By Scott Robertson To all the good people who live or work on or around Boone Lake and whose quality of life has been impacted by the lowering of the lake levels for repairs on Boone Dam: It’s sad and unfortunate that you are having to go through this. Please know the rest of us sympathize with you. We hope and pray TVA can beat its projected time frame for repairs. Having said that, there is a very importa ...

By Jeff Keeling I have a young friend who started the 10th grade early this month. I ran into him, and his younger brother who was starting 9th grade, their first morning of school and wound up taking them to lunch that day. Sandwiched around the sandwiches and boneless wings were trips to an out-of-the-way street in a poorer part of Johnson City lined with tiny houses. The boys, along with another brother ...

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By Jeff Keeling As Kingsport aims to radically improve its community health status, it is set to become home to a leading healthy snack producer. Vancouver, B.C.-based Pure Foods announced in March it would locate production, along with research and development, at a new plant in Kingsport’s Gateway Commerce Park. Likely before year’s end, employees will begin making the likes of cheese puffs with 50 percen ...

“Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.” -  Epictetus Perhaps the citizens of Greece should brush up on the writings of one of their venerable philosophers. Epictetus knew about discipline. So why has his country forgotten it? You could call the Greek voters the Oxi morons. The electorate of Greece voted overwhelmingly to reject a European Union bailou ...

Healthy Kingsport looks to decrease rates of diabetes, obesity, hypertension and heart disease By Sarah Colson, Jeff Keeling and Scott Robertson Numbers don’t lie, and when those numbers pertain to the health of Tennesseans – and particularly to East Tennesseans – they aren’t kind. Alarmingly high rates of adult-onset diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other chronic, largely preventable maladies cost the ...

Eastman adds UT as Innovation Network Partner By Jeff Keeling Eastman Chemical Co. has come in-state for the latest addition to its higher-education based Eastman Innovation Network. Company and University of Tennessee, Knoxville officials announced an initial three-year partnership June 22. UT will benefit from $750,000 in sponsored research endeavors between Eastman scientists and UT faculty and students, ...

By Scott Robertson Country Club at Bristol has been in limbo for the better part of a decade. But after a pair of transactions July 1, members hope a new era of stability is dawning. Local businessmen Roscoe Bowman, Tim Carter and Mitch Walters purchased the club from TruPoint Bank and immediately signed a 10-year lease to Integrity Golf, a management firm based in Orlando, Fla. “Roscoe, Tim and I probably ...

            Multiple online reports indicate the New York Stock Exchange has halted all trading of stock for Alpha Natural Resources, the Bristol, Va.-based coal company, and that the exchange has begun the process of delisting Alpha. Alpha was told by NYSE officials in April that it was in a state of non-compliance because it had not traded above $1 a share for more than 30 days. Alpha said at the time it ...

By Scott Robertson The 300-plus leaders in the fields of education and business who gathered on the campus of East Tennessee State University May 27 and 28 for the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit heard academicians and healthcare industry experts explain how their education, health and economics affect each other. Dr. Randy Wykoff, founding dean of the ETSU College of Public Health, explained how ...