News - Friday, September 25, 2026

The secret to carving Dolly Parton into a cornfield, Dianne Fetzer says, is knowing a little algebra.

Once her likeness is replicated, the trick is keeping track of the people who wander into her hair.

“We check every Thursday to make sure nobody’s left behind,” Fetzer says.

A Chattanooga-area house had been home to the same family for 45 years.

By the time Realtor Bekah Cochran became involved, however, the family was facing a difficult transition.

The owners were aging and needed assisted living. Their daughter and son-in-law were helping them make the transition, and Cochran began working with the family to figure out what to do with the home.

A foundational principle of our democratic republic is that the will of the people is the basis of the government’s authority. This principle is one of the “self-evident” truths in the Declaration of Independence: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Is the market slowing down, or is it simply giving buyers and sellers a little more breathing room?

August’s numbers suggest there’s still plenty of activity in the Chattanooga region. Pending sales increased, inventory grew and prices continued to rise, even as homes spent a little more time on the market.

The Trust Company of Tennessee has hired Deena Turner as a relationship manager.

Turner brings 30 years of experience in financial services, insurance and relationship management. In her new role, she will work with clients to identify and pursue their financial and retirement goals.

National Park Partners will kick off the 21st season of the Rita Vital Memorial Moccasin Bend Lecture Series at 7 p.m. at the Tennessee Aquarium River Journey Auditorium. Dr. Brett Riggs, a noted research archaeologist at Western Carolina University and leading scholar of Cherokee archaeology and history, will present “Fort Armistead and the Cherokee Removal,” exploring the Tennessee site’s role in the forced removal of Cherokee people in 1838 and its later use during the Civil War. Admission is free thanks to the support of Tennessee Rep. Greg Vital, but seating is limited and advance registration is required to guarantee a spot.

Tennessee residents whose driver’s licenses have not been recognized or accepted by Transportation Security Administration scanners can receive replacement licenses at no charge.

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security says a small number of state-issued driver’s licenses are not being recognized by TSA. The department is reviewing the affected licenses to determine the cause and correct the issue.

A fire engine approached a downtown Chattanooga intersection the morning of Sept. 16, but instead of relying solely on motorists to notice its flashing lights, hear its siren and get out of the way, the truck communicated directly with the traffic system.

EPB has launched an IonQ quantum computer at its Chattanooga quantum center, adding commercial quantum computing to the quantum networking capabilities already operating at the facility.

The IonQ Forte Enterprise computer went online Friday, Sept. 18, at the EPB Quantum Center. According to EPB, the addition makes the center the first U.S. facility to provide commercial access to both a trapped-ion quantum computer and a photonics-based local quantum network.

Feeling financially fulfilled means so much more than just the number in your bank account. It’s about being able to take your family out to dinner without calculating whether you can afford it. It means sleeping soundly on a Sunday night, knowing that if the water heater gives out tomorrow, you can handle it. And it’s saying yes to a vacation because you planned ahead and the money is there.

What are we to make of the Tennessee Titans’ improved play?

Is it a real, sustainable stride forward that could eventually lead to wins down the road? Or was Sunday’s late loss to the Philadelphia Eagles just more of the fool’s gold the Titans have shown us in early season games the past couple of years?

Sunday is going to be a reunion for many when the Tennessee Titans visit the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.

Several Titans players and coaches made the trek south when former Giants coach Brian Daboll came to Tennessee to be the Titans’ new offensive coordinator.

The Titans hit the road in search of their first win of Robert Saleh’s tenure as head coach and will try to secure that win in the same stadium where Saleh was head coach of the New York Jets.

Granted, it will be the Giants as the opponent, and the two sides are quite familiar with each other. Here is a look at what the Titans need to do on Sunday to secure that win.

Crossovers have become a popular choice for buyers who want the practicality of an SUV without the size and expense of a larger vehicle. For many shoppers, that means finding a vehicle that’s easy to live with, offers enough room for everyday duties, keeps fuel costs in check and provides the versatility to be useful for a range of needs.

Man, your dogs are tired. They started howling about halfway through your day and you can’t wait to kick off your shoes, shed the socks or stockings and relax.

Then, you’ll put a couple blocks of foamy plastic on your feet and read in the new book “Croc,” by George “Boe” Boedecker, Jr., about those “ugly” shoes.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have one of the NFL's most respected special teams coordinators and a kicker with a strong leg.

Yet they're struggling mightily when it comes to kickoffs.

"We need to get better at it," Titans coach Robert Saleh said. "We need to make teams return the kick, we need to cover kicks, we need to find ways to create advantageous situations coming off a kickoff."

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco's county by roughly 80,000 votes.

NEW YORK (AP) — Three news organizations banned from the White House for days were back Thursday, after a judge handed CNN, MS NOW and Politico a reprieve in an extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Energy Department said Thursday that it will spend almost $2 billion to try to squeeze more electricity out of the nation's aging and stressed power grid, as President Donald Trump's administration steps up efforts to avoid blackouts amid skyrocketing energy demand spurred by artificial intelligence.

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 83 tons of meat are being recalled across the U.S. because the products were not properly inspected by federal authorities and were shipped out with falsified inspection stickers, the Department of Agriculture said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration voiced support for the safety of long-established vaccines at a hearing Thursday, even as senators questioned her about the White House's efforts to upend childhood immunizations.

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's cybersecurity agency on Thursday released an election infrastructure security plan 40 days before November's midterms, laying out potential threats to election systems and listing services it would offer to election officials to protect the vote.

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly everyone will feel the impact of what's going on in the bond market, no matter how far away and abstract it may seem.

Bond yields have jumped to their highest levels in roughly two decades, and that affects anyone who borrows money. That includes discouraged people trying to keep up with high inflation, as well as businesses wanting to build data centers for artificial-intelligence technology.

NEW YORK (AP) — After whipping through a couple sudden reversals, stocks ended a shaky day of trading on Wall Street Thursday roughly where they began.

The S&P 500 finished nearly flat and edged down by less than 0.1% following several turns between losses and gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 161 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite added less than 0.1%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the "truly great friendship" he has forged with Xi Jinping as the Chinese leader began his highly anticipated state visit by pressing for the world's two biggest economies to work more closely together to avoid friction as they compete.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite rising political anxiety over the Iran war, senators on Thursday narrowly rejected a war powers resolution seeking to halt President Donald Trump 's military action, which has been largely blamed for the spike in gas prices and become a flashpoint in the midterm election.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian knows what to expect when President Donald Trump attends Saturday's game at Tennessee.

Apart from the extra security measures, Sarkisian is anticipating problems communicating with his team.

"The one thing that you have to be aware of when the president goes to any game is that any time he enters the stadium, leaves the stadium or changes locations within the stadium, they cut all communication," Sarkisian said during a Zoom call on Thursday. "So they cut your headsets. They cut the headsets to coaches. They cut headsets for coach-to-player communication. So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI employees involved in the criminal investigation into President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in a broad Florida-based conspiracy probe, their lawyers revealed Thursday as they asked a judge to clarify whether they can testify without violating an order restricting the release of information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration voiced support for the safety of long-established vaccines at a hearing Thursday, even as senators questioned her about the White House's efforts to upend childhood immunizations.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new flu vaccine that tested well in older adults. But the federal agency responsible for telling doctors and the general public how to use it has made no recommendation on it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For decades, a key principle underpinned civil rights enforcement in American schools: Not all discrimination was intentional.

Even if a school policy was written without overt racial bias, it might unfairly hurt one group of students over another, the understanding went. The concept is known as systemic racism, and Republican and Democratic administrations agreed: Schools and universities that received federal funding had an obligation to address it.

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the loudest cheers for Sen. Ted Cruz at the Republicans' recent midterm convention in Dallas came after the Texas politician targeted Muslim Americans and their faith's religious code.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tech-heavy guest list, the fashion choices of those on it, who sat where and what was on the menu marked the softer — often and glitzier — details of diplomacy as Donald Trump threw a Thursday night state dinner honoring China's leader Xi Jinping.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump showed off some of his favorite things at the White House for the visiting leader of communist China on Thursday — bringing him inside his Marine One helicopter and exhibiting a new granite landing pad he built for it, along with the hulking, nearby construction site that will one day be a ballroom.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the National Archives on Friday, showing off the sacred texts of U.S. democracy to the leader of the world's most powerful communist country to cap off a three-day state visit criticized for being heavy on pomp and light on substance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warmly welcomed Chinese leader Xi Jinping with a personal airport greeting, a tour of his new helipad and a candlelit dinner. But outside the White House, protests against Xi continued almost nonstop Thursday during his state visit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are pressing for answers from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over what they describe as a previously undisclosed change to the ethics agreement he made before being confirmed, which they say calls into question his credibility and the integrity of his decisions.

JERUSALEM (AP) — As the U.S.-created Board of Peace pushes ahead with plans to rebuild Gaza, it has said there's no place for the U.N. body that for decades has provided support to displaced Palestinians. But the agency's last chief says that behind the scenes, board members and others have been more open to working with the U.N. agency for Palestinians than it seems.

NEW YORK (AP) — A cooldown in oil prices on Friday helped release some of the pressure that's built up on Wall Street, and U.S. stocks closed out their first winning week in the last three.

The S&P 500 added 0.5% to break a three-day losing streak marked by big swings due to rising yields in the bond market. Despite the week's uneasiness, the main measure of the U.S. stock market's health pulled back within 0.7% of its all-time high set last month.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting.

The court's three liberal-leaning justices publicly dissented from the decision.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to pass a sweeping bipartisan bill on Monday that would regulate college sports, an attempt to end "chaos" in an industry that has been upended by skyrocketing athlete payments and near-unrestricted transfers between schools.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Cam Ward looked to have finally figured it out after a slow start, engineering one touchdown drive in the fourth quarter and marching down the field on the way to scoring again and leading the Tennessee Titans to a comeback victory.

Florida made a massive jump in The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday and landed in the top 10 for the first time in five years while four new teams joined the rankings in a major shuffle.

The Gators' 24-point win over then-No. 4 Mississippi under first-year coach Jon Sumrall on Saturday earned them a 13-rung promotion to No. 8, their highest ranking since 2020 and first top-10 appearance since 2021.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration released new fuel economy standards Monday that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks.

Fuel economy requirements set out how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. The change furthers President Donald Trump's promise to revoke policies that encouraged or created incentives for the production of electric vehicles.

SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time Monday and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlinks yet, but cut the flight short to ensure safety.

The spacecraft reentered over the Pacific and splashed down north of Hawaii three hours after blasting off from Texas. The company had been aiming for a 10-hour flight, spanning six full laps around Earth, to prove its readiness for NASA's Artemis moon program.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had plans to dine late Sunday with the CEO of Anthropic, one of the leading voices on artificial intelligence but also someone who's sparred with the Trump administration over the military's potential use of AI.

NEW YORK (AP) — OpenAI said it has paused training of its latest artificial intelligence models as reports of AI agents going rogue mount.

The decision to halt development came just hours after the company disclosed Friday that it was reviewing several incidents from the summer in which OpenAI agents searching federal government websites acted in unexpected ways beyond what was asked of them while gathering and distributing information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is using taxpayer funds to air a television advertisement from Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign in the latest in a series of ads promoting the president ahead of the midterms that the White House maintains are "public service announcements."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before he was the top official at the U.S. Postal Service, David Steiner was a corporate executive surfing mid-oughts television when he came across Donald Trump on "The Apprentice."

CAIRO (AP) — Mediators are still working with Iran and the United States on brokering a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz — even after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly rejected Iran's latest proposal, three regional officials and a senior U.S. official told The Associated Press.

HONG KONG (AP) — The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about $30 billion each that will see tariff cuts, from American hair products to Chinese toys, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade.

The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Donald Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the U.S. since 2015. The U.S. had already reduced tariffs against China after Trump's tariffs reached as high as 145% at one point last year, as tensions between the two countries eased.

MILAN (AP) — The U.S. company building the new American consulate in Milan has agreed to a nearly 31-million-euro ($35 million) settlement that includes back pay and damages to foreign workers who prosecutors allege were paid less than $2 an hour, officials said Monday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is aiming to assuage customers' fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores.

In a statement posted on the company's website, Walmart Inc.'s CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer isn't using personal information like income, shopping history or a customer's willingness to pay to set prices, and it won't be doing so in the future either.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, the U.S. ambassador to China said.

David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that if consummated would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and expose U.S. technology to a potential foe. Perdue, speaking to Shannon Bream on Fox News Channel's "Fox News Sunday" days after Trump hosted Xi for a state visit in Washington, didn't specify when the offer was made.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — On paper, South Carolina might be an odd place for Democrats to converge to campaign for midterm candidates. Republicans dominate state politics, and there's slim chance of that changing this year.

But South Carolina is also the first state in Democrats' next presidential nominating process, so White House hopefuls are looking for any excuse they can find to pop over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda, with investigations of President Donald Trump, his family and his administration if the party sweeps control of the chamber from Republicans in the November elections.

The undertaking is as robust as it is daunting, spanning several House committees. With majority power comes bigger budgets and staff, and the ability to investigate, subpoena and potentially course-correct what the Democrats say are widespread corruption and abuses of power. Impeachment of the Republican president and Cabinet officials is not off the table.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — No. 17 Tennessee's successful onside kick against top-ranked Texas was incorrectly officiated, according to the Southeastern Conference.

The kick with 1:22 left on Saturday should have been flagged for a five-yard penalty and the down replayed because the ball was not kicked from the 35-yard line, the conference said in a statement on Monday. The ball also should not have been moved once was it was deemed ready for play by the officials.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself Monday from a major climate-change case after facing calls to step aside due to stock holdings in oil companies.

A letter posted in the case did not specify a reason, but the conservative justice has previously recused himself from other cases involving companies where he holds stock.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be Tennessee's first execution of a woman in 200 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce, for now, restrictions on gender-affirming care in federal prison.

The emergency appeal comes after lower courts blocked officials from immediately carrying out the policy adopted after an executive order from President Donald Trump.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said Monday that concerns about artificial intelligence going rogue are not "fake news" and should be taken seriously, insisting that safety issues raised by AI experts should be discussed and acted on.

Leo, who dedicated his first encyclical to AI and protecting humanity in its wake, was asked during a press conference about what the United States and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity. President Donald Trump has called concerns about AI going rogue a "hoax."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Andrew Bailey, one of the FBI's two deputy directors, announced Monday that he was leaving the position after just over a year on the job and would be returning to Missouri to spend time with his family.

NEW YORK (AP) — Yields in the U.S. bond market again reached their highest levels in roughly two decades and knocked U.S. stocks further from their record high.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.9%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump disputed that he asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, contradicting an account from the U.S. ambassador to China.

Trump on Monday acted confused when a reporter asked him about Ambassador David Perdue's remarks over the weekend, suggesting the diplomat was confusing China with Taiwan. But then Trump said "maybe it's a good idea" to make such an offer to China.