Kingston News

Loudon County residents are speaking out against the possible disposal of coal fly ash waste from the Roane County spill in the Matlock Bend landfill.

Ash-filled trains will soon be on the roll to Alabama, and TVA will soon begin test runs of trucking ash to area landfills.

Elected Roane County officials and police officers testified Monday that they've been harassed, intimidated and frightened by a constable with a penchant for making obscene gestures.

According to testimony, Constable Mark Patton has: doused three young men with pepper spray; made improper traffic stops; frightened a would-be opponent into dropping out of the constable's race; made repeated threats toward police and local elected officials, often accompanied by gestures made with his middle finger.

Patton, 49, is fighting to stay in his nonpaying job as a Kingston-area constable.

KINGSTON, Tenn. - Tears fell from Lisa Christiansen's eyes as she cradled her 3-month-old daughter, uncertain of what their futures hold.

Knoxville News-Sentinel editorial, June 26, 2009:

Justice was not served when prosecutors in the Ninth Judicial District agreed to five years' probation for a Lenoir City man who shot his girlfriend to death.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the February 2008 death of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21.

Harvey admits he was arguing with McMahan when he picked up a loaded .22 from a nearby table. The two argued often, according to McMahan's father, who said Harvey bullied his daughter, and "she said she was going to leave him several times before the shooting."

The gun was a single-action revolver, and the detective in the case said it had to be cocked before it could be fired. The powder burns he found showed McMahan was shot at close range.......

If prosecutors could not do better than a no-jail-time deal in that case, they should have gone to trial and let 12 citizens decide who had the best ballistics expert.

This plea bargain simply undermines faith in the judicial process.

(The full editorial is longer than Topix allows on the news board. To read it in its entirety, visit the accompanying link. The Ninth Judicial District includes Loudon, Roane, Morgan, and Meigs counties.)

"There are sections of the lower Emory that are not suitable for full on recreation, swimming, jet skiing and tubing," says EPA spokesman Leo Francendese.

The parents of a Lenoir City woman shot and killed by her boyfriend are speaking out against a plea bargain that sentenced their daughter's killer to five years on probation.

The plea-deal was granted by the office of Russell Johnson, District Attorney General for Roane, Loudon, Meigs, and Morgan counties.

"I want justice for my daughter," said Sarah Berry, mother of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21, who was shot by John Kenneth Harvey, 26, in February 2008.

Harvey was originally charged with second-degree murder, and admits he shot the woman during an argument but claims it was an accident. The charge was reduced to reckless homicide.

The victim’s mother, Sarah Berry, said she met several times with the district attorney general's office. She says the office wanted to avoid a trial from the beginning,

The victim's father, John McMahan, said he witnessed the couple's frequent arguments and what he called "bullying" by Harvey. McMahan says his daughter was going to leave Harvey. He says:

I know that's why he shot her, because she said she was going to leave"

Assistant Attorney General Bill Reedy says one critical factor in not pursuing a murder charge was a "dying declaration" made by the victim that the shooting was accidental. The witness was said to be Nathan Lane, who called the ambulance that night.

Lane says that he never heard a dying declaration and never agreed to testify to hearing such a thing:

By the time I saw her she was already going into convulsions. She didn't say a thing to me."

For more details, see the full story.

A new report shows that the Tennessee Valley Authority's response to the massive coal ash spill in Kingston last December was hindered by three main problems.

A Lenoir City man who admitted shooting and killing his girlfriend during an argument last year will receive five years' probation for the crime.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was arrested in February 2008 and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Savannah Kathy McMahan, 21.

Prosecutors said they reduced the charge to reckless homicide and agreed to five years' supervised probation after reviewing the evidence in the case.

State and federal officials issued an advisory this afternoon warning against the recreational use of the lower Emory River section of Watts Bar Lake near the Kingston ash spill site.

Roane County Attorney Tom McFarland has filed a restraining order in Roane County Chancery Court against his ex-wife to keep her from taking their two children swimming again in the Emory River near the scene of TVA's coal ash spill.

Joan McFarland said Monday that both TVA and public officials have given assurances that there are no safety concerns.

McFarland said there have been conflicting reports about "what's in that water".

Some people didn't like the way Tony Brown lost his job as Roane County administrator of elections.

Now you can watch a drive-in movie on a lake. The owner of a Kingston boating store is offering boaters a free monthly movie on the water.

Roane County residents worried about their health after the massive ash spill had the first of what will likely be many meetings with a federal health agency.

State environmental officials said a giant landfill in one of Alabama's poorest counties would take coal ash from a spill in Tennessee.

Sunday was the kind of day Roane Countians live for -- clear and sunny, with temperatures in the upper 80s.

Their health has been wrecked, their property values have plummeted, and the absence of culpability by oversight agencies is staggering.

There are new questions about the environmental impacts of ash produced from Tennessee Valley Authority's coal fire plants.

" The Kingston City Council called a special meeting Thursday evening to discuss several aspects of the December 22nd Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill.

The chairwoman of the House of Representativesa Subcommittee on Water, Resources and Environment plans to visit Kingston, Tenn., Sunday to talk with residents of Harriman and Kingston about the 1.2 billion gallons of coal ash spilled there in December.