News - Friday, March 29, 2019

Commercial Realtor Anne Najjar compares her chosen profession to the gut-wrenching experience of riding a rollercoaster.

It’s unlikely many of her colleagues would disagree. Often subjected to even more ups and downs than residential agents, commercial Realtors must have the patience of a samurai, the stamina of a horse and a boxer’s ability to get up after being knocked down and continue fighting.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Reeves will become the chief judge of the Eastern District of Tennessee on April 1, succeeding U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan, who has held the chief judgeship for the past seven years.

Reeves is the first woman to hold a district judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee and becomes the first woman to hold the district’s chief judge position in the court’s 222-year history.

Attorneys Jenna Fullerton and Stephanie Savage have joined Miller & Martin as associates.

Fullerton focuses her practice on commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense. She has experience with complex litigation matters, contract disputes and negligence torts.

A shuttered federal government and a daughter in town to visit family gave a recent swearing-in ceremony in a local courtroom a slight twist.

Chancellor Pamela Fleenor inducted attorney Megan Hatcher Hawkins, daughter of local attorney Paul Hatcher, in her courtroom March 25.

There’s an old saying that laws are like sausages and it’s better not to see them made. That may be so, but Tennessee legislators seem to be taking a little extra care this session.

They’ve been taking a deliberate approach as they sort out the fine print on several administration proposals that could remake K-12 education in Tennessee.

Urban Story Ventures is giving the public its first look at the proposed redevelopment of 112 acres of Chattanooga riverfront branded as West End.

Designs drafted by Dover, Kohl & Partners, a town planning firm based in Miami, depict a new district where people will “live, work, shop and play” along the Tennessee River.

It might not be glamourous, but we can all agree that a lush, green lawn definitely adds to a property’s curb appeal. And if homeowners are looking to list their property for the coming spring buying season, it’s a good idea to get started on these tasks so that they can make their property look its best when it hits the market.

Spring is finally in the air in the Chattanooga area, so it’s a great time to give your home’s exterior and yard a thorough refreshing.

Assess your property from a distance (taking pictures can help you see things differently) and decide what might boost its curb appeal. Then get a little closer to focus in on areas that need specific improvements.

There’s a moment in “Us,” a new horror film from writer and director Jordan Peele, when the movie elicits an obvious question: How is that possible? The movie succeeds, or fails, based on your need for a satisfactory answer.

In the scene, a family of four peers through the windows of their Santa Cruz vacation rental at night and sees something that should not exist: a duplicate family dressed in red jump suits standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the end of the driveway. “It’s us,” the son inside the house says ominously.

Spring is here, which for for many of us means it’s time for some spring cleaning. This year, in addition to tidying up your home, why not try brightening your financial environment? Some of the same moves you make to clean your surroundings may apply to your finances. Consider these suggestions:      

Chattanooga State Community College recently received approval from the Tennessee Board of Regents College System of Tennessee to offer a new Spanish course, HUM-1110 Latino Cultures in the U.S., as a general education course beginning this fall. The class will fulfill the humanities and fine arts requirement all colleges in Tennessee demand.

The City of Chattanooga is converting Lindsay and Houston Streets from one-way to two-way traffic between McCallie Avenue and East 11th Street.

The Chattanooga Department of Transportation posted public notice signs at each intersection on March 27.

BASF recently donated 25 grocery carts to Chattanooga Food Bank clients with limited mobility or limited resources for transportation. Additionally, BASF employees distributed food to clients on low or fixed incomes.

BASF employees regularly support the Chattanooga Food Bank through donations, food drives and packaging thousands of pounds of food for distribution to local community members. Pictured, from left, are BASF employees Alexis Weaver, Wes Gregory, Derek Bramlett and Scott Freeman.

The new owners of PM Pediatrics have relocated the after-hours urgent care clinic to a new space on Shallowford Road.

PM Pediatrics offers an alternative to an emergency room for night or weekend treatment of minor injuries or illnesses for infants, children and young adults through age 18.

Unum and its employees contributed $3.7 million last year to nonprofit organizations throughout southeast Tennessee. In addition, employees in Unum’s Chattanooga office volunteered 13,000 hours to local causes.

Unum supports public education programs that help students gain access to opportunities and educators engage students in innovative and creative approaches to learning. Other areas of community support include health and wellness and arts and culture.

On March 23, the Chattanooga Police Department notified the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office that a recently hired lateral transfer was allegedly found engaging in conduct unbecoming of an officer behind Hamilton Place Mall. The deputy was off duty at the time of the alleged incident.

The Chattanooga Market will host a Teen Cook-off Sunday, June 9, at the First Tennessee Pavilion. The winning team (two students) will receive a Lodge Cast Iron cookware prize package.

Chattanooga Market is looking for teens who are knowledgeable about food preparation, safety practices and operating gas ovens and stoves and are comfortable demonstrating their skills in front of a live audience.

Chattanooga is one of two cities competing to host the 2021 Ironman 70.3 World Championship triathlon. The other is St. George, Utah.

The 2021 Ironman 70.3 World Championship will be a two-day event – a format first adopted in 2017 when the event was held in Chattanooga – with the professional women and age-group women racing on one day and the professional men and age-group men racing on the other.

Grand opera is returning to Chattanooga with Bizet’s “Carmen” on April 11 and 13, 7:30 p.m., at the Tivoli Theatre. The opera was last performed by the CSO in October 1994.

“Carmen” is set in southern Spain and features a fiery gypsy girl who seduces a straight-laced soldier. When “Carmen” made its debut in 1875, it was met with harsh criticism and negative reviews. With a scandalous heroine and its portrayal of real men and women with raw emotions, Carmen was different from the conventional operas of that day.

The complex lacework of rivers and streams flowing through Southern Appalachia teems with a variety of rarely-seen wildlife.

More than 1,400 aquatic species live within a 500-mile radius of Chattanooga, including three-quarters of the United States’ fish species, 90 percent of American mussels and crawfish, 80 percent of North America’s salamanders and half of its freshwater turtles.