LOCAL NEWS

Body Farm novelists to hold book signing at courthouse The writing team of Dr. William Bass and Jon Jefferson who co-penned the fictional work Carved in Bone: A Body Farm Novel (William Morrow, 2006) under the pseudonym of Jefferson Bass, will hold a book signing event on Thursday to support the Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center of Tennessee’s Fourth Judicial District. The event will take place from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. in the third floor courtroom of the Sevier County Courthouse. Funds raised from the event will be used to underwrite operational costs of the Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, a non-profit organization created and designed to aid in cases of sexual abuse, severe physical abuse and severe neglect of child-victims in Tennessee’s Fourth Judicial District (Cocke, Grainger, Jefferson and Sevier counties). Knoxville called affordable vacation spot Knoxville was named to CNNMoney.com’s list of the seven most affordable vacation destinations in the United States and abroad. CNNMoney.com noted Knoxville was “full of cultural and family attractions, from the Knoxville Symphony and the Knoxville Zoo to the Knoxville Opera,” as well as mentioning the city was abundant in affordable hotels and motels. Other tourism destinations recognized by the Internet site for their great travel values were Portland, Maine, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, the popular Canadian destination of Banff, Richmond, Va., Denver, Colo., and Greenville, S.C. “We are thrilled Knoxville has been included on a list with notable tourism destinations like St. Lucia and Banff. We’ve always known that Knoxville has so many affordable attractions, festivals, and activities to offer our visitors and it’s great to see that others on a national scale are taking notice,” said Gloria Ray, Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation’s (KTSC) President and CEO. UT To Host Tennessee DI Day May 26 The University of Tennessee’s Department of Conferences invites Tennesseans to see some of the world’s brightest young creative thinkers and problem solvers in action during Destination ImagiNation’s annual Global Finals competition in Knoxville.Destination ImagiNation is the world’s largest creative problem-solving program for young people from kindergarten through college.UT will host a special Tennessee DI Day beginning at 10 a.m. Friday, May 26, at the downtown Knoxville Convention Center for parents, educators and others interested in learning more about creativity and analytical-thinking skills for youth. Free lunch and parking will be provided.The DI Global Finals is expected to attract more than 8,000 youth participants and 6,000 spectators from across the United States and a dozen foreign countries to the UT campus and the Knoxville Convention Center. UT has hosted DI’s Global Finals since 1991.