“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 ...

By Jeff Keeling Production shutdowns; unpaid employees; a capital shortage – it wasn’t supposed to be this way when a group of glass industry veterans opened Heritage Glass in Kingsport’s former AGC North America Blue Ridge glass plant. But as the Business Journal prepared to go to print June 5, production at the plant was shut down temporarily as President Eric Kerney and other company directors sought fin ...

By Jeff Keeling Jim Green strides through the nearly complete athletic fieldhouse at Johnson City, Tenn.’s Science Hill High School, stopping to check with valued employees of his third-generation contracting business. It’s a family atmosphere even on the job site of a J.E. Green Co. project, and Green is clearly comfortable with his men. Like many other small, family-owned businesses around the Tri-Cities ...

There haven’t been too many Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame laureates who’ve had their own catch phrases. But if you show Mitch Walters picture to anyone in the Tri-Cities with a television, they’ll probably say, “Oh yeah, It’s the ‘We’re dealin’ man!” Mitch Walters’ is more than just a face on TV, though. His Friendship family of dealerships today has more than 300 employees, and Friendship has ea ...

Roy L. Harmon, Jr.’s roots in business success stretch much further back than his 1980 initiation into the world of banking. They stretch back even further than involvement with Junior Achievement as a Dobyns-Bennett High School student in the early 1970s. In fact, the son of a Holston Valley nurse and a Mead Paper lab technician says, “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a job. “When I was growing u ...