Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union announces the addition of Wendee Arms as mortgage originator. Ms. Arms joined TVFCU in April 2019. In her new role, Ms. Arms will work with homeowners to meet their homeownership needs in the Cleveland area. “We are excited to have Wendee join our mortgage originator team to help us meet the growing demand in Bradley County and surrounding ... (click for more)

SmartBank announced Tuesday that it has hired Fabiola Ortiz as vice president, regional branch administrator in Chattanooga. Ms. Ortiz will join the bank’s branch administration team and will oversee SmartBank locations in the Chattanooga, Cleveland, Tullahoma and Murfreesboro markets. “Fabiola is a seasoned banking professional who has been a part of the banking industry for ... (click for more)

Police Chief David Roddy said a surge in violence in Chattanooga since late May is mirroring that of many other cities across the country. He said homicides and aggravated assaults here are up 17 percent and criminal shootings have risen 24 percent. At the same time, other categories or crime are about the same or trending down. Chief Roddy said, "There are a lot of theories" ... (click for more)

The Hamilton County Health Department reported Tuesday that the total number of Hamilton County resident deaths has risen to 56, an increase of one since Monday. Total cases now are 6,278 in Hamilton County, up 87. There are 4,763 people that have recovered from the virus in the county. The number of COVID patients in Intensive Care has increased one since Monday to 27. ... (click for more)

I have filed many open records requests over the years, and no open records administrator has performed as HCDE’s Tim Hensley. It is truly lala land seeking public records from governments and their agencies. There are many methods utilized to render public records unattainable to citizens, such as making the records cost prohibitive, government attorneys declaring their entire ... (click for more)

You’ll remember the COVID crisis abruptly ended the 2019-20 school year in April and then followed a miserable four months where the flu effectively prohibited our children from seeing their friends, playing Little League baseball and being on the swim team. Our psychologists tell us the children have also suffered from “negative mental health issues.” Children need to begin catching ... (click for more)