NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 29 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the following news release: FEMA's local hire effort for disaster recovery activities in Tennessee, following storms in February and March of this year, added seven new employees this week. Federal Coordinating Officer Manny J. Toro gave the new local hires their oath of office Monday morning (July 22), and said, "These individuals will help the State of Tennessee and their fe  more

MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tennessee, Aug. 2 -- The U.S. Air Force issued the following news: By Anthony Agosti Shortly after he assumed command, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, who has made squadron revitalization one of his top priorities, said "Leaders have a sacred charge: to take care of people so those people can take care of the mission .... Your duty as a leader is to work tirelessly to clear obstacles between your people and their mission." More than 210 firs  more

WASHINGTON, July 30 - The U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service announced that it intends to award a $30,340 cooperative agreement to the American Conservation Experience of Flagstaff, Arizona, for the increase of public education about bats and white nose syndrome at the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. The agency description of the grant states: "The interns will shadow NPS interpreters, learn special skills, and gain real world ex  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, July. 31 -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued the following news release: * * * - Medical Transportation Company Refused to Provide a Sabbath Accommodation to a Jehovah's Witness Employee, Then Fired Her, Federal Agency Charged * * * American Medical Response of Tennessee, Inc. (AMR), a Naperville, Ill. based private provider of medical transportation services, will pay $40,000 and furnish injunctive relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit   more

CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 31 -- The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management issued the following news release: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the award of a contract to BTP Services, LLC of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for technical support services throughout the Environmental Management (EM) complex. BTP Services, LLC is a certified 8(a) small business firm. Services to be performed under this contract include, but are not limited to: technical, business, and sys  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, July 30 -- The U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Marshals Service issued the following news release: Alan Neal, a 2nd degree murder suspect, was arrested in Memphis earlier today by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Task Force. The Task Force was assisted by the Shelby County Sheriff's Fugitive Apprehension Team and the Memphis Police Department. A warrant was issued for Alan Neal by Shelby County on 7/29/2019. Neal was arrested without incident in the 145 block of Gre  more

WASHINGTON, July 30 -- The Naval Surface Warfare Center issued the following news: By Katie Ellis-Warfield Rear Adm. David Goggins, Mike McClatchey and Capt. Cedric McNeal visited the William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel (LCC) in Memphis, Tennessee, on July 23, 2019. Goggins is the Program Executive Officer for Submarines; McClatchey (SES) is the director for Advanced Undersea Integration at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA); and McNeal is the commanding officer of Naval Surface Warfare  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, July 31 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Athena Safa Sefat, a researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been awarded the Fellowship of the Institute of Physics (IOP). The IOP is the professional society for physics in the UK and Ireland, where Sefat is internationally recognized for her "very high level of achievement in physics and an outstanding contribution to the profes  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: A new method developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory improves the energy efficiency of a desalination process known as solar-thermal evaporation. Scientists fashioned tubular devices using nanoengineered graphite foam coated with carbon nanoparticles and a superhydrophobic material that increased the absorption of light energy directly from the sun. The thermal e  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: A detailed study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimated how much more--or less--energy United States residents might consume by 2050 relative to predicted shifts in seasonal weather patterns across the country. ORNL's Deeksha Rastogi and colleagues used a series of sophisticated climate models run on supercomputing resources at ORNL to estimate changes in househo  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Oak Ridge National Laboratory is training next-generation cameras called dynamic vision sensors, or DVS, to interpret live information--a capability that has applications in robotics and could improve autonomous vehicle sensing. Unlike a traditional digital camera that records large amounts of information in frames, a DVS transmits per-pixel changes in light intensit  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Using additive manufacturing, scientists experimenting with tungsten at Oak Ridge National Laboratory hope to unlock new potential of the high-performance heat-transferring material used to protect components from the plasma inside a fusion reactor. Fusion requires hydrogen isotopes to reach millions of degrees. Tungsten, the metal with the highest melting point, hol  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, July 30 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Collaborators at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and U.S. universities used neutron scattering and other advanced characterization techniques to study how a prominent catalyst enables the "water-gas shift" reaction to purify and generate hydrogen at industrial scale. Results published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society settled a  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Using the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a team of astrophysicists created a set of galactic wind simulations of the highest resolution ever performed. The simulations will allow researchers to gather and interpret more accurate, detailed data that elucidates how galactic winds affect the formation and evolution of galaxies. Brant Robertson of  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Seven Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers representing a range of scientific disciplines have received Department of Energy's Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards. The Early Career Research Program, now in its tenth year, supports the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates re  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, Aug. 2 -- The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, D. Michael Dunavant, issued the following news release: On July 23, 2019, a federal grand jury indicted 18 individuals for federal drug charges. U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant announced the indictment today. The indictment charges that the defendants conspired to commit bank fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in violation of  more

WASHINGTON, July 31 -- The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration issued the following news release: U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao today announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will award $478 million in airport infrastructure grants, the fourth allotment of the total $3.18 billion in Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding for airports across the United States. "This significant investment in airport improvements in   more

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, July 26 -- The Tennessee Valley Authority issued the following news release: The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking the public for comments on plans to issue permits for two new marinas on Norris Reservoir at Powell River in Campbell County, Tennessee. Details on the proposed Deerfield and Woodson Marinas are found in draft environmental assessments posted at www.tva.com/nepa. The draft assessments will consider the potential environmental impacts of the commercial mari  more

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, Aug. 2 -- The Tennessee Valley Authority issued the following news release: The Tennessee Valley Authority reported $8.1 billion in operating revenues for the nine-month period ended June 30, 2019, a slight increase from the same period a year ago. The financial performance reflected lower sales based on milder weather than in the same period of the previous year, and lower fuel cost recovery revenues, offset by higher base rates. TVA's fuel and purchased power expense wa  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, July 29 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued the following news release: Two researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received a 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or PECASE. David Cullen, of ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, and Kate Page, of ORNL's Neutron Scattering Division, are among the more than 300 researchers and engineers from around the nation   more

TAMPA, Florida, Aug. 1 -- The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Maria Chapa Lopez, issued the following news release: United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez and U.S. Attorney J. Douglas Overbey for the Eastern District of Tennessee announce that Scott Roix, together with several entities through which he ran his telemarketing business, including HealthRight, LLC; Health Savings Solutions, LLC; Vici Marketing, LLC; and Vici Marketing Group, LLC (hereinafter collectively referre  more

WASHINGTON, July 31 - The U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service announced that it intends to award a $33,489 cooperative agreement to the Virginia Tech for a study of current flammable forest material due to insect-induced tree and tall evergreen shrub mortality rates at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. The agency description of the grant states: "The project will also assess changes to tall evergreen shrub cover. Information will be used  more