Bill Haslam
NASHVILLE—Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam this week recommended 19 Appalachian Regional Commission grants, including $200,000 for Anderson County sewer improvements and another $200,000 for a Tech 20/20 project.
The grants are meant to help state and local agencies, governmental entities, local governing boards, or nonprofit organizations with infrastructure improvements, a press release said. [Read more…]
This year’s sales tax holiday in Tennessee is scheduled to start at 12:01 a.m on Friday, Aug. 2, and end Sunday, Aug. 4, at 11:59 p.m.
The sales tax holiday is held every year on the first Friday in August and ends the following Sunday night. For more information, visit http://tn.gov/revenue/salestaxholiday/.
Sydney Burchell, a sophomore at Morristown-Hamblen High School East, uses ORNL’s donated equipment to study waste management at distilleries. She and John Hale, a senior and lead researcher for the project, won first place at the INTEL-International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz. (Submitted photo)
Old or unused laboratory equipment that has outlived its usefulness at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other U.S. Department of Energy sites doesn’t have to sit idle or wind up in the scrap heap. In 2012, ORNL donated $1.7 million worth of surplus property to nonprofits, including local schools, where it is now helping to inspire future scientists.
DOE works with the state of Tennessee to enable the surplus government property to go to school science labs and nonprofit agencies that can make effective use of the equipment.
Local schools have received fume hoods, water baths, centrifuges, and tilt tables, as well as ultrasonic cleaners, balances, and a variety of expensive glassware. The donated tools, outdated at any national lab, are now treasures for high school students, allowing them to conduct STEM research with high quality materials at a reasonable cost. [Read more…]
Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge has been ranked sixth-best in Tennessee by U.S. News and World Report.
All three of Covenant Health’s major hospitals—Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, Fort Sanders Regional, and Parkwest Medical Center—have been named among the best hospitals in Tennessee by U.S. News and World Report. Each is ranked in the Top 10, a press release said.
Methodist Medical Center is ranked sixth-best in the state, the release said.
It said the annual Best Hospitals ranking recognizes hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients. [Read more…]
Rep. Diane Black views a 3-D visualization during a tour of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photos by ORNL’s Jason Richards)
U.S. Rep. Diane Black, a Republican from Tennessee’s 6th District, visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory Monday afternoon.
Black received an overview of the lab’s research and development activities and toured the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the EVEREST Visualization Lab, the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors facility, the Spallation Neutron Source, and the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility.
Here are a few pictures provided by ORNL. [Read more…]
Ernest Moniz
Submitted
WASHINGTON—Building on President Obama’s newly announced plan to cut carbon pollution, the Energy Department this week announced four research and development projects to bring next-generation biofuels on-line faster and drive down the cost of producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels from biomass. The projects—located in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin—represent a $13 million Energy Department investment.
One of the projects selected for negotiation is worth up to $2.1 million and located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. [Read more…]
Online comments by local citizens in response to some recent guest columns about city and county budgets and taxes have revealed some mistaken notions about the way property tax rates are established in Tennessee cities and counties. I want to set the record straight regarding a couple of misconceptions about property tax that I see being spread in recent public discussions.
On the Oak Ridge Today website, citizen Andrew Howe posted a comment saying:
“The property tax rate should NEVER have to increase. It is basically a percentage of the value of the home, right? And if the value of the home rises (as it should, in line with the cost of living), then the taxes will also rise.â€
I can’t quarrel with Mr. Howe’s logic, but his conclusions are wrong. This is because he makes an assumption that is valid in many states but isn’t valid in Tennessee.
Under Tennessee law, when properties are reappraised, state officials calculate—and publicize—the property tax rate that will give the local government the same total amount of property tax that it was getting from existing properties before the reappraisal. (This calculated rate is called the “certified tax rate.”) That’s the new baseline tax rate. If a local government in Tennessee wants to get more property tax revenue after a reappraisal, the governing body has to vote to increase the tax rate above the certified rate. [Read more…]
Rachel DeVore Fogarty
Sabrina Laney Warren
Two talented Tennessee women are playing major roles in the final Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra concert of a season devoted to showcasing Tennessee music, composers, and performers.
The women, who both live in Nashville, are Rachel DeVore Fogarty—an emerging composer, church musician and collaborative pianist—and soprano soloist Sabrina Laney Warren, who was recently lauded by a German publication for her “bell pure soprano voice.â€
You can hear them, and ORSO conductor Dan Allcott, talk about the concert music at the “Dialogue with Dan†gathering at noon Friday in the lobby of the Historic Grove Theater. [Read more…]
The proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (Submitted image)
President Barack Obama’s budget request for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1Â includes $326 million for the Uranium Processing Facility project at the Y-12 National Security Complex, federal officials said this week.
The president’s proposed budget, which still has to be considered by Congress, was released last week. The National Nuclear Security Administration released details on Monday.
The NNSA has also posted highlights of the president’s budget request. [Read more…]
Dave Clark
The most recent proposal to redraw judicial districts in Tennessee did not include Anderson County, but the battle isn’t over yet, an official said Wednesday.
Roane County also would not be affected under the proposal, announced Monday by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Blountville Republican. The proposal could affect 22 of the state’s 95 counties, said Dave Clark, Anderson County district attorney general.
Still, there is a month or more left in the legislative session in the Tennessee General Assembly in Nashville, and the proposals—there are more than a dozen—are subject to amendment, Clark said during a Wednesday morning presentation to the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club.
Daniel B. Poneman
The federal funding cuts that went into effect March 1 could result in 1,400 furloughs or layoffs for U.S. Department of Energy contractors in Tennessee, an official said this week. The furloughs could start as early as April 1.
There could also be spending reductions of about $90 million for DOE contractors in the Volunteer State, DOE Deputy Secretary Daniel B. Poneman said in a March 5 letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
Funding for contractors at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge could be cut by roughly $41 million, and more than 1,000 contractor employees could be furloughed, Poneman said.
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.
