News - Friday, April 27, 2018

In an escalating back and forth over trade, Tennessee farmers like John Neal Scarlett are caught in the middle, worrying if politicians are keeping their best interests at heart when talking tough on trade issues.

Scarlett works more than 1,000 acres on New Market Farms in Jefferson County, just east of Knoxville. Previously, it was a dairy and diversified row crop operation, but at the end of last year he shut down the dairy portion to focus on corn and soy, top exports for the state.

In the global market for steel, there is a significant overcapacity that is located in China, which has driven down the global price.

But, the problem, from the US point of view, is that there’s no way to really directly get at Chinese overcapacity because ultimately the United States doesn’t import that much steel from China.

When Volkswagen first announced it was going to build a plant in their area, Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke recalls, it was 2008 and people needed jobs. And they got them, 10,000 of them.

“Obviously, those were years where people needed employment during a critical time in our city’s and country’s economy, and they created jobs,” Berke adds. “We want a diverse sector and advanced manufacturing meets the workforce needs for a lot of Chattanoogans.”

To some extent, Chris Koczaja knew what he was getting into when he became president of LightWave Solar a year ago. In an industry known for its ups and downs, there has been little consistency in government regulations.

“They call this business the solar coaster,” he points out. “Technologies changes, but the solar coaster is really driven by the changing regulations and incentives that are there.”

The “debacle” called TNReady, a standardized test ruling the lives of students, teachers and administrators, is the predictable result of brain drain – not by students but by Tennessee’s leaders.

While some legislators blame the Tennessee Education Association for everything, the General Assembly finds itself wringing collective hands – for a third time – over the state’s ultimate testing tool.

The leadership at Bryan College surprised long-time supporters Glenn, and his wife, Jackie Stophel by naming the soon-to-be constructed welcome center in their honor. The announcement came during the 11th annual Bryan Opportunity Scholarship Program fundraiser attended by more than 500 supporters.

On Cinco de Mayo, the Chattanooga Bar Association and the leaders of the Young Lawyers Division of the CBA are partnering with La Paz Chattanooga to provide educational resources and instruction.

David Elliott will address immigration law, Tim Ballard and Stephanie Rogers family law, Jay Elliott and John Harrison employment law, George Hixson and Jeffrey Maddux landlord/tenant law; and Rob Cardin, Drew Reynolds and I will focus on personal injury law.

Self-represented litigants in Hamilton County and seven other Tennessee counties will soon be able to take advantage of convenient access to valuable legal information and resources thanks to a series of grants provided by the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Administrative Office of the Courts. The grants will cover the expense of purchasing and installing special kiosks in courthouses throughout the state.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted the Uniform Bar Exam as the key testing component for bar admission for aspiring Tennessee attorneys.

The UBE is a nationwide test that has been adopted in 31 jurisdictions and allows test takers to transfer scores between states, improving the mobility of Tennessee attorneys.

Gina Pannell has joined RE/MAX Properties as its newest sales associate.

Pannell lived in Chattanooga growing up and went to school in Apison. As an adult, she lived in Louisiana and North Carolina. She always remembered how beautiful the Chattanooga area was compared to the other places she’d lived and wanted to return to the area.

Shannon McDaniel has joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as a senior vice president and mortgage advisor for the firm’s Broad Street office.

McDaniel comes to Pinnacle with 23 years of experience, including 10 years with Peoples Home Equity, where he was a branch manager. Previous roles included serving as a regional account executive for Wilmington Finance in Chattanooga, loan originator for Greathouse Mortgage in Knoxville and regional manager for Mortgage Investors Corporation in Memphis.

In real estate, every transaction involves multiple persons and companies (buyers, sellers, Realtors, title companies and lenders, to name a few), making it an ideal target for cybercriminals. Opening a bad link, sending personal or financial information in an unencrypted email and installing malware posing as antivirus software can quickly cause a real estate deal to fall through.

Spring in Chattanooga is the perfect time to give the outside of your home a facelift. Even if you aren’t trying to sell your home, there’s a real benefit to enhancing and maintaining your home’s curb appeal.

Exterior upgrades consistently rank among the best home improvement projects for their strong return on investment in our area. That’s because many of these strategies are fairly simple and relatively affordable solutions.

If you could change one thing you would change about your appearance, what would you change? Would you be taller? Thinner? More muscular?

And if you were able to change that physical attribute in the blink of an eye, how differently would you feel about yourself the next time you looked in a mirror? How would your life change?

Chattanooga firefighters have been responding to a variety of emergencies, including motor vehicle crashes, medical calls and an assortment of grass, brush and dumpster fires.

Within the past month, Chattanooga firefighters have also responded to six structure fires, each of which could have been prevented by a little common sense. Three of the fires were related to cooking and the other three were started by improperly discarded cigarette butts.

A long-standing tradition at Girls Preparatory School, Alumnae Weekend, returned on April 13-14 with more than 200 graduates celebrating with their classmates. As part of the event, three GPS faculty were inducted as Faculty Emeriti: Jane Henegar, retired English, New Testament and global issues teacher; Isabel Bryan McCall, art teacher; and Glen Vey, history teacher. McCall and Vey will retire this summer.

The Chattanooga Police Department is launching Take Me Home, a free program designed to assist law enforcement during contacts with adults and children in the community who have disabilities such as autism, Alzheimer’s, dementia or other cognitive or developmental disabilities.

Most of us want a special deal when we’re car shopping, a price that beats what our neighbor just got and, if we are lucky, one that’s lower than our research says we should be able to get.

The good news is that it’s not impossible to strike a much-better-than-average deal. The better news is that getting it doesn’t require massive amounts of research, shopping or haggling.

Five Jewish-themed, award-winning films produced in Israel and Argentina will be shown on five consecutive Wednesday evenings at 7:15 p.m. beginning May 2 at the Jewish Cultural Center, located at 5461 North Terrace Rd.

These films are suitable for viewers 16 and older. Individual tickets are $8 per person and include popcorn and a soft drink.

Tax Season is finally over. Of course, how much you pay in taxes depends on a variety of factors, many of which you can’t control.

But you might give some thought to how you can manage your investment-related taxes.

Here are some suggestions to consider:

Rees Skillern Cancer Institute at CHI Memorial will host a PROMPT party on Friday, April 27 from 2-3:30 p.m. in the Cancer Risk and Survivorship Center, located in suite 307 of the Memorial Plaza building. PROMPT (Prospective Registry of Multiplex Testing) is a patient-driven registry that will help answer questions about genetic test results.

The Hart Gallery’s board of directors has unanimously elected Mindy Kelly as its new executive director. Kelly will replace Hart Gallery Founder Ellen Heavilon, who will continue to be involved with the organization as mentor and advocate.

An Atlanta native, Kelly moved to Chattanooga in 2006. She’s a self-taught artist who creates works of acrylic paint and mixed media using vintage books and magazines.