Oak Ridge Today

Sheriff’s Department seeks police impersonator who stopped driver

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Anderson County Sheriff Logo

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying a police impersonator who stopped a female driver on Laurel Road near Clinton on Monday night.

The impersonator pulled over the motorist at about 10 p.m. Monday using a red flashing light on his dash but turned the light off after they stopped, said Mark Lucas, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy.

The vehicle was described as a dark-colored late ’90s Chevrolet Lumina, Lucas said. The impersonator was described as a white male, mid-30s to mid-40s, 5’10” to 5’11”, and about 200 pounds, with a stomach that hung slightly over his belt. He had ear-length brown hair, combed to one side, balding on top of the head with a receding hairline and a graying mustache. He was wearing a white button-up shirt with dark dress pants and had a gold- or brass-colored badge on his left side and a revolver in a dark-colored soft holster on his right side. [Read more…]

Fitness expert to lead ‘Hike and Bike’ at Haw Ridge on Aug. 15

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Covenant Health Missy Kane

Missy Kane

A Covenant Health fitness expert will lead a “Hike and Bike” at Haw Ridge on Friday, August 15.

“Get ready to hit the trail for fitness,” a press release said.

The “Hike and Bike” will be led by fitness expert Missy Kane. Participants will enjoy a three- to five-mile hike with different length options. They can drive or ride bikes to Riverside Grille afterward for an optional lunch.

During that lunch, Kane will share personal tips for health and fitness. She will be joined by Karen Lacey, a registered dietitian for Methodist Medical Center. Lacey will discuss healthy eating and how to fuel your body for exercise.

[Read more…]

Final two ‘After Dark’ entertainment events feature comedy, superhero film

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Oak Ridge After Dark

The final two installments of this year’s Oak Ridge After Dark Series will feature comedy and a superhero film. The two entertainment events are scheduled for August 8 and 15 in A.K. Bissell Park.

Oak Ridge After Dark is presented by the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau.

On August 8, local comedy improv troupe Einstein Simplified will take the Performing Arts Pavilion stage for a free family-friendly show beginning at 7 p.m., a press release said. Einstein Simplified has been entertaining in the Knoxville area for more than 18 years. The act relies heavily on audience participation and gives everyone the chance to become part of the show.

Comedy night is sponsored by Classic Hits 93.1. No glass containers or alcohol will be allowed on site. Concessions will be available for sale. [Read more…]

State: New law will save local governments money on prisoner health care costs

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A new state law is expected to provide relief to government budgets in mandated health care costs for inmates, a press release said.

Tennessee Senator Mike Bell, R-Riceville, and Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank recently held a news conference in Knoxville to discuss the benefits to taxpayers that will result from the legislation, the release said. They were joined by Candace Allen from the Helen Ross McNabb Center.

The press release said the legislation was a result of a brainstorming session sponsored by the Tennessee Association of Professional Bail Agents in East Tennessee late last year. Sheriffs, district attorneys, county executives, judges, corrections administrators, health professionals, and bail bondsmen representing more than 32 Tennessee counties gathered to discuss the shared concern of jail overcrowding and costs threatening county budgets across the state.

“This new law sets out a framework and legal basis for counties to reduce medical expenses for inmates who receive medical care outside of a jail,” said Bell, who is chairman of the Senate Government Operations Committee. “While it does not solve all the issues surrounding the rapidly- increasing costs of incarceration in Tennessee, it will provide some immediate relief to government budgets that are spending more to address these issues at the detriment of other needs.” [Read more…]

Feud over food: Documents on jail menus, orders

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Paul White

Paul White

CLINTON—Anderson County Sheriff Paul White and his challenger, Anthony Lay, have had a feud over the food served at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton.

The feud started with a June 26 press release by Lay, a Republican challenging White, a Democrat, in the August 7 election. Lay said the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department appears to be operating a bakery, and he has suggested inmates are eating cookies and cobbler, and pies and pudding.

If elected, Lay said, he would “cut the fiscal fat from the sheriff’s jail budget by cutting out the pie.”

“Jail will be a jail, not a hotel or bakery,” said Lay, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper.

A few days later, White responded in a statement that said “inaccurate and misleading information” was being circulated in the campaign for sheriff.

“The jail does not operate a ‘bakery,’” said White, who is running for his third four-year term as sheriff.

The jail menus are “quite conservative,” White said, and the average meal costs $1.10. [Read more…]

DA cites Lay’s job ‘performance problems,’ sheriff candidate claims political targeting

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Dave Clark

Dave Clark

Note: This story was updated at 10:25 a.m. August 5.

DA responds to political targeting charge

There was no political targeting of Trooper Anthony Lay before his five-day suspension by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in May, but there were “real, serious, and repeated performance failures,” Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said Friday.

Clark documented what he called Lay’s performance issues in a statement released Friday. A DUI charge in one case was dismissed, Clark said, after Lay failed to submit a complete case file and then did not respond to requests for documents by fax, mail, and email. He cited two cases where Lay failed to appear in response to a subpoena. In one of those cases, Lay faced potential arrest for contempt of court and showed up 20 minutes late, but the judge dismissed the case because Lay wasn’t present, the DA said.

Clark said he saved Lay from going to jail in that case because he declined to have the trooper arrested and instead called his sergeant to see if he could get Lay to court to avoid further trouble.

Clark cited another case where he said Lay failed to arrest a driver who was impaired and had four or more prior DUI convictions, possessed drugs and drug paraphernalia, and was a habitual motor vehicle offender. Lay issued the driver a ticket, but he should have taken the driver into custody after the man finished his medical treatment, Clark said.

In issuing his statement Friday, Clark said he was responding to Lay’s charges in recent stories about the trooper’s suspension by the THP in May. In those stories, published in several media outlets, Lay said he was the target of political attacks. [Read more…]

Gov. Haslam has campaign stop in Oak Ridge on Wednesday

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Governor Bill Haslam

Bill Haslam

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, who is running for re-election this year, will make a campaign stop in Oak Ridge on Wednesday. It’s one of a series of campaign stops across the state this week.

Haslam will be at Dean’s Restaurant in Jackson Square for “Lunch with Bill” at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. He’ll also be making other stops across East Tennessee on Wednesday, including in Chattanooga, Athens, Lenoir City, Sevierville, Dandridge, and Knoxville.

The Tennessean reported on July 11 that three other Republicans and nine other candidates also are running for the state’s highest office, but none are expected to seriously challenge Haslam, a former Knoxville mayor.

Woman points handgun at officers, who fire shots

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Charges pending against suspect

A 46-year-old woman who had threatened to harm herself on Jonathan Lane on Saturday night abruptly pointed a handgun at officers, who responded by firing multiple shots, the Oak Ridge Police Department said. None of the shots hit the woman, who was then subdued and later taken to Methodist Medical Center for evaluation and treatment, a press release said.

Three police officers had responded to 123 Jonathan Lane at 11:38 p.m. Saturday to check on the woman’s welfare, the ORPD press release said. The officers arrived within three minutes and observed a female subject on the sidewalk armed with a handgun, the release said.

“Officers directed her to place the handgun on the ground; however, the subject refused to follow the officers’ commands and alternated holding the handgun to her head and throat,” the release said. “As officers continued to talk to her, she abruptly pointed the handgun at the officers, who responded by firing multiple shots, none of which struck the subject. The subject was then subdued by the officers without further incident. Additional officers and paramedic units responded to the scene, and the suspect was transported to Methodist Medical Center for evaluation and treatment.”

The press release said charges against the suspect are pending, and no more information will be released at this time.

Greener, cheaper fuel possible thanks to ORNL-UT breakthrough

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Michael Hu

Michael Hu

KNOXVILLE—Sticker shock at the gas pump could soon be a thing of the past thanks to research being conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Among the key components in processing fuels, particularly bio-friendly ones, are the membranes that aid in the process of separating unwanted compositions such as water from the fuel or hydrocarbon from aqueous phase.

“We can help wallets and help profits at the same time,” said Michael Hu, a joint faculty member of ORNL and the College of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “If we can improve that separation process it will mean a reduction in cost to make, a reduction in cost to supply, and a reduction in cost to buy.”

The breakthrough technology being brought to life by the research team combines nanotextured pores with superhydrophobic or superhydrophillic—or, in plain terms, super water-repulsing and water-attracting—substances. [Read more…]

Parents, teachers, friends form Friends of Oak Ridge Schools

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A group of parents, neighbors, teachers, and friends have created a new organization that will focus on maintaining a strong school system in Oak Ridge.

The new organization, Friends of Oak Ridge Schools, or FORS, was founded on the idea that a great school system benefits each and every child and also enhances the socioeconomic condition of the city, a press release said.

“We believe a strong school system is important to draw and retain businesses, industries, and new citizens by providing a well-educated, diverse workforce,” said the release, authored by Fernanda Foertter, Linda Gilpin, Donna Butcher, and Jutta Bangs.

The release said Friends of Oak Ridge Schools was started on the knowledge and experience of a similar organization in Support Strong Sumner Country Schools, but FORS has its own mission unique to Oak Ridge. FORS is totally independent of any other group, including Oak Ridge Schools, Oak Ridge Board of Education, and Oak Ridge City Council, the release said. [Read more…]

TVA to pay $27.8 million to settle ash spill lawsuits

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Kingston Fossil Plant Ash Spill Cleanup

Ash that spilled into the brown embayment pictured above had been removed by June 2013, and workers placed a black plastic liner over an ash containment cell in the background, preparing to close it. The ash spilled in December 2008 when a storage cell failed at the Kingston Fossil Plant, back left.

 

KNOXVILLE—The Tennessee Valley Authority announced Friday that it will pay $27.8 million to settle dozens of lawsuits filed by hundreds of plaintiffs after the largest ash spill in U.S. history.

The 63 lawsuits that had been pending in U.S. District Court in Knoxville involved more than 850 plaintiffs. They had asserted claims against TVA arising from the 2008 ash spill at Kingston Fossil Plant. The lawsuits will be dismissed, bringing the legal battle to an end after more than five years.

The settlement, known as a mediated global resolution, was outlined in documents submitted Friday to the U.S. District Court in Knoxville, a press release said. It comes after nearly two years of mediation ordered by U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan. The judge must still approve it.

The mediated global resolution has been approved by the TVA board of directors. TVA will pay the $27.8 million to the court clerk to be disbursed to the plaintiffs’ attorneys as ordered by the court, the release said. [Read more…]

Five ORNL scientists rated among world’s most influential

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Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Ramamoorthy Ramesh

Five Oak Ridge National Laboratory physicists, including Deputy for Science and Technology Ramamoorthy Ramesh, have been named by Thomson Reuters as some of the best and brightest of our time.

The list consists of scientists whose work has been most frequently cited by peers as identified by Thomson Reuters platforms. Citation data was divided into two categories—2002-2012 and 2012-2013—with the latter labeled “hot papers,” ranking in the top 0.1 percent by citations in their field. Seventeen researchers earned this distinction while some 3,200 were included in the second section of the ranking with citations ranking in the top 1 percent for their field and year of publication.

Ramesh, who was actually listed in two categories—physics and materials science—was named to his position at ORNL in June 2013 after serving as the Plato Malozemoff Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, with a joint appointment as a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He holds a doctorate in materials science from the University of California, Berkeley, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to the science and technology of functional complex oxide materials. [Read more…]