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Historic day for same-sex couples: ‘Long, hard battle that love won’

Posted at 3:38 pm June 28, 2015
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Ann Spencer and Brandy Horn

Brandy Horn, right, and Ann Spencer discuss their wedding plans after a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Friday made same-sex marriages legal in all 50 states.

 

KINGSTON—They didn’t intend to make history, but they did.

Two women, Brandy Horn and Ann Spencer, became the first couple to receive a same-sex marriage license in Roane County. They picked it up at about 3 p.m. Friday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage, making it legal in all 50 states.

“It was a relief,” Spencer said. “I was so happy I was about to cry. I was in disbelief. It was finally happening.”

Horn and Spencer live in Rockwood. They have been together for 16 years and worn rings for 15. They already considered themselves married. But now it will be legal.

“It has been a long, hard battle that love won today for all couples,” Horn said Friday. “It was also a proud moment to walk into our hometown courthouse and be given the same rights and privileges as any other couple would have.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Federal, Front Page News, Government, Government, Roane County, Slider, State, Top Stories Tagged With: Ann Spencer, Brandy Horn, Chapel of Love, Constitution, domestic partnership, marriage, North Carolina, Obergefell v. Hodges, Roane County, Roane County Clerk, same-sex marriage, same-sex marriage license, Tennessee, U.S. Supreme Court

Scout.com: Higgins a top playmaker in Class of 2017 in Tennessee

Posted at 11:43 am December 24, 2014
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge Wildcats Tee Higgins and Rhea County

A touchdown catch by sophomore wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) at 7:57 in the fourth quarter narrowed the Rhea County lead to 28-21 in the Class 5A quarterfinal playoff game on Nov. 21. Higgins led all receivers with 147 yards on six catches, but the Wildcats were eliminated from the playoffs in a 35-21 defeat. (Photo by Julio Culiat)

 

Sports website Scout.com calls Oak Ridge Wildcats wide receiver Tee Higgins a top playmaker in the Volunteer State’s 2017 class.

“Tee Higgins can make a profound case of being the best wide receiver prospect in the Volunteer State and the top offensive playmaker in the state’s 2017 recruiting class,” the website said in a Monday article by recruiting analyst Danny Parker.

Several schools have taken early notice, Parker said, and Clemson, Georgia, LSU, North Carolina, and Tennessee have each offered Higgins a scholarship.

Read the Scout.com article for more on Higgins, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who also plays basketball: http://tennessee.scout.com/story/1494917-vols-in-early-on-tee-higgins.

Filed Under: Front Page News, High School, Sports Tagged With: Clemson, Danny Parker, Georgia, LSU, North Carolina, Oak Ridge Wildcats, Tee Higgins, Tennessee, wide receiver

Winter storm warning in effect for mountains, heavy snowfall possible

Posted at 6:02 pm October 31, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Winter Storm Warning

Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown.

 

A winter storm warning is in effect in the mountains of East Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and western North Carolina from Friday to Saturday night, and up to 15 inches of snow is possible at elevations above 5,000 feet, forecasters said.

Snowfall of between four to eight inches is expected for locations above 2,500 feet, including Interstate 40 in North Carolina and I-26 in Unicoi County, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown. Up to 12-15 inches of snow is possible on the highest peaks above 5,000 feet, including U.S. Highway 441 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Top Stories, Weather Tagged With: Appalachians, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hazardous weather, I-25, Interstate 40, National Weather Service, North Carolina, NWS, snow, snowfall, travel conditions, U.S. Highway 441, Unicoi County, winter storm, winter storm warning

Letter: Legislature’s inaction on Medicaid has life-and-death consequences

Posted at 10:41 am July 27, 2014
By Oak Ridge Today Letters Leave a Comment

To the Editor:

Some years ago, we cruised around on a small sailboat in the Pamlico Sound in North Carolina and spent one stormy night at the dock in Belhaven, N.C. So we perked up when we saw the mayor of Belhaven speak on the Lawrence O’Donnell Show on July 1 about the closing of the hospital there because the state will not expand Medicaid and the conglomerate that recently bought the hospital, instead of keeping its promises, for improvements, wants to close the hospital, leaving the residents of this Inner Banks town to fend for themselves and hope they can get to some other hospital from this remote small town when they have a heart attack or some other emergency.

The mayor of Belhaven says that the effect of closing the hospital in this town of 1,700 people is devastating economically to the town because of the number of people it has been employing, besides causing needless deaths among its citizenry.

I wonder if the state legislator for the 33rd District in Tennessee has given any thought to the real life-and-death consequences of the Tennessee Legislature’s inaction in expanding Medicaid. Is he aware that from one to three Tennesseans die each week because they do not have health care (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)? Is he aware that he and other legislators are literally responsible for the deaths of actual, real Tennesseans, economically disadvantaged people,who could be healthier and more productive if they were able to get health care on a regular basis? And who could expect just to live by getting health care? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Letters, Opinion Tagged With: 33rd District, Belhaven, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health care, Medicaid, North Carolina, Virginia M. Jones

Report: Woman who fell into fountain and died had been ‘huffing,’ witness says

Posted at 8:19 pm December 27, 2013
By John Huotari 4 Comments

Oak Ridge Civic Center Fountain

The Oak Ridge woman who fell into this fountain at the Civic Center on June 3 and died in a hospital 13 days later had been spotted “huffing” a can of keyboard cleaner next to a tree in the park, possibly just minutes before she was found floating face down in the water, authorities said.

The 26-year-old woman who fell into a fountain at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on June 3 and died in a hospital 13 days later had been spotted “huffing” a can of keyboard cleaner next to a tree in the park, possibly just minutes before she was found floating face down in the water, authorities said.

After she was pulled from the fountain, rescuers tried CPR on Sarah Christine McAdams, but she was unresponsive and given only a 10 percent chance of surviving the first night at Methodist Medical Center, hospital staff told Oak Ridge Police Department Detective Kevin Craig.

On June 6, ORPD Detective David Stephens reported that McAdams, who had lived on Manhattan Avenue in Woodland, had been placed in an induced coma and had not been able to communicate. She died at the hospital on June 16, according to a copy of the death certificate provided by her mother, Lori Holt, of Murrell’s Inlet, S.C. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge, Police and Fire, Police and Fire, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: David Stephens, drowning, fountain, Greensboro, huffing, inhalant abuse, Karl Reedy, Kevin Craig, keyboard cleaner, Lori Holt, Maxwell H. Smith, Nathan Stinnett, North Carolina, Oak Ridge Civic Center, Oak Ridge Police Department, ORPD, Regional Forensic Center, Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services, Robin Miner, Sarah Christine McAdams, Stephen Stone, Timothy Bunn, water, William Miller

Great Smoky Mountains National Park open again

Posted at 12:45 pm October 18, 2013
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Cades Cove in the Fall

Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is pictured above in the fall of 2010.

Information from WYSH Radio

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officially reopened on Thursday, Oct. 17, under federal funding.

The park had been closed for the first two weeks of October during the peak fall tourist season due to a lapse in Congressional appropriations.

The park and its facilities had originally reopened to the public on Wednesday, Oct. 16, due to the donation of funds from the states of Tennessee and North Carolina, who worked in partnership with Blount and Sevier counties. Their funding would have allowed the park to stay open for five days. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Federal, Government, Top Stories Tagged With: appropriations, Blount County, Congress, Dale Ditmanson, funding, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, Sevier County, Smokies, Tennessee, WYSH Radio

ORPD receives about $70,000 seized in drug trafficking investigation

Posted at 5:35 pm August 30, 2013
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Police Department was one of 19 local and state law enforcement agencies that received part of $4.1 million in cash seized during a 2011 investigation of a Mexican drug trafficking organization.

The ORPD received $69,814, said U.S. Attorney William C. Killian of the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville. Other law enforcement agencies in California, North Carolina, and Tennessee received amounts ranging from about $35,000 to close to $420,000. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge, Police and Fire, Top Stories Tagged With: aiding and abetting interstate transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, Armando Guzman Villegas, California, cash, conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, David Lewen, Drug Enforcement Administration, drug seizure, drug trafficking, Eastern District of Tennessee, forfeiture, Frank Dale, investigation, Javier Cruz-Ramirez, Mexican drug trafficking organization, North Carolina, Oak Ridge Police Department, ORPD, Tennessee, U.S. Attorneys' Office, William C. Killian

Tennessee Valley Summit returns to Oak Ridge; energy, manufacturing on agenda

Posted at 1:00 pm February 4, 2013
By Tennessee Valley Corridor Leave a Comment

U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann

Chuck Fleischmann

Third District Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has announced the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit will be held the last week of May and return to the site where it started 18 years ago—Oak Ridge. The exact dates are being determined based on the schedules of several anticipated national speakers, including U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Senior decision-makers representing academia, government, and industry from Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina will convene in the New Hope Center at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 National Security Complex for the two-day meeting. Fleischmann will serve as host and be joined by of members of the TVC congressional delegation.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Business, Federal, Government, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: academia, advanced manufacturing, Alabama, Chuck Fleischmann, Congress, energy, entrepreneurism, government, industry, innovation, Kentucky, National Nuclear Security Administration, North Carolina, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pantex, summit, Tennessee, Tennessee Valley Corridor, TVC, U.S. Department of Energy, uranium processing facility, Virginia, workforce development, Y-12 National Security Complex

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Classifieds

Public Notice: Comment period extended for Draft EA for Lithium Processing Facility at Y-12

EXTENSION OF THE COMMENT PERIOD FOR THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING … [Read More...]

Public Notice: Draft Environmental Assessment Available for Lithium Production Facility at Y-12

AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING FACILITY AT THE Y-12 … [Read More...]

Availability of the Final Environmental Assessment for the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center (ORETTC) (DOE/EA-2144), Finding of No Significant Impact, and Wetland Statement of Findings

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the … [Read More...]

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