News - Friday, June 13, 2025

The parking lot at Acropolis Mediterranean Grill is full at 2 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. It’s not a special event, there’s no celebrity in the dining room and yet the tables are brimming with families, couples, solo diners and staff who greet regulars by name.

Heather Heatherly and Kelly Hutt didn’t set out to start a fitness revolution in Chattanooga’s Southside – but when the opportunity came, they ran with it.

Heatherly, 42, is a Nashville native with a lifelong background in ballet and yoga. “Movement has always been at the core of my being,” she says. “As I got older, I realized yoga alone wasn’t enough. I needed strength work to stay healthy.”

In 1971, Samuel C. Hurst, Ph.D., invented the world’s first electronic touch interface in an Oak Ridge basement. Half a century later, the device’s descendants are used for everything from paying for purchases to tracking global shipping and receiving data. And the company Hurst started, Elographics (now Elo Touch Solutions), continues to roll out products and services from its global headquarters in Knoxville.

If you’d been standing at the corner of McCallie and Highland Park avenues a few years ago, you would’ve seen a vista of overgrown weeds and abandoned industrial buildings – not a gathering of picnic tables and taco enthusiasts. You definitely wouldn’t have spotted a menu offering Bangkok Shrimp or Chicken Tikka Masala tacos – or frozen Cheerwine with booze.

June is National Homeownership Month – the perfect time to mull the joys and responsibilities that come with owning a home. With warmer weather settling in, now is also an ideal moment to get ahead of summer’s challenges.

Nicole Slaughter Graham at HouseLogic.com offers expert-backed advice to help homeowners keep things running smoothly indoors during the hot summer months. From boosting energy efficiency to refreshing your living space, these tips are a great reminder that a little planning now can make a big difference all season long.

For readers in the Tennessee Valley, summer usually signals lake season – lazy weekends on the water, family barbecues and, for some, dreams of a second home on Chickamauga or Nickajack. But in 2025, that dream is colliding with an uneasy economy.

The city of Red Bank’s Active Older Adult program continues to feature free classes and special events aimed at residents 55 and older. All activities will take place at the Red Bank Community Center, located at 3653 Tom Weathers Drive. This month’s highlights include a return visit from local author and historian Lawrence Miller, who will present historic photos and stories about Red Bank Monday, June 9. Red Bank Police Sergeant Steve Hope will lead a discussion on fraud prevention and theft awareness Thursday, June 26. In addition to these events, the AOA program continues to offer chair yoga, qi gong, guided exercise, music jam, bingo and art sessions presented by The Chattery and supported by a grant from Tennessee Arts Build. Complete schedule

Susan Caminez of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera has been selected to participate in the League of American Orchestras’ prestigious Essentials of Orchestra Management program. She is one of 35 orchestra and arts professionals chosen from around the world for the ten-day leadership development intensive.

This fall, Chattanooga will serve as the host of the 2025 Medal of Honor Celebration, a weeklong event recognizing American citizens whose lives exemplify the values tied to the nation’s highest military honor.

Scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 4, the celebration will culminate with the 2025 Patriot Awards Gala Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The gala will honor four individuals whose work and values reflect the principles of patriotism, citizenship, courage, integrity, sacrifice and commitment.

Some financial decisions can be challenging, like whether to use your money to reduce your debt or to invest. If you already have a significant amount of debt and not a lot in savings or investments, it can be hard to figure out which issue should be a priority.

If you wanted a midsize truck 10 years ago, your choices included an aging Toyota Tacoma or an even older Nissan Frontier design. Today, renewed versions of the Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Ranger and Honda Ridgeline have revitalized the segment enough to have spawned a new compact pickup class, led by the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Republican member of the South Carolina House who prosecutors say used the screen name "joebidennnn69" has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing sexual abuse material involving children.

RJ May was arrested at his Lexington County home after a lengthy investigation and was ordered Thursday by a federal judge to remain jailed until his trial.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday was forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by officers as he tried to speak up about immigration raids that have led to protests in California and around the country.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Cam Ward talks so much that Tennessee coach Brian Callahan asked the rookie if he needed to wait until the Titans quarterback stopped before calling a play during practice.

NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge is scheduled to hear arguments Friday about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be released from jail pending the outcome of a trial on human smuggling charges.

In a motion asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to order Abrego Garcia detained, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire described him as both a danger to the community and a flight risk. Abrego Garcia's attorneys disagree. They point out that he was already wrongly detained in a notorious Salvadoran prison thanks to government error, and argue that due process and "basic fairness" require him to be set free.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a federal judge's order that directed President Donald Trump to return control of National Guard troops to California after he deployed them there following protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids.

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 1.15 million power banks are under recall across the U.S. after some fires and explosions were reported by consumers.

According to a Thursday notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, electronics maker Anker Innovations is recalling certain "PowerCore 10000" power banks because the lithium-ion battery inside can overheat.

NEW YORK (AP) — Popular online services across the globe were disrupted Thursday due to ongoing issues at Google Cloud.

Tens of thousands of users of Spotify, Discord and other platforms began noticing issues with their services early in the afternoon, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages.

SEATTLE (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday pulled the U.S. out of an agreement with Washington, Oregon and four American Indian tribes to work together to restore salmon populations and boost tribal clean energy development in the Pacific Northwest, deriding the plan as "radical environmentalism" that could have resulted in the breaching of four controversial dams on the Snake River.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer sentiment increased in June for the first time in six months, the latest sign that Americans' views of the economy have improved as inflation has stayed tame and the Trump administration has reached a truce in its trade fight with China.

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — Large-scale immigration raids at packinghouses and fields in California are threatening businesses that supply much of the country's food, farm bureaus say.

Dozens of farmworkers have been arrested recently after uniformed federal agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, which is known for growing strawberries, lemons and avocados.

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are leaping, and stocks are slipping Friday on worries that Israel's attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets could escalate further and damage the flow of crude around the world, along with the global economy.

The PGA Tour is hiring longtime NFL executive Brian Rolapp as the first CEO of its new commercial division, created two years ago when tour reached a tentative agreement with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf, The Associated Press confirmed Thursday.

Jay Monahan, who announced the framework agreement in June 2023, will stay on as commissioner of the PGA Tour. Monahan announced in December the search for a CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises, now backed by a $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a week of tense protests over the federal immigration raids, about 200 Marines have moved into Los Angeles and will protect federal property and personnel, a military commander said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51 who is overseeing the 4,700 troops deployed, said Friday that the Marines have finished training on civil disturbance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration this week provided deportation officials with personal data -- including the immigration status -- on millions of Medicaid enrollees, a move that could make it easier to locate people as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican tax bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would cost the poorest Americans roughly $1,600 a year while increasing the income of the wealthiest households by an average of $12,000 annually, according to a new analysis released Thursday by the Congressional Budget Office.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk has lost some of his luster with Republicans since his messy public falling-out with President Donald Trump last week, a new survey finds.

Fewer Republicans view Trump's onetime government efficiency bulldog "very favorably" compared with April, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When videos first rocketed around the internet Thursday afternoon showing security officers forcibly removing Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla from a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in California, senators in both parties were already gathered together for a long series of votes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House narrowly voted Thursday to cut about $9.4 billion in spending already approved by Congress as President Donald Trump's administration looks to follow through on work done by the Department of Government Efficiency when it was overseen by Elon Musk.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight years after President Donald Trump was dazzled by a grand military parade down the Champs-Élysées in Paris, he is finally getting a chance to try to top the spectacle.

His long-delayed dream is expected to be realized Saturday with an extravaganza of American military might featuring tanks and other armored vehicles rolling through the nation's capital, thousands of soldiers marching the streets and military aircraft flying overhead. In a final flourish, an elite parachute team is to jump from above the White House, land near Trump and hand him an American flag.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to carry on with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown despite waves of unrest across the U.S.

Hours after her comment Thursday, a judge directed the president to return control to California over National Guard troops he deployed after protests erupted over the immigration crackdown, but an appeals court quickly put the brakes on that and temporarily blocked the order that was to go into effect on Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled a hearing on the matter for Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is shifting military resources, including ships, in the Middle East in response to Israel's strikes on Iran and a possible retaliatory attack by Tehran, two U.S. officials said Friday.

The Navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, which is capable of defending against ballistic missiles, to begin sailing from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean and has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward so it can be available if requested by the White House.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel launched a blistering attack on the heart of Iran's nuclear and military structure Friday, deploying warplanes and drones smuggled into the country to target key facilities and kill top generals and scientists -- a barrage it said was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel attacked Iran early Friday with a barrage of airstrikes that took out top military officers and hit nuclear and missile sites, calling it just the beginning and raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq.