Local

An endangered child alert has been issued in middle and east Tennessee for 14 year-old Jasmine Nicole Johnson, who has been missing from Cookeville since Aug. 13, 2015. Jasmine is a white female, 5’1″ tall, weighs 140 lbs., and has blue eyes and brown hair. She was wearing a black and white shirt with blue jeans shorts. According to police, ...

On August 20, Friends of the Smokies hosts the 21st annual Friends Across the Mountains Telethon to benefit Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The event has a long history as the only telethon for a national park, and has raised more than $3 million. “As we celebrate the 99th year of the National Park Service and look ahead to its centennial in 2016, ...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A North Carolina man has been sentenced to six months in jail for illegally harvesting a significant amount of American ginseng from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, marking his fifth conviction for ginseng poaching. Jill Westmoreland Rose, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina announced today that U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis L. Howell ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help staff the visitor contact station at Clingmans Dome on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from August 28 through December 1, 2015. Volunteers will work at the seasonal information center that includes a bookstore/sales area managed by Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA). Volunteers will assist in educating visitors about the park and ...

The Sevier County Humane Society is asking for help from the community after taking in 56 dogs and cats from one residence on Thursday. A spokesperson for the animal shelter said they received a call on Sunday from an individual in need of assistance because he could no longer financially or physically care for the number of dogs and cats ...

The popular western store Stages West is closed after suffering significant damage from an early morning fire on Thursday. The Pigeon Forge Fire Department responded to a fire call for the Stages West retail store located at 2765 Parkway shortly after 4 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2015 and had the fire extinguished before 6:30 a.m., preventing the fire from spreading ...

On Tuesday, August 4, the American Eagle Foundation of Tennessee released two 13-week-old bald eaglets in honor of the service members slain last month by a gunman at the Naval Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Chattanooga, Tenn. For the past six weeks, these eaglets have resided in the American Eagle Foundation’s artificial nesting tower overlooking Douglas Lake ...

An employee of Wahoo Ziplines is in serious condition after a 50-foot fall from a zipline on Monday. The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office said it received a 911 call just after 11 a.m. on August 3, 2015 and responded to Wahoo Ziplines at 1200 Matthews Hollow Road in Sevierville, Tenn. where officers found Jeremy Blair, 35, had fallen from a ...

The husband of a woman reported missing last week has been charged with attempted murder. The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that they located Katherine Walker and arrested her husband Phillip Joe Matthews, 41, following an investigation that revealed she fled into hiding after he allegedly tried to kill her with a sword. On July 31, 2015, Sevier County ...

UPDATE: The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office announced on Sunday, August 2, 2015 that the case has been resolved and Walker was located. The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s assistance in locating a Sevierville woman who has been missing more than a week. According to Sevier County Sheriff Ron Seals, 41-year-old Katherine Levon Walker was last seen ...