Information from WYSH Radio
Tennessee’s annual sales tax holiday began at 12:01 a.m. this morning, and it will continue through Sunday, August 3, at 11:59 p.m. There will be no sales tax charged on clothing and school and art supplies that cost less than $100 per item and computers that cost $1,500 or less.
Examples of items that can be bought tax-free during the holiday include: [Read more…]
SL Tennessee employee Ricky Bean at a hot plate welding station in the assembly area for Cadillac tail lights.
CLINTON—Tennessee officials and SL Tennessee executives on Friday announced 1,000 new auto parts manufacturing jobs as part of a $80.5 million expansion in the Clinton I-75 Industrial Park in Clinton. It could be the largest expansion of industrial employment in Anderson County since World War II.
The South Korean company plans to invest $80.5 million to build a 250,000-square-foot plant on Frank L. Diggs Drive in the industrial park. It will be SL Tennessee’s LLC third building in the park, and the company’s fifth expansion since locating in Clinton in 2001. The new building will manufacture automobile head lights and tail lamps for General Motors.
Construction on the new building in Clinton will begin in August, and the new plant could be operating by April 2015.
Here is a collection of photos from Friday’s event. [Read more…]
Submitted
CLINTON—Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty, along with SL Tennessee LLC officials, announced Friday that the company will build a new 250,000 square foot building to join its two existing facilities in the Clinton/I-75 Industrial Park, a Select Tennessee Certified Site. The South Korean automotive parts manufacturer will invest $80.5 million and create 1,000 new jobs in Anderson County. Located in Clinton since 2001, this will be the company’s fifth expansion.
“I want to congratulate SL Tennessee on its latest expansion and thank the company for the 1,000 new jobs created in Clinton,†Haslam said. “SL Tennessee has been an outstanding corporate citizen in Anderson County for nearly 15 years, and we are grateful to the company for bringing us one step closer to our goal of making Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs.â€
“Tennessee has the greatest concentration of automotive industry employment in the South and with the addition of 1,000 new jobs from today’s announcement, we continue to build on this momentum,†Hagerty said. “Upon completion of this project, SL Tennessee will more than double its workforce, making it the largest employer in Clinton and one of the largest in Anderson County. I appreciate SL Tennessee’s continued investment in our state and for providing quality jobs to our citizens.â€
This is the second 1,000 plus jobs announcement in the past two weeks in the automotive sector. Last week, Volkswagen announced a $600 million investment in Tennessee and 2,000 new jobs being created in Chattanooga. [Read more…]
The main entrance to Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge is pictured above at night. (Photo courtesy Covenant Health)
Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge tied for fourth in the state in an annual ranking of America’s best hospitals compiled by U.S. News and World Report.
MMC tied for fourth with Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville. Covenant Health’s third major medical center, Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville, ranked ninth in Tennessee.
All three were in the Top 10 for metro areas, a press release said. All three were lauded for high performance in a variety of specialties such as gastroenterology and GI surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, and pulmonology, among others. All three hospitals also achieved patient satisfaction levels that are higher than national and state averages.
 [Read more…]
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and his Republican challenger Weston Wamp will take part in a question-and-answer session at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce on Monday morning.
The event starts at 7:30 a.m. Monday.
Fleischmann is running for his third term as a congressman in Tennessee’s Third District, which includes Oak Ridge. Wamp is challenging him for the second time.
The two are running in the Aug. 7 federal Republican primary. [Read more…]
Roy Cockrum of Knoxville accepts the $259.8 million Powerball jackpot winnings from Rebecca Hargrove, president and CEO of the Tennessee Education Lottery, at a presentation July 3 at the lottery headquarters in Nashville (Submitted photo)
Most will go to foundation to support performing arts around U.S.
A Knoxville man has won a $259.8 million Powerball jackpot, and he claimed his $115 million prize on Thursday. It’s the largest prize ever won in the Tennessee Lottery.
Roy Cockrum, 58, presented the winning Powerball ticket to Tennessee Education Lottery officials on Thursday, matching all six numbers selected on June 11. The winning ticket was verified, and the “cash option†prize was claimed.
After taxes, the take-home prize amount is $115,147,525.50, a press release said.
“It’s a hard thing to process; your brain doesn’t want to believe it,†said Cockrum, a businessman, former actor, and monk. “I was in a rush to take Mom to a medical appointment when I first checked the ticket. I saw the Powerball match and three winning numbers and thought, ‘Wow! $500! You never win that much on Powerball.’ I felt really lucky.
“But then—wait a minute, wait a minute—there’s another number, and finally I realized I hit the jackpot. It literally knocked me to my knees. My prayer was simple—‘Lord have Mercy!’ But life goes on, so I picked myself up, put the winning ticket in my wallet and went to pick up my mother. I walked around University of Tennessee Medical Center all that morning with a $259.8 million winner in my pocket.â€
Cockrum was born and raised in Knoxville but left Tennessee after graduating from West High School to earn an acting degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and to pursue a career in the theater. After more than 20 years spent working as an actor and stage manager for theater and television, Cockrum became Brother Roy as he followed a call to religious service with The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, an Episcopal religious community in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [Read more…]
Photo courtesy Tennessee Department of Health/Safe Sleep.
Submitted
Oak Ridge Police Department partners with Tennessee Department of Health to reduce infant deaths
One of the top priorities of the Tennessee Department of Health is to reduce the state’s infant mortality rate (a measure of how many babies die before reaching their first birthday). TDH has discovered that 20 percent of all infant deaths in Tennessee are due to unsafe sleep practices. As part of this effort to save babies’ lives, Oak Ridge Police Department is partnering with the Tennessee Department of Health in the effort to reduce infant mortality by participating in the Direct On Scene Education, or DOSE, program.
DOSE is an innovative program using first responders to educate families about safe sleep for all infants. First responders at the Oak Ridge Police Department will be educating all households with pregnant women or infants after they respond to the immediate emergency. Our police officers will be equipped with safe sleep kits to provide to families. These kits contain educational materials to teach the caregivers about safe sleep environments for infants. [Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Radiological Assistance Program, or RAP, and Tennessee’s Offices of Emergency Management and Division of Radiological Health will participate in a Regional CAPSTONE exercise with activities to be conducted by Field Monitoring Teams in the public sector on Thursday, June 5.
During the environmental field monitoring and sampling activities, approximately 20 response personnel using radiation detection instrumentation and taking samples (soil, water, vegetation, etc.), may be visible by the public in the vicinity of neighborhoods and businesses north of Interstate I-40 and the Pellissippi interchange. The exercise scope is designed to focus on conducting contamination monitoring activities with the intent for the state and DOE/NNSA RAP Field Monitoring Teams to work together to improve the nation’s preparedness in responding to incidents involving the release of radiological materials, a press release said.
Pictured above from left to right are THP Trooper Kevin Jones, OSPD Patrolman Shannon Runyan, THP Sgt. Dennis Smith, and OSPD Sgt. Rick Hamby. (Photo courtesy OSPD)
The Oliver Springs Police Department has recently partnered with the Tennessee Highway Patrol in an effort to reduce traffic fatalities on Tennessee roadways.
THP started its “Drive to Zero†campaign on April 3. The goal of the campaign is to reduce traffic fatalities by 15 percent during 2014. The campaign addresses hazardous moving violations, distracted drivers, seat belt use, and driving under the influence, a press release said.
In the announcement for that campaign, THP Sgt. Dennis Smith said each state trooper and police officer in attendance were asked one question: How many traffic fatalities is acceptable on your watch, in your neighborhood, involving someone you know?
The answer was zero by everyone present, the press release said. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge High School is pictured above.
Oak Ridge High School has again been ranked sixth in Tennessee in an annual ranking of the best high schools in the state.
The ranking by U.S. News and World Report said ORHS is among the Top 1,000 high schools in the nation, ranking No. 894.
At 13:1, Oak Ridge High School has a smaller-than-average student-to-teacher ratio, and it is above the state average in college readiness and student proficiency in algebra and English. [Read more…]
The state of Tennessee is selling the award-winning “green” New Norris House in Norris. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)
KNOXVILLE—The state of Tennessee is selling one of the greenest homes in the state—the New Norris House.
Sealed bids will be taken through 1:30 p.m. (CST) on May 5. An open house will be held April 12, 2-4 p.m., at 143 Oak Road in Norris.
The New Norris House was completed in 2011 after a student-led team at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville worked for three years to bring the concept, first conceived in a classroom, to a modern and appealing home.
The house is a technologically advanced reinterpretation of the historic homes first built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 as part of the Norris Dam project. It has become a nationally recognized model for efficient and sustainable living. [Read more…]
Mary Headrick
Mary Headrick, a retired physician who lives in Maynardville, recently announced a second run for Congress in Tennessee’s Third District.
Headrick is a Democrat who also ran in 2012 but lost to the incumbent, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican who was first elected in 2010.
“All the people, especially the working families and retirees of District 3, deserve representation,” Headrick said in a press release. “They are not getting it. Special wealthy and corporate interests hold the power and benefits while the middle class shrinks and democracy falters. Too few people control too much money and power, and they are grabbing more by ‘buying’ a Congress that will pass laws and regulations to enhance their personal profit at the expense of the rest of us. I will defend our economy, jobs, Social Security, Medicare, public education.” [Read more…]
