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ALVIN YORK KILLS 25 AND CAPTURES 132: During World War I, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York is credited with single-handedly killing 25 German soldiers and capturing 132 in the Argonne Forest of France. The action saved York's small detachment from annihilation by a German machine-gun nest and won the reluctant warrior from backwater Tennessee the Congressional Medal of Honor. Born in a log cabin in rural Tennessee in 1887, Alvin Cullum York supplemented his family's subsistence farming by hunting and, like his father, was soon an expert marksman. He also earned a reputation as a hell-raiser, and few imagined he ...

NewsChannel 9 has learned that Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum will visit the Scenic City later this month. He will headline the Chattanooga Tea Party's Liberty Forum on Saturday, February 25th, from 1 until 4 p.m. at Abba's House on Hixson Pike. The Tea Party's president says the event will be free and open to the public. The following is the news release from the Chattanooga Tea Party announcing the event: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will headline the Chattanooga Tea Party’s Liberty Forum on Saturday, February 25. The forum, which celebrates the tea party movement’s third anniversary, will offer...

GINGRICH: No. It just means that we're going to have to pick up all those delegates in late May, just before the California primary, when we hope to pick up more delegates out here. That still means that on super-Tuesday, we're looking at Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, we're looking at Ohio. It means the week after super- Tuesday, we're looking at Alabama and Mississippi. Now, we have hopes that we're going to keep picking up delegates everywhere and continue. This race is going on for a long time, I think. And what Texas moving back means, combined with California being in...

Republican candidates listed on my local ballot Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Charles Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum

Early voting begins today at four sites in Hamilton County, and local officials remind those headed to the polls to remember their photo IDs. The early voting ballot will be for the March 6 primaries, including the U.S. presidential race, two county special elections -- one for commission District 3 and another for county mayor -- and county property assessor. "Early voting offers a convenient way for voters to cast their ballots without worrying about making it to the polls on Election Day," said Hamilton County Elections Administrator Charlotte Mullis-Morgan. "The added flexibility allows individuals to work voting into their...

A decision was made during the Bradley County Commission work session Monday afternoon to place a resolution to call for a referendum on the question of whether a countywide motor vehicle tax (wheel tax) of $32 should be levied. Commissioner and Education Committee Chairman Jeff Yarber proposed the wheel tax resolution several weeks ago as a solution to funding requests for capital projects by the county school system. The county school system needs an estimated $25.5 million for a new elementary school, improvements and expansion for Walker Valley High School and Lake Forest Middle School and land for a third...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has named Gov. Bill Haslam his campaign chairman in Tennessee. The Romney campaign also announced Tuesday that it has gathered a full slate of 48 delegate candidates on the Tennessee ballot, led by former Gov. Winfield Dunn. Haslam said in a statement that the delegates represent the statewide strength of the Romney campaign in Tennessee. SNIP Romney supported Haslam in the state's 2010 governor's race, and Haslam's father and brother also hold leadership positions in the former Massachusetts governor's Tennessee operations.

NASHVILLE — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has scheduled a trip to Tennessee next week while a poll indicates Rick Santorum is now leading in the state despite his lack of a campaign organization within the state. The American Research Group Inc. poll, involving 600 "likely" Republican voters contacted by telephone Feb. 8-9, found Santorum favored by 34 percent, followed by Mitt Romney (27 percent), Gingrich (16 percent) and Ron Paul (13 percent). The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania recruited no committed delegates to appear on the Tennessee's March 6 ballot, though if he wins the state primary, he will...

Just days after appearing on the National Geographic TV Show Doomsday Prepper, a prepper from Tennessee has been declared Mentally Defective and his guns have been seized by the government. The Prepper, David Sarti is a character to say the least, but his story is somewhat disturbing and should be a wake up call for everyone. Personally I think these shows are designed to make these people look crazy. Whether his appearance on the show played into Mr. Sarti’s diagnosis isn’t yet clear, but apparently the State believed he was a danger to himself after a local doctor insisted that...

A top representative of the U.S. State Department was in Tennessee this week to discuss a law dealing with the state's refugee resettlement program. The Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act, which originated from the desk of State Sen. Jim Tracy, became law last July. It's the first bill of its kind. It requires the state's refugee program agency, Catholic Charities, to meet four times a year with local governments to plan and coordinate "the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees' arrival ..." The law also allows local communities to apply for a "moratorium" on refugee resettlement if those...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced today that Chevrolet Volt purchasers are now eligible for the state’s $2,500 electric vehicle (EV) rebate. The rebate requires that consumers qualify for and participate in The EV Project, a national study on EV use and charging infrastructure deployment. The EV Project will provide participants with a free Blink® 240V networked charge station and a credit of up to $1,200 towards its installation. To be eligible, Tennessee residents must sign an EV Project participant agreement, purchase the Volt, take delivery of the car, and have SPX Corporation install...

Tennessee and Georgia resist health care reformby Mariann Martin published Sunday, February 5th, 2012 With less than a year before state legislation must be in place to implement a critical part of national health care reform, Tennessee and Georgia, along with 18 other states, have not made substantial progress toward meeting federal deadlines, according to reports from several nonpartisan organizations. In states with conservative leadership, such as Georgia and Tennessee, the deadlines have put state leaders in a Catch-22. They hope the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the Affordable Care Act this spring or summer or that the election of...

NASHVILLE — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's administration has fired two top officials at the Department of Environment and Conservation, while a third has announced his retirement. The department said in a statement Friday that the changes are "designed to streamline our structure and build management efficiencies." Changes are to include the creation of a single water resources division encompassing the department's pollution control, water supply and groundwater management programs, according to the statement. The fired officials are Mike Apple, head of the department's solid waste management division, and Paul E. Davis, who was in charge of water pollution control. Meanwhile,...

A shocking YouTube video (uploaded by someone not friendly to the Tea Party) shows Memphis talk radio host Thaddeus Matthews insulting and humiliating Republican congressional candidate Charlotte Bergmann on air.

As you may have read I was asked to leave a restaurant in Knoxville because my beliefs did not support the owners beliefs on homosexuality. I had not said anything. I was just standing there waiting for a table when the owner came up and started yelling at me calling me names and telling me they were not going to serve me because of my alleged beliefs saying I hate gays. I said in as calm a way as I could that I don't hate gays and the things I have said were backed up by the CDC. I offered...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) on Sunday attacked Mitt Romney for "unseemliness and overkill" in his aggressive campaign against Newt Gingrich, the candidate Thompson has endorsed.

Outdoors advocate & defender, Judge Bob Moon, 60 Popular Hamilton County (Chattanooga, Tenn.) General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon, known for his outdoors advocacy and strict dealings with game law violators, died Wednesday from an apparent heart attack. He was 60. In 2008, Judge Moon made national headlines when he advised a woman who had been pulled from her car and beaten in the head to "purchase a weapon, obtain a gun permit and learn to protect yourself." He will be missed. Richard Simms at Nooga.com.

I know some of you guys gave me a hard time when I shared the story of my buddy who rented a room in a house in Nashville and fell behind on his rent (though good faith discussions with the landlady were in progress) and then when gone a couple of weeks all of a sudden found his stuff taken to storage and the landlady's lawyer demanding a ransom for it. You said my buddy ought to suck it up, not try to "legally steal" from the landlady, and such. If you're still of the same opinion and don't want...

Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee has opened a new satellite health center in Johnson City. Located at 409 E. Unaka Ave., the Planned Parenthood office is open to patients... ...That's all you need to know. Go straight to the first comment!

Ron Paul’s Son Sen. Rand Paul Won’t Comment on Father’s Past Comparison of Gaza to “Concentration Camp”; Israelis Suprised Congressman Made Analogy Supporters of Ron Paul have been trying to make the case their candidate is pro-Israel despite his past statements and opposition to foreign aid to the Jewish state. Their job got a little harder after a two-year-old interview Rep. Paul gave to Iran’s Press TV was recently posted on YouTube in which he compared Israel’s treatment of Gaza to that of a Nazi concentration camp. In the 2009 interview, Paul talks about the “tragedy of Gaza,” comparing it...

As a new law that will require Tennesseans to show photo identification when they vote goes into effect Jan. 1, Division of Elections officials are continuing their voter outreach efforts. “Our focus, up to this year’s elections and beyond, is educating voters about what this law will mean to them,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett, who oversees the division. “Our voter outreach efforts so far have been unprecedented. I commend Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins, his staff, county election officials and all the other individuals and groups across the state who have worked so hard to get the message...

Chattanooga Police say nine people were shot in downtown Chattanooga early Christmas mroning. It happened following a teen party at 400 Cherry Street. Of the nine shot, five were juveniles and four were adults. Three of the victims were admitted to a local hospital; one adult and two juveniles. Their specific injuries are unknown but not believed to be life threatening. According to officers on scene at the time of the shootings, a group of about 400 teenagers were leaving a party at Fathom when two rival gangs met up and began to fight. Someone from one of the gangs...

It's been a bad week for Newt Gingrich in our early state Republican polling, but we still find him with a good sized lead nationally. He's at 35% to 22% for Mitt Romney, 11% for Ron Paul, 7% for Michele Bachmann, 6% for Rick Perry, 4% for Rick Santorum, 3% for Jon Huntsman, and 1% for Gary Johnson. On the surface that's good news for Gingrich but looking under the hood it's more bad news to some extent. We haven't done a national poll in 5 weeks, too long ago to make a good comparison, but on 6 state polls...

Charging stations not getting much use NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Charging stations in Tennessee outnumber electric cars and many aren't used for hours or even days at a time, according to a newspaper investigation. State data analyzed by The Tennessean show that about 270 all-electric cars were registered in Tennessee in 2011 while there are about 500 charging stations set up in public areas to serve them (http://tnne.ws/s2Mldg). The Tennessean said it visited more than 12 charging units over a 2-day period this month and found multiple cars refueling at only one site - Nissan's automobile plant in Smyrna. Nissan...

For the rest of the semester, a Rutherford County elementary student has to eat lunch at the "silent table" for allegedly waving around a slice of pizza some say resembled a gun. Nicholas Taylor attends David Youree Elementary School in Smyrna, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville. School leaders say the 10-year-old threatened other students at his lunch table with a piece of pizza with bites out of it so it looked like a gun and when asked about it was initially not truthful. Nicholas' mother LeAnn calls her son's punishment "absolutely ridiculous" saying he was just playing around and...

A Tennessee couple helplessly watched their home burn to the ground, along with all of their possessions, because they did not pay a $75 annual fee to the local fire department. Vicky Bell told the NBC affiliate WPSD-TV that she called 911 when her mobile home in Obion County caught fire. Firefighters arrived on the scene but as the fire raged, they simply stood by and did nothing. "In an emergency, the first thing you think of, 'Call 9-1-1," homeowner Bell said. However, Bell and her husband were forced to walk into the burning home in an attempt to retrieve...

1 dead, 16 injured in Tennessee crashes involving 176 carsFrom Dave Alsup, CNN updated 4:52 PM EST, Thu December 1, 2011 (CNN) -- One person was killed and 16 others injured Thursday in three separate chain-reaction crashes involving 176 cars north of Nashville, authorities said. Heavy fog and black ice were thought to have contributed to the crashes on State Highway 386 in Sumner County, said county emergency medical services Capt. Vincent Riley. The incidents began just before 8 a.m. ET, when a car ran off the highway and caused a chain reaction accident in "heavy, heavy fog," he said....

Murfreesboro, Tenn. — Embattled GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain took a break from the campaign trail Thursday night to deliver a lecture at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. The university emphasized that there would be no discussion of politics or Cain’s candidacy. But Cain’s lecture on business and entrepreneurship soon became very political when Occupy protesters interrupted the event. Approximately 20 minutes into the event, Occupy protesters conducted a “mic check” as Cain discussed his rise through Pillsbury and the Burger King Corporation. A young woman stood up in the middle of the lecture hall shouting “Mic check! Mic...

KNOXVILLE — A special judge today granted new trials for four defendants in the 2007 torture-slaying cases, agreeing with lawyers that presiding Judge Richard Baumgartner's conduct led to fundamental structural flaws in the prosecutions. Jon Kerry Blackwood, his voice at times rising to a shout, said Baumgartner was obviously intoxicated in 2009 and 2010 while Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman were being prosecuted. Baumgartner used defendants under his influence to procure pills to satisfy his habit, Blackwood said, citing a TBI investigation. He engaged in sex with one defendant, Deena Castleman, who helped him satisfy his...

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. -- The battle over a confederate flag at an Elizabethton cemetery wages on...and this time, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are on the defensive. The group filed a police report Sunday after they said someone stole their flag. A member of the group says they've since put up a new, more recognizable confederate flag at Green Hill Cemetery in the other flag's absence. The Sons of Confederate Veterans held a ceremony to dedicate the previous flag last month in recognition of lieutenant Robert J. Tipton and three other confederate veterans buried there. The Watauga Historical Association fought that...

Shelby Foote's War Story How a Memphis novelist’s history of the Civil War made history itself It was supposed to be a brief assignment—eighteen months or so, tops. In 1954, with the centennial of the end of the Civil War approaching, Bennett Cerf, the president of Random House, wrote the novelist Shelby Foote to propose a “short history” of the conflict. In midsummer the author traveled from his home in Memphis to meet with the publisher in New York, and the two came to terms. The target was 200,000 words; the advance, four hundred dollars. For Foote the plan was...

Muslims around the country are calling on state officials to rebuke Rep. Rick Womick, R-Murfreesboro, for saying the U.S. should purge Muslims from the military. But if they want strong denunciations, Gov. Bill Haslam isn't their guy. He might be the chief executive of this state and the head of the Tennessee Republican Party, but he clearly doesn't see standing up for freedom of religion or striking a blow against bigotry as top priorities. Asked today what he had to say about Womick's remarks, the governor declared: "I don’t think I would agree with Rick on that." OK, governor, but...

Herman Cain's decision to devote time last month to a bus tour through Tennessee might be helping the candidate to build a Super Tuesday firewall, according to the latest poll from Vanderbilt University. Cain was the choice of 22 percent of likely voters, according to the poll, besting Mitt Romney by eight percentage points. Rick Perry rounded out the top three with just 8 percent of the vote

A Tennessee woman who said she wanted a relationship--and did not want to be just “a booty call”--allegedly stabbed a male suitor Tuesday night after he became irate when she put the brakes on his attempts to “touch her suggestively,” police report. Oh, did we mention that the two are first cousins?

Hamilton County commissioners held a private meeting with County Attorney Rheubin Taylor on Friday to discuss the Occupy Chattanooga protesters camped out on the county courthouse lawn. The meeting was not announced as required by the state’s Open Meetings Act, also known as the “Sunshine Law.” Taylor said a Tennessee Supreme Court decision allows some meetings about legal issues to remain private on the grounds of attorney-client privilege. When called during business hours to cite the decision, Taylor did not return the call. Commissioner Fred Skillern, who did not attend the meeting, said later he was “almost certain” the topic...

The debate over spending among Republicans in Congress has become so intense that one Senate Republican leader has started wearing a flak jacket to meetings. The arguments have gotten so pointed that Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) wore a flak jacket to a Republican lunch meeting a few weeks ago. He said he would don the protective gear after Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), an outspoken conservative, blasted him in a meeting for arguing that Congress had already made substantial reductions in discretionary spending. Coburn objected heatedly. He argued that slowing the rate of discretionary spending growth is not...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The FBI says a Tennessee man has been charged with threatening the family of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia. Agents arrested 62-year-old Glendon Swift of Lenoir City on Wednesday. He is accused of leaving two voicemail messages...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The heavy Tennessee Highway Patrol presence and curfew enforcement on Legislative Plaza came to a sudden and unexpected stop Saturday night, and by Sunday morning, Occupy Nashville protesters declared it a victory on The Hill. "At 4:30 in the morning, I walked around congratulating everybody that we took The Hill, said Clay Wright who proudly waved his Occupy Nashville flag on the steps of Legislative Plaza. "The people, the people own Legislative Plaza, and that's the way it needs to be recognized," said Wright. But a sign with a curfew enforcement states otherwise. Enforced since Thursday, it's put...

Who among us hasn’t barbecued a raccoon in a Tennessee parking lot and then gotten caught up in a meth bust? On Monday, Memphis, Tenn., police arrested 26-year-old Adam Eubank on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine after his brother, Alex Eubank, held a late-night critter cookout outside an apartment complex. That cookout drew the attention of the police. Local TV channel KSDK interviewed the men’s less-than-terrified neighbors to get to the bottom of the story. “Pretty shocked,” neighbor Shelton Russell said, with something akin to a smile. “I… I mean, it’s a raccoon, I don’t know. Where’d they find it?”

Mission Creep: This Tennessee Highway Is Now Patrolled by TSABy Conor Friedersdorf Oct 24 2011, 9:25 AM ET Most air travelers now endure naked scans or genital pat-downs by gloved agents of the government without surprise or complaint. But before invasive security became normal, there was a backlash. And at its height, Transportation Security Administration boss John Pistole said something revealing. "I see flying as a privilege that is a public safety issue. So the government has a role in providing for the public safety and we need to do everything we can in partnership with the traveling public, to...

State troopers for the second straight night arrested anti-Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by the Republican governor, in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol in Nashville. And also, for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed the arrest warrants. The Tennessean newspaper reported early Saturday morning that Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could "find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza." Occupy Nashville protesters - including many of the 29 arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Friday...

NEW YORK (AP) — While more U.S. cities are resorting to force to break up the Wall Street protests, many others — Philadelphia, New York, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., among them — are content to let the demonstrations go on for now.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for example, said Friday that the several hundred protesters sleeping in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September, can stay as long as they obey the law."I can't talk about other cities," he said. "Our responsibilities are protect your rights and your safety. And I think we're trying to...

Jim Arrighi last saw Petey, his 4-year-old Jack Russell terrier, in the backyard of his home in Erin, Tenn. That was in July, and the 73-year-old retired electrician had nearly given up on seeing his pet again when he learned the dog turned up safe about 500 miles away in suburban Detroit. A Michigan Humane Society volunteer was expected to return Petey to Arrighi on Thursday morning. "This is just a little town and everybody is buzzing about it," said Arrighi's daughter, Tyanne Morrison. Most of Erin's roughly 7,000 residents know one another, and many of them would recognize Petey,...

ERIN, Tenn., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The Tennessee owners of a dog that went missing in July said they were overjoyed and baffled when he turned up 600 miles away in Michigan. Tyanne Morrison, 54, said her stepfather, Jim Arrighi, 73, had been searching for Petey the Jack Russell terrier since the dog disappeared from his Erin, Tenn., yard July 28 and he was delighted when a Michigan Humane Society volunteer called to say the dog had been found in Rochester Hills and traced back to him with an implanted microchip, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday.

PORTLAND, Tenn. – You're probably use [sic] to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR). "Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons. Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.--------------------------SNIP------------------ Agents are recruiting truck drivers, like Rudy Gonzales, into the First Observer Highway Security Program to say...

PORTLAND, Tenn. – You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR). "Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons. Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state. Agents are recruiting truck drivers, like Rudy Gonzales, into the First Observer Highway Security Program to say something...

When I told my friends I was working on a magazine article, then a book, about a tsunami of racial violence in America over the last two years, they said, “I haven’t heard about that.” When my Tennessee friend told me about a horrific racial crime in Knoxville, Tennessee, I told him: “I haven’t heard about that.” Outside of Tennessee, most did not.

Cain's Gruesome (and Supposedly Humorous) Solutions for Illegal Immigration: At campaign stops in Tennessee yesterday, Cain put forward two separate plans for tackling the nation's immigration problem: An electrified fence along the border that would stop short the life of anyone trying to slip into the country illegally, and re-equipping border forces "with real guns and real bullets." This morning on Meet the Press he responded to the (unsurprising and immediate) backlash to his electric fence remarks, saying: "That's a joke. That's not a serious plan. I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor." Cain's Brainstorming Process:...

JACKSON, Tenn. — While most GOP candidates are blazing through Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, Herman Cain followed his roots back to West Tennessee on Friday. “By the way, you all know that I am 1 and 2 [in the polls],” Cain exulted during a stop in Jackson, Tenn. “I’m not bragging … The bull’s eye on your back gets bigger.” Cain is currently leading the pack of Republican presidential candidates, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Not even a malfunctioning microphone could sap Cain’s energy as he turned around a few moments of silence by...

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — Herman Cain is firing up the crowd at a tea party rally in this West Tennessee town when the generator powering his sound system shudders to a halt. Cain stands awkwardly for a few moments then suddenly begins to sing. Slowly at first but gaining in speed, he belts out "Impossible Dream" in the rich baritone he's honed in church choir. "You know, when it's your rally, you can do what you want to do!" Cain says as he finishes with a raucous laugh. The 500 or so supporters who have jammed the strip mall parking...