A Volkswagen worker was seriously hurt at the Chattanooga assembly plant Wednesday, VW spokesman Scott Wilson said today.

CALHOUN, GORDON COUNTY, GA. - A derailed train in Calhoun is causing some traffic problems.

Two boys lit a mattress on fire today, leaving a family of eight temporarily without a home, officials say.

Police in Dalton, Ga., are asking the public’s help to identify suspects in the Aug. 14 robbery of a taxi driver.

Four people have been apprehended by Chattanooga police Department after a robbery and an attempted robbery this morning, according to a released statement.

From mid-afternoon on Tuesday, August 23rd (EDT), until the last of the late night newscasts that day, the news media was all over the 5.8 earthquake that struck a small town in Virginia town especially after Washington, D.C. and New York City saw numerous evacuations including the nation’s Capitol, the Pentagon and several Manhattan skyscrapers.

Federal regulators will meet with the Tennessee Valley Authority Tuesday to discuss inspections prompted by a “red” — or “high safety significance” — rating at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in north Alabama.

Chattanooga police are still searching for a robbery suspect who eluded officers Wednesday night after a pursuit through areas including Highway 27, Mountain Creek Road, Suck Creek Road and Signal Mountain Road .

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents have arrested a man accused of making threats against the sheriff of Dade County.

As college students return to campus in Georgia, a new state policy has closed the doors of the five most competitive state schools to illegal immigrants, but a group of professors has found a way to offer those students a taste of what they've been denied.

We have some open spaces in Friday's mailbag, so let us hear it.

Bledsoe County authorities have arrested Brenda K. Brown, 47, of Pikeville, in the slayings of sisters Elizabeth Brown, 82, and Billie Sue Blaylock, 79, investigators said.

Here's something for your Twitter feed: "Tweet" has earned a spot in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.

Casey Anthony, who has stayed out of sight since a jury acquitted her of killing her daughter, reported Wednesday to Florida authorities to begin serving a one-year probation on an unrelated check fraud conviction, officials said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A Russian space station supply ship crashed with a thunderous boom into Siberia minutes after launch Wednesday, rattling NASA and others in this new era without any shuttles to bail out the orbiting outpost.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Even after rebels stormed into the capital and overwhelmed his residence, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi has plenty of places to hide.

HATTERAS, N.C. — Hurricane Irene could hit anywhere from North Carolina to New York this weekend, leaving officials in the path of uncertainty to make a delicate decision. Should they tell tourists to leave during one of the last weeks of the multibillion-dollar summer season?

KNOXVILLE — Derek Dooley had to hand out some tough love on Wednesday, and it wasn’t to any of his players for making mistakes in the University of Tennessee football team’s mock game under the lights of Neyland Stadium.

A man accused of clearing out a dead man’s home — even stealing his cars and his washing machine — now faces hefty theft charges.

The 28-month saga of the NCAA and the University of Tennessee’s football and men’s basketball programs ended Wednesday afternoon when the NCAA Committee on Infractions issued its final report, adopted UT’s self-imposed penalties with no additional sanctions and slapped the Volunteers’ former basketball coaching staff with show-cause letters.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said Wednesday the state is keeping its word to Amazon over sales tax collections and people in other states are "dead wrong" if they say otherwise.

Less than a week away from her first day of college, Megan Collyer has already made a solid dent in her to-do list -- and in her stress level.

A grassroots group in Chattanooga said U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has not done enough to create or to help his constituents find good-paying jobs.

Next spring, home and business owners along Apison Pike are going to begin getting visits from state officials buying property for the long-awaited widening of Apison Pike from Old Lee Highway to Ooltewah-Ringgold Road.

A Red Bank police officer is suing the city for race-based discrimination in promotions. Officer Isaac Cooper also claims he’s being retaliated against for helping expose police misconduct by the city’s former chief.

The Catoosa County sheriff's son has pleaded guilty to prank-calling 911 last Halloween and reporting a shooter on the loose in downtown Chattanooga.

Attorneys will begin the third day of a $3 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against Sewanee: The University of the South today with testimony from the adviser to a former student at the time of his expulsion.

A national movie retailer will open its first Tennessee location in Hixson this weekend, replacing a Blockbuster Video with what the new company's executives call the modern model for video stores.

Tennessee’s able and enthusiastic Gov. Bill Haslam honored our wonderful people and the city of Chattanooga on Wednesday, as he presented an upbeat keynote address during the annual meeting of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ferdinand Magellan. Marco Polo. Lewis and Clark. Sir Francis Drake.

His hand forced, Derek Dooley was in the precarious place of making his football team worse while making his football program better.

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley had had better days than Wednesday. It had begun with him having to kick his best defensive player, Jantzen Jackson, off the team for undisclosed reasons. Then the evening's mock scrimmage had included a dropped punt, which had sent Dooley into a rant more than once in 2010.

When most of the McCallie Classical Guitar Quartet graduated five years ago, teacher Charles "Chip" Evans saw an opportunity to help rebuild the ensemble around three rising freshmen who would be the core of the group for four years.

Russ Huesman still runs his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team's practices with precision, checking his watch every few minutes to make sure the Mocs are staying on schedule.

University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most successful coaches of all times, among both men and women and in all kinds of sports.

Georgia defeated a fake Boise State during Wednesday night's scrimmage at Sanford Stadium, but Bulldogs coach Mark Richt is glad to have several more days to prepare for the real Broncos.

Our Hamilton County schools have happily begun a new academic year with 42,009 students enrolled — up from the 41,584 young people who were enrolled at the same time last year.

Forty years ago, my family moved to Chattanooga from Nashville. In 1971, Nashville newspapers portrayed our city as fading and smog-bound. Despite naysayers, I was attracted by the opportunity to practice medicine with physicians for whom I had developed

Maybe you're thinking about driving downtown to check out the newspaper's Life: Boomers and Seniors Expo this weekend but you're not sure whether it's worth giving up your free time on a Saturday afternoon?

CHICAGO — Alfonso Soriano homered, Randy Wells pitched effectively into the seventh and the Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 on Wednesday night.

The earthquake that jolted much of the East Coast on Tuesday wasn't the "big one," but it was strong enough to unnerve people in the nation's capital and surrounding area, to be felt from Canada to Georgia and to remind those who experienced it of the prodigious power of the fundamental forces of the physical world.

DUNLAP, Tenn. — As an aide recorded the moment with a digital camera, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais strode into the Sequatchie County Courthouse, shook hands and began a "listening session" with the Republican faithful.

Saying he has talked with more than 1,000 business chiefs in his first eight months in office, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam told Chattanooga leaders Wednesday the state's workforce is too shallow in engineering and technical skills.

Deborah Luehrs, marketing and communications director at Siskin Children’s Institute.

The Lee University women's soccer team began this month with a trip to the United Kingdom and begins its season tonight in the Pacific Northwest.

TVA’s plan to sell and lease back a nuclear reactor — the new Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor — to finance much of the work of completing Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in nearby Alabama raises an obvious question: Will there be many willing buyers?

Many of the Chattanooga area's hiking and mountain bike trails became beaten paths in a different sense on April 27, and the damage continued after that day of tornadoes and other vicious storms.

Chattanooga starting pitcher Will Savage had a rare rough night Wednesday, allowing six runs on 12 hits in five innings as Tennessee beat the Lookouts 8-3 to square the series at two wins apiece.

French Stewart shrugs off reports that he's in the much-anticipated new Muppets movie. Never happened.

With the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks scant weeks away, a slate of retrospective specials and documentaries awaits us.

The Baylor Red Raiders face the Bradley Central Bears in the Times Free Press prep game of the week.

The Chattanooga Theatre Centre presented its annual Miss Annie Awards Sunday. The awards are named after Annie Head and honor the performers, volunteers and crews that worked on the previous season's productions.

We should be thankful for the blessings of liberty and peace in our beloved United States — especially when those blessings are compared with the current horrors of death and turmoil in the North African country of Libya and the Middle Eastern country of Syria.

Chattanooga Times Free Press features reporter Casey Phillips spoke with Dunlap resident and marathon trail hiker Hayden D. Wilson about conquering three of the longest trails in the country, eating Kentucky Fried Chicken while hiking and why the simplicity of hiking appeals to him.

Mrs. C has two questions: "First, I am 60 and retired, and my husband is already receiving Social Security. I am considering taking of my husband's benefit at my 62 and then taking my own full benefit later at 66. How is the calculation computed at my age 62 for receiving of my husband's Social Security? Secondly, if I am retired before 62, am I eligible to start receiving of my living husband's Social Security or are there mitigating circumstances?"

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will hand out $2.25 million a year for the next three years to support new regional "business accelerators" across the state.

The number of property foreclosure sales in the second quarter fell by 28 percent in Tennessee and by 15.6 percent in Georgia compared with a year ago, RealtyTrac reported Wednesday.

ERIN, Wis. — The 32 opening pairings in match play still have not been set in the 111th U.S. Amateur Championship golf tournament because play was suspended at 7 p.m. CDT Tuesday with some players still completing their second rounds of stroke-play qualifying.

SAN FRANCISCO — The man in the black shirt and jeans who knew people would fall in love with the iPod, iPhone and iPad before they did is stepping back from Apple Inc., which grew into one of the world's strongest companies as its leader's health failed him.

DALTON, Ga. — The numbers are inexplicable for Dalton City Schools officials. All summer they heard stories about Hispanic families leaving the city because of a lack of jobs in the area and the enactment of a new immigration law in July.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — It is time to speed up preparations for another elementary school, Cleveland City Schools officials said Wednesday.

Rhea County leaders plan to discuss a wide range of county business in a workshop this weekend at Fall Creek Falls State Park, almost an hour’s drive from the county seat of Dayton, Tenn.

Chattanooga State Community College named Barry Jennison as dean of the Business and Information Technologies Division.

DALTON, Ga. — A consolidated government has allowed Athens, Ga., and Clarke County to provide a level of service and do projects they could not have done as separate governments, according to their finance director.

ATLANTA — Hundreds of arrests made by the Atlanta Police Department could be vulnerable to legal challenges, prominent defense attorneys say, after an audit showed dozens of officers lost their arrest powers because they failed to meet state training requirements.

ATLANTA — Confusion erupted at the state Capitol on Wednesday as an effort stalled to push back until the 2012 general election the public vote on a proposed tax hike for transportation.

ATLANTA — A proposed congressional map that targets the Deep South’s last white Democrat in the U.S. House flew through a state legislative committee Wednesday over the objections of a leading civil rights figure and congressman who said it resegregates the state.

The fact that UT women's basketball head coach Pat Summitt's disclosure Tuesday that she has early onset Alzheimer's disease was the major topic of discussion on a day that an earthquake struck the nation's capital and that a longtime dictator's regime apparently ended is a stunning tribute to the respect and affection that she engenders across the state and country.