The Tennessee coaching search has gone through a tumultuous week. Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel
1) The University of Tennessee football saga
Tennessee football achieved some humiliating program firsts in 2017 with the Vols losing eight games and going winless in eight SEC games. Coach Butch Jones was fired on Nov. 12, the day after the Vols were routed at Missouri, 50-17.
Jones’ firing began a coaching search that dragged on for 26 days and played out like the Vols’ season. Athletic director John Currie was called back to Knoxville in the midst of the search and was suspended by UT Chancellor Beverly Davenport, pending an investigation or decision to terminate Currie’s employment agreement for cause. He was replaced by former football coach Phil Fulmer, who hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt on Dec. 7 as the new football coach.
2) Keaton Jones' anti-bullying video goes viral
Keaton, a sixth-grader at Horace Maynard Middle School in Maynardville in Union County, sparked a national conversation about bullying after a video of him went viral over the weekend. Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel
Union County six-grader Keaton Jones sparked a national conversation about bullying after a video of him went viral earlier this month.
In the clip, posted online by his mother, a tearful Keaton laments his repeated bullying by classmates at Horace Maynard Middle School in Maynardville.
More: Crying East Tennessee boy's viral anti-bullying video attracts attention of Vols, Titans
"Stay strong, I guess," he says on camera. "It's hard. But it'll probably get better one day."
The video drew more than 11 million views and an outpouring of support for Keaton from celebrities such as racing driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Fox host Sean Hannity, rapper Snoop Dogg, presidential son Donald Trump Jr., "Captain America" actor Chris Evans, pop star Justin Bieber and others.
3) The total solar eclipse
The first total solar eclipse in 38 years to be visible in the continental United States drew thousands of watchers to prime viewing spots across East Tennessee, such as Sweetwater in McMinn County on Aug. 21.
The phenomenon caused major traffic backups and even fed doomsday predictions of a coming apocalypse.
4) Opioid abuse continues to take its toll in East Tennessee
More than 300 people gathered at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame to memorialize lives lost to drugs and talk about how to stem the tide of new deaths. Kristi L. Nelson - USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee
The bane of addiction-related crime and death isn’t easing up in our area. Knox County’s drug-related deaths increased 31 percent between 2015 and 2016, and they were on track to increase at least 25 percent by the end of 2017.
The potent powder painkiller fentanyl, often used in counterfeit drugs, has made its mark on the area, accounting for nearly 20 percent of all drug-related deaths. It’s now the No. 1 most common drug found in these deaths, followed by oxymorphone, oxycodone, alprazolam (Xanax), methamphetamine (making a comeback because it’s being imported from other places), cocaine, hydrocodone, morphine, alcohol and heroin.
As new laws have made the opioid overdose naloxone more widely available to the public – it’s now sold in drugstores without a prescription, and supplied to schools and other agencies – East Tennessee continues to struggle with too few resources to address addiction, especially among the poor and uninsured.
5) Fort Sanders Confederate monument demonstrations
Clips from Fort Sanders Confederate monument protest Calvin Mattheis/USA Today Network - Tennessee
A marker that stood for more than a century at the site of Knoxville's pivotal battle of the Civil War became the scene of a new conflict when a group with white supremacist ties announced a rally "in support of" the monument on 17th Street near the University of Tennessee campus. The monument commemorates the deaths of Confederate soldiers in the Nov. 29, 1863 Battle of Fort Sanders.
Tom Pierce, a onetime candidate for the Knox County Commission, said he organized the Aug. 26 rally to help defend white culture. Nearly 3,000 counter-protesters turned out that Saturday to face about three dozen on Pierce's side, with Knoxville Police Department officers keeping both sides separated to prevent violence.
The rally ended with only one arrest and no other conflicts.
6) Review faults park officials for lack of communication during Smokies firestorm
How did a one-acre fire on the Chimney Tops trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park transform into a massive firestorm? Take an inside look at the events leading up to the November 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires that claimed 14 lives. Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel
Getting answers on East Tennessee's fire of the century took nearly a year, with some questions yet to be resolved.
Gatlinburg, Sevier County and Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials sat for months on public records relating to the city and county response to the fire, which burned for five days on the Chimney Tops peaks inside the park before high-speed winds drove the flames into the resort town the night of Nov. 28, 2016, to kill 14 people and damage or destroy more than 2,500 homes and businesses. Officials said they'd been ordered not to release the records due to a pending Juvenile Court case against two Anderson County teenagers accused of starting the blaze.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped the case, and officials turned over the records, which revealed inaction, poor interagency communication and a failure by officials to appreciate the scale of the threat until it was too late. An outside review of the city and county response concluded lives might have been saved by earlier evacuations - if the park had notified local authorities in time.
Some angry residents insist all their questions haven't yet been answered.
7) Federal trial begins for Pilot Flying J executives
More than four years after a stunning daytime raid of the Knoxville headquarters of Pilot Flying J, the trial of Mark Hazelwood, the former president of the nation’s largest diesel fuel retailer, Scott Wombold, a former vice president, and two former sales support staff got underway in November in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga. Pilot Flying J’s board of directors already had admitted criminal responsibility for the $92 million scheme by its sales executives to cheat trucking firms of promised discounts on diesel fuel. Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Haslam has denied any knowledge and is not charged. Fourteen former Pilot Flying J executives and support staff have pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Two others were granted immunity.
8) Beverly Davenport becomes first female chancellor of UT-Knoxville
Beverly Davenport, UTK chancellor, speaking to media on first day at work in Knoxville. Michael Patrick/News Sentinel
In February, UT Knoxville welcomed its eighth chancellor and the first woman to lead the state’s flagship campus, Beverly Davenport. Davenport came from the University of Cincinnati, where she most recently served as interim president. In her nearly one year on campus, she hired and suspended a new athletic director; made a decision to not outsource facilities jobs on the UT Knoxville campus and hired a director for the university’s LGBT pride center after it was de-funded by state lawmakers in 2016.
9) Knox County homicides hit historic high
Knox County experienced its deadliest year in nearly two decades, with 37 homicides reported as of Dec. 21.
It is the highest number of killings within a year since 1998, when Knoxville and Knox County authorities investigated 40 homicides.
This year, the Knoxville Police Department investigated 30 slayings. Half of those cases remain open.
All seven homicide cases investigated by the Knox County Sheriff's Office in 2017 have been resolved. Arrests have been made in three of those cases. Two other killings were fatal shootings by sheriff's deputies deemed justifiable homicides.The remaining two deaths were determined to be murder-suicides.
This year's spike in violence follows a nationwide trend, according to Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch. The reasons? An increase in drug dealing and, possibly, "this angst that seems to be in the air," Rausch said.
10) Three men found guilty in fatal shooting of Zaevion Dobson
ESPN produced a short documentary on Zaevion Dobson, who was killed protecting his friends from gunfire. Courtesy of ESPN Films
Two years after innocent Fulton High School sophomore Zaevion Dobson was fatally shot in Lonsdale, three men were convicted in the killing.
Christopher Drone Bassett, 22, was found guilty of first-degree murder while co-defendants Richard Gregory Williams III, 23, and Kipling Colbert Jr., 22, were convicted on a lesser charge of facilitation of first-degree murder by a Knox County jury.
Dobson's death drew national attention as then-President Barack Obama cited the death, calling Dobson a hero, in a speech on gun violence.
Dobson, who was killed as he shielded two girls from the barrage of gunfire, was posthumously awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY Awards, and was the subject of an ESPN documentary.
11) Four women, including two minorities, elected to Knoxville City Council
Clips and reactions from the city council tie race decision meeting
The council's lack of diversity concerned Mayor Madeline Rogero and other city leaders in the weeks and months leading up to the election particularly in the historically black District 6.
Those concerns subsided after the city elected four women, Stephanie Welch, Seema Singh-Perez, Lauren Rider and Gwen McKenzie, along with Andrew Roberto. In all, the five new members flip the council which will now be majority-filled with new members.
12) Farragut High School suffers rash of student suicides
Farragut High School student Catherine Miller explains why she decided to start a petition to ask school officials to better acknowledge the problem of suicide. Hayes Hickman/News Sentinel
School officials were criticized by students and parents alike for being slow to react after three students died by suicide in separate incidents during the spring semester.
Principal Ryan Siebe acknowledged the suicides in a letter to parents in late April following the third student death and organized an informational meeting. Statewide standardized testing was postponed the following week at both Farragut High and Farragut Middle schools, and grief counselors were made available to students as well.
In August, Knox County Schools administrators announced a new partnership with the Jason Foundation to update prevention training for teachers and add components for students.
13) Knoxville firefighters save baby with amazing catch
Senior firefighter Eric "Bo" Merritt describes how a one-month-old baby was dropped from a 25-30 foot window after an apartment complex caught fire. Hayes Hickman/News Sentinel
Knoxville Senior Firefighter Eric "Bo" Merritt called it a "once-in-a-lifetime" catch when he made the quick-thinking decision to tell a father drop his one-month-old son from the window of a burning apartment building in April.
Fire Captain David Frazier stood close behind and braced Merritt as he caught the falling infant some 30 feet below the open window.
The child was unhurt, and Merritt and Frazier later were honored for their heroism at a City Council meeting with a joint resolution signed by state legislators and Gov. Bill Haslam.
14) Missing teen found safe after 11 days lost in the Smokies
Austin Bohanan and his stepfather somehow became separated while hunting for ginseng in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the afternoon of Aug. 11, authorities said. Despite having little food, Bohanan walked out of the park 11 days later, bringing to an end a lengthy search that involved more than 100 people as well as K-9 teams and helicopters equipped with infrared devices. Park officials later relayed the 18-year-old's story of how he followed creeks to make it out alive.
15) Off-duty Knoxville police officer holds woman at gunpoint
Tonya Jameson was in Knoxville on Thursday, speaking to the Police Advisory and Review Committee about an incident involving Police Officer Matthew Janish in Jefferson County. Saul Young/USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee
Knoxville Police Department Officer Matthew Janish was off-duty when he saw a stranger changing out the license plate on his mother-in-law's SUV in Jefferson City. He approached Tonya Jameson in plainclothes with his gun drawn, then held her at gunpoint as he called E-911 to report what he thought to be an auto theft. Janish began asking Jameson questions as he waited for a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy to arrive.
Jameson had purchased the SUV from Janish's mother-in-law, who knew Jameson was coming to get the vehicle but was not home. Neither Janish nor the deputy allowed Jameson to produce the proof she had in her bag. The stalemate ended when Janish's wife reached her mom, who confirmed she had sold the SUV to Jameson.
Jameson, who is black, filed a complaint with KPD, alleging racial profiling and excessive use of force in being held at gunpoint when she had done nothing wrong. KPD exonerated Janish, saying his actions were "lawful and proper." Knoxville's independent police review board criticized KPD for that decision, marking a rare disagreement between the two groups.
16) TDOT bills family of fatal crash victim for cost of damaged guardrail
The Tennessee Department of Transportation billed Steven Eimers nearly $3,000 to replace the guardrail that killed his teenage daughter Hannah in a car crash in November 2016. TDOT said the bill was sent by accident and apologized, but Eimers seized the error as an opportunity to speak out about a model of guardrail end he believes to be defective. One week before Hannah crashed into a Lindsay X-LITE guardrail end on the side of an interstate, TDOT removed the model from its approved product list, citing safety concerns about its performance at interstate speeds. After the first story was published, TDOT began replacing the guardrails on state roads as deaths in other states were revealed to be tied to X-LITE guardrails.
17) Chris Blue wins 'The Voice'
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Knoxville worship leader Chris Blue had an epic year in 2017. With his soulful voice and energetic dancing, he won NBC's "The Voice" in May and sold out three concerts at the Tennessee Theatre in September. Blue also married his wife Stephanie in July and will release original music soon.
18) TVA ash cleanup workers file lawsuit
More than 50 coal ash spill cleanup workers and workers' survivors are suiing Jacobs Engineering for unsafe working conditions that they allege lead to sickness and death at the cleanup site. Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel
A USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee investigation revealed workers in the clean-up of the nation’s largest coal ash spill in Kingston in 2008 were denied protective gear and, as a result, suffered long-term exposure to coal ash, which contains a slew of toxic chemicals and metals. More than two-dozen workers have died, and more than 100 are sick. They are suing Jacobs Engineering, a California government contractor tapped by TVA to clean up the 5 million cubic yards of coal ash sludge that smothered 300 acres of land in the Swan Pond community when a dike gave way at the TVA Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant. The USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee investigation has spurred a criminal investigation by Roane County prosecutors and prompted calls for a federal probe. The lawsuit is pending.
19) Murder charges against accused 'black widow' Raynella Dossett-Leath tossed
Raynella Dossett Leath faced an extraordinary third trial in Knox County Criminal Court on the same charge for which she was tried twice before — that she killed her second husband, David Leath, in 2003 and staged it to look like a suicide. THE USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee
A judge tossed out murder charges against accused black widow Raynella Dossett-Leath just as a jury was poised to decide if she fatally shot her second husband, West Knoxville barber David Leath, in 2003 and staged it to look like a suicide. The widow was convicted in the killing in a 2010 trial but Senior Judge Paul Summers later ruled she was robbed of a fair trial because the judge presiding over that trial – Richard Baumgartner – was high on prescription painkillers. He granted her a new trial and then, after hearing the same evidence presented to jurors, ruled that although the state had proven David Leath was murdered, prosecutors failed to prove it was his widow who did it. She also had been accused of killing her first husband, Knox County District Attorney General Ed Dossett, in 1992 via an overdose of morphine and staging that death to look like an accidental cattle trampling.
20) Pet monkey escapes, captures Knoxvillians' hearts
Alexis Donaldson took this video of Pretty Boy Floyd, the escaped pet monkey, the day before he was finally caught in North Knoxville. Submitted / Alexis Donaldson
A monkey appeared on the deck of Ron Merritt's North Knoxville home in August. Merritt called animal control, but the monkey took to the trees, rendering officers' nets and traps useless. Social media lit up with reported sightings and jokes that only intensified as more details about the critter emerged. The monkey's name? "Pretty Boy Floyd." Pretty Boy's favorite foods? Marshmallows and Crazy Bread from Little Caesars, of course. People armed with nets and treats wandered around North Knoxville in hopes of catching the primate and winning an unspecified reward. The daughter of Bill King, a veteran who described the monkey as a therapy animal, finally caught Pretty Boy as she stood alone, bearing honey.