News - Friday, March 31, 2017

Growing up, friends and family members often told Katie King she’d make a good lawyer one day.

Outspoken and precocious, she performed in children’s theater and was constantly showing off. “The term people always used was ‘ham,’” she recalls. “I always wanted to be the center of attention.”

The ravages of domestic abuse had once silenced Lindsey Brown. But on March 21, Brown stood before a gathering of judges, lawyers and other local officials in the rotunda of the Hamilton County Courthouse and spoke about her liberation from violence in confident, unwavering tones.

This year’s marijuana bills are a mixed bag.

Rep. Jeremy Faison is sending his medical marijuana legislation to a task force, as opposed to “summer study,” typically considered the trash heap for unwanted bills.

But at the same time, a resolution by Rep. Sabi “Doc” Kumar urging the Legislature to wait for the Food and Drug Administration to approvemedical marijuana is getting a chilly reception, a signal some lawmakers don’t want to wait for the feds to lighten up on pot.

I said good-bye to a friend today. He went by Floyd, no official last name, although it was surely Jenkins. He is, or was by the time you read this, a 3-year old boxer mix – the good kind, the doesn’t slobber on the couch/furniture/bed kind.

Tennessee women’s basketball coach Holly Warlick will be in Dallas this weekend for the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

Her team won’t be there with her.

Tennessee hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2008, the year of its eighth national championship under legendary coach Pat Summitt, who announced in August of 2011 she had onset dementia, “Alzheimer’s Type.” Summitt retired after the 2011-12 season and died June 28, 2016.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Signature Brokers looked back on a year of unprecedented success during a lively, thumping, pop tune-laden laden awards celebration Tuesday night at the Chattanoogan Hotel.

The evening began with a video retrospective of 2016 that revealed a company-high $44 million in real estate sales.

The Law Office of Jennifer K. Peck has changed its name to Peck Legal Group, PLLC. The firm recently unveiled a rebranding initiative that included the new name as well as a new logo and website.

“We made these changes to reflect the expansion of the firm’s legal team, broader legal service offerings and our ongoing commitment to our clients,” says Jennifer K. Peck, founding partner.

Dale Buchanan & Associates has received the Pro Patria Award from the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) State Committee. The award is presented annually to a public sector employer in each state on behalf of the men and women of America’s reserve forces for outstanding service to the national defense through continuing support of the National Guard and Reserve.

Leadership Chattanooga hit the road to Nashville this month to explore the inner workings of state government. This was a particularly historic time to be at the Capitol, as Senator Douglas Henry, who had passed away the previous week at the age of 90, was lying in state at the legislative library in the Capitol building.

Corporate counsel at companies around the world have named Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel a top-ranked law firm for “making changes ... to improve the client experience,” according to BTI Consulting Group’s “Brand Elite 2017: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms,” an independent report.

Churchill Mortgage has released Smarter Mortgage, a set of mobile apps and educational tools designed to provide consumers with a personalized path to homeownership. The local lender is a provider of conventional, FHA, VA and USDA residential mortgages across 40 states.

With more than 60 percent of its agents placing a home under contract each month in 2016, Keller Williams Greater Downtown Realty was Keller Williams’ highest producing office in the southeast region for a second consecutive year.

The southeast region of Keller Williams includes 60 offices and over 10,000 agents in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama – excluding the coastal region and Memphis but including offices in larger cities such as Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, Savannah and Knoxville.

“Life” was born when someone grew bored while watching “Gravity” and said, “This would be cooler if it had an alien in it.”

He was only partially right. “Life” borrows liberally from both “Gravity” and “Alien” while making only a half-hearted attempt to develop its own identity. The result tastes like leftovers disguised as dump casserole.

The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors (GCAR) has demonstrated its involvement in the North Georgia goes deeper than selling homes and land this past week.

GCAR and the North Georgia Council of Realtors hosted a luncheon with the heads of Catoosa, Walker and Dade Counties on March 26. Realtors packed the room at The Colonnade Center for the lunch meeting, prepared to learn about all of the activities and developments in these 3 counties that comprise more than 20 percent of the closed sales in the GCAR region.

A majority of home buyers in the Chattanooga area prefer a new home to an existing one, and 65 percent want that home to be in the suburbs, according to new research and surveys conducted by the National Association of Home Builders.

 The 2017 study, “Home Buyer Preferences: Age, Income, and Other Factors,” is based on a survey of recent and prospective home buyers, providing insights into what buyers are looking for and the trade-offs they are willing to make.

High debt levels … lack of savings … the inability to budget – these problems all have several causes, but one of them is almost certainly financial illiteracy.

Too many of us just never developed the money management skills necessary to cope with our complicated – and expensive – world. But if you have young children, you can teach them some money-smart lessons – and who knows? You could use the opportunity to give yourself a few valuable reminders, too.

In the 25 years since its signature glass peaks rose above the banks of the Tennessee River, the Tennessee Aquarium has served as the epicenter of Chattanooga’s downtown renaissance.

Since opening on May 1, 1992, more than 22 million people from all over the world have visited the Aquarium, fueling billions of dollars in economic impact.

Saturday, April 1

Mayor Ralph H. Kelley proclaims the week of April 3 as U.S. Savings Bond Week. Citizens are urged to participate in the drive through the payroll savings plan. Bond drive chairman John Slack, general manager of Combustion Engineering, Inc., and E. Edward Foland, area manager of the Savings Bond Division of the U.S. Treasury Dept., were present when Kelley signed the proclamation.

Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise will host the third annual Money School on Saturday, April 1, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at Brainerd Crossroads. Money School is a free financial education day open to the public. The event will include speakers and exhibitors providing hands-on learning opportunities regarding money management, debt elimination, increased savings, retirement and estate planning.

Attorney Katie King was working as senior counsel at EPB Fiber Optics in 2015 when she heard that Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke was organizing a new taskforce to delve into feminist issues.

“As an in-house lawyer for a city agency, I always felt it was really smart to be helpful when asked,” she says. “But I never really involved myself much in local politics or anything that was going on at City Hall.