News - Friday, April 3, 2015

CSTHEA, a local mock trial team consisting of home schooled high school students, took fifth place out of the 16 teams that competed in the state mock trial competition last Friday and Saturday at the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville.

Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise now offers refinancing on all 30-year Federal Housing Administration mortgage loans granted after April 18, 2011.

The news comes following the White House decision in January to reduce the annual FHA mortgage insurance premiums from 1.35 percent to 0.85 percent.

The Chattanooga Whiskey Co. team, which rewrote the longstanding law forbidding distilling in Chattanooga and launched the city’s first whiskey brand in nearly 100 years, has opened the Tennessee Stillhouse, Chattanooga’s only post-Prohibition distillery.

Meetings are scheduled throughout Tennessee to present housing market data and the State of Tennessee’s plan for housing and community development for the next five years. Additionally, public comments on the plan will be accepted through Monday, May 4.

Members of the Hamilton County Commission gave the Skyfall neighborhood in East Brainerd approval to move forward at a meeting last week. The $12 million project will provide 35 homes on 14 acres, and is being developed by Rick Harris of Big Whiskey Land & Cattle Company.

This year, we have the fortunate opportunity to have Egil “Bud” Krogh as our honored guest speaker for Law Day 2015. The luncheon will be held at the Chattanooga Convention Center at noon.

In addition to speaking to the attorneys and judges and area business leaders at our lunch event, he will also speak to area high school seniors the morning of May 1 at the Frierson Theatre, located at Girls Preparatory School, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

While we’re still a month away from this year’s Greater Chattanooga Open House Weekend (April 25-26), many fellow Realtors already are commenting they’re busier than ever. Whether you’re looking to sell or buy your next home, chances are good that you’ll interact with a Realtor, even if you’ve not yet engaged them in an agency capacity.

La Vergne High School graduate Cesar Bautista, who has lived in Tennessee since he was 8 years old, is among a group of students who’ve been here most of their lives but are still forced to pay out-of-state college tuition because they don’t have legal status.

Are Tennessee’s public schools headed for extinction? Not if it’s up to Memphis teachers.

A group from Shelby County recently packed a House committee meeting room at the Legislative Plaza in an effort to turn back bills they consider damaging to their profession and the future of public education.

For the past few years, the stock market has moved up fairly steadily, with no major “corrections.” But thus far in 2015, we’ve already seen periods of volatility — enough, in fact, to make some investors jittery. Nervous investors may be more prone to make decisions based on short-term market movements — so how can you stay calm?

Certain horror films change our thinking. After viewing “Jaws,” many people were afraid to swim in the ocean. “Poltergeist” made television static scary. Even something as simple as lying in bed in the dark stirred primal fears after seeing “The Exorcist.” These movies stayed with us long after we saw them. They followed us to the beach, to our living rooms, and into our beds. There was no escaping them.

I figure you are really wondering about where this story might be going, huh? Well, this past month, mom decided she wanted to entertain in her new home, so she hosted an after-Sunday church luncheon for a few of her friends, two of which were the music minister and his wife.

I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, the beginning of the second quarter. Spring done sprung and my Zoysia bleeds weeds. If you are blessed with the same emergence, be sure and read April’s early April column on how to fix that.

^“What kind of a thing is that to say about a chicken? Why would you challenge or impugn her motive? All she wants to do is cross the darn road.”

“You’re misunderstanding the issue. She clearly has already crossed the road. It says so right here in the text. The query goes to her reasoning. Why did she do it?”

The last few weeks, as I’ve visited my co-op to pick up the things I need for the homestead, I’ve heard a distinctive sound that shows up this time of the year, and it’s not tractors preparing to plow fields. It’s a peeping sound coming from hundreds of chicks and ducklings that have arrived at the stores so farmers and homeowners can restock their flocks for the coming year. Many people think it has something to do with Easter baskets and the celebration of spring. Well, I hate to bite the ears off your chocolate rabbits, but that’s not the reason they’re there.

Crabtree Farms Plant Sale

The 15th Annual Spring Plant Sale and Festival at Crabtree Farms will be held Friday and Saturday, April 10 and 11, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday, April 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The sale will offer gardeners fruit, vegetable, and herb plant starts for their spring and summer gardens. Activities will include free gardening workshops, live music, food, activities for kids, and handcrafted items from local artisans. Over 100 varieties of plants will be available.

The birds are chirping, the thunderstorms are starting, and the weeds are popping up all over the yard. Reviving your lawn after a cold winter can be a daunting task, especially if proper measures were not taken in the colder months. 

This Brainbuster was originally published in the Hamilton County Herald on April 4, 2014.

Our night sky is a vast and beautiful place to explore. Now that warmer weather is here, grab a lawn chair and a pair or binoculars or a telescope, find a dark spot with no city lights, and be amazed!

Saturday, April 3, 1965

Hamilton County’s 229-acre lakefront park on Dallas Bay, improved during the winter months, will reopen Saturday, May 1, for its 1965 season, Park Supt. John A Morgan said.

Eight Chattanoogans were among 93 persons who passed the Tennessee State Bar examinations given Feb. 4 and 5, the state board of bar examiners announced in Nashville.