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ERWIN — Once Northeast Tennessee’s largest railroad hub, Erwin is losing a significant part of its economic history as CSX Railroad plans to reduce its operations here, affecting some 300 jobs, as a result of less reliance on coal in the nation. Many of the changes were effective today, as facilities were closed. In a statement issued this morning, Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX Corp. said its plans include closing a locomotive service center, project shop and car shop, and eliminating switching operations at the Erwin yard. Approximately 300 CSX contract and management employees who work at the facilities and in support...

(CNN) - During the Civil War, it was a patch of the South so reviled by the Confederacy for its pro-Union leanings that it in 1862 it was declared "enemy territory" by the secessionist government. The area's most celebrated native, Andrew Johnson, was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. Johnson would go on to become president, succeeding Abraham Lincoln. Now, more than 150 years later, Greene County, Tennessee is once again ruffling feathers on matters pertaining to the long-gone Confederacy. This time, however, the rebellious county just might turn the historical tables and for the first...

Colorado's biggest nonprofit health insurer announced its closure Friday, forcing nearly 83,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016. Colorado HealthOP announced Friday that the state Division of Insurance has de-certified it as an eligible insurance company. That's because the cooperative relied on federal support, and federal authorities announced last month they wouldn't be able to pay most of what they owed in a program designed to help health insurance co-ops get established. The Colorado announcement makes the co-op the seventh in the nation to collapse. Similar nonprofit insurers have already failed in Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa/Nebraska, Nevada, New York...

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump said Saturday that had teachers been armed at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, the deadly shooting there this week would not have been as tragic. Trump has previously cited mental health issues, not guns, as the biggest cause of shootings in the U.S. But his comments on Saturday are his most extensive and emotionally charged about firearms since he launched his campaign in June, as he spoke about his personal gun ownership and elicited his biggest applause of the afternoon in discussing gun rights. "By the way, it was a gun-free zone," he said at a...

Approximately 27,000 Tennesseans who had coverage through the Tennessee Community Health Alliance will be receiving cancelation notices soon. Just yesterday, the CHA announced that it had entered a voluntary state-approved runoff and will no longer offer insurance plans in 2016. This decision comes just weeks away from the next Obamacare Open Enrollment period beginning on November 1, 2015. Policyholders who continue to pay their premiums will keep their coverage through December 31, 2015, but will be forced to choose a new plan from the four remaining carriers participating in the state’s Exchange. “This was not a decision that the Department...

ERWIN, TN (WJHL) – CSX announced Thursday morning it plans to reduce train operations at it Erwin, TN yard. Around 300 contract and management employee will be impacted. The decision, according to a press release, was due to “significantly reduced coal traffic through the region.” CSX plans to close a locomotive service center, a project and car shop and eliminating switching operations at the Northeast Tennessee yard.

Here in Tennessee, the public battle over Islamic indoctrination in public schools rages on. Last month, I reported that parents in my home county were upset after their Middle School-age children were forced to recite the Shahada – the declaration that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. Following this revelation, my old colleagues at the American Center for Law and Justice filed open records requests with Tennessee school districts, demanding to see copies of policies, communications, and curriculum related to instruction in Islam and other world religions. Incredibly, several school districts flatly refused to comply with the request....

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An off-duty police officer died Sunday after being shot multiple times, the fourth Memphis police officer to be fatally shot in slight more than four years, authorities said. Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said 31-year-old Terence Olridge was taken to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis on Sunday where he later died.

It’s no secret that there has been a fair amount of dissention among the Republican Party in Congress. A few weeks ago, Speaker of the House John Boehner, who became the primary target of blame for the party’s division, announced his resignation. The opportunity to elect new leadership should have been the first step towards uniting our party; however, that has been far from the case. Turmoil in the House seems to only have increased as we work to determine who is best fit to lead Congress. However, one thing upon which everyone can seem to agree on are the...

MARYVILLE — A divisive resolution asking that Blount County be spared God’s wrath over the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage died in committee Tuesday night before it could be considered by the county commission.More than 120 attendees crowded the commission chambers at the Blount County Courthouse in Maryville to speak at what was technically the commission’s agenda committee meeting to approve agenda items for the Oct. 15 meeting.Before anyone could speak to the proposed resolution, though, the draft agenda failed to win approval in a 10-5 vote, nixing all the agenda items and effectively canceling next week’s commission meeting...

Conservative frustration over Republican efforts to force a House vote on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank boiled over Wednesday during a contentious GOP meeting. Members of the conference’s conservative wing criticized Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) at the meeting for moving to file a discharge petition to bring a vote on legislation renewing the embattled bank’s charter for five years, after it lapsed June 30 because of Tea Party opposition. "A lot of people don't like that we're doing a discharge petition. You know what? I don't like it. I wish we could've done something in committee," Fincher said in an interview...

WHITE PINE (WATE) — A shooting Saturday evening in White Pine left an 8-year-old girl dead and an 11-year-old boy arrested on first-degree murder charges. . . . Latasha Dyer said her daughter was outside playing when her next door neighbor, an 11-year-old boy, asked to see her puppy. She said her daughter told the boy “no” and shortly after the 11-year-old boy shot her.

The size of G.I. Joe’s biceps and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s guns in the Terminator movies is proof that the dominant form of masculinity is out of control. That message and similar ones were conveyed recently to students during Vanderbilt University’s “Healthy Masculinities Week,” organized by the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center. Attendance for students was optional. The Vanderbilt week kicked off with a lecture by the first man to minor in women’s studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Jackson Katz. (His alma mater now offers a bachelor’s in women, gender and sexuality studies.) Entire article can be found hee.

Link to the pollSome people seems to think that Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey of Tennessee said something controversial when he suggested that these are troubled times; that Christians are under attack, and that it would be wise for Christians to obtain a concealed carry permit and be willing to defend themselves.  From the timesfreepress.com:“Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West,” he wrote.“While this is not the time for widespread panic,” Ramsey added, “it is a time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow...

FRANKLIN, Tennessee — GOP frontrunner Donald Trump offered a ringing defense of gun rights and the Second Amendment to an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd of 3,000 Tennesseans on Saturday. An overflowing audience of an additional 1,000 stood outside The Factory in Franklin, Tennessee in the drizzling rain as they listened to the rally on speakers. It was a huge turnout for Trump, whose campaign team announced the event less than 72 hours earlier. “I’m a very, very big 2nd Amendment person,” Trump told the crowd. “It’s very important to me.”

Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said in a Facebook posting Friday that “fellow Christians” should consider getting a handgun carry permit after the mass shooting in Oregon. Survivors told authorities the gunman demanded at least some of the victims state their religion before shooting them at a community college. In his posting, Ramsey, also the Tennessee state Senate speaker, called recent U.S. mass shootings “truly troubling.” “I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit,” Ramsey wrote. “I have always believed that it is better to have a gun...

The lieutenant governor of Tennessee is encouraging his “fellow Christians” to go out and get handgun permits in the wake of the Oregon college shooting. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey posted a message to Facebook saying how disturbed he was by reports that the gunman asked people if they were Christian and then, if they answered affirmatively, shot them in the head. Ramsey said of the spike in mass shootings, “Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West.” He then extended this bit of advice...

The live stream video is posted above. Donald Trump’s rally is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m CT local time). Use World Clock to find the equivalent in your own time zone on Saturday, October 3 or Sunday, October 4 accordingly. The rally takes place at The Factory at Franklin in Williamson County, which is in the Nashville metro area. Doors open at 1 p.m. CT and free tickets are available via Eventbrite. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

A local activist informs me that an open records request is related to a grassroots reaction among parents against an inappropriate focus on Islam in history and social studies courses in Tennessee middle schools. Earlier this month, for example, parents in the Nashville suburb of in Spring Hill expressed alarm because their public middle school children are learning about Islam in a world history class but, the parents say, the course material pointedly ignores Christianity.”But Tennessee school officials are stonewalling. Clearly they have something to hide. And this islamization is going on in school districts all over the country. Read...

We all know where former vice president Al Gore stands when it comes to climate change, but what about a presidential bid for 2016? His name has routinely been floated as a potential Democratic candidate at every primary since losing the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000, but unlike 2004 and 2008, the environmental activist has yet to publicly rule out the possibility of a run. In fact, heÂ’s remained especially shy on the subject this time around, keeping us all wondering about what would be a major political comeback.But when FusionÂ’s Jorge Ramos had a chance to...