News - Friday, January 10, 2025

The attorney who was interviewing Lydia Boydston for a front desk position at his small firm wanted to be certain she could handle the most unpleasant things the job could throw at her, so he didn’t mince words.

“People don’t come to us when life is going well,” he warned. “They come to us when life is at its worst. They’re going to be angry and crying and sometimes scream at you.

Jessica Hayes is a different breed of paralegal. When her colleagues at law firms are seated at their desks, their attorneys are usually within arm’s length, or at least eyeshot, and beyond that space, more lawyers and legal staff can be found engaged in their labors. Within this setting, the quiet tapping of fingers on keyboards provides a rhythmic soundscape for the passing hours.

“A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants but is miles ahead in results,” mused American author and poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Here, attorneys with the Chattanooga Bar Association give some well-deserved pats on the back to the hardworking souls that keep the legal world turning in Chattanooga – their paralegals.

When Chattanoogan Kelly Howe decided to become a paralegal, she had several local options for preparing for her chosen career.

Unlike attorneys, who must graduate law school and pass the bar exam to become licensed, paralegals can qualify themselves through either education, training or on-the-job experience.

The Hon. Michael Dumitru began 2025 not with a resolution but with an oath.

During a private ceremony Jan. 1 in the Joel W. Solomon U.S. Courthouse in Chattanooga, Dumitru pledged to “administer justice without respect to persons,” to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich” and to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform” his duties.

The new year is here, bringing with it a chance for fresh starts and new opportunities. It’s the perfect time to tackle those untouched corners of your home, reorganize and set the tone for a more peaceful and productive year.

Melissa Dittman Tracey’s HouseLogic.com article, “How Clutter Creates Stress and Anxiety: Strategies for Decluttering,” is sheds light on how our living spaces affect our mental health and offers practical strategies to take back control of our homes – and our minds.

The Chattanooga Fire Department is beginning 2025 with new technologies, trucks and facilities.

But before the department leaps into the year to come, Fire Chief Phil Hyman and public information officer Lindsey Rogers are offering a look at its achievements in 2024 and how they will impact what the CFD accomplishes in 2025.

Now that the calendar has flipped, it’s time for some new year’s resolutions. You could decide you’re going to exercise more, lose weight, learn a new skill, reconnect with old friends. The possibilities are almost limitless. This year, why not add a few financial resolutions to your list?

As Coronation Day approaches, I’m trying to identify anything positive to look for from the coming reign of King Donald, in keeping with my resolution to preserve and protect my mental health in 2025.

This could be it: daylight saving time.

The Tennessee Titans have done it again, managing to be really bad in a draft year that might not fully reward the awful season they completed Sunday.

Thanks to former Tennessee Vol Joe Milton showing out for New England, the Patriots defeated Buffalo, allowing the Titans to move up for the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

It was a bold move when the current-generation Toyota Sienna debuted five years ago exclusively as a hybrid. It might have sacrificed acceleration bragging rights to its V6-powered minivan competitors, but its fuel economy smoked them with a 13- to 14-mpg advantage that could translate to nearly $1,000 in annual fuel savings.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday said she will push for new laws to make it harder for hedge funds to purchase large numbers of single-family homes in the state.

In a statement, Hochul said she would propose legislation this year that would require a 75 day waiting period before large investment firms could place bids on new homes hitting the market and limit certain tax benefits when the firms purchase homes.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee on Thursday released a redacted version of its newly completed execution manual, blacking out sporadic titles and team names throughout the notably trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration's Title IX rules expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students have been struck down nationwide after a federal judge in Kentucky found they overstepped the president's authority.

In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scrapped the entire 1,500-page regulation after deciding it was "fatally" tainted by legal shortcomings. The rule had already been halted in 26 states after a wave of legal challenges by Republican states.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk livestreamed his chat with a leader of Germany's far-right party on Thursday, using the power of his social media platform, X, to amplify the party's message ahead of an upcoming national election — and raising concerns across Europe about the world's richest man trying to influence foreign politics.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jimmy Carter was celebrated Thursday for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency during a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Here is the text of the eulogy President Joe Biden delivered Thursday during the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As they filed into the front pews at Washington National Cathedral, wearing dark suits and mostly solemn faces, five current and former presidents came together for Jimmy Carter's funeral. For a service that stretched more than an hour, the feuding, grievances and enmity that had marked their rival campaigns and divergent politics gave way to a reverential moment for one of their own.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly in the minority, Democrats say they will vote with Republicans to advance legislation that would require federal authorities to detain unauthorized immigrants who have been accused of certain crimes — one of President-elect Donald Trump's priorities as he assumes office later this month.

DALLAS (AP) — A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into southern U.S. states Friday, prompting governors to declare states of emergency and shuttering schools across the region.

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment, an outcome that cements his conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump doesn't have to go to jail, pay a fine or perform community service as a result of his New York hush money conviction. A judge ended the case Friday with a sentence of an unconditional discharge, closing the case with no punishment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a bid to block the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court on Friday, with the justices largely holding the app's fate in their hands.

The popular social media platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is set to hear arguments Friday on whether to hold Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for continuing to spread lies about two Georgia election workers after they secured a $148 million defamation judgment against him.

DETROIT (AP) — The Honda Civic hybrid won the 2025 North American Car of the Year award, while the Ford Ranger took the crown for the truck honors, and Volkswagen ID. Buzz won the utility award.

The honors, announced Friday morning during an Automotive Press Association event kicking off the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, are decided by a group of 50 journalists from the U.S. and Canada. They evaluate factors such as innovation, design, performance, driver satisfaction and value, according to the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards organization.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job growth surged and unemployment fell last month, an unexpected show of strength that may prove costly to homebuyers and businesses who were counting sharply lower interest rates that would lower the cost of buying everything from refrigerators to homes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence has found no evidence linking a foreign power to the mysterious "Havana syndrome" injuries reported by some U.S. diplomats and other government personnel, though two agencies now say it remains a possibility.

The conclusion comes from a review conducted by seven different intelligence agencies who examined cases of brain injuries and other symptoms reported by American diplomats and other government personnel who have raised questions about the involvement of a foreign adversary.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration announced Friday that it's expanding sanctions against Russia's critically important energy sector, unveiling a new effort to inflict pain on Moscow for its nearly 3-year-old war in Ukraine as President-elect Donald Trump gets set to return to office vowing to quickly end the conflict.

MIAMI (AP) — More than 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived more than two decades in the United States can legally remain another 18 months, the Homeland Security Department said Friday in one of the Biden administration's final acts on immigration policy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At the very top of Republicans' 100-day agenda with President-elect Donald Trump in the White House and GOP lawmakers in a majority is the plan to renew some $4 trillion in expiring tax cuts.

On Friday, the U.S. Treasury released a new analysis of the various ways that extending the expiring individual and estate tax provisions of Trump's 2017 tax overhaul — known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — could cost the government, and who would directly benefit the most from the legislation's permanent extension.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Joe Biden prepares to leave office, Americans have a dimmer view of his presidency than they did at the end of Donald Trump's first term or Barack Obama's second, a new poll finds.

Around one-quarter of U.S. adults said Biden was a "good" or "great" president, with less than 1 in 10 saying he was "great," according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to deliver a capstone address Monday on his foreign policy legacy, according to the White House.

The outgoing president is expected to use his address at the State Department to highlight his administration's efforts to expand NATO, rally dozens of allies to provide Ukraine with a steady stream of military aid to fight Russia, forge a historic agreement between Japan and South Korea to expand security and economic cooperation and more, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to preview plans for the address.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.

Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kohl's said Friday it was closing 27 underperforming locations in 15 states by April — a fraction of its 1,150 store base — as the struggling department store chain aims to boost profitability and improve sagging sales.

The announcement comes as the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based chain has posted 11 consecutive quarters of sales declines. Michaels CEO and retail veteran Ashley Buchanan is set to take over as the chief executive of Kohl's next week.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans wrapped up a third straight day of searching for a new general manager Sunday with virtual interviews with Chicago assistant general manager Ian Cunningham and Kansas City assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi.

The New England Patriots have hired Mike Vrabel as their head coach.

The team announced the hiring Sunday morning, a week after Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired Jerod Mayo following the team's season-ending victory over the Buffalo Bills. Mayo finished 4-13 in his lone season.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it won't hear an appeal from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change.

The order allows the city of Honolulu's lawsuit against oil and gas companies to proceed. The city's chief resilience officer, Ben Sullivan, said it's a significant decision that will protect "taxpayers and communities from the immense costs and consequences of the climate crisis caused by the defendants' misconduct."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday turned back a challenge to a strict gun licensing law in Maryland.

The high court declined to hear the case in a brief order handed down without elaboration, as is typical.

The challengers argued that the handgun law violates the Second Amendment by making it too hard for people to get guns. The law, passed after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, requires people to get safety training, submit fingerprints and pass a background check before buying a handgun. The state says those are reasonable safety measures.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court turned back a push by the state of Utah to wrest control of vast areas of public land from the federal government on Monday.

The high court refused to let the GOP-controlled state file a lawsuit seeking to bring the land and its resources under state control. The decision came in a brief order in which the court did not explain its reasoning, as is typical.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a North Dakota state House district on an American Indian reservation, rejecting a challenge by local Republican officials.

The Republicans' lawsuit had previously been rejected by a three-judge court that found North Dakota lawmakers had good reason to create the district to give Native Americans a better chance to elect their candidate of choice, under the federal Voting Rights Act.

BEIJING (AP) — Sales of all types of electric vehicles rose more than 40% in China last year, while those of gasoline-powered automobiles plunged, industry data showed Monday.

A total of 31.4 million vehicles including buses and trucks were sold last year in the world's biggest market by sales, up 4.5% compared to a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported. Growth in sales outpaced production, which rose 3.7%.

BANGKOK (AP) — Auto industry newcomers like Taiwan-based iPhone maker Foxconn and China's Huawei Technologies are maneuvering to gain an edge in the electric vehicle sector, prompting automakers like Japan's Nissan and Honda to announce plans to join forces against a flood of ambitious competitors.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin called off the debut launch of its massive new rocket early Monday because of technical trouble.

The 320-foot (98-meter) New Glenn rocket was supposed to blast off before dawn with a prototype satellite from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. But launch controllers had to deal with an unspecified rocket issue in the final minutes of the countdown and ran out of time. Once the countdown clock was halted, they immediately began draining all the fuel from the rocket.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The bid by Japan's Nippon Steel to buy U.S. Steel may have a new lease on life after the Biden Administration extended a deadline for the Japanese steelmaker to abandon plans to acquire the storied Pittsburgh company after President Joe Biden blocked the deal.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite failing to deliver his promise for broad student loan forgiveness, President Joe Biden has now overseen the cancellation of student loans for more than 5 million Americans — more than any other president in U.S. history.

In a last-minute action on Monday, the Education Department canceled loans for 150,000 borrowers through programs that existed before Biden took office. His administration expanded those programs and used them to their fullest extent, pressing on with cancellation even after the Supreme Court rejected Biden's plan for a new forgiveness policy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — If Pete Hegseth were still in uniform, his extramarital affairs and a decision to flatly ignore a combat commander's directive would not just be drawing the attention of senators — they could have run afoul of military law.

That is raising questions among current and former defense leaders and veterans about whether Hegseth would be able to enforce discipline in the ranks if confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary. Hegseth would oversee more than 2 million troops who could be disciplined or kicked out of the service for the same behavior he has acknowledged or been accused of in the past.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth will try to convince members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that he should be the next secretary of defense, following weeks of meetings with lawmakers who peppered him with questions about his character and views on a range of military issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump's team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President-elect JD Vance says people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot "obviously" should not be pardoned, as President-elect Donald Trump is promising to use his clemency power on behalf of many of those who tried on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the results of the election that Trump lost.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden strode into the White House four years ago with a foreign policy agenda that put repairing alliances strained by four years of Republican Donald Trump's "America First" worldview front and center.

The one-term Democrat took office in the throes of the worst global pandemic in a century and his plans were quickly stress-tested by a series of complicated international crises: the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Hamas' brutal 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Auburn has climbed to No. 1 in The Associated Press men's basketball poll for its second stint at the top in program history, while fellow Southeastern Conference program Georgia is in the rankings for the first time in 14 years.

Bruce Pearl's Tigers (15-1) claimed 60 of 62 first-place votes to rise one spot Monday after previous No. 1 Tennessee suffered its first loss of the season, falling at Florida, to end a five-week reign at the top. Auburn has been No. 1 only once before in the AP Top 25, during a three-week stint in January and February of 2022, and is the third team to sit atop the poll this season.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans wrapped up the first round of their search for a new general manager Monday with Green Bay Packers executive Jon-Eric Sullivan the 10th candidate interviewed.

The Titans' next round of interviews will take place "in the coming days" as they replace Ran Carthon, who was fired last week after the franchise went 9-25 in his two seasons as general manager.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department can publicly release special counsel Jack Smith's investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case, a federal judge said Monday in the latest ruling in a court dispute over the highly anticipated document days before Trump is set to reclaim the White House.

The IRS it's distributing about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who didn't receive their COVID stimulus payments. By the end of January, approximately 1 million taxpayers will receive special payments of up to $1,400 from the IRS.

The IRS said it's distributing these payments to taxpayers who failed to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. The Recovery Rebate Credit is a refundable credit for individuals who did not receive one or more Economic Impact Payments (EIP), also known as stimulus payments.

Elon Musk said a third person has received an implant from his brain-computer interface company Neuralink, one of many groups working to connect the nervous system to machines.

"We've got ... three humans with Neuralinks and all are working well," he said during a wide-ranging interview at a Las Vegas event streamed on his social media platform X.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that his stewardship of American foreign policy has left the U.S. safer and economically more secure, arguing that President-elect Donald Trump will inherit a nation viewed as stronger and more reliable than it was four years ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the waning days of the Biden administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended his agency's work to tamp down border-crossing numbers and argued against breaking apart the sprawling department in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — U.S. flags at President-elect Donald Trump 's private Mar-a-Lago club are back to flying at full height.

Flags are supposed to fly at half-staff through the end of January out of respect for former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29. A large flag on Trump's property was initially lowered to half-staff according to protocol but has since been raised in the days after Carter was buried Thursday in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump's team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.