News - Friday, November 13, 2020

Tourism officials love gaudy economic-impact numbers. Tennessee’s most recent report on travel doesn’t disappoint, offering up record-breaking figures that are the envy of many other states. Unfortunately, the report is for calendar year 2019.

Work-life balance is more than time out of the office. It’s also about having a fulfilling career while also enjoying a solid quality of life outside the workplace.

That’s why it wasn’t a hard decision for McKeehanon Rue, an associate at Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C., to set up shop as a young attorney in Chattanooga a few years ago after graduating with honors from the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel ranks in Tier 1 for 17 practice areas in the 2021 Edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” for the Chattanooga metro area.

Chambliss received first-tier rankings in Chattanooga for 17 practice areas including the following:

Baker Donelson has earned 200 first-tier metropolitan rankings in the 2021 U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” list, and Baker Donelson achieved the highest number of Tier 1 metropolitan rankings in Tennessee, with 103 practice areas ranked, including 22 in Chattanooga.

After more than three decades on Chattanooga’s commercial real estate scene, David DeVaney is more than capable of taking the long view.

That’s been a handy skill in 2020 when uncertainty has lurked around every corner. For DeVaney, who is president of NAI Charter Real Estate Corp., the way forward relies on much of what has worked in the past: strengthen relationships, work with local officials and keep an eye on trends that will benefit both clients and the overall community.

This election season has been truly memorable.

An unprecedented number of people voted early, by absentee ballot and in-person. The Tennessee Secretary of State’s office reports 68.6% of Tennessee’s 4,437,042 estimated registered voters submitted ballots, a record for the state.

The Chattanooga area is booming, and if you’re one of the many families ready to build your dream home you face the decision of whether you should manage the project on your own or hire a general contractor. With books, online videos and articles, you might feel ready to dive right in and construct your own home from the ground up.

It’s almost Thanksgiving. And although 2020 may have been a difficult year for you, as it has been for many people, you can probably still find things for which you can be thankful – such as your family. How can you show your appreciation for your loved ones?

Four high schools in Hamilton County are in the top 40 best high schools in Tennessee in the Niche ratings of 2021 Best Schools in America, and the district’s schools dominated area rankings of public schools.

Niche is a website that ranks schools, companies and neighborhoods across the U.S. The website gives letter grades to schools based on academics, food, administration, college prep offerings, health and safety, clubs and activities, and more. Niche calculates the grades by gathering data and reviews, analyzing the categories and considering user insights.

Alex Brumley and Alan Johns have been chosen as Hamilton County’s winners of the 2020 Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards.

Brumley is the youth winner for her work at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen.

Alex serves as an example by just being herself. She is a humble example of a volunteer motivated by love and compassion and working to restore dignity without seeking credit. Since March, the Community Kitchen has been serving three daily meals in to-go boxes. Brumley’s homemade desserts are a wonderful treat to include in the box. Their meals are planned thoughtfully to provide balanced nutrition and always include protein, carbohydrates, vegetables, dessert and fresh bread.

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera will continue the First Horizon Foundation Instrumental Series by highlighting two of classical music’s most celebrated composers.

The CSO will perform Beethoven and Mahler Nov. 14, 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton - Downtown Chattanooga.

The Chattanooga Ballet was forced to cancel all live performances of The Nutcracker due to COVID-19 at The Tivoli Theatre for the 2020 season, but fans will not miss out on this holiday tradition because Chattanooga Ballet has partnered with WTCI Chattanooga to broadcast the ballet throughout the month of December on the following days/times:

Tennessee has announced that the state’s tax revenues exceeded budgeted estimates in October.

Overall October revenues were $1.2 billion, which is $38.2 million more than October of last year and $134.8 million more than the budgeted estimate. The growth rate for October was 3.39%.

Chattanooga High Center for Creative Arts, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences Upper East Hamilton High, Lookout Valley Middle/High, Signal Mountain Middle/High, and STEM School Chattanooga have received College Success Awards from GreatSchools.org.

Erlanger officials have opened the region’s eighth Erlanger Express Care in the Collegedale-Ooltewah area at White Oak Crossing.

Erlanger’s newest walk-in medical care center will be located at 5953 Elementary Way, off Lee Highway in Ooltewah.

A group of scientists recently released about 100 baby dinosaurs into the chilly waters of the Tennessee River near downtown Chattanooga.

The team worked quickly and efficiently to shift dozens of juvenile Lake Sturgeon into the river from the water-filled plastic bins that were used to transport them to the release site from the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute.

The Hamilton County Health Department wants residents to know what their risks are this Thanksgiving holiday and how they can protect themselves and others from COVID-19. Typical holiday gatherings and activities could cause people to come in contact with the COVID-19 virus.

Tesla recently made headlines with the beta launch of its “Full Self-Driving Capability” system, which came with a disclaimer: “It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road.”

Job loss, business failure, involuntary retirement, divorce, disability or the death of a breadwinner – these are just some of the ways our finances can force us to come up with a Plan B. That’s never as simple as downloading a list and ticking off completed assignments, however.

This has been a crazy year. What we thought would be two weeks of working from home has turned into an entire year of Zoom meetings, with no end in sight.

Many companies are now rounding the corner to performance evaluations. If performance evaluations weren’t weird before, they will definitely be different now.

Working with third-party debt collectors can be confusing and scary. For the more than 68 million U.S. adults with debt in collections, knowing their legal rights is crucial.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act covers third-party debt collectors – those who buy a delinquent debt from an original creditor, like a credit card company. An update to the rules on how the act is applied, announced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in late October, alters the terms of engagement.

Sometimes simpler is better. With so many new faces in new places on the defense, the Titans really had little choice but to simplify their assignments as much as possible and communicate with each other to make certain that all 11 players on the field understood what to do.