News - Friday, February 17, 2017

Erlanger East has long been the preferred place in Chattanooga to have a baby.

When its CEO, Dr. Phillip Jackson, gives presentations about the hospital in the community and asks if anyone has had a baby at Erlanger East, or knows someone who has, “hands go up all over the place.”

When new doctors finish their training, there’s a great temptation to follow the money.

Over half of them graduate from med school with more than $200,000 in student loans, and that kind of debt burden might lead a new doctor to sign a lucrative employment contract with a large urban hospital.

Dunlap resident Kathy Gilbert opposes privatization of Fall Creek Falls State Park on a number of fronts.

If a vendor comes in to run the state park, as planned by the Haslam Administration, she’s worried about the possible loss of jobs or pay and benefits by state employees, the funneling of revenue to private investors and the raising of rates at the state park’s lodge when it’s rebuilt, potentially making it less affordable for families to visit.

Here’s one fan ready for baseball’s return.

Hope springs eternal. That phrase was driven home just about every time I ever spoke to my late friend and baseball lifer, Cal Ermer. It could easily be a universal truth, but Ermer specifically applied the phrase to baseball.

Todd Helton stands behind the batting cage at Tennessee’s Lindsey Nelson Stadium, eyeing swings and chatting with UT baseball players.

He’s back in his comfort zone. He’s back where his career blossomed during some glory days of UT baseball, back where he realized baseball – not football – was his sport.

When it comes to businesses in Chattanooga, “local” is not synonymous with “small” and “independent” does not imply an inability to compete against the big names in the market. Just ask Real Estate Partners Chattanooga.

Husch Blackwell recently welcomed two attorneys – Stephanie Hall and Jake Brown – to its Chattanooga office.

Hall joined the firm in January as senior counsel in the Real Estate, Development & Construction group and the Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities & Corporate Governance practice groups.

John Wick lives in a world I’m glad doesn’t exist. It’s a place in which every street corner, park bench and subway station is populated with cold-hearted killers with itchy trigger fingers.

In a scene in “John Wick: Chapter 2,” so many assassins come out of the woodwork on the streets of New York City, it’s as though they’re splitting like cells gone wild.

Area Realtors closed 566 residential units in January compared to 596 in the previous year for a 5 percent decline in sales. This decline in month-over-month sales follows a record-setting year when area home sales increased by 9.9 percent.

Area leaders are closely monitoring the “pending sale” category, which reflects the number of units which are under contract to purchase but not yet closed, to see if this is a one-time blip in sales or the beginning of an overall shift.

Chattanoogans love their pets, and there are several ways to show those pets how much they mean by incorporating certain design elements into homes. Many features also enhance a home’s appearance and add to its value.

Whether you’re looking to buy a new home, remodel your existing home or just need some inspiration for how to use your current space, here are a few ideas to get started.

If you’re just starting out in your career, you will need to be prepared to face some financial challenges along the way. But here’s one that’s not unpleasant: choosing what to do with some extra disposable income.

When this happens, what should you do with the money? Your decisions could make a real difference in your ability to achieve your important financial goals.

Parkridge Medical Center recently became the first hospital in Chattanooga to offer the Convergent Procedure as a treatment for persistent atrial fibrillation, the most prevalent heart rhythm disorder and a condition that can lead to heart failure and stroke.

Fitch Ratings is once again affirming Hamilton County’s AAA bond rating.

County Mayor Jim Coppinger says Fitch’s affirmation is an endorsement of the fiscal conservatism the county has practiced since 2011.

“Fitch’s statement that the county is well positioned to address the fiscal challenges associated with the typical economic downturn is a validation of our everyday practice of watching the taxpayer’s dollars,” Coppinger says.

Tough times don’t last. But tough people do. Just ask Chattanooga native LaToya Pollard, the local Habitat for Humanity’s 265th homeowner.

In 2011, Pollard started a new job and received a new lease on life as a wife. She also became pregnant. But before her son was born, her husband went to prison. Seven months after his release and on their son’s fourth birthday, Pollard’s husband was tragically killed.

The Tennessee Housing Development Agency is offering $15,000 in down payment assistance to homebuyers who purchase a home in targeted Chattanooga neighborhoods that have been slower to recover from the downturn.

By attracting homebuyers and stimulating home sales, the new Hardest Hit Fund Down Payment Assistance (HHF-DPA) program is designed to protect the families already living in these targeted neighborhoods from blight, falling property values and risk of foreclosure.

The RADCO Companies (RADCO) completed its first acquisition of 2017 with the closing of Mountain Creek apartments in Chattanooga. This is RADCO’s first property in Tennessee.

RADCO has renamed the 296-unit, Class C-plus property Radius Mountain Creek. Radius The development will be managed by RADCO Residential, the company’s management arm.

A new IMAX film challenges everyone to think differently about adjectives like fastest, strongest and tallest while aiming to inspire a new generation to think about alternative career paths.

“Dream Big: Engineering Our World” celebrates human ingenuity and shows how engineers push the limits of innovation in unexpected ways.

St. Paul’s Artist Series will present organist Katelyn Emerson, 2016 winner of the AGO National Competition, on Friday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Her program will traverse the 18th, 19th and 20th century organ repertoire and include works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann and other German and French composers. The concert will take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 305 W. 7th Street. Tickets: www.stpaulschatt.org/concert-series.