As the featured guest for the JFK Club, Helen Burns Sharp spent her afternoon educating the club about how tax breaks can be manipulated in a discreet manner. A self-described “public interest advocate” and founder of the Accountability for Taxpayer Money (ATM) movement, Ms. Sharp has spent her post-retirement years lobbying for transparency from the local government. Using a ... (click for more)

Here are upcoming street closings: Johnson Street Johnson Street will be closed between Passenger Street and Rossville Avenue on Wednesday, July 17, until Wednesday, July 24, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily for building construction. Lightfood Mill Road Lightfoot Mill Road will be closed at the railroad tracks between Youngstown Road and Cherwood Lane on Wednesday, ... (click for more)

A small plane crashed on Wednesday at Cagle Mountain near Dunlap. Authorities said the pilot was airlifted to Erlanger Hospital. He was described as in his mid-to-late 50s or 60s. There were no passengers, it was stated. Based on the plane's registration number, it was a Glasair amateur-built experimental plane. It was built in Canada in 2002. The pilot was described ... (click for more)

It may be three years away, but candidates are lining up for the 2022 county mayor race with Jim Coppinger possibly retiring. County Mayor Coppinger said his focus is on continued progress during the current four-year term. Political observers believe he tipped his hat on this being his final term by coming out for a school tax that is unpopular in some circles and lost out on ... (click for more)

An opinion in Chattanoogan.com on Monday said Erlanger Health Systems had $20,000 nurse signing bonuses. Erlanger officials said that is another local hospital - not Erlanger. Columnist Roy Exum said, "In a story that I wrote on July 15, “A Nursing Shortage?” I mistakenly identified Erlanger Hospital as one hospital that offers prospective nurses a $20,000 signing bonus. ... (click for more)

When I was a senior in high school, the Vietnam catastrophe held the guys who were in my class spellbound. Back then, and has since been proven again and again, the conflict was a terrible error in our nation’s judgment and almost 60,000 young and promising Americans died in some stinking South Asian battle zone that didn’t mean squat to our freedom or our nation’s future. In ... (click for more)