Information from WYSH Radio
Lake City Police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred Monday night at a Subway restaurant.
According to investigators, a man walked into the store at around 10:30 pm, produced a knife, and demanded cash from the employee behind the counter. The suspect made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The Oak Ridge Fire Department responded to a chimney fire on Ithaca Lane that caused minor damage Tuesday evening. (Photo by Tom Scott)
A Tuesday evening chimney fire caused minor damage to a home on Ithaca Lane, an Oak Ridge Fire Department report said.
The 6:09 p.m. fire was contained to the home’s fireplace and chimney flue, the report said.
Firefighters reported there had been extensive fire on the flue cap and flames on the flue walls, possibly from creosote. There was some smoke in the attic, but no fire or excessive heat, the report said.
More than half the acres burned by arson in Tennessee since November were from 40 fires set in Anderson, Campbell, Hawkins and Scott counties, state officials said Tuesday.
The rash of wildfires before and after Thanksgiving are being investigated as arsons. In Anderson County, they included a 225-acre fire on Walden Ridge, a 375-acre fire at Graves Gap, and another 150-acre fire on Redoak Mountain. All three were in northern Anderson County.
Information from WYSH Radio
An overflow crowd of Andersonville residents unhappy about the Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department’s subscription plan jammed the hallways on the third floor of the Anderson County Courthouse on Monday to express their anger and frustration over the new fees scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1.
The fire department says it needs an increase in revenue or it will have to close its doors. But many citizens call the subscription plan “extortion.”
Earlier this year, the department’s board of directors voted to implement the plan after donations continued to lag far behind budgetary needs.
The federal trial against the three protesters accused of sneaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and vandalizing a uranium storage building has been reset to May 7.
It had most recently been set for Feb. 26, 2013. But the U.S. Attorneys’ Office said last week that the date would likely change after a federal grand jury in Knoxville returned new three-count indictments against the three defendants—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli.
The new indictments, which supersede earlier three-count indictments from August, added a more serious charge of injuring national defense premises. That charge carries a longer prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Three anti-nuclear weapons activists who sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 allegedly splashed human blood and, quoting Proverbs, sprayed paint on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The protesters also hammered the building, causing it to chip, and strung up crime scene tape. (Submitted photo)
The three protesters who vandalized a uranium storage building at Y-12 National Security Complex in July said they would not accept a plea deal from the federal government earlier this year, even though prosecutors threatened to charge them with more serious sabotage crimes.
“We chose to exercise our constitutional right to a jury trial and refused to bow down to their threats,” the trio said in a statement released Wednesday. “We remain convinced that making and refurbishing nuclear weapons at Y-12 is both illegal under U.S. and international law, and it is also immoral. Ultimately, we are required to follow the law of love and our consciences.”
Calling themselves Transform Now Plowshares, the three protesters—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli— allegedly cut through fences at Y-12 before dawn on Saturday, July 28, entered a high-security area where deadly force is authorized, and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where bomb-grade uranium is stored.
On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Knoxville returned a new charge against the trio for this summer’s unprecedented intrusion. The new count of injuring national-defense premises carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, longer than any of the earlier potential penalties.
Terry Frank
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank has asked the Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department to postpone its controversial proposal to switch to a subscription-based plan.
The AVFD currently relies on donations, but Fire Chief Jeff Bagwell has proposed switching to a membership-based department on Jan. 1. Residents would pay a tax-deductible fee of 0.08 cents per square foot. The fire department would still respond to all fires, but non-members would be billed for service, Bagwell said in an Oct. 22 letter and list of frequently asked questions.
The first hour of a response to a structure fire could cost $1,900, Bagwell said.
“Fires could result in several thousands of dollars,” he said.
The three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above allegedly cut through fences and vandalized a uranium storage 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)
A new federal charge has been added against the three protesters who allegedly cut through fences at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on a uranium storage building.
A three-count indictment returned against Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli adds a new count of injuring national-defense premises, U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a Wednesday morning press release. The new charge carries a longer prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Knoxville on Tuesday supersedes the earlier three-count indictment from August.
The new indictment does not include the earlier trespassing charge. However, it does include the previous charges of property destruction and property depredation. Including all the charges, the protesters, who are opposed to Y-12’s nuclear weapons work, now face jail sentences of up to 35 years and fines of up to $750,000.
An employee at Lincoln’s Sports Grille on South Illinois Avenue reported that he was hit in the head by an unknown suspect as he took out the trash early Friday morning, authorities said.
The employee said he was taking the trash to a dumpster behind Lincoln’s at about 12:23 a.m. Friday when he was struck from behind without warning, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said. The restaurant worker said the suspect laughed after hitting him, but made no other statement before fleeing east across ORAU Way.
Note: This story was updated at 10:23 p.m.
After spotting a strange vehicle in his parents’ driveway Thursday, the son of an Andersonville Highway couple armed himself with his father’s shotgun and confronted and detained a burglar inside the home, authorities said Friday.
The son detained the suspect until deputies arrived, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said in a Friday news release.
An Oak Ridge man fleeing from undercover agents at Walgreens on Tuesday allegedly drove on the sidewalk and accelerated backward toward a police investigator, forcing the officer to run between two vehicles to avoid being hit, according to Anderson County court records.
The alleged driver, Frederick R. Black, 28, of West Pasadena Lane, has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault and one count of evading arrest. He remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility on Thursday, and his bond has been set at $500,000.
The Oak Ridge Fire Department puts out a car fire on West Outer Drive at Westlook Circle on Wednesday morning. (Photo by Tom Scott)
The Oak Ridge Fire Department put out a car fire on West Outer Drive on Wednesday morning.
The 7:04 a.m. fire was in the engine compartment of a 2001 Chevy Impala and could have been caused by a mechanical problem, said Josh Waldo, Oak Ridge assistant fire chief.
No one was injured in the fire, which was on West Outer Drive near Westlook Circle.
The estimated damage to the vehicle was unknown.
