News - Friday, April 17, 2026

The case was headed toward a familiar ending. Two parents stood in a Hamilton County courtroom, their dispute hardened by months of frustration and fear. The mother had filed motion after motion, trying to regain access to her child while navigating a legal system without an attorney. She also was battling a substance-use disorder. The father, meanwhile, had drawn firm lines. He wanted structure, accountability and assurance that his child would be safe.

“The report of my death was an exaggeration.” The line, attributed to Mark Twain, has long outlived its original context and come to refer to things written off too soon. In Chattanooga, it might now apply to a nonprofit many in the community had stopped thinking about.

Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga will host its Hope for the Homeless benefit dinner to support programs that help prevent and end family homelessness. Proceeds fund housing assistance, shelter, stabilization programs and other services for families with children.

This installment of Food FAQ heads to Wardlaw’s Lucky Eye-Q in LaFayette, Georgia, for what many claim is the region’s best barbecue. Spoiler alert: I agree.

Did you say LaFayette, Georgia? I thought this was a local food column.

“Local” is a fluid concept when it comes to food. The greater the buzz around a restaurant and the better the quality of its offerings, the less its distance from Chattanooga matters. By that measure, Lucky Eye-Q feels as local as Taco Mamacita and Main Street Meats, despite being a 45-minute drive from downtown.

April is Fair Housing Month – a fitting time to highlight something every buyer, renter, seller and homeowner deserves: a fair shot.

Buying or renting a home is one of the biggest decisions a person makes, and it should be shaped by budget, needs and lifestyle, not by discrimination. This article is based on a fair housing brochure from the National Association of Realtors, and it’s meant to help our community understand what fair housing protections look like in everyday situations.

The Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition has released results from its 2026 point-in-time count, reporting a decrease in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness across Southeast Tennessee.

Conducted on the night of Jan. 28, the annual count identified 939 people experiencing homelessness across the region’s 11-county Continuum of Care. That total represents a 14% decrease compared to 2025 figures.

Erlanger Health has named Dr. Jason Cox chief medical officer of Erlanger East.

Cox brings more than 20 years of experience in hospital medicine leadership to the role. He previously served as medical director of the Erlanger Hospitalist Group, where he led a team of more than 50 physicians and advanced practice providers across two locations.

ArtsBuild and its Community Arts Partners concludes a week of performances, exhibits, workshops and networking events highlighting the impact of arts and culture across Chattanooga and Hamilton County. The celebration includes more than 35 events from organizations such as the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, Chattanooga Theatre Centre and the Hunter Museum of American Art, along with advocacy events and community engagement opportunities. April 17-19. Full schedule

While older generations worry about having enough money for retirement, many Gen Z workers aren’t even starting to save. Research in 2025 by Edward Jones and Morning Consult shows that nearly half haven’t begun setting money aside for their golden years, and only 22% are contributing to a workplace retirement plan.

An associate professor at UTC has been awarded a $227,172 contract from the city of Chattanooga to study how urban development is affecting Friar Branch Creek and its surrounding watershed.

Azad Hossain, an environmental geoscientist in the university’s Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, will lead the project through September 2029. The research will examine how land use changes impact water quality, sediment transport and the physical structure of the creek.

Perhaps the best analogy to describe the 2025-26 season for the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team is a five-alarm fire. What started as a few embers grew into a raging blaze that had everyone running for the exits.

In the end, the only person left standing to sort through the wreckage is head coach Kim Caldwell.

There’s a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment that comes along with buying a new or used vehicle. Less appealing is the drop in value as your vehicle gets older. 

Depreciation is typically unavoidable, but certain vehicles tend to hold their value better than others once they enter the used car market. The reasons can vary, but it mostly comes down to how desirable the vehicle is.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday doubled down as U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism showed no sign of letting up, insisting that the message "the world needs to hear today" is one of peace and dialogue.

Leo spoke to journalists aboard the papal plane en route to Cameroon as he continued his Africa visit. He made no mention of Trump's latest social media post or the suggestion by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, that he should "be careful" when speaking about theology.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors made an unannounced visit this week to a construction site at Federal Reserve headquarters that is the focus of an investigation into a $2.5 billion renovation project, according to two people familiar with the visit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was ousted by an opposition campaign with an anti-corruption message, Democrats want to try the same playbook against President Donald Trump before the midterm elections.

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury has found that concert giant Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues, dealing the company a loss in a lawsuit over claims brought by dozens of U.S. states.

A Manhattan federal jury deliberated for four days before reaching its decision Wednesday in the closely watched case, which gave fans the equivalent of a backstage pass to a business that dominates live entertainment in the U.S. and beyond.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has delivered a sustained attack on her conservative colleagues' use of emergency orders to benefit the Trump administration, calling the orders "scratch-paper musings" that can "seem oblivious and thus ring hollow."

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's Tax Day on Wednesday, the deadline for most Americans to file taxes, and the Trump administration says millions of people have already used new breaks such as no tax on tips and overtime, exemptions for interest on certain car loans, deductions for some seniors, and Trump Accounts for children's savings.

LONDON (AP) — The BBC said Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs to save 10% of its annual budget — 500 million pounds ($677 million) — over the next two years.

The layoffs announced during a call with staff are the biggest in more than a decade at the U.K. national broadcaster.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The interactive gaming platform Roblox will implement increased protections for young users and pay more than $12 million to the state of Nevada in what state Attorney General Aaron Ford on Wednesday called a first-of-its-kind agreement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — If the U.S. and Iran aren't able to soon come to a deal to end the war or extend the ceasefire that expires next week, the Trump administration is setting the stage to shift its war campaign toward a more economic-focused effort aimed at choking Tehran into submission rather than relying on bombs alone.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The U.S. Navy is imposing a sea blockade against Iran — the latest escalation in the war that has seen the flow of key energy supplies choked off at the Strait of Hormuz.

The blockade that started Monday "has been fully implemented," according to a statement Wednesday from Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command. "U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going in and out of Iran by sea," he said. The blockade could put serious pressure on the Iranian economy.

NEW YORK (AP) — The market volatility of the last three months, caused partly by the war in Iran, has been a boon to Wall Street, as another set of banks reported strong profits helped by wild swings in markets and companies looking to make deals while the economy remains resilient.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors made an unannounced visit this week to a construction site at Federal Reserve headquarters that is the focus of an investigation into a $2.5 billion renovation project, according to two people familiar with the visit.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market hit a record Wednesday after adding to its two-week rally built on hopes the war with Iran won't create a worst-case scenario for the global economy. Whether Wall Street is correct to have so much hope for peace and whether stocks should be the highest they've ever been remains to be seen.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is redesigning the packaging of its Great Value products to help customers instantly spot whether a bag of spicy chips is gluten-free or how much protein is packed into a serving of chicken nuggets.

Encompassing 10,000 different products, Great Value is Walmart's biggest store brand and one of the largest food and consumer packaged goods labels in the U.S. The revamp announced Wednesday comes as shoppers have increasingly treated private-label foods not as a stepdown from national brands, but more as an equivalent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led Senate on Wednesday rejected the latest Democratic attempt to halt President Donald Trump's war in Iran, turning aside a resolution that would require the U.S. to withdraw forces from the conflict until Congress authorizes further action.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An effort to ramp up U.S. weapons production and build more ships, planes and drones will require a massive upfront investment, President Donald Trump's budget director told a House committee Wednesday.

The testimony from Russell Vought jump-starts the White House's push to increase defense spending to nearly $1.5 trillion in the next budget year, up from nearly $1 trillion this year, while cutting health research, heating assistance and scores of other domestic programs by about 10% overall. Such cuts do not cover mandatory spending, which includes such programs as Social Security and Medicare.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Resignations came quickly this week from two congressmen accused of sexual misconduct toward staff members. Yet for many of the women of Capitol Hill, the moment of accountability was years in the making — and far from enough.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining in the range of the past few years even as the war in Iran continues to threaten the global economy.

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending April 11 fell by 11,000 to 207,000 from the previous week's 218,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's less than the 217,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting but within the range of the past several years.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California attorney who aided President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results has lost his license to practice in the state.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered John Eastman disbarred and his name stricken from the state roll of attorneys. It caps a yearslong effort by the state bar to strip Eastman of his law license after he developed a legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — It's never been so expensive for Americans to buy a steak or hamburger, but cutting those costs requires ranchers like Stephanie Hatzenbuhler to raise more cattle — and that's not an easy ask.

For a host of reasons, Hatzenbuhler and other ranchers across the country are reluctant to grow the national herd — now its smallest in more than 75 years — and until they do so, demand will outweigh supply, and beef prices will likely remain high.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, broke the U.S. record Wednesday for the longest post-Vietnam War deployment, a nearly 10-month span that saw it take part in both the military raid in Venezuela and the Iran war.

HONG KONG (AP) — China's economy accelerated in the first quarter of this year, expanding 5% from a year earlier as it largely shrugged off impacts from the Iran war so far, according to data released Thursday.

The January-March data released by the government, covering a period during which the Iran war began, was better than what economists expected and was up from the 4.5% growth seen in the October-December quarter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than three dozen Democrats supported an effort by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to block arms sales to Israel, signaling a growing discontent in the party with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran.

NEW YORK (AP) — A looming jet fuel shortage in Europe and Asia sparked by the Iran war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz could further upend world travel within weeks if oil doesn't start flowing again soon — meaning higher airfares and flight cancellations as the summer travel season approaches.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market ticked to another record high Thursday as Wall Street waits for more clues about what will happen in the Iran war before making its next big move.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, a day after topping its prior all-time high set in January, for its 11th gain in 12 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 115 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge who halted construction of President Donald Trump's $400 million White House ballroom clarified on Thursday that the administration can proceed with below-ground construction of a bunker and other "national security facilities" at the site.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans spent more than anyone else in free agency, restocking the roster for new coach Robert Saleh.

A franchise mired in four straight losing seasons requires more help.

Now they have the No. 4 overall pick in the NFL draft along with four of nine total selections in the first 101 slots to do just that.