News - Friday, June 4, 2021

When Paul del Carmen was a teenager in the 1980s, he spent his afternoons after school working at Asian Food & Gifts of Chattanooga, his parents’ store in Hixson.

Del Carmen says he uses the word “working” loosely, as customers were few and far between.

When Chelsea Markham Lyle traveled to Central and South America as a teenager, she was exposed to other cultures in a way that changed her world view and the course of her life.

She immediately fell in love with the culture, and at 16 spent a full year studying in Spain. In college, she majored in Spanish and minored in criminal justice, returning to Spain after graduation. It was there that she decided to pursue a career in law.

Rachel Bettis is a West Tennessee native who moved to Chattanooga for college, fell in love with the area and never wanted to leave.

“What initially drew me to it, just driving into Chattanooga, is the landscape and the mountains and the terrain,” Bettis says. “It’s just beautiful out here. And then there is a small-town feel. It’s definitely grown a lot, but you are still going to have a hard time going to the grocery store and not finding someone you know.”

There are many reasons why this summer might be the perfect time to put your home on the market. For starters, summertime provides the opportunity to move with more ease.

Also, many families are trying to settle into a new place before the school year starts. Finally, the housing market is incredibly swift right now.

Summer doesn’t officially start until June 20, but with the children out of school and temperatures rising, most of us are ready to slather on sunscreen and pour a fruity pool drink. Before you jump into summer vacation mode, we suggest tackling a few maintenance projects now to keep your home running smoothly all season.

Will Heflin didn’t expect to be playing for the University of Tennessee baseball team this season.

Heflin figured he would either be working a job in logistics or pursuing a professional baseball career.

But an injury and the COVID-19 pandemic altered Heflin’s plans, and he couldn’t be happier.

Chattanooga-based FreightWaves and Turvo, a California company, have developed a partnership bringing FreightWaves SONAR data to Turvo’s collaborative logistics platform.

FreightWaves SONAR is the most comprehensive freight data platform in the industry.

CBL Properties has promoted Jennifer Cope to senior vice president for operations services and Joseph Khalili to senior vice president for financial operations.

“Throughout their careers at CBL, Jennifer and Joseph have met challenges head-on, taking on additional responsibilities and leading important projects that have modernized CBL’s financial operations,” says Stephen Lebovitz, chief executive officer, CBL Properties. “We are thrilled to recognize their leadership and achievements with these well-deserved promotions.”

June is Effective Communications Month. And it’s a good idea to recognize the  importance of good communications, because it plays a role in almost every aspect of living – including your finances. You’ll want to clearly communicate your financial goals to your loved ones – and you’ll want to hear theirs, too.

The Chattanooga Film Festival will hold a virtual event again this year June 24-29.

Kicking things off opening night is the world premiere of Dark Sky Film’s “Scenes from an Empty Church.’’

Though audiences have already started to see films that take place during the pandemic or use the fear, loss of hope and isolation it has caused to inform their stories, no film has managed so brilliantly to ponder the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the human condition than this film.

Keller Williams Realty Greater Downtown has announced its agents raised more than $20,000 for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank during its RED Day campaign.

Widely known as RED Day, this annual day of service took shape in May 2009 encouraging agents to “Renew, Energize and Donate” to their communities.

The price of gasoline has increased more than a dollar on average in the last 12 months, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports. Used car prices have increased nearly 25%, partly due to a lack of inventory on the used market.

This combination might make you more inclined to seek out a fuel-efficient vehicle for your next purchase.

Tennessee Aquarium has announced that fully vaccinated guests arriving at the aquarium or IMAX 3D Theater will no longer be required to wear a mask.

The venue is following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and will not require proof of vaccination. Despite the removal of the Aquarium’s mask requirement for fully-vaccinated guests, other safety measures will remain in place, including a cap on hourly attendance and the use of timed-entry ticketing. The Aquarium’s housekeeping staff will continue to rigorously sanitize frequently touched surfaces, and all staff members will be required to wear masks while on duty.

With $195,000-plus in student loan debt, Annika Hudak saw little harm in swiping her credit cards.

“I was in the mindset that I’m going to be in debt forever, so what’s a couple of thousand dollars here,” says Hudak, 25, a product analyst in Oregon.

After more than a year of navigating lockdowns, mandates and COVID-19 protocols, small-business owners are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. But the debt many needed to take on to weather the pandemic still casts an ominous shadow.