Matt Shafer Powell

Over the past decade, National Coal LLC's Zeb Mountain coal mine on the Scott/Campbell county border has become a rallying point for environmental groups and East Tennessee residents opposed to the practice known as "mountain-top removal".   Mountain top removal is a process by which the summit or summit ridge of a mountain is removed to expose the coal seams that lie beneath.  After the coal is mined, the summit is replaced to mimic the original contour of the mountain.

In 2010, then-Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee challenged the University of Tennessee with the goal of becoming a Top 25 public research university by the year 2020.  Since then, UT-Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy Cheek has engaged in a relentless public campaign to make that happen. 

  Members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) and others opposed to possible U.S. military action in Syria are planning to protest on a downtown Knoxville sidewalk this morning. 

In two separate inspections this year, the Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) found Roane County Jail inmates packed into the facility, far beyond its official capacity.  The inspection reports noted a shortage of wash basins and toilets, especially in the women’s section of the jail.  For a jail built only four years ago to alleviate overcrowding, the threat of decertification loomed large.  

The City of Knoxville is preparing for what has evolved into the busiest weekend of the year. 

The national animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is turning up the heat on a small privately-owned roadside zoo in Cherokee, North Carolina, where, PETA officials say, the bears are forced to live in stark, concrete pits with little or no natural stimulation.   PETA says it will focus more of its attention on the Cherokee Bear Zoo now that a similar attraction in Cherokee has been shut down.

If you’ve ever watched a cop show on TV, you’re probably familiar with the line in the Miranda Warning that guarantees an attorney for those defendants who can’t afford one. 

Visitors who want to see the Knoxville Museum of Art will have to put their plans on hold for a while.

The museum officially closed Sunday evening and won’t reopen for three months.  During that time, construction crews will remodel bathrooms, replace floors and upgrade lighting, all part of the museum’s most ambitious renovation since it moved to World’s Fair Park in 1990. 

Aspiring pop stars from all around East Tennessee are expected to converge on Knoxville's Krutch Park today to audition for the popular FOX TV talent competition American Idol.  The American Idol Audition Bus is currently on a five-city tour throughout the Southeast in search of contestants.  Crowds in previous tour stops like Tuscaloosa, Ala. and Little Rock, Ark. have numbered in the thousands.     

In what’s being described as the type of find archeologists “dream of making”, a team of researchers and students from the University of Tennessee say they’ve discovered valuable clues to the lives of ancient Roman soldiers who once lived in the middle of the South Jordanian desert.