The current civil conflict in Syria has just entered its third year and the US government is weighing a decision over whether to provide official foreign aid and support to the country. Dr. Jaber Hassan is a Syrian-American doctor living and practicing in Maryville. He's made several trips to Syria during this conflict, providing medical care with the Syrian American Medical Society. He recently returned from Syria and spoke with WUOT's Chrissy Keuper about what he's seen...
Syrian-American Medical Society: http://sams-usa.net/
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Jury selection begins next week in the trial of three nuclear protesters who broke into the Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee last summer. The Department of Energy facility houses the nation's stockpile of highly-enriched uranium. The break-in was significant in a lot of ways--not the least was the fact that one of the three trespassers was an 82-year-old nun. Matt Shafer Powell of member station WUOT reports...
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This week the FBI and IRS raided the headquarters of one of the country's largest private employers: Pilot Flying J. The chain operates more than 600 gas stations and convenience stores in 43 states. It's owned by billionaire Jimmy Haslam. Haslam also owns the Cleveland Browns and his brother is Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, who owns shares in the company.
The company is accused of skimming money it promised to commercial customers through fuel rebates. WUOT's Brandon Hollingsworth filed this report for NPR's All Things Considered.
An affidavit unsealed Thursday night alleges top-level officials within the Pilot-Flying J corporation knew about a long-running scheme to defraud money from some commercial customers.
According to the affidavit, Pilot has for years been skimming money from customer rebates, lowering the rebate rate without telling the customer, then paying the customer less than they were owed.
To help explain the complex investigation, WUOT All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth joined Morning Edition's Chrissy Keuper in a live interview.
Temple Grandin was in Knoxville recently to address a Veterinary Social Work summit sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Grandin is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and is well known among animal welfare advocates for improving the conditions in large cattle slaughter facilities. Now, more than half of all the cattle slaughtered in the US and Canada are processed by equipment that she designed. She spoke with us about how slaughter plants can be made more humane...
The Confucius Institute is celebrating its grand opening at the University of Tennessee. The institute is part of a worldwide movement, with more than 300 Confucius Institutes open in more than 100 countries. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper spoke with the UT institute's director, Geography professor Shih-Lung about what's behind this movement and why UT is now a part of it...
(Photo from the Knoxville News Sentinel)
AC Entertainment... A name long synonymous with some of the biggest events and best-known musical artists visiting the region and the company behind the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which has become one of the largest annual festivals in the world. The music promotion/production and artist/event management company is based in Knoxville. On April's episode of Dialogue, founder and President, Ashley Capps, sat down with WUOT's Chrissy Keuper to talk about the history of AC Entertainment and about the music industry...
http://acentertainment.com/
http://www.bonnaroo.com/
http://mountainoasisfest.com/
http://forecastlefest.com/
Optimism may not be a word that people often associate with conservation efforts, and certainly not with endangered animal species that compete with humans for habitat. Eric Dinerstein is the lead scientist for the World Wildlife Fund and the keynote speaker for the 2013 Discover Life in America Conference. Dinerstein told WUOT's Chrissy Keuper that he's optimistic because he's seen that large-scale conservation is possible, even in some of the world's poorest countries...
(This is an extended version of the broadcast interview)