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Local News

  • Houston brothers headed home

    By DAMON LAWRENCE

    dlawrence@roanecounty.com

    After being fitted with monitoring devices on Thursday afternoon, Rocky and Leon Houston are on their way home.

    “Tomorrow they're going to be sick as dogs because they're eating real food," said the brothers' sister, Lisa Burris, upon their release on bond after three years in jail on murder charges.

    The brothers were thankful as they paused outside Roane County Jail for a moment before being ushered home.

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  • Going home: Houstons thank God, families upon jail release

    By DAMON LAWRENCE

    dlawrence@roanecounty.com

    The sound of clanking shackles were replaced by terms of endearment. 

    “I love you,” Rocky Houston said to his wife, Nancy, moments after he walked freely out of the Roane County Jail.

    After nearly three years behind bars on murder charges, Rocky and his older brother, Leon, returned to their South of the River community on Thursday after being released on bond.

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  • 'We just ain't goin' to put up with it'

    By DAMON LAWRENCE

    dlawrence@roanecounty.com

    Residents plan to put up a fight if officials move forward with plans to use a Midtown landfill as a dumping ground for the fly ash that spilled from TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant.

    That was the overwhelming consensus of the people who spoke at Thursday night’s meeting of Roane County Commission’s solid waste committee.

    “You will never have a dump in our community,” Mary Helen Nichols said. “Take it some place else.”

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  • Davis town hall meeting turns to TVA talk

    By TERRI LIKENS

    tlikens@roanecounty.com

    Usually U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis’ town hall meetings  center on the same general topics: Social Security and disability issues, veterans issues and the like.

    But Saturday’s town hall meeting brought not only a bigger crowd but a broader list of topics.

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  • Confusion reigns after Houston verdict; lawyer says retrial likely

    By TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

    Neither side in the double-murder trial of Rocky Houston will find resolution in their Christmas stockings.

    A jury on Friday afternoon found Houston not guilty of some charges and could not agree on others.

    Judge James “Buddy” Scott did not immediately declare it a mistrial as he did when jurors could not agree in the trial last summer of Rocky's brother, Leon.

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  • TVA mudslide forces Swan Pond evacuation

    BY TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

    About a dozen homes were evacuated overnight after a dike collapsed, spilling a thick sludge of water and ash near the Kingston Steam Plant. Homes affected are in the area of Swan Pond Road and Swan Pond Circle.

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  • TVA impoundment breaks, moving homes, covering roads, railway

    By TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

    A Roane County man took a wild ride when his home was pushed off its foundation and into the road by a wall of sludge from a TVA containment pond.

    That Swan Pond area home near TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant was one of about a dozen residences that were inundated with a thick sludge from a fly ash retention  pond that collapsed just before 1 a.m. Monday.

    It was a rude awakening on a night where temperatures dropped to 11 degrees.

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  • Emory River closed by spill

    By TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

    The U.S. Coast Guard closed part of the Emory River Tuesday because of sludge and debris from Monday’s TVA retention pond break.

    TVA President Tom Kilgore, in a news conference Tuesday, released inspection reports that showed two minor breaches in the failed retention pond — one in 2003 and another in 2006.

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  • Bredesen: State will be looking over TVA's shoulder

     

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  • Fall-out over ash spill continues

    By TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

    It’s no secret that Roane County defines itself by its waterfront.

    Although a few other counties make a similar claim, Roane County officials declare theirs has more waterfront miles than any other Tennessee county.

    Since the TVA fly-ash impoundment break on Dec. 22, that waterfront has changed — and not just near the coal-fired Kingston Fossil Plant where the break occurred.

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The Roane County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Roane County and Kingston, Tennessee, and the surrounding area.