Here is your Cleveland, Tenn. | Bradley County, Tenn. news on mymix1041.com, sponsored by Toyota of Cleveland: From NewsChannel 9… The Tennessee Wil
Here is your Cleveland, Tenn. | Bradley County, Tenn. news on mymix1041.com, sponsored by Toyota of Cleveland:
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has identified the victim in Saturday’s fatal boating accident on Chickamauga Lake.
The TWRA says 55-year-old Michael L. Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene when his 14-foot, flat bottom johnboat sank.
The agency says a second boater was able to swim to shore.
According to a release, the two men were in a johnboat that sank in six feet of water in Johns Slough, just South of the Cottonport Marina.
From the Cleveland Daily Banner…
Kaitlin Gebby reports: Lee University held its first in-person commencement ceremonies since December 2019 this weekend, conferring more than 600 degrees.
Lee graduated students in six separate ceremonies between Friday and Saturday, with the first held Friday afternoon. Each commencement was organized by area of study and limited the number of guests per graduate to reduce crowds and to maintain social distancing.
While the in-person ceremony was held in the Paul and Dana Walker Arena, several other locations on campus were designated for family and friends to watch the ceremony remotely. They later met graduates at an outdoor reception following the commencement.
The ceremony combined elements of events usually held separately during graduation season, such as the distribution of Bibles signed by President Walker and Chancellor Dr. Paul Conn, and students sharing their experiences at Lee University.
From the Chattanooga Times Free Press…
Federal officials have been publicly silent in the four months following FBI raids on three sitting Tennessee Republican House members, two of them political consultants performing work for several GOP colleagues.
But federal agents have by no means been idle since their Jan. 8 searches of the homes and legislative offices of state Reps. Robin Smith, R-Hixson and former House speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin, plus a freshman representative and a former top House staffer.
It turns out that FBI agents for months have quietly visited the Cordell Hull State Office Building to interview lawmakers for whom Smith and Casada, both political consultants, did work in 2020.
A day or two before members of the General Assembly ended their annual session on Wednesday, FBI agents visited Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, in his sixth-floor legislative office.
Zachary confirmed the interview Friday to the Times Free Press following a report in the Tennessee Journal, a political newsletter, that he had informed some colleagues about it on the House floor Wednesday.
Public disclosures of racist and sexist text exchanges between Casada, Cothren and a third man as well as Speaker Casada’s intense push to pass Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher bill — Zachary was a pivotal vote — later led to a no-confidence vote by the GOP Caucus on Casada. He stepped down as speaker in August 2019 and was replaced by now-Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville.
