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Ben Benton

Stories by Ben

Barring another bout with Mother Nature, the new Civilian Conservation Corps Museum at DeSoto State Park east of Fort Payne, Ala., will be dedicated and officially opened Friday.

Question: Whatever happened to Chicago Bridge & Iron, which planned to build a $110 million plant in Marion County with 250 to 350 jobs?

College-bound high school students in Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties could gain an expanded dual-enrollment and early college program aimed at technical careers through Chattanooga State Community College in coming years.

Two of four men charged in a March 24 killing in Cowan, Tenn., are now listed among the TBI's Top 10 Most Wanted and are the subject of a $1,000 reward for information.

Victims of March 18's tornadoes and high winds in DeKalb County, Ala., and surrounding counties could be eligible for federal help after being approved recently for disaster assistance in the form of low-interest loans.

Two Coffee County, Tenn., men are in custody and two others are at large after indictments were handed down by a Franklin County grand jury Monday in the March 24 slaying of a Cowan, Tenn., resident.

Authorities in Franklin County, Tenn., say two arrests have been made in the March 24 slaying of 26-year-old Cowan, Tenn., resident Corey N. Matthews, and two more suspects are at large.

Authorities in Franklin County, Tenn., say investigators have made "good progress" after dozens of interviews after the discovery of a Cowan, Tenn., man's body in a local cornfield in March.

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. — The B.B. Comer Bridge over the Tennessee River was named to a Top 10 list of savable bridges for 2013 and is the target of a preservation effort.

A Winchester, Tenn., city councilman who in 2011 flatly denied allegations of sexually assaulting a woman at his apartment was found guilty of a misdemeanor during a jury trial Thursday.

Jackson County, Ala., commissioners are fishing for funding cuts and so far have netted more than $750,000 from four departmental budgets.

No charges have been filed so far in a Tuesday altercation in Meigs County's Cottonport community that left one man with critical gunshot injuries, authorities said.

Authorities in Meigs County are probing a shooting in the Cottonport Community that left one man critically injured Tuesday evening.

FORT PAYNE, Ala. — Storm damage at DeSoto State Park is hurting the park's revenue stream, but officials at the facility near Fort Payne hope everything is back up and running before July.

Franklin County, Tenn., authorities say the man found dead in a Cowan cornfield on March 24 was targeted by more than one person, though they won't say why.

DUNLAP, Tenn. — This morning, as the sun rises or the clouds lighten on this most joyous of days for Christians, the congregation at the little Methodist church east of Dunlap will gather at the western foot of Walden's Ridge as it has for more than 160 years.

As a 13-year-old boy recovers from being accidentally shot Thursday, Marion County, Tenn., authorities say they now know how it happened.

The father of the boy accidentally shot Thursday at a home in Marion County issued a statement today from Erlanger hospital, where the boy is being treated.

Victims of last week's storms in DeKalb County, Ala., won't qualify for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but Gov. Robert Bentley has approved an application for financial help from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Franklin County, Tenn., investigators are trying to figure out who killed 26-year-old Cowan resident Corey N. Matthews, whose body was found in a cornfield Sunday about two miles from his home.

Approval of the merger of two Jackson County, Ala., water authorities with the DeKalb-Jackson Water Supply District will save about $200,000 a year, officials say.

DUNLAP, Tenn. — Erlanger Health System's new, $1.8 million emergency room in Dunlap will bring full-time medical care to the central Sequatchie Valley as soon as late summer.

As victims continue cleaning up in the wake of Monday’s tornadoes, DeKalb County, Ala., officials have established a contact number for those still needing help.

Crews and property owners are cleaning up after a pair of confirmed EF2 tornadoes and high, straight-line winds struck DeKalb and Marshall counties in Alabama on Monday, injuring seven people and displacing as many as 70.

Jim Phillips doesn't whisper when he tells you he knows the "best-kept secret in the state of Tennessee."

TBI agents and Coffee County investigators still are looking for leads to explain what happened to a 51-year-old woman whose partially burned body was found in an old rock quarry March 9.

Sequatchie County, Tenn., officials are studying a wheel tax and spending cuts to cover federal Affordable Care Act requirements for possible increases in county employee health insurance costs of as much as $600,000 a year.

State and federal authorities in Imperial Beach, Calif., have arrested a recent Chattanooga resident in the November slaying of a Manchester, Tenn., man.

A Rosalie, Ala., man was reported in critical condition at Erlanger hospital from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a chase and four-hour standoff with authorities Thursday on state Highway 71 north of his hometown.

Grundy County Mayor Lonnie Cleek says there are few options but to go with a $37-per-day, per-inmate contract with Carroll County to house a half-dozen or more of Grundy's female prisoners while county officials work to build a new jail.

Medical officials in Nashville ruled the death of a woman found Saturday in Coffee County, Tenn., a homicide after finding she was killed by a single gunshot to the chest, officials said Monday.

The schools' names rise from memory like tombstones, tragic reminders of the mass violence, lost innocence and senseless pain that gave them their horrible distinction.

There are no new leads in the search for missing South Pittsburg, Tenn., resident James Roger Tant, who last was heard from a year ago today, but investigators plan to refocus on the case this week.

Officials in Pikeville, Tenn., will have their third reading on a new ordinance Monday that will open applications for package stores to anyone who can qualify under Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules.

The woman charged in the 2011 slayings of two elderly Bledsoe County, Tenn., sisters on Thursday pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was ordered to serve two life sentences without parole, authorities said.

Brenda K. Brown, the woman charged in the 2011 shooting deaths of two elderly Bledsoe County sisters, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges and has accepted a sentence of life without parole, according to authorities in Bledsoe County.

Tullahoma, Tenn., police say federal authorities are looking into the investigation of a local woman charged in February with pimping a teenage girl to adult men in exchange for crack cocaine.

Jackson County, Ala., commissioners are wrangling with a $1.2 million 2012-13 budget deficit that stems from previous years' deficits that were countered with reserve funds.

Despite a two-hour delay Friday that led to classes being canceled, Bledsoe County Middle School's staff came to work because that's what the school's late principal would have expected.

Bledsoe County Middle School principal and longtime educator Deborah Thompson was killed Thursday when a car plowed into a Knoxville restaurant and struck her, according to police.

State and local investigators in Bledsoe County, Tenn., are in their second week of interviews in a probe launched by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of "mishandled" pharmaceutical supplies for the county's ambulances.

Officials in Dalton, Ga., on Wednesday said the couple injured in a Feb. 20 house fire on Griffin Street have died of their burns at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga.

The man convicted on a plea of killing 24-year-old Tullahoma, Tenn., nursing student Megan Sharpton is trying to withdraw that guilty plea and take the case to trial.

Donnie Jones Jr., the convicted killer of Tullahoma nursing student Megan Sharpton, on Monday filed paperwork to withdraw the guilty plea he entered earlier this month and put the case before a jury.

A body found Saturday in Marion County, Tenn.'s stretch of the Tennessee River was identified Monday as that of missing U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Paul Rogers, who last was seen Feb. 3 in Chattanooga.

When Steve Pickett reopened his family's Pickett Trout Ranch near Dunlap, Tenn., in 2004, the bulk of his business was from anglers who came to catch rainbow trout from the ponds there.

Jackson County, Ala., officials say the first of four quarterly community meetings was a success with a turnout of at least 50 residents.

OCOEE, Tenn. — For Jamie and Timmy Gamble, Goforth Creek Canyon is a treasured getaway from their hectic lives.

Two DeKalb County, Ala., men are charged in connection with the recovery of a dozen stolen all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, Sheriff Jimmy Harris said Friday.

Signal Mountain resident James T. Meeks III will be at least 36 years old before he's eligible for parole in the deaths of three people killed in a 2011 crash in Marion County, Tenn.

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