The phone system at the Anderson County Courthouse began working again at about 2:25 p.m. today.
The system had been down earlier today due to a reported cut in a fiber optic cable between Knoxville and Chattanooga.
Most Internet connections had also been down, said Leean Tupper, assistant to Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank.
A reported cut in a fiber optic cable between Knoxville and Chattanooga has knocked out telephone service and most Internet connections at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
Workers are unable to call from the building, and residents are unable to call in, said Leean Tupper, administrative assistant to Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank.
“We apologize, but we’re waiting on our phone provider to fix the problem,” Tupper said early Wednesday afternoon.
Small business owners can learn more about doing business with the government during a Jan. 15 seminar at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
The free seminar, scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Jan 15, is being offered by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
The featured speaker is Paul Middlebrooks, marketing consultant at the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services. The program is designed to introduce business owners and managers to the diversity of government purchasing.
Chuck Fleischmann
Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved it, the U.S. House passed legislation late Tuesday night to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” but seven Tennessee Republicans and one Democrat opposed it.
The bill, which now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature, averts income tax increases for most Americans and temporarily delays large across-the-board spending cuts to defense and domestic programs.
However, the Associated Press reported most Americans will still end up paying more federal taxes in 2013 because the legislation did not renew a temporary 2 percent cut in the payroll tax. That reduction was worth about $1,000 to a worker making $50,000 a year.
U.S. senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, both Tennessee Republicans, voted for the bill in the Senate, where it passed 89-8 early Tuesday morning. Alexander and Corker said the legislation, reached after weeks of negotiations between the White House and Congress, “rescues” 99 percent of Americans from a tax rate increase.
But all seven Tennessee Republicans in the U.S. House, including Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, voted against it. The vote in the House was 257-167.
Pittsburgh Paints is moving from Melton Lake Drive to Fairbanks Road.
Pittsburgh Paints is moving from Melton Lake Drive to Fairbanks Road, developer and commercial landlord Rick Chinn said Friday.
The new store will be located where the former Atomic City Sports Bar used to be.
Chinn said the new Pittsburgh Paints store has a Feb. 1 occupancy date.
Lamar Alexander
Bob Corker
U.S. senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker voted in favor of a “fiscal cliff” deal early Tuesday morning that would allow tax rates to rise only for wealthy Americans while temporarily suspending sweeping federal spending cuts.
The deal was approved 89-8 in the U.S. Senate but still has to be passed by the House. Approval there is not guaranteed.
The agreement would raise tax rates for individuals who earn more than $400,000 and couples with incomes of more than $450,000. It would also extend unemployment insurance for another year and temporarily delay $110 billion in across-the-board spending cuts to military and domestic programs.
Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, released a statement after the 1:39 a.m. vote early Tuesday, New Year’s Day. The vote could help the nation avert the so-called “fiscal cliff,” a package of automatic across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to start going into effect this month.
Sherri Gardner Howell
A journalist and small business owner who was once the publisher of Blount Today will be the featured speaker at a Jan. 9 meeting of Altrusa International of Oak Ridge.
The speaker, Sherri Gardner Howell, has also been assistant publisher for Knoxville Magazine and a lifestyle writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel and Blount County News.
Her talk is titled “Divine Intervention: Why I am not Living in New York City” (Becoming a Mom in Spite of My Grand Plans).
Readers have inquired about the work at this 13-acre site at Oak Ridge Turnpike and California Avenue, and a property owner said the land is being used to store materials for city sewer work required under a federal mandate.
Several readers have noticed what appears to be construction work at a former Chevrolet dealership on Oak Ridge Turnpike and asked what is happening there.
On Friday, Rick Chinn, partner in R&R Enterprises, which owns the 13-acre lot, said it is being used to store materials for city sewer work required under a federal mandate.
The land, which is east of Oak Ridge Veterinary Hospital and across from California Avenue, will also be used for operations during the sewer system project.
A local organization and church have organized a Jan. 11 forum on homelessness, and the public is invited to attend.
The forum will start at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. It’s been organized by the Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope (TORCH) and the church.
A press release said the forum will bring together experts from social service agencies, faith-based groups, and the wider community for a frank discussion about homelessness that will include the definition, faces of homelessness, an exploration of potential solutions, and ways that people can be involved in the Jan. 24 “Point In Time Count” (PITC).
The three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above allegedly cut through fences and vandalized a high-security building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and now face federal charges of property destruction, property depredation, and injuring national defense premises. From left to right the three are Michael R. Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (Submitted photo)
Four of the Top 5 stories on Oak Ridge Today in 2012 were related to the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Of those four, the most viewed—and also our most viewed story of the year—was the one we wrote the day of the intrusion: Y-12 protesters enter high-security area, spray paint, splash blood. That’s when three anti-nuclear weapons activists allegedly hiked over Pine Ridge, cut through fences, and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where bomb-grade uranium is stored.
Other stories related to the security breach that ended up in the Top 5 were:
Project Linus of East Tennessee recently announced it had received a $5,000 Walmart Foundation grant.
Project Linus of East Tennessee provides handmade blankets to more than 2,500 children each year who are in traumatic situations such as in the hospital or shelter, or who have been in an accident or fire, lost a parent who was serving the country, or affected by a mass school or public shooting, among other things.
Jessica Smith
Y-12 Federal Credit Union recently announced that Jessica Smith has been named branch manager of the North Knoxville Branch.
Smith has almost nine years of experience in the banking industry, a press release said. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee and is currently attending Lincoln Memorial University for her master’s in business administration.
