Feeding Local Children

Over forty-five percent of students in northeast Tennessee are a part of the government’s free and reduced lunch program. Many of these children receive little or no food outside of school.Through a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, Hale Community Ministries helps to alleviate the problem by providing weekend food for children in Carter County. Each package of food is packed at Second Harvest and brought to Hale. A package provides two weekends of food for each child in the program. One of Hale’s biggest struggles with the program however is funding, especially for the small Range Elementary School. The backpack program is incredibly important to the students and faculty of Range as the school has a high number of students who live in poverty. Over 97% of their students have free or reduced lunch. Hale Community Ministries has enough money for Range for this year, but they need a sponsor for next year. The cost is $93 per child for a total of $3,069 for Range's thirty-three children in the program. If you would like to sponsor or donate, contact Hale Community Ministries at 423-547-2560.

Johnny Wood Retires

The Tri-Cities said good-bye to a legend on Friday. WCYB-TV’s long time anchor Johnny Wood with and hour long news broadcast at the Paramount Theatre. Johnny Wood had worked at WCYB for forty-four years beginning in 1968.

Early Morning Fight Leaves One Dead

One teenager is dead and another is in serious condition following a fight early Sunday morning. It happened at a house on Cash Hollow Road in Carter County. Five teenagers were at the house when they began to fight about a female who was with them. The fight was taken into the yard when fourteen-year-old Nicolas Willen took out a knife and stabbed seventeen-year-old Elijah McKinney and another teen. McKinney died. The other teen is at the Johnson City Medical Center in critical condition. Willen and his cousin fled the scene. Willen is charged with second degree murder, and his cousin was charged with tampering with evidence. Two adults were home at the time but were sleeping. Police say alcohol was involved.