The lineup has been announced for the first Secret City Improv Festival in Oak Ridge this fall.
The festival is scheduled for September 24 and 25 at the Historic Grove Theater in Oak Ridge.
Two rounds of submissions made up the qualification process for the Secret City Improv Festival, a press release said. The priority consideration period concluded on Friday, July 16. The final submission will conclude on August 13.
“We are excited to announce the first 16 teams that have been selected,” the press release said. “The selection of teams features a diverse lineup of styles, team size, and show format.”
The selections include both local improvisation teams and teams representing nine other states, the release said.
Charges against Cassen Jackson-Garrison, right, a former Oak Ridge Police Department police officer, were dismissed this year after two years of supervised probation. Jackson-Garrison had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017. His attorney, Greg Isaacs, left, said Jackson-Garrison had accepted responsibility for the allegations, and he compared Jackson-Garrison’s childhood story to the one portrayed in the movie “The Blind Side.” The probation was a judicial diversion, allowing the felony charges to be dismissed if Jackson-Garrison complied with the terms and conditions. Jackson-Garrison and Isaacs are pictured above during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
After a two-year probation, charges were dismissed this year against a former Oak Ridge Police Department officer who had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017.
His attorney successfully asked for judicial diversion for Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 36, more than three years ago, although the state opposed it. The judicial diversion gave Jackson-Garrison, a former star football player, the opportunity to have the felony charges dismissed and expunged, or removed from his record, at the end of his probationary period. But he had to comply with the terms and conditions. The two-year supervised probation ended in December 2019.
Charges against Cassen Jackson-Garrison, standing at right, a former Oak Ridge Police Department police officer, were dismissed this year after two years of supervised probation. Jackson-Garrison had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017. His attorney, Greg Isaacs, standing next to Jackson-Garrison, said Jackson-Garrison had accepted responsibility for the allegations, and he compared his client’s childhood story to the one portrayed in the movie “The Blind Side.” The probation was a judicial diversion, allowing the felony charges to be dismissed if Jackson-Garrison complied with the terms and conditions. Jackson-Garrison and Isaacs are pictured above during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 12, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
After a two-year probation, charges were dismissed this year against a former Oak Ridge Police Department officer who had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017.
His attorney successfully asked for judicial diversion for Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 36, more than three years ago, although the state opposed it. The judicial diversion gave Jackson-Garrison, a former star football player, the opportunity to have the felony charges dismissed and expunged, or removed from his record, at the end of his probationary period. But he had to comply with the terms and conditions. The two-year probation ended in December 2019.
The charges were dismissed in January 2021, after Jackson-Garrison completed the terms of his diversion sentence.
The plea agreement has been previously reported, but the dismissal of the charges has not been. The charges appear to have now been expunged from Jackson-Garrison’s record, at least the portion that is publicly available.
Jackson-Garrison surrendered his P.O.S.T. (Peace Officer Standards Training) certification for police officers as part of his plea agreement, but he will not be placed on the sex offender registry.
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An Oak Ridge man has been charged with three store robberies in December and January. Two of the stores that were robbed were in Oak Ridge, and one was in Claxton. More than $3,000 was reported stolen, and a license plate reader tied the suspect to the Claxton robbery, according to court records. He was arrested after a foot chase after the third alleged robbery.
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An Oak Ridge man has been charged with three convenience store robberies in December and January. Two of the stores that were allegedly robbed were in Oak Ridge, and one was in Claxton. More than $3,000 was reported stolen, and a license plate reader tied the suspect to the Claxton robbery, according to court records. He was arrested after a foot chase after the third alleged robbery.
An Oak Ridge man has been charged with three store robberies in December and January. Two of the stores that were robbed were in Oak Ridge, and one was in Claxton. More than $3,000 was reported stolen, and a license plate reader tied the suspect to the Claxton robbery, according to court records. He was arrested after a foot chase after the third alleged robbery.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Planning the picnic at the Pavilion are, from left, Ann Miller, Paula Daniel, Abbie Moore, Liz Ibbotson, Ann Mostoller, and Laura Carrington. (Submitted photo)
Anderson County Democrats will host a picnic from 6-8 p.m. Saturday, July 17, at the Pavilion at the Oak Ridge Marina on Melton Lake Drive.
Hot dogs, toppings, side dishes, and cold drinks will be provided at the picnic, sponsored by the Anderson County Democratic Women’s Club and the Anderson County Democratic Party, a press release said. They request that those attending don’t bring food to share, although they may bring food for themselves. [Read more…]
The Summer Sessions concerts start this summer with a performance by Sierra Hull in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
Hull, a native of Byrdstown, Tennessee, is an accomplished singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist who made her first Opry appearance at the age of 10, a press release said. Her vocal debut album, “Secrets,” was released in 2008 and peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums chart. Hull has received numerous International Bluegrass Music Association nominations and received the Bluegrass Star Award presented by the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation in 2013, the press release said.
Opening for Hull will be The Po’ Ramblin Boys, a bluegrass band formed in the Great Smoky Mountains.
All Summer Sessions concerts are free and will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at the pavilion in Alvin K. Bissell Park at 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. The concerts are sponsored by ORNL Federal Credit Union.
Republican Rex Lynch will seek re-election to a second term as Anderson County Circuit Court clerk in May of 2022.
Lynch was elected in 2018, and he recognized several improvements that were necessary in the Circuit Court Clerk’s office, a press release said. He has implemented several changes in the office during his first term, helping to eliminate turnover and boosting morale and production, the press release said.
“We had to address several personnel issues to make the office function more efficiently for the Anderson County court system and for the citizens of Anderson County,” Lynch said in the press release. “The renewed confidence in the stability of the office has resulted in increased productivity and reduced turnover.”
Lynch has upgraded technology and added several improvements, including the installation of a modern archival filing system as well as new electronic docket boards, the press release said. Also, the establishment of procedural policies and internal audits have helped eliminate any audit issues since Lynch has taken over the office, resulting in zero audit findings by the state’s Comptroller’s Office, the release said.
Anderson County attorney Matt Tuck is running for election to serve as Anderson County General Sessions Court judge in Division II in Oak Ridge.
Tuck said he will seek the nomination as a Republican Party candidate in the election next year. He is running against the incumbent, Roger Miller. Miller has announced he is seeking re-election to a second eight-year term in 2022.
In a press release, Tuck said he has practiced civil and criminal law in Anderson County for more than a decade and currently operates the Tuck Law Firm in Oak Ridge’s historic Jackson Square.
After receiving his undergraduate degrees from the University of Tennessee, Tuck obtained his law degree and master’s of business administration from the University of Memphis in 2006, the press release said.
The new Five Below store had a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Main Street Oak Ridge on Friday, July 16, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The first store has opened in the second phase of Main Street Oak Ridge.
The new store, Five Below, had a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday morning.
Five Below has many products priced between $1-$5, and some over $5. Products sold in the store include art and creative products, clothing and sporting items, candy, and technological equipment.
McKinnley Earl McGee, 51, of Oak Ridge, who is pictured above at right, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, for an attempted murder during a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment, a judge and prosecutor said. At left is defense attorney Curtis Isabell. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld an attempted murder conviction against an Oak Ridge man who received the maximum 20-year prison sentence for a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she reportedly would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment.
McKinnley McGee was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury two years ago, after a one-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in July 2019. He was convicted of stabbing and trying to kill Machel Elaine Avery on Utica Circle in Oak Ridge on January 12, 2018.
McKinnley Earl McGee, of Oak Ridge, who is pictured above at right, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, for an attempted murder during a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment, a judge and prosecutor said. At left is defense attorney Curtis Isabell. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld an attempted murder conviction against an Oak Ridge man who received the maximum 20-year prison sentence for a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she reportedly would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment.
McKinnley McGee was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury two years ago, after a one-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in July 2019. He was convicted of stabbing and trying to kill Machel Elaine Avery on Utica Circle in Oak Ridge on January 12, 2018.
McGee was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison in September that year. That was based in part on his extensive criminal record, which includes at least eight felony convictions and seven misdemeanors dating back 30 years in Anderson County and California, according to court records and information provided during the sentencing hearing.
In his appeal, McGee had questioned whether the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction for attempted second-degree murder. He argued that prosecutors had failed to prove that he acted in a way that was intended and reasonably certain to cause Avery’s death, the appeals court said.
But in an opinion published April 9, the appeals court found that the evidence was sufficient. The opinion has not been previously reported.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
The International Friendship Bell is pictured above in Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)
The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will ring the International Friendship Bell 76 times on Friday morning, August 6, to commemorate the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 76 years ago.
The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. It was the first atomic bomb used in war and the first of two dropped on Japan near the end of World War II. Uranium for the first bomb, which was code-named “Little Boy,” was enriched in Oak Ridge. The bomb had about 140 pounds of uranium fuel and had an explosive force equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, according to Atomic Heritage. Between 90,000 and 166,000 people are believed to have died from the 10-foot, 9,700-pound bomb in the four-month period following the explosion, Atomic Heritage said.
The National Park Service is calling the August 6 ceremony “Days of Peace and Remembrance.”
“During this silent event, we will be requesting visitors to come up and ring the bell,” a press release said. “Visitors will be able to write down their own hopes and messages of peace.”
The United States dropped a second atomic bomb, a plutonium-fueled weapon, on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, three days after the Hiroshima bombing. It had about 13.6 pounds of plutonium fuel and an explosive force equivalent to 21,000 tons of TNT. About 80,000 Japanese died by the end of 1945 because of that bomb, which was called “Fat Man,” Atomic Heritage said.
You can learn about the early school system of Oak Ridge, early shopping centers, and housing in the Clinton Engineer Works during a National Park Service hike on Saturday.
The hike is along the Cedar Hill Greenway. It is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 17. It will be led by a National Park Service ranger.
The hike will begin at Cedar Hill Park, the former location of Cedar Hill Elementary School, a press release said.
“Along the hike, rangers will discuss the early school system of Oak Ridge, early shopping centers, and housing in the Clinton Engineer Works,” the release said. This will be a moderately difficult 2.5-mile hike.
