News - Friday, April 29, 2022

Tennessee tourism is surging back to pre-pandemic levels, which is good news for the major metro areas that spend millions to draw in visitors, as well as the state, which depends on sales taxes to fund its annual budget.

But what about smaller communities where tourism has never been seen as an economic engine? They are beginning to snag some of those dollars, as well, thanks to an evolving partnership with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and its Office of Rural Tourism.

Grundy County residents are proud of their natural assets, but they’d never really thought about turning them into a lure for visitors until recently, says County Mayor Michael Brady.

That’s changed now, and the county has brought on its first staff member solely dedicated to tourism.

Jackson County Mayor Randy Heady describes much of the past 20 years as “lean” for his community.

As a former county commissioner, he’s had a front-row seat for more than a decade as the county has worked to meet budgetary challenges, so when the state offered up the notion of using tourism to generate revenue, and came to town to talk specifics, he was all ears.

Although University of Tennessee at Knoxville alum Derek Mullins says he bleeds orange, his upbringing was as blue as they come.

Hailing from Kingsport, Mullins, 33, grew up in a home in which both parents were electricians at Eastman Chemical Company.

A sound knowledge of civics is essential for the functioning and continuation of our form of democracy. Many of our national leaders have expressed concern at the lack of civics knowledge in much of our population.

One of the challenges involves making civics education more than just drudgery for our younger generation. Here’s one example of how civics education can be not only enlightening but also fun.

Making assumptions about a person is easy. Like glancing at the cover of a book, a single look is all it takes to postulate who someone is.

First impressions are often wrong, however, and the truth of what lies beyond the cover is usually more complex and surprising than a casual glimpse could ascertain.

Spring is here! And with it comes the start of the annual homebuying and selling season. But as we all know, the past two years have been anything but normal.

Aside from the pandemic, the real estate market has been “hot” even in the winter. And the market doesn’t show any signs of cooling off anytime soon.

American homeowners continue to invest more in remodeling and home improvements than ever before. Spending on home renovations has surged and experts predict that trend will continue.

As we celebrate National Home Remodeling Month this May, let’s look at a few of the key elements of successful home improvement to consider within your next project.

Mark Spain Real Estate will open a Chattanooga office May 16.

This will be the ninth Southeastern metropolitan market for Spain. The company already has 14 offices in Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, Charlotte, Raleigh, Greenville, Birmingham and Jacksonville.

The Chattanooga Hamilton Place Rotary Club presented Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Chaplain Jonathan Parker its Service Above Self in Law Enforcement Award at its monthly luncheon at Metro Tab Church.

Each year, the club recognizes members of the local law enforcement community who have gone above and beyond to serve the needs of their communities and embody their organization’s motto of “Service above self.”

The Center for Professional Education – the workforce development arm of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga – is partnering with the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts to offer a new online court reporting course.

The Tennessee AOC provides support to the Tennessee Supreme Court and the entire state court system and is working to fill its substitute court reporter pool. The UTC Center for Professional Education is delivering online training to those interested in pursuing careers in the field.

A new dermatology practice is set to move into the Riverfront Medical Center at The Bend this May.

Board-certified dermatologists Drs. Laura Cleary, Cara Hennings and Deanna Brown established Four Bridges Dermatology & Cosmetics to provide greater access to dermatology services in Chattanooga.

If you want to provide educational opportunities for your children or grandchildren, you might want to consider investing in a 529 plan. In recent years, this plan has gotten more flexible and potentially more powerful than ever.

A key benefit of a 529 plan is that earnings are generally tax free, provided the money is used for qualified educational expenses. As the owner of the plan, you can essentially name any beneficiary you want, and you’re free to change the beneficiary as needed. Contribution limits are quite high, so you can put away considerable sums in a 529 plan – and you may want to, because college costs have risen steadily over the years.

So much of our sensitive personal data is being tracked and sold that trying to protect our privacy can seem like a pointless exercise.

We can disable the location tracking on phone apps only to find new apps stalking us the next time we check. We can turn off personalized advertising and still get bombarded by marketers that ignore our wishes.

Electrified vehicles are indiscriminate in their automotive expansion. First, it was hatchbacks and sedans, then SUVs. Next up: the pickup.

Electric variants of light-duty pickups are being developed by a number of automakers, but there’s one electric truck that’s already on sale: The all-new Rivian R1T.