News - Friday, May 8, 2015

The journey of the Magna Carta from a peace treaty between rebellious barons and a corrupt king to the current system of justice in the U.S. followed two parallel evolutionary paths, including one in which executive power was increasingly constrained and another in which the rights of individuals were expanded, former Congressman Brian N. Baird, Ph.D., told members of the Chattanooga Bar Association (CBA) last Friday during its annual Law Day luncheon at the Convention Center.

RE/MAX Renaissance Realtor Grace Frank (far left) did more than put on a big, colorful hat to celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday; she hosted the monthly gathering of the Women’s Council of Realtors at The Cottages at Hill Pointe, a development for which she is the listing agent.

The Chattanooga office of Miller & Martin recently welcomed the addition of attorneys Meredith Corey Lee and Erika M. Hyde.

Lee has joined the firm as an associate in the Litigation department with a focus on complex business litigation matters. Prior to returning to her hometown of Chattanooga, Lee worked in the Atlanta office of King & Spalding. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, and studied and worked abroad in Beijing, China and Munich, Germany.

If you’re a working parent, you know firsthand about the difficulties of finding quality, affordable care for your children. But eventually, your kids head off to school, and those child care bills go away, or at least diminish greatly. When that happens, you could start putting away money for another one of your children’s milestones: college.

For several years, Tennessee’s first lady, Crissy Haslam, has been on a mission to improve children’s reading skills through her statewide Read 20 program, which encourages families to read together for at least 20 minutes per day.

Stephen Meyer, president of Meyer Transportation Consultants, discusses the traffic impact forecast he and his company did for the City of Chattanooga prior to the Volkswagen plant beginning production at Enterprise South Industrial Park in 2011.

As experts on the local real estate market, Realtors are an invaluable resource to our city and county leadership as they explore economic development opportunities. Recently, the Association was asked to weigh in on Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) programs. In determining our position on PILOTs, it’s important to note that Realtor and County Commissioner Sabrena Turner-Smedley currently serves on the Association’s Board of Directors. However, Commissioner Turner-Smedley abstained from voting on the Association’s PILOT position statement, as outlined below.

As I watched the bloated, but entertaining, spectacle of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” I thought back to the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), “Iron Man.” Released in 2008, the story about a man and his suit of armor now seems like a quaint exercise in storybook simplicity compared to what Marvel’s films have become.

^“I was the least successful marketing person in the history of Hollywood.” With that line, novelist David Rosenfelt gets his first laugh. As part of the Arkansas Literary Festival, the author of 21 books addresses a packed house at the Clinton School of Public Service. And not about accessing inner muses or fusing justice with mercy. With mega-doses of self-deprecating humor, Rosenfelt tells it like it is. For him.

Southern hospitality met Latin flair Saturday, May 2 as Chattanooga State’s International Outreach Office hosted its first Latin Festival in the Highland Park neighborhood downtown.

The festival was designed as a free community celebration, with proceeds supporting Chattanooga State’s adult basic education and English as a second language programs.

Creative Discovery Museum made a splash during National Drinking Water Week this week. Along with the support of Tennessee American Water, the museum taught kids the importance of safe and reliable drinking water and the role clean water plays across the globe. 

To kick off National Bike Month, Bike Chattanooga, GreenTrips, Bike Walk Chattanooga, and Outdoor Chattanooga partnered with The Chattanooga Lookouts for their Annual Bike to the Ballgame event on Sunday, May 3.

Guided group rides departed from Finley Stadium and Outdoor Chattanooga to bike to AT&T Field, where the Lookouts hosted the Jacksonville Suns.

Clumpies Ice Cream Company has opened a store at the foot of the Incline Railway. The location boasts a new selection called St. Elmo’s Fire, which is made of Mayan spiced chocolate and cayenne candied pecans. 

Chattanooga resident serving aboard USS Fort McHenry

Quartermaster 2nd Class Andrew Wilson, from Chattanooga, Tenn., plots a course during a strait transit detail aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry.

Fort McHenry is a part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, and, with the embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, is deployed in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. 

Liberty Tax donates to Ronald McDonald House

Nine local Liberty Tax stores recently collectively donated $8,675 to Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Greater Chattanooga.

Since 2011, Liberty Tax has provided a discount on the tax preparation fee to encourage customers to donate the difference to RMHC of Greater Chattanooga. The nine branches involved are located on Dodds Avenue, Rossville Boulevard, Fort Oglethorpe, Ringgold Road, East Brainerd Road, Brainerd Road, Lee Highway, Highway 58, and Hixson.

Vacation food quiz
Kay's Cooking Corner

This column was originally published in the Hamilton County Herald on May 9, 2014. 

Every time hubby and I go to an unknown vacation destination, we run into unusual foods from that particular culture.

Are We There Yet?

Hopefully, KM won’t read this.

It was decided that our cable package through one of the well-known providers was too expensive. I called them last fall to change something, and let one of their salespersons talk me into a new package I’ll just call “The Works.” It includes 240 channels, which I watch four or five of during football season and a golf tournament here and there. We also get high-speed Internet and a telephone. Well, the Internet is fast, and it rarely crashes. As for the phone, we’ve never even connected one. I don’t think I even have a land phone. If I do, it’s somewhere in a box in my attic, lying in dust next to a broken Atari or a food processor.

SWAT volunteers at the STEPS 2 HOPE building site

Wednesday is the Chattanooga Police Department SWAT’s training day, but in lieu of their training this week, the team volunteered at the Steps 2 Hope building site.

Steps 2 Hope is building a home for Army veteran Jason Smith, who lost both of his legs due to an IED while serving in Afghanistan. 

Chambliss co-sponsors free event for seniors

Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, Red Bank Police Department, and Lane Funeral Home joined together Wednesday at South Seminole Baptist Church to help keep seniors in the community safe through the creation of free photo ID cards.

The event also featured educational resources for seniors and their loved ones as well as refreshments. 

Hold that hog a little higher
Read All About It

It was a beautiful Tennessee spring morning when I pulled in the long gravel driveway of Uncle Sid and Aunt Sadie’s farm. The hills behind their house this year, once again, are bathed in hues of deep greens due to all of the rainfall we’ve received. But their driveway did show signs of a whole lot of rain, with some pretty deep ruts cut by several inches of precipitation that used their gravel drive for a riverbed the last few weeks.

Safety first
Do It Yourself

This week was full of chaos in my household so the project I was hoping to share is incomplete. Sigh. Therefore, instead of a DIY project this week I want to bring attention to what I feel is the single best app ever created for smartphones.