Remains identified as missing man and other news from areas around Chattanooga

Remains identified as missing man

ROME, Ga. - Authorities in Northwest Georgia say a set of skeletal remains have been identified as a 22-year-old missing man.

Floyd County police said Thursday that the remains have been identified as 22-year-old Joshua Eugene Ferguson, of Coosa. A search team found the remains over the weekend.

The Rome News-Tribune reports the man's cause of death is unclear.

Floyd County Sheriff's officials say Ferguson disappeared in early November, and the contents of his computer and cellphone had both been deleted.


Public school tests to change

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama public school students will take new standardized tests this spring that, in addition to measuring academic performance, will estimate their eventual scores on the ACT college entrance exam.

Alabama schools will use a suite of six tests produced by ACT, Inc., which manufactures the popular college entrance test. The new tests are aligned with the Common Core curriculum standards and replace the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test and Alabama's long-standing high school graduation exam.

"Parents, students, and teachers will know by the end of third grade whether each student is on track to be successful upon graduation from high school," Deputy State Superintendent of Education Sherrill Parris said.

Testing will begin in the third grade. Students in the third through eighth grades will take the ACT Aspire test beginning April 28. Older students will take different tests produced by ACT, Inc. Eleventh-graders will take the actual college entrance exam.

Alabama Superintendent Bice said an advantage of the new tests is that they will give a projection of a student's eventual score on the ACT college test. Student progress will be tracked through the years.


I-24 resurfacing work this weekend

CHATTANOOGA - A TDOT resurfacing project on Interstate 24 in Marion and Hamilton counties that involves concrete bridge deck repairs is scheduled between Friday at 10 p.m. EDT and Monday at 6 a.m. EDT, a news release states.

The project area is about 6 miles long, beginning at the end of the Tennessee River Bridge at Nickajack Lake in Marion County near mile marker 161 and extending through a 0.31-mile section of I-24 in Hamilton County to the Georgia state line near mile marker 167.

Contractor Talley Construction of Rossville will have interstate lane closures in the area between mile markers 162 and 163. Crews will begin bridge deck repair work on I-24 West, and if time allows they will work on the bridges on I-24 East. Although one lane will be open to traffic at all times during the weekend bridge deck repair operations, a major traffic impact is expected.

This is a nighttime resurfacing operation, and work will occur on both sides of the interstate simultaneously. The estimated completion date for the $5.2-million project is on or before Sept. 15.

Motorists who must travel through the project area are advised to expect delays.

The work will be rescheduled in the event of bad weather or unforeseen circumstances.

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