Oak Ridge Today

Reporter to discuss coal ash in Kingston, Anderson County

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Jamie Satterfield

Investigative reporter Jamie Satterfield will discuss the impact of the coal ash spill in Kingston and the coal ash stored in Claxton during an online meeting in January.

The presentation by Satterfield, who worked for the Knoxville News Sentinel, will be hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge. The Lunch with the League is scheduled from 12-1 p.m. Tuesday, January 4.

“In an effort to keep everyone safe during this time of pandemic, the gathering will again be virtual,” a press release said. “Those who desire to gain access to the meeting may do so by following the instructions provided at the close of this article.”

The press release said a retaining wall of a dyke at the Kingston coal plant failed on Monday, December 22, 2008. It became the largest coal ash spill in United States history.

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Coal ash spill at Kingston Fossil Plant to be discussed Tuesday

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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 late in 2014. The ash spilled in December 2008 when a storage cell failed at the Kingston Fossil Plant, back left. (File photo)

The 2008 coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant will be discussed during Lunch with the League in Oak Ridge on Tuesday.

The lunch will feature Jamie Satterfield, award-wining investigative journalist and podcast producer for the Knoxville News Sentinel and other newspapers, a press release said.

Satterfield won a Scripps Howard award for her investigative work into the effects on hundreds of blue-collar workers who cleaned up the massive spill, the press release said. This year, she was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers’ Hall of Fame.

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Federal trial under way for man accused of kidnapping in robbery plots, including at Y-12 FCU

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Michael Benanti

Michael Benanti

The federal trial is under way for a Pennsylvania man accused of kidnapping family members and robbing or attempting to rob banks and credit unions, including in Oak Ridge and Knoxville.

The trial for Michael Anthony Benanti, 44, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, started with jury selection on Monday in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. It has continued this week.

Benanti and a co-defendant, Brian Scott Witham, 45, of Waterville, Maine, had been named in a 15-count indictment issued by a federal grand jury in December 2015. They were accused of kidnapping family members and robbing or attempting to rob three banks and credit unions in Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Elizabethton. The Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge was one of the three financial institutions that was targeted.

Witham pleaded guilty March 1, 2016. He received a 42-year sentence and will be the star witness against Benanti, his co-defendant, according to Jamie Satterfield, a Knoxville News Sentinel reporter.

The trial for Benanti could last up to three weeks. Oak Ridge Today has not been able to cover the trial, but Satterfield has been covering it. You can see four of her News Sentinel stories here: [Read more…]

News Sentinel court reporter to speak at Lunch with the League

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News Sentinel court reporter Jamie Satterfield will discuss her struggles as a female covering crime during the past 24 years in a Tuesday talk at “Lunch with the League.”

Satterfield’s talk is titled “A Man’s Game.” It starts at noon Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.

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