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KNOXVILLE - A Criminal Court jury this afternoon convicted former Knox County Community Services Director Cynthia Finch of two counts of felony forgery but acquitted her of fabricating evidence. The jurors found she was guilty of forging an invoice for $1,759, a Class D felony punishable by two to four years in prison. She also was convicted of forging an invoice under $500, a Class E felony that has a sentence of one to two years. Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood said sentencing would be set later. The jury acquitted her of fabricating evidence. The verdicts were returned after about...

KNOXVILLE - A former Knox County administrator is standing trial today on charges she offered up fake receipts to account for more than $2,000 in questionable expenses. Cynthia Finch, who served as community grants director under former Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, is being tried in Criminal Court on charges of forgery and fabricating evidence. Finch was indicted in 2009 and accused of fabricating receipts for about $2,200 in FedEx/Kinko's charges. The charges - two counts of forgery and one count of fabricating evidence - came after Finch's departure from the county's administration, a string of audits involving the county...

An inquiry is underway after an 8,000lb elephant at a Tennessee zoo backed a trainer into a wall and crushed her to death yesterday. Knoxville Zoo said today that it had temporarily closed its elephant exhibit, while the rest of the zoo remained open. But a zoo spokesman insisted the death of 33-year-old Stephanie James was nothing more than a terrible and tragic accident. Tina Rolen, assistant director of marketing at the zoo, said: 'It's a difficult day but our staff is very professional and they are carrying on with their duties today.' She said the review of yesterday's tragedy...

A woman was shot and killed outside a North Knoxville credit union Wednesday morning during an apparent robbery. The suspect was shot by a police officer at the scene. Police identified the woman as Davida Nicholson, in her 40s, of Anderson County. The suspect is Brandon James Johnson, 20, of Knoxville. He is charged with one count of felony murder, one count of attempted first degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault. Nicholson was shot just before 8:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union, 1316 Wilson Road near Clinton Highway. The credit union was...

A year and a day after undergoing ground-breaking surgery for wounds suffered in an attack in Afghanistan, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Tre Porfirio, died Nov. 28 from complications of the same injury. The Knoxville-born serviceman's father, Karl Porfirio, said Thursday that the past year "has been rough." "I keep calling him a boy, but he's a man," Karl Porfirio said, his voice cracking. "He's my boy, but to everybody else he's a man. A senior airman in the United States Air Force." The 22-year-old airman will be buried today at the East Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery.

For the sixth time in five months, there's been gunfire during a South Knox County home robbery. The latest incident, Monday night, involved a woman shooting and killing a man with a lengthy criminal history during a home invasion robbery after the intruder had struggled with and shot her husband, authorities said Tuesday. A second interloper escaped, apparently uninjured, and was being sought by police.

Neighbors assumed it must be drug related, while police later said it was a domestic stalker wanted on numerous felony warrants who was the target of an armed raid on an East Knoxville house Monday afternoon. Either way, the suspect they were looking for wasn't there. And the Knoxville Police Department continues to search for Horace Henry Gladden, 31, of Knoxville. "This individual has been stalking his girlfriend. He has been very violent toward his girlfriend," said KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk. "She's had to be moved on more than one occasion (for her safety.)" Police have placed Gladden on nationwide...

Knoxville Police Officer Brandon Stryker was wearing a bulletproof vest Friday when he was shot while attempting to arrest 54-year-old Michael Chesney. Chesney was killed in the shootout with Stryker and other officers. Chesney is suspected of fatally shooting Daniel Charles Giles, 60, a cashier at S&S Cafeteria in Bearden, on Thursday.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tennessee Man Convicted of Illegally Accessing Sarah Palin’s E-mail Account and Obstruction of Justice David C. Kernell, 22, was convicted by a federal jury in Knoxville, Tenn., today for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and obstruction of justice, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced. After a week-long trial, a jury found Kernell guilty of one count of misdemeanor unauthorized access to obtain information from a computer and one count of obstruction of...

KNOXVILLE - Federal court jurors reported today they have reached a verdict on three of four charges against former University of Tennessee student David C. Kernell, accused of illegally accessing the private e-mail account of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. But they also reported they are deadlocked on the first count, a charge of identity theft. Without asking what their verdict is on the other counts, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips sent them back to the jury room to continue deliberating the first count. In their written communication to the judge this afternoon, the jurors said: "Some...

UPDATE: The school board has decided to postpone any decision on the textbook until May. A Tennessee father told his son’s school board it should ban a biology textbook because of its ‘bias’ against Christians. Kurt Zimmermann is appealing a Knoxville school district's decision to keep the book. He says the textbook used in his son’s biology class cites creationism as a "biblical myth." According to reports, he requests, 'non-biased' textbooks be used. In his words, the current textbook's phrasing misleads, belittles and discourages students in believing in creationism and calls the Bible a myth. "Education material that is offensive,...

The tragedy that the mainstream media refuses to speak about. May they be with the Lord.

Knoxville's census office is facing a shortage of applicants despite part-time jobs that pay almost $13 an hour. More than 2,000 positions in a three-county area are available between now and the end of summer. Even with 22 full-time recruiters in Knox, Blount and Sevier counties, applications have been few and far between, said Marty Coffman, manager of the Knoxville census office.

KNOXVILLE - The gunshots that nearly killed Inskip Elementary School's principal and assistant principal came from a pistol bought last month at a local gun show, according to court records revealed today. Mark Stephen Foster, 48, fired at least five shots from the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver Wednesday at Principal Elisa Luna and Assistant Principal Amy Brace after learning he wouldn't have a job next year, officers wrote in search warrants for his car and his home in Anderson County.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Officials say a Tennessee elementary school principal is in critical condition after she and an assistant principal were shot and wounded by a co-worker at their office. The shooting at Inskip Elementary School in Knoxville happened Wednesday afternoon about an hour after all the children were dismissed for a snow day. Forty-eight-year-old Mark Stephen Foster is charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Police say Foster was a co-worker, but wouldn't say what his job was. The school's Web site identifies Foster as a fourth-grade teacher. University of Tennessee Medical Center officials said Principal Elisa...

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- A fourth grade teacher at Inskip Elementary School is charged Wednesday with the shootings of the principal and assistant principal at the school. The victims are Principal Elisa Luna and Assistant Principal Amy Brace. Officials at UT Medical Center say Luna is in critical condition and Brace is in stable condition. The suspect is Inskip teacher Mark Stephen Foster, 48, of Clinton. He's been charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder.

"Stop, stop, you're killing me: Knoxville Muslim says he was joking about carrying out jihad terror attack at shopping mall Ha ha! A real side splitter! Look out, Letterman!" SNIPPET: "...pushed for the detention pending trial of Hazam Ali Ahmed. The 35-year-old Ahmed was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms after authorities last week found two guns inside the Central Convenience Store on Keith Avenue that he operated. However, testimony at Monday's hearing shows Ahmed has been on the radar screen of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force since at least January 2006." SNIPPET: ""He referred to...

A Knox County jury delivered the death sentence this afternoon to the ringleader in the torture slayings of a young Knoxville couple following a carjacking. The same panel of seven men and five women who convicted Lemaricus Davidson, 28, in the 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, decided his fate. Davidson was found guilty of more than 30 counts, including felony murder and premeditated murder of each victim. The jury had a choice of a life sentence mandating a minimum of 51 years in prison, life without parole with no...

Davidson found guilty Murder One all counts.

KNOXVILLE - While jurors watched for the second time torture-slaying alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson's account after his arrest in the January 2007 slayings of a Knox County couple, the parents of one victim lashed out at defense claims of drug use. Within a half hour of resuming deliberations this morning, jurors pondering Davidson's fate in the slayings of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom asked for a replay of a two-hour-long interrogation video of Davidson after his Jan. 11, 2007 arrest.