News

 A new study from the University of Tennessee shows visitors who went whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River last year pumped $43.3 million dollars into a 30 surrounding counties. 

The study’s author, U-T Hospitality and Tourism Management economist Steve Morse, found the Ocoee was also last year’s most-visited whitewater river in the U.S.

"This study shows that tourism and visitor spending at the Ocoee River is fueling small businesses, creating jobs, worker paychecks and taxes in rural Tennessee," Morse says.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has been named co-chair of a national task force. Governor Haslam, a Republican, and Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, will head the National Governors Association Health Care Sustainability Task Force, which will study ground-breaking Medicaid programs.

An abandoned pulp and paper mill on the Emory River near Harriman has been added to the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).  A Superfund designation by the EPA means the Clinch River Corporation site poses a "significant threat to public health" and the EPA now has the right to require the current owner to conduct or pay for clean-up of the site.  An EPA evaluation of the 30.5 acre site claims the site was contaminated with several by-products of the paper manufacturing process, includi

The Tennessee State Building Commission has approved a proposal from the University of Tennessee that would allow UT to purchase three homes in the Fort Sanders neighborhood and demolish them if necessary.  In a press release, university officials say they're hoping to build a new four-to-five story classroom building in the space currently occupied by three Queen Anne-style homes.  The 200,000 square foot building will eventually feature general-purpose classrooms, shared laboratories and house facilities related to the university's microbiology, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biolo

An eight-person panel whose members have connections to Knoxville's arts, educational and business communities will examine potential changes to the city's World's Fair Park. Deputy to the Mayor Bill Lyons and UT professor Jan Simek will co-chair the exploratory committee that will look at options for the park that hosted the 1982 World’s Fair. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports one of those options is a new home for the Clarence Brown Theatre. The UT-based theater is in need of plumbing upgrades and more classroom space.

A company that has been manufacturing gloves in Knoxville for 99 years will shut its doors this Friday.  The Knoxville Glove Company formed in 1914 and at its peak in the 1960's, it employed 350 people, manufacturing sturdy industrial gloves for clients like the Department of Defense and NASA.  But the domestic glove industry has long since buckled under the strain of foreign competition and these days, Knoxville Glove Company employs just 15 workers.  In a 2011 article in Metro Pulse, owner Rod Townsend Jr.

The Knox County Health Department says 2010 vaccination guidelines have been adding up to weeks of middle school absenteeism across the county.

Sixth graders now need a proof of immunization certificate for chicken pox - tetanus - diphtheria and pertussis before they can start seventh grade.

But Mary Ann Harrison, nurse manager of the Immunization Program at the Knox County Health Department, says as many as 40% of rising seventh graders in Knox County public schools last year didn’t get the shots.