Sweetwater, TN (WOKI) The Sweetwater Police Department is investigating the distribution of flyers that claim to be from the Ku Klux Klan.
Officials with the department took to social media stating that they are working to identify where the materials came from. Text on the flyers alongside a drawing of Uncle Sam tell people to “self-deport” and includes contact information that claims to be for multiple branches of the Ku Klux Klan.
“We are aware of racially motivated propaganda that has been distributed throughout our city,” SPD wrote. “We are actively working with neighboring agencies who have reported similar incidents in their areas. Our efforts are focused on identifying the source of this material.”
The department added that the City of Sweetwater Street Department and Parks and Recreation Department helped clean up hundreds of these flyers.
Anyone with information about who may have been involved in distributing the flyers is urged to call Sweetwater police’s non-emergency line at 423-442-4357.
Nashville, TN (WOKI) Dolly Parton’s upcoming Broadway musical will be making a stop in Tennessee before heading to New York.
The country superstar announced on Tuesday that Dolly: An Original Musical will open for the first time on Belmont University’s campus in July.
“It just seemed right to premiere the story of my life in Tennessee, because I am Tennessee-born and Tennessee-raised,” Dolly said while speaking at the university on Tuesday.
It will mark the first time that Belmont’s Fisher Center will host the world premiere of a new musical with a professional cast. As for the musical itself, it’s gearing up to be an all-Dolly extravaganza.
The production took to social media last year, calling for open auditions for people to play Dolly herself. She talked about the search on Tuesday, saying she was amazed by how many people submitted auditions.
“Casting is one of the most important things we do,” Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher, who’s directing the show, said. “These are very important choices to make, and you have to pick the perfect people.”
The show will also feature original Dolly songs highlighting key points in her life.
“I’ve lived my life, and my life has been country,” Dolly said. “I’ve touched so many lives by telling stories about people, so it’s only natural that the music I’ve written has that flavor and tells the story of my life.”
The music itself, she said, will have a country flair.
“We have some bigger songs that are tailor-made to how I think they should be on Broadway, but they have a country feel as well,” Dolly said. “I think they’ll appreciate me taking Nashville to New York along with that country sound.”
The musical will head to Broadway in 2026. Before heading to New York, the show will open on July 18 of this year at Belmont and run until Aug. 17. Tickets start at $40 each and can be purchased here.
The musical itself will highlight Dolly’s life and career and borrows its title from her first studio album, which came out in 1967. (Courtesy: WVLT)
A major road project is set to get underway in North Knox County in August.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation says the project in Powell to help alleviate traffic on Emory Road at I-75.
They are planning to add a diverted diamond interchange similar to the one at I-40’s exit 407, the Sevierville exit.
TDOT’s Mark Nagi explains how it will work.
He says Motorists driving either eastbound or westbound will navigate through two traffic signals and perform crisscross maneuvers. While motorists going westbound can go straight through the interchange or access southbound or northbound I-75.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 18/17 Tennessee held No. 2/2 South Carolina to one of its lowest point totals of the season, but the Gamecocks held off a fourth quarter Lady Vol charge to stay unbeaten in SEC play with a 70-63 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 12,033 Monday night at Food City Center.
UT (15-5, 3-5 SEC) outscored USC, 24-13, in the final quarter and trimmed a 22-point deficit to six but could not overcome the Gamecocks (20-1, 8-0 SEC), who won their 55th straight SEC regular season contest. The Lady Vols suffered through their toughest shooting night of the season at 30.7 percent but held a unit averaging 81.9 points per game to 70 on the evening for the fifth lowest sum of the campaign. In Kim Caldwell‘s return to the sideline after missing the Texas game due to the birth of her first child, her squad also won the battle on the boards, 49-40, including an 18-7 margin on the offensive end.
For the second consecutive game, junior guard Ruby Whitehorn paced the Tennessee offensive attack, finishing with 12 points and adding five rebounds, three steals, two assists and a pair of blocks. Redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper also was in double figures with 11, pulling down eight boards as well.
Joyce Edwards fired in 18 points to lead five South Carolina players in double digits. MiLaysia Fulwiley contributed 11 points, while Chloe Kitts, Te-Hina Paopao and Raven Johnson chipped in 10 each.
The Lady Vols set the tone early, grabbing a 4-0 lead on jumpers by Cooper and Whitehorn and then led 6-2 at the 6:45 mark on a pair of Whitehorn free throws and 9-5 by the 4:55 media timeout on a Samara Spencer three-pointer. Tennessee capped a 9-0 run by scoring the next six points out of the break on a pair of scores from Spencer and a layup from Whitehorn to build a game-high nine-point lead, 14-5, with 2:48 to go. The Gamecocks responded with a run of their own, reeling off eight straight to trim the margin to one, 14-13, on a Maddy McDaniel layup before the end of the quarter.
UT pushed its advantage back to three on three different occasions early in the second stanza, going up 16-13 on a pair of Whitehorn free throws, 18-15 on a Cooper put-back and 20-17 on a Cooper jumper with 6:50 to go. South Carolina, though, countered with a 7-0 spree, capped by a Fulwiley fast break layup, to seize a 24-20 lead and force a Big Orange timeout with 4:46 remaining in the first half. The Gamecocks continued their spree, reaching 14 straight before a Jillian Hollingshead free throw with 2:14 remaining left her team trailing the visitors, 31-21. A Cooper three and fast break layup enabled Tennessee to whittle the gap to nine, 35-26, before the intermission.
South Carolina used a 10-2 burst out of the locker room to build a 45-28 gap by the 7:11 mark and took a 48-32 advantage into the 4:57 media timeout. Zee Spearman tallied five and Kaniya Boyd added a bucket over the final five minutes, but the Gamecocks maintained a 57-39 cushion heading to the final frame.
After South Carolina pushed the gap to 22, 61-39, with 9:05 remaining in the game, the Lady Vols began to methodically chip away at the lead. A pair of Spencer free throws, layups by Alyssa Latham and Tess Darby and back-to-back layups by Boyd forced the Gamecocks to ask for time with Tennessee within 14, 63-49, with 5:58 left. Back-to-back layups by Whitehorn got Tennessee to within nine by the 1:18 mark, 69-60, and a three-pointer from Jewel Spear drew the Lady Vols to within six, 69-63, with 14 ticks left on the clock, but the home team ran out of time.
UP NEXT: Tennessee is idle on Thursday before heading to Columbia, Mo., to face off vs. Missouri on Sunday afternoon at Mizzou Arena. The Lady Vols and Tigers will meet at 2 p.m. CT (3 p.m. ET) in a contest streamed on SECN+. The game also will be available on Lady Vol Network radio stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.
FOOD CITY CENTER WAS ROCKIN’: A season-high crowd of 12,033 fans were in attendance at Food City Center during the matchup against the Gamecocks, and they certainly brought the energy. It was the largest Lady Vol crowd in the venue since the LSU matchup on Feb. 25, 2024, when 15,281 on hand. It also marked the fourth 10,000-plus crowd of the 2024-25 season. The other 10,000-plus crowds were against LSU (10,220), Oklahoma (11,321) and Winthrop (11,152).
PLAYING TAKEAWAY: The Lady Vols tallied 10 steals against the Gamecocks, marking the 13th time this season that Tennessee has racked up double-digit takeaways and the first time vs. a top-10 team in three tries. The Big Orange notched their highest total of steals with 27 against Samford on Nov. 5, 2024. Ruby Whitehorn led the team with three steals vs. South Carolina, tying her season-high and SEC-high amount.
UPDATE: The Blount County Sheriff’s Office is thanking the public for their help finding 77-year-old Jerry Austin who left his Maryville home on Blockhouse Road yesterday (Monday) afternoon. He has been found safe.
Original Story: The Blount County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help finding a missing Maryville man.
77-year-old Jerry Austin left his home on Blockhouse Road yesterday (Monday) afternoon, he was wearing a red and black jacket and blue jeans.
He does have a medical condition that may impair his ability to return home safely without assistance.
Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler provides a timeline of events that led up to David Batts’ death, saying that officers committed no wrongdoing.
Spangler says Batts was arrested on January 7th for sexual battery at UT Medical Center and taken to the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility. Due to for not complying with authorities.
Spangler says hours later Batts continued to not comply with supervisors and medical staff, leading them to gain control of him so a nurse could get vital signs. He says the nurse determined that Batts should be taken back to the hospital.
First responders took him back in the early morning hours of January 8th. The Sheriff says a judge granted Batts a pre-trial release from custody while he was still where he passed away.
District Attorney General Charme Allen says a preliminary autopsy report identified Batts’ cause of death as meningitis, meaning the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation would not be looking into the incident.
Spangler added that a urine analysis showed that Batts had fentanyl in his system. A final autopsy report is still pending Batts’ family hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is well known for his role in representing the family of George Floyd, who died in May of 2020.
Crump said in a statement that Batts’ death was caused by “unchecked brutality” within the Knox County justice system. Representatives from his office added that they intend to file a lawsuit in the near future. “The death of David Batts is an example of unchecked brutality within the justice system,” Crump said. “His family deserves answers, accountability, and justice for this horrific loss. We demand the immediate release of all footage related to the arrest.
Knoxville – What steps do I need to take to run for elected office?
Why is the ballot ordered a certain way?
How do Knox County and the State of Tennessee ensure fair and accurate elections?
Why did my polling place change?
These are just a few of the many questions that voters throughout Knox County ask the Election Commission throughout the year. So, with a combined five elections scheduled in 2025 and 2026 – representing 48 elected offices – the Knox County Election Commission (KCEC) continues its duty to answer voters’ questions by again offering the popular Knox County Elections 101 seminar.
Now in its third year, this half-day seminar is geared towards voters, individuals considering a run for public office, and voters interested in being poll workers. Attendees will hear from KCEC staff and poll workers about how elections are conducted in Knox County and many of the details associated with preparing for an election.
In addition to a mock election, attendees will be presented information on several topics, including:
The different types of elections
The eight types of voting
How polling places are determined
What candidates need to know before they run for office
Ballot requirements, ballot order, and other ballot details
How accurate voter registration rolls are maintained
The important role that poll workers play in conducting elections
Determination of results – how the votes are counted
Election integrity and security – from pre-election public machine tests to post-election audits
And much, much more.
There is no cost to attend, but attendees must pre-register. The class will be limited to 40 individuals, and preference may be given to applicants with a strong voting record (frequent voters). Attendees must be registered voters in Knox County.
2024 was a record-breaking year at TYS, McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) welcomed 3.3 MILLION passengers, marking a 17.8% increase over 2023.
In addition, here are a few more numbers of interest. In 2024 at TYS:
50,160 feet of new cables were installed in the terminal
53,059 Cinnabons were consumed
279,724 Starbucks drinks were ordered
461,125 Quiznos sandwiches were served
2,800 miles of toilet paper were used
1,330,557 cars parked on property
McGhee Tyson officials say to everyone who traveled with us this year: THANK YOU! Chances are, you’ve noticed just how busy we’ve been.
They also say if you’re flying with them in 2025, plan ahead! Officials recommend arriving at least two hours before your flight to navigate the increased traffic, passengers, and flights.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) The Knox County Sheriff’s Office has ended its investigation into a Farragut priest.
Father Joseph Reed was placed on leave in December after being accused of violating boundaries within the Knoxville Diocese’s Safe Environment Policy.
The diocese sent out a letter to the congregation when Reed was first placed on leave, indicating they reported the complaint to the state which then prompted an investigation by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Department of Child Services.
KCSO officials report their investigation found the allegations unsubstantiated.
The Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is the seat of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville. (Courtesy: WVLT)
Tazewell, TN (WOKI) Tennessee forestry officials say rain has helped contain a wildfire that broke out Sunday night on Powell Mountain in Claiborne County.
According to the Division of Forestry, the fire broke out on the south side of the mountain near Snake Hollow Road, scorching 66 acres before it was 100% contained just ahead of noon on Monday.
Officials say the fire currently poses no danger to homes and that overnight rain and snow helped suppress the flames.
“A line was completed on the East flank cutting off the head, and a fortunate rainfall/snowfall event raised relative humidities and fuel moisture considerably, causing the fire to die down,” forestry officials said. “Further rainfall aided in extinguishing slow moving backing fires, although heavy fuels and dead trees/snags continued to burn throughout the night.”
The cause of the blaze is currently under investigation.
Tennessee Division of Forestry officials said the fire currently poses no danger to homes. (Pexels)
