Judy DiGregorio
Oak Ridge humorist Judy DiGregorio will be a guest on the Tennessee Shines radio show on Monday night.
It’s her second appearance on the show, which is broadcast on WDVX 89.9 FM from the Knoxville Visitors Center on Gay Street.
DiGregorio is author of “Life among the Lilliputians, “Memories of a Loose Woman,” and “Jest Judy” (on compact disc).
Roger Collins, superintendent of Nelson County Public Schools in Lovingston, Va., and his wife Debora visited Oak Ridge on Friday. Collins is one of three finalists for Oak Ridge Schools superintendent.
Roger Collins, one of three finalists for Oak Ridge Schools superintendent, was in town Friday to meet with local leaders and school administrators and tour the city.
Collins is now the superintendent of Nelson County Schools in Lovingston, Va. That system has 2,000 students, and it’s close to Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, Collins said.
He said Nelson County and Oak Ridge both have quality school systems.
The first edition of the Roane State Rascal, the community college’s new arts magazine, is available online.
Visit www.roanestaterascal.org to view the magazine or download a copy.
Edited by Roane State’s Michael Hudson and Jessica Millis, the Rascal features fiction, poetry, art, and multimedia (online only). Roane State students, faculty, staff, and alumni contributed.
A Knoxville man remained jailed on aggravated kidnapping and domestic assault charges Friday, accused of hitting his ex-girlfriend after she refused to make Kool-Aid, taking her keys and cell phone, and pushing a couch in front of a door, authorities said.
Robert Joseph Atkins, 31, allegedly left the home on Mooncrest Lane in Claxton with the victim’s three-month-old son after he let her go next door to get him a cigarette, Anderson County court records said. The victim called the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department from the neighbor’s house.
Norman Mulvenon and Anne Adamson, co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, will mark the 221st anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights on Saturday, Dec. 15, with a call for improved political discourse and greater civic participation in the community.
“For more than 92 years, members of the League of Women Voters of the United States have defended civil liberties and promoted balanced, nonpartisan discussions on issues that are important to our community, and we continue this work today,” Mulvenon said in a press release. “Our mission is to increase public participation—to help empower individuals to exercise the rights that are afforded to them through our democracy.”
She was Oak Ridge preschool principal for 12 years and assistant interim superintendent for eight months, and now Marian Phillips has been offered a new job at the University of Tennessee.
She will start at UT on Jan. 7. She will be leaving Oak Ridge shortly after Superintendent Tom Bailey, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Phillips became assistant interim superintendent after Ken Green left in May.
Toney Stevens, owner of Rivers Total Car Care in Oak Ridge, brought attention to a Dec. 6 letter the city sent to 18 owners of electronic signs, telling them the city continues to receive complaints about the signs and asking them to fix violations within 10 days.
After a backlash from business owners, a proposal to change the city’s electronic sign ordinance has been removed from next week’s agenda for the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission.
It’s not clear when the revisions, which would govern message display times and brightness, could be considered by the city.
Business owners with electronic signs had objected to the mid-December meeting date, the short amount of time they had to prepare, and a letter they recently received that gave them 10 days to fix any violations of the city’s sign ordinance. The letter, sent to 18 businesses with electronic signs, said signs that have messages that are animated, moving, or flashing are generally prohibited in Oak Ridge.
The proposed revisions would have required that electronic sign messages be static and shown for at least 10 seconds. Animations and movements between messages would not have been allowed and neither would animated video or continuous message scrolling.
An Anderson County deputy said he hit a Claxton man with two five-second bursts from a Taser on Wednesday before he was able to handcuff and arrest him.
Anderson County Deputy Jonathan A. Bryant said he was patrolling near Mooncrest Lane and Dunn Lane in Claxton at about 8 p.m. Wednesday when he saw the defendant, Dennis Lee Reynolds, 49, with a female near a van, according to court records and an incident report.
Bryant said the two “dropped down low to the ground” when they saw his police car, the records said. They moved to the passenger side of the van, opposite of the deputy.
The Boys Club Alumni Association will host its first annual Christmas party on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club of Oak Ridge.
Alumni members will help with the annual Christmas tree sales on the baseball field in front of the building, a press release said.
“We will be selling barbecue and trees this year in an effort to help raise money for the club,” Boys Club Alumni President Aaron Wells said.
Information from WYSH Radio
Investigators are still working to determine what started a fire that did some damage to the Oliver Springs High School football field house.
According to Oliver Springs Assistant Chief Justin Bailey, the fire happened sometime over the weekend. The coaching staff discovered the damage on Monday.
The Tennessee Valley Authority this week said it had earned national recognition for its wind power program.
In November, TVA was named “Utility of the Year” by the American Wind Energy Association, a press release said. The AWEA presents the award each year to the U.S. electric utility that has done the most to advance wind power’s growth through its actions.
TVA added 1,100 megawatts of wind energy capacity from seven wind power sites in 2012, including in Kansas, Illinois, and Iowa. TVA now has 10 contracts with nine wind farms delivering more than 1,500 megawatts of energy, a press release said.
