News - Friday, July 8, 2022

As Andrew Coyle looks back on seven years as a prosecutor in Hamilton County, he sees the faces of the people his work impacted.

He sees the expressions of family members of victims soften with relief as a jury foreman reads a verdict and justice is achieved.

As a loving and supportive spouse, attorney Ashby Angell overlooks her husband’s most glaring flaw: His love for University of Kentucky basketball.

To endure attorney Patrick Walsh’s Wildcat fandom, Angell abides by an adage: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

When Real Estate Partners named Realtor Kodak Hensley its 2021 rookie agent of the year, it was the crowning moment of a year of intensive work.

Hensley, 34, began 2021 as green as grass. Fresh off a decade of doing business-to-business sales for a major telecommunications company, he lacked experience in real estate and had only a theoretical understanding of how to grow a commercial enterprise, courtesy of a business administration degree from East Tennessee State University.

Love where you live. On the surface, it’s simple, but loving where you live means being actively invested in the community.

That’s why in addition to the causes our members support individually, Greater Chattanooga Realtors partners with charitable organizations to positively impact where we live, work and play.

From your Social Security number to your bank statement, you share significant personal information during the homebuying process. The increase of sensitive data accessed by multiple sources also heightens your risk of identity theft.

Here are a few tips to help you stay safer during and after buying or selling your home.

Tennesseans have a new resource for emergency mental health crises beginning July 16. Like 911, 988 is a new three-digit crisis number that connects to the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

“It’s 911 for your body, and it’s 988 for your brain,” explains Becky Stoll, vice president of Crisis and Disaster Management in Tennessee. Stoll oversees the continuum of Centerstone’s crisis services, including the 24-hour crisis call center in MetroCenter, which will field 988 calls in Nashville.

Chattanooga will join five other communities across the country in the inaugural Putting Assets to Work Incubator, a new initiative that will revitalize and recirculate underutilized property and other assets across the city.

As part of Mayor Tim Kelly’s 100-day plan in 2021, the city inventoried more than 650 underutilized parcels totaling more than 2,500 acres that could be leveraged toward better use.

The federal government has awarded Chattanooga State Community College a Perkins READI (Recruit, Engage and Develop for Innovation) Grant to boost the school’s career and technical education programs.

Following a competitive application process, Chattanooga State came out on top of the seven community and technical colleges the federal government selected with a grant award totaling $1,123,200.

The Hamilton County Commission has endorsed an $881 million budget that includes $523 million for education – a $31 million increase.

Mayor Jim Coppinger says the budget will allow the county to tackle several critical issues while maintaining a Triple A bond rating from each of the three major rating agencies.

The city’s Department of Public Works has inspected more than 95% of all streets and filled 90% of all potholes, Mayor Tim Kelly said recently in a report delivered to the City Council.

The city has added a third pothole repair crew and two more pothole inspectors to the upcoming budget and is adding three utility inspectors to ensure street cuts by local utilities are properly repaired.

A public-private partnership will transform the long-neglected U.S. Pipe and Wheland Foundry sites into a live-work-play district Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly say will generate more than $40 million for schools.

We all want to live long lives. We all expect to live long lives. But are we financially prepared for this longevity?

Before we get to the issue of preparation, let’s look at a couple of interesting findings from a 2022 survey by Age Wave and Edward Jones:

Almost every trip teaches me something about myself, the world and what not to do next time.

Here are three hard-won travel lessons that might help you learn from my many mistakes.

Piecing together flights

Whenever possible, I book nonstop flights. Nonstops may cost a bit more, but they avoid the inconvenience of layovers and the stress of possibly missing a connection.

Your bags are packed.

Yep, you’re headed for five days of sun, sea and sand. Early-morning dips in the ocean, flip-flops and little grains of beach in the sheets every night. But you won’t care, you’ll be on V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.

The electric vehicle market is rapidly changing. Two recently released models are blazing the trail for a brand-new segment: the electric luxury sedan class. Those two cars are the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS and the 2022 Audi e-tron GT.

Both offer flagship levels of luxury, but they differ greatly in their execution. The car experts at Edmunds compare and contrast these two electric newcomers to help you decide which premium battery-powered four-door is right for you.