By Scott Robertson A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to sit with a group of ETSU Roan Scholars at a speaking engagement by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Friedman defies traditional political labels. He is certainly not a conservative. Liberals loved his recent excoriation of the President of the United States’ unwillingness or inability to stand up to Russia. But conservatives can apprecia ...

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The tax reform package of 2017 included a program allowing governors to establish areas known as Opportunity Zones in their respective states, as a way to encourage private investment in low-income areas. The program provides a tax incentive for investors to re-invest their unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds that are dedicated to investing in census tracts where wages are low, but opportunities ...

Bell Helicopter, the Textron Inc. company and major global aircraft manufacturer operating a facility in Piney Flats, revealed this week it has rebranded to be known as simply “Bell.” The new brand strategy and modernized logo are rooted in the company’s focus on innovation and customer experience. Bell will roll out the rebrand over the next year. “Bell has always been about more than just helicopters. Our ...

A Tennessee General Assembly bill that would limit what information is immediately put into the public record as it is reported to the state’s COPA monitor does not – as currently written – accurately reflect the system’s goals, Ballad’s chairman and CEO, Alan Levine allowed Tuesday. However, Levine said, there is no ill intent on the part of Ballad or of the legislators who are carrying the bills in the st ...

SVN Interstate Brokers, a commercial real estate brokerage firm has announced it will coordinate the relocation of the Greene County Fair in Greeneville. The fair’s board of directors has agreed to list the current fairgrounds property with adjacent parcels to the north and east, which will constitute a 182-acre offering. “This will be a multiyear project,” said lead broker John L. Johnson, CCIM, ALC, manag ...

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At Eastman Chemical Company’s (NYSE: EMN) 2018 Innovation Day, senior company executives discussed the company’s focus on innovation to drive growth and strong value creation, then announced a $2 billion.stock buyback. “We have built a compelling, innovation-driven growth model that is unique to Eastman,” said Mark Costa, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer. “Our model consists of the combination of wor ...

Photo above: Bush's Beans' Chairman of the Board Drew Everett makes the three-year extension official with BMS GM Jerry Caldwell at Bush’s visitors center in Chestnut Hill Monday. Photo courtesy BMS Forget Boston. Bristol is Beantown for three more years. Bush Brothers & Company and Bristol Motor Speedway have extended their partnership featuring two old-school Tennessee institutions with a new three-ye ...

By Scott Robertson The Brewers Association statistics that define the craft beer boom in America since 2010 are mind-boggling. More than 6,850 breweries exist today in a marketplace that less than six years ago had fewer than 2,500 and saw two brewing companies (Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors) control a 90 percent share. While overall beer sales were flat from 2015 to 2016, craft beer* sales rose 6.2 ...