Robo Baggins, a robot, and his fellowship, the Clinton High School RoboDragons robotics team, are heading to Houston to compete against other robotics teams from around the world. The RoboDragons will next head to the FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Championship in the Texas city from April 17-20. The team built and designed and will control Robo Bagins, who will need to gather foam rings and place them in a six-foot-tall goal, as will every other team’s robots. Coach Jimmy Davis said this challenge inspired the CHS robot’s name, honoring the film and book series “The Lord of The Rings” and its central character, Frodo Baggins. For extra points, Robo Baggins and the other robots will try to climb a loose-hanging chain. The RoboDragons are heading to this competition because they won at the Smoky Mountain Regional Championship at the Knoxville Coliseum on March 3 doing the same tasks. “In a word, surreal,” Davis said regarding how it felt qualifying for the championship. “I can’t put it on me. It’s actually on the kids, on the team. They’re the ones who put in the energy and the work to make it happen.”
Read MoreAppalachia Ridge, the new RV park next to the Museum of Appalachia, plans to open for Memorial Day weekend with 100 sites ready for recreational vehicles, its spokeswoman says. The park, just west of the museum, plans to open its website (appalachiaridge.com) to reservations beginning this coming Friday, said Joy Maples, marketing executive for Appalachia Ridge. “We’re still getting the [reservations] map ready,” she said. “We’re very excited.” The park originally had planned to open by spring 2023, but faced several delays, Maples said. Most recently, the developers had to “widen the entrance and exit roads a bit,” she said. Work is still underway to finish some electrical hookups and other details. Still not ready to open, however, are some other planned amenities at the site, including tent campsites, “glamping” tents, treehouses and some tiny homes. “We don’t have dates for the rest yet,” Maples said. “We will not open those Memorial weekend.” Construction of the main entrance building and the separate bathhouse are completed, and electrical wiring to the 100 RV sites is almost finished, Mandy Conner, one of the park’s developers, said late last month. “It’s coming along great,” Conner said. She said the bathhouse has restrooms, showers and a laundry facility for the customers. All of the RV sites will have electrical, water and sewer hookups. No work has begun yet on other key features.
Read MoreA school bus contractor is trying to appeal a contract going to a new provider for some of Anderson County’s bus routes. The dispute involves how the people in charge of evaluating contractors look at experience. David Landreth, president of Andersonville Bus Lines, made the appeal. He laid out his case at a work session of the Anderson County Board of Education, explaining that experience doing the specific routes in Anderson County should count more than experience doing routes elsewhere. As stated in official documents, contractor SCU received 13 contracts for routes with competitive bids, including six on which Andersonville also bid. Anderson County Law Director Jay Yeager said in an interview March 18 that the county planned to decide on this appeal within 10 days. At the March 18 County Commission meeting, Landreth joined many others in disputing the contract decision process, making Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse standing room only during the time for public comments.
Read MoreAnderson County Schools has joined 35 other Tennessee school systems in a lawsuit against social media companies seeking protections for students. Amid a growing mental health crisis among students, 36 Tennessee school systems have filed similar lawsuits against social media companies for protection for children across multiple popular platforms. The lawsuits seek actionable accountability, tools and resources to address the lack of protections, monitors, controls and cooperation to protect children. Companies that are being sued include Meta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google, WhatsApp and YouTube (Meta Platforms, Inc); Facebook Holdings, LLC; Facebook Operations, LLC; Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC; Meta Payments, Inc.; Instagram, LLC; Siculus, Inc.; Snap, Inc.; TikTok, Inc.; ByteDance, Inc.; Alphabet, Inc.; Google, LLC; XXVI Holdings, Inc.; WhatsApp, Inc.; and YouTube, LLC.).
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