Chattanooga firefighters, along with staff and volunteers with the American Red Cross, will distribute free smoke alarms and batteries in the St. Elmo area on Saturday. The staging area will be in the rear parking lot of the St. Elmo Avenue Baptist Church, at 4500 St. Elmo Avenue. The event will start at 9:30 a.m. and is expected to last about two hours. The event coincides ... (click for more)

Legal Aid of East Tennessee and La Paz Chattanooga are joining forces with UT College of Law to provide naturalization services to low income lawful permanent residents who qualify to apply for citizenship. This program will be part of UT College of Law’s Alternative Spring Break Program. Law students will come to Chattanooga the week of March 17 to execute pre-screened candidates’ ... (click for more)

A memorial service will be held Sunday for a man who was robbed and shot in the head on Hooker Road. The service for Warren T. Ransom, 33, will be at 3 p.m. in the chapel of Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services on McCallie Avenue. Survivors include his mother, Edith Ransom; sons, Warren T. Ransom Jr. and Demond Ransom; and brother, Michael Dewayne Ransom Jr. Family ... (click for more)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a favorable verdict from a jury in the Northern District of Ohio finding that Andrew W. Jacobs of Lancaster, Pa., and his brother Leslie J. Jacobs II of Cleveland, Ohio, committed insider trading in connection with the December 2009 tender offer for Chattem Inc., a Chattanooga.-based distributor of pharmaceutical products.  ... (click for more)

Good for CVS Caremark!  They will stop selling the #1 preventable cause of death: cigarettes. It’s a smart move.  Smoking is in great decline.  The risks of exposure to second hand smoke (yes, even outdoors) are known.  Every exposure causes some harm.  But changing community “norms” is difficult.    Isn’t it time for corporate sponsors of ... (click for more)

The best news of the week is that Johnny Shulman has been hired as the basketball coach at The McCallie School because it’s the best fit since Vince Lombardi joined the Packers. Shulman, the former UT-Chattanooga coach, has three sons who will tell you what a giant of a dad he is but now there will be hundreds more who will soon adore him. I have known Johnny – and he’ll always ... (click for more)