By Scott Robertson I noticed something unusual during Memorial Day lunch. On the TV in the corner of the restaurant, ESPN was running a “breaking news” crawl in the holiday baseball game, and giving credit to another media outlet for the story. There were a couple of things unusual about that. First, ESPN is infamous in media circles for stealing other people’s stories and attributing the news to “sources.” ...

Officials with Frontier Secure, VCEDA and the Wise County IDA pose with a $5.6 million check, June 29, 2016. Thursday, May 25, 4:30 p.m. – The anticipated sale of Frontier Communications’ subsidiary Frontier Secure to Sykes Enterprises will not affect the repayment of a $5.6 million Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority loan that had paved the way for Frontier Secure to open its Wise, Va., facil ...

Photo above: The 2017 class of Tribute to Women Award recipients: (Back row, L-R) Brenda Barnicki, Ruth Moseley King, Melody Trimble, Susan Reid, Carol Transou, (Front row, L-R) Tina Camper, Mary Margaret Denton, Muriel Kagan Zager and CeeGee McCord  Photo courtesy YWCA By Scott Robertson The 2017 class of Tribute to Women Award recipients includes several women who have made an impact on the Tri-Cities bus ...

Photo above: Ira Stone of MiniFibers, (right) discusses broadband with Eric Ogle of Magellan Advisors, working on behalf of the Johnson City Power Board. Photos courtesy JCPB By Scott Robertson The Johnson City Power Board (soon to be changing its name to the Johnson City Energy Authority Board) is in the process of conducting an intensive survey of its business and residential users in order to ascertain t ...

Photo above: Tony Vella poses with Cootie Brown’s key lime pie delivery container at Lot 8 on State of Franklin Road in Johnson City. Photo by Collin Brooks By Scott Robertson and Collin Brooks On April 26, as the Johnson City Public Building Authority was considering whether to enter into negotiations with one of three entities (the Chamber of Commerce Serving Johnson City, Jonesborough and Washington Coun ...

Photo above: Patrick Wilson and David Jones discuss runway repair work. Photo by Scott Robertson By Scott Robertson The Tri-Cities Airport Authority continues to move ahead with its plan to create a business/industrial park for aeronautical companies. In its April 20 meeting, the authority unanimously voted to approve the expenditure of $82,000 to conduct a federally mandated environmental assessment of the ...

Photo above: James Curtis Hughes, donor Representative and family member and Emory & Henry President Jake Schrum shake hands after signing the Kathryn Burke Greever endowment agreement. By Scott Robertson One never knows how long one’s impact on others will last. The inspiration for gifts of more than $1 million to Emory & Henry College, for instance, began over 100 years ago, said James Curtis “Cur ...

Photo Above: Bob Hart, Etta Clark, Dr. Bill Greer, Chrissy Idlette and CeeGee McCord commemorate the opening of the Eastman engineering lab on the campus of Milligan College April 28. By Scott Robertson Area business leaders joined the Milligan College community April 28 for the dedication of the college’s new engineering facilities, a major component of the college’s recent efforts to expand its academic o ...

Photo above: Steve Smith, Travis Staton, and Alan Levine By Scott Robertson The relationship between the United Way and the business community in America has generally followed a simple model: businesses support the United Way, through encouraging employees to contribute to fund drives and through allowing employees to take time away from the office to volunteer. The United Way of Southwest Virginia is addi ...

By Scott Robertson I love it when my natural inclination to be pessimistic turns out to be wrong. In this space in February, I posited the notion that the Tennessee General Assembly might not pass the IMPROVE Act (the acronym is for Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy) because the legislative body, “is full of individuals who make decisions by wetting their fingers ...