Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge dragon boat festival expected to grow

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Mark Watson and Penny Behling at Dragon Boat Festival

Penny Behling, CEO of Dynamic Dragon Boat Racing, makes an announcement before the races begin at the Oak Ridge Dragon Boat Festival last May. Looking on is City Manager Mark Watson, then president of the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge, which initiated the festival. (Submitted photo)

 

Submitted

Penny Behling wants you to have fun on Saturday, May 30, at the Oak Ridge waterfront, and help raise funds to support the good works of the people of Oak Ridge.

She wants you to be safe as a member of a dragon boat team, and she is sure that you will meet new people, make new friends, build self-confidence, and contribute to your team and the community’s well-being.

Behling is the chief executive officer and owner (with her husband Chris) of Dynamic Dragon Boat Racing LLC of Knoxville. She will be the race director of the second annual Oak Ridge Dragon Boat Festival, which is again being launched by the three Rotary clubs of Oak Ridge.

Dynamic was the race director of last year’s inaugural festival, which attracted an estimated 5,000 people and a media team that broadcast the Oak Ridge races to a television network in Beijing, China, which has an audience of a billion people. [Read more…]

Civil rights author to speak at Haley Farm on Sunday, April 19

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While the World Watched Carolyn Maull McKinstry

The Langston Hughes Library at the Children’s Defense Fund Haley Farm in Clinton will host an author session and book-signing event with Carolyn Maull McKinstry, author of “While the World Watched.” It will start at 3 p.m. in Haley Lodge on Sunday, April 19.

McKinstry is a survivor of the civil rights struggle and an eyewitness to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 16, 1963. The bombing resulted in the deaths of four young girls, all of whom McKinstry knew well. As a teenager, McKinstry marched under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and bravely faced Bull Connor’s German shepherds and stinging fire hoses during the battle for equal rights in her hometown of Birmingham.

Now, nearly 50 years after the bombing, McKinstry is still an active member of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, serves as president of the Sixteenth Street Foundation, and works full time spreading her message of racial reconciliation.

A highly sought-after speaker, McKinstry has appeared on Oprah, 20/20, CNN, and MSNBC, and portions of her story have been featured in Life magazine and USA Today. She has made numerous television and documentary appearances, including Spike Lee’s documentary “Four Little Girls,” Soledad O’Brien’s “Black in America,” Brian Williams’s “Shades of Progress, Shadows of Hate,” the Poverty Law Center’s documentary “The Children’s March,” and Family Network’s “We Shall Not Be Moved.” [Read more…]

Task force to consider changes to Secret City Festival

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Secret City Festival Kix Brooks June 2014

Country music artist Kix Brooks, who was part of the country duo Brooks and Dunn, performs during the 2014 Secret City Festival. (Photo by Rob Welton)

 

A new task force is scheduled to discuss potential changes to the Secret City Festival on Thursday, including shifting the annual festival to small events from mid-October to November 11 (Veterans Day), creating a nonprofit organization to run the festival (and possibly other special events), and voting on changing the date of the festival and whether it should be a one- or two-day event.

The new task force will also discuss unique opportunities for a festival theme and could develop a list of potential entertainment venues to be used throughout the city for the festival, consider other potential festival dates, and develop a list of potential partners.

The meeting of the Special Events Advisory Task Force starts at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in the Oak Ridge Recreation Center’s Craft Room at 1402 Oak Ridge Turnpike. [Read more…]

Neighborhood cleanup focuses on Highland View on May 2

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Keep Anderson County Beautiful T-shirt

Photo submitted by Mare Martell

Help put the unity back in commUNITY at this year’s neighborhood cleanup hosted by the Oak Ridge Police Department Community Resource Office, the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program, Keep Anderson County Beautiful, and Central Baptist Church.

All participants will rally in the big parking lot of Central Baptist Church at the Hillside Road side. Sign-in and equipment pickup starts at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 2. The event will run from 9 a.m.-12  p.m. This happens rain or shine.

If you have a particular area on which you prefer to focus your attention, please call one of the contact numbers to arrange for the pickup of the trash-filled bags. (The sign-in and equipment pickup applies even for the people who have special requested a particular area before May 2 by contacting Officer Brandan Sharp or Sharon Crane). [Read more…]

UT Arboretum Society to have plant sale Saturday, April 18

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UT Arboretum Society Spring Plant Sale 2015

A wide variety of plants, blacksmith demonstration, and food will be featured

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will have its 48th annual Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, April 18. The sale is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UT Arboretum at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The “Members Only” sale will be on Friday evening, April 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. Memberships may be purchased at that time for this “early bird” shopping opportunity. Checks and credit cards will be accepted.

This year, the Arboretum Society will gather the best of four local nurseries in one location. Beaver Creek and Riverdale Nurseries from Knoxville, Sunlight Gardens from Andersonville, and East Fork Nursery from Sevierville will be offering a large and varied selection of shrubs, trees, wildflowers, perennials, annuals, and edibles. [Read more…]

ORNL researchers contribute to major UN bioenergy, sustainability report

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Keith Kline and Virginia Dale

ORNL researchers Keith Kline and Virginia Dale contributed to a major United Nations report on bioenergy and sustainability. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

A major United Nations report on bioenergy and sustainability released Tuesday concludes the sustainable production of bioenergy can be an important tool for addressing climate change.

Two researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory contributed to the multinational UN document, which offers science-based evaluations of bioenergy issues—including food and energy crop production and bioenergy—as a climate change mitigation strategy.

Keith Kline of ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division contributed to a chapter on land use for the UN Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Bioenergy and Sustainability Report.

“Misconceptions about the availability of land needed for growing food crops and about the opportunities and synergies possible from combined production systems could undermine investment in a key strategy for climate change mitigation,” Kline said. [Read more…]

Sen. Corker named to TIME’s list of 100 most influential people in world

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U.S. Senator Bob Corker

Bob Corker

TIME Magazine announced Thursday that it has named U.S. Senator Bob Corker to the 2015 TIME 100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Corker is a Tennessee Republican and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“I am grateful that Tennesseans have given me the tremendous privilege of serving them in the United States Senate, and I am deeply humbled by this honor,” Corker said. “I wake up every day trying to find ways to move our country ahead, and for as long as Tennesseans afford me this opportunity, I will remain focused on solving the big domestic and foreign policy issues facing our nation.”

The tribute to Corker was written by Senator Lamar Alexander. Alexander is also a Tennessee Republican,  the state’s senior senator, and a former governor and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. [Read more…]

Neighborhood Watch hosts pancake breakfast Saturday

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Neighborhood Watch March Clean-up

Jerrold Eaton, Woodland block captain with the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program, joins volunteers from Neighborhood Watch and Central Baptist Church to clear brush away from the intersection of Pennsylvania and North Tulane Avenues and Providence Road recently. The ORNWP pancake breakfast supports activities of Neighborhood Watch. (Submitted photo)

 

Join your neighbors at a Community Pancake Breakfast from 8-10 a.m. Saturday, April 18, hosted by the Oak Ridge Police Department Community Resource Office and the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program.

The breakfast will be held at Applebee’s, 1213 Oak Ridge Turnpike, and tickets are $5. Tickets are available at the door.

The breakfast offers residents an opportunity to learn more about the city’s Neighborhood Watch crime prevention program. Neighborhood Watch block captains and district leaders will serve breakfast at the event. [Read more…]

City, schools have Community Wellness Fair on April 22

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The City of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Schools will have a Community Wellness Fair on Wednesday, April 22.

The Wellness Fair is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 22 at Oak Ridge Civic Center.

The Wellness Fair includes a wide range of activities that include blood pressure checks, doctor’s chats, exercise tips, shingle vaccines, breast and men’s health, and dental, hearing, and diabetic foot screenings. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Community Orchestra plays at Dogwood Arts Festival on Saturday

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Oak Ridge Community Orchestra

The Oak Ridge Community Orchestra Performing at the 2014 Dogwoods Arts Festival. (Photo courtesy of John Fairstein)

 

Daniel Webb

Daniel Webb

As part of the Dogwood Arts Festival, the Oak Ridge Community Orchestra will be performing famous and memorable music in Knoxville’s Market Square from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 18.

The free concert will feature the lively “Figaro Aria” sung by Daniel Webb, the emphatic fourth movement from the “New World Symphony” by Dvořák, the raucous “Polovtsian Dances” by Borodin, and the hand-clapping “Radetzky March” by Johann Strauss (Sr.).  This is a great way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon while browsing the shops at the Dogwoods Arts Festival.

The “Barber of Seville” is a familiar opera by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, premiering in 1816. The most famous aria from that opera is probably “Largo al Factotum,” in which the central figure, Figaro, vigorously touts his prowess as a barber and local facilitator of “everything.” The articulation and style in this aria are so impressive that Warner Brothers, Walter Lantz, and Hanna Barbera studios couldn’t resist featuring it in cartoon parodies. [Read more…]

Tuesday fire apparently started in kitchen microwave

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A Tuesday night fire on Bland Road in Anderson County apparently started in a kitchen microwave, authorities said.

The fire was reported at about 9 p.m. Tuesday, and the Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department responded.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Michael A. Poole said he saw smoke pouring out of the front door of the home when he arrived, but no visible flames. Firefighters were already inside trying to extinguish the fire. [Read more…]

Two charged with robbery after alleged attack, skateboard theft

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Nicholas Anthony Turnbill

Nicholas Anthony Turnbill

Two East Tennessee men have been charged with robbery after allegedly attacking a boy riding a skateboard in a parking lot at Central Baptist Church in Oak Ridge on Sunday and stealing his skateboard.

Nicholas A. Turnbill, 19, of Harriman, allegedly came up behind the victim and hit him on the back of the head with a closed fist and “turned back around, kicking him in the head while the victim was on the ground,” according to a a warrant filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

“The defendant and his accomplice used violence and attacked the victim, committing theft by taking the defendant’s skateboard,” Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Thomas Bolling wrote. [Read more…]