News - Friday, May 18, 2018

During the General Assembly session that just ended legislators debated a number of hot-button issues: guns, abortion, Confederate statues and medical marijuana.

But tucked among the headline-grabbers was a brief bill, less than 300 words long, that attracted no controversy whatsoever.

By now, anyone who follows Wall Street even slightly has heard of cryptocurrency and its most famous spawn – bitcoin, which launched in 2009 but grabbed headlines last year for its wild swings in valuation. 

Today there are some 1,500 digital coins on the market - including Bacoin, a faux cryptocurrency issued by Oscar Mayer to reward “investors” with free bacon as the value goes up.

Attorney Frank Pinchak has a word for people who cheat others out of their money: charlatan. He wields it with disdain on his tongue as he tells a story about a woman he says has duped undocumented aliens in the Chattanooga area out of large sums of cash.

When Van Halen front man David Lee Roth opened a bottle of Jack Daniel’s on stage back in the ’80s, the last thing he thought about was taxes and court appeals when he took a big swig of whiskey.

It was all about selling rock ‘n’ roll to thousands of screaming fans, even if he was faking it with tea instead of Jack.

A sea of red ascended on May 10 as close to 200 local real estate agents - all wearing red shirts – served at the Chambliss Center for Children during RED Day, Keller Williams’ nationwide day of community service. Agents completed projects ranging from putting down playground mulch, to painting shelves, to pressure washing the pool to prepare the local center for its array of summer activities.

Why do you invest? If you’re like most people, you’d probably say that, among other things, you want to retire comfortably. Obviously, that’s a worthy long-term goal, requiring long-term investing. But as you journey through life, you’ll also have short-term goals, such as buying a second home, remodeling your kitchen or taking a much-needed vacation. Will you need to invest differently for these goals than you would for the long-term ones?

The housing market in the Chattanooga region is going to continue to be challenging for buyers as the market remains strong and there simply isn’t enough inventory. There’s no point in sugar-coating it: It’s a seller’s market. Homes are selling, on average, within three weeks and often staying on the market less than 48 hours. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to buy.

Mayor Andy Berke has unveiled his proposed general operating and capital improvement plan budgets for the City of Chattanooga’s 2019 fiscal year. The general operating budget totals $262,020,000, a 3.39 percent increase over the previous year’s budget. It is joined by a $152,800,000 CIP budget.

Hixson community partners are joining together to recognize May as Homeless Awareness Month. This is a collaborative effort spearheaded by two Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce member companies: Dominion Senior Living of Hixson and RE/MAX Renaissance of Hixson.

Society’s general acceptance of and reliance on technology is permeating everything from dating to the housing industry. In fact, the number of Americans who say they’d feel comfortable applying online for a mortgage is greater than those who’d consider online dating.

Given the number of movies made each year, you’d think there would be enough good ones to go around. One or two decent films per weekend out of the several hundred movies now being released each year shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Then again, maybe it would be, as certain weekends appear to be serving as dumping grounds for the worst new films. Last weekend was one such cinematic cesspool, with both major new releases coming in at well below 50 percent on the Tomatometer.

The Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority and the City of Collegedale have been in discussions to negotiate an interlocal agreement that would address issues created when the City of Chattanooga returned ownership of the Collegedale pump station to the City of Collegedale.

Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nation and in each congressional district. Since the Artistic Discovery competition began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated.

Friday, May 17

Miss Betty R. Tenpenny, Hamilton County home agent for the last two years, has been appointed agent in food marketing in the Chattanooga area, Paul M. Koger, district supervisor, University of Tennessee Agriculture Extension Service, announced. She will succeed Miss Eleanor Birdsong, whose retirement became effective April 30.

United Airlines will begin non-stop, daily service between Chattanooga and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) on Oct. 4, 2018. United also will suspend service to Newark when this new route to Dulles begins in October.

The Washington Dulles flight will be the second non-stop route to the nation’s capital from the Chattanooga Airport, which provides travelers with direct flights to nine cities and connections to many international destinations. The aircraft will be an Embraer RJ 50.

Clumpies Ice Cream will host the grand opening of its Southside location, located inside the Grand Hotel building at 1401 Market St., on May 18 from 4-9 p.m. Live music will begin at 4 p.m. with performances from local artists Tryezz, The Party Truck and Superbody. The shop doors will open at 4:30 p.m. Everyone who attends the event will receive a free ice cream cone or cup. In addition to live entertainment, food trucks, vendors and artist BlackCatTips are all scheduled to be onsite.