We welcome your opinions at Chattanoogan.com. Email to news@chattanoogan.com . We require your real first and last name and contact information. There is no word limit, but if your article is too long you may lose your reader. Please focus more on issues than personal attacks. (click for more)

So Olivet Baptist Church opens its doors to the Democrat candidate for the Senate and the UAW to criticize local and national Republican leaders? I would assume being a religious organization that Olivet is a 501 (c) (3) entity and therefore pays no taxes. According to the laws regarding tax free entities they cannot be engaged in any political activity: Political activity:  Section ... (click for more)

There were some tense moments at an elementary school in Brainerd shortly before noon on Friday  when a fire was discovered. Chattanooga fire investigators were able to quickly identify the person believed responsible for starting the fire at Barger Academy.  Lt. Henry McElvain with the Fire Investigation Division took an 11-year-old boy into custody and charged him ... (click for more)

Police said Marcus Oneal Birt had blood on him and had a gun close to where the body of a man  was found along Hooker Road on Saturday. Birt, 32, has been charged with criminal homicide, especially aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm in the slaying of 33-year-old Warren Ransom. The victim was shot once in the head. Police said the victim was found ... (click for more)

KiJuan Ware, secondary coach at Eastern Michigan University this past season, has been named head football coach at Central High School, Pounders athletic director Jerry Fomby confirmed Friday afternoon. Ware, originally from Hartford, Conn., where he was a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball and earned all-conference honors on the gridiron and the diamond, ... (click for more)

The 24th-ranked Chattanooga Mocs are off to the 77th annual Southern Conference Tournament in Buies Creek, N.C., this weekend.  The Mocs have won 27 league titles since joining the SoCon in 1978, including each of the last three and eight of the last nine. The Tournament is hosted by Campbell University in the John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center and takes place on Saturday, ... (click for more)