof, including chaplains, outreach coordinators, career and mental health counselors and other personnel.

Generally speaking, investing is a long-term process. You invest in your IRA and 401(k) to reach a long-term goal – retirement. You may invest in a 529 education savings plan for many years to reach another long-term goal – college for your children. But is there also a place in your portfolio for shorter-term investments?

Emergency preparedness experts recommend that you have a “go bag” and a “stay bin” for disasters: Kits with supplies to help you survive a few days if you have to evacuate your home or shelter in place.

Preparing your finances for natural disasters is also smart. Having cash on hand, access to credit and the right insurance coverage can help you get through perilous times. Fortifying your home against disasters also can be a good investment.

Lane Kiffin slipped out of Knoxville in the dead of night, leaving burning mattresses, police barricades and expletive-screaming students in his wake.

After only 14 months as the head coach at Tennessee, Kiffin had announced he was leaving to take the same role at the University of Southern California.

I’m trying to become a Titans fan, as befits a bona fide Nashvillian. But it’s going ... slowly.

Here’s the problem:

Geographic proximity is not necessarily a factor in my sports loyalties. I grew up in an area with no professional team nearby until 1967, when the New Orleans Saints debuted 110 miles away.

Last week, there was some refreshing candor from the Tennessee Titans camp.

It came from outside linebacker Bud Dupree, who spoke to reporters for the first time since being sidelined by a knee injury.

Dupree, who tore his ACL in December when he was still a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was honest when he said that he came back too soon from the injury and has since had to idle himself to get fully healthy.

The Toyota Tacoma has been the most popular midsize truck sold in America through the first half of 2021. It’s also one of Edmunds’ most highly rated models in the category.

However, the Tacoma’s last full redesign was for 2016, and other automakers are looking to woo shoppers with fresh ideas. One of them is Nissan with its redesigned 2022 Frontier.

In retrospect, it was such a small thing. Any other day, that nearly-inconsequential little annoyance at work might not have bothered you. This time, it did, though, and that was it. You had no more cares to give, and you were done, immediate action was required.