Jim Young Reporter celebrating 1 year of independent news reporting!

One year ago, I started this news blog page and the facebook page Jim Young Reporter in order to continue bringing my extensive news background,knowledge and experience to the local community.

In the first 12 months over 275,000 individual page views have been counted to this blog while Facebook has counted well over half a million impressions of the stories posted and shared there.

Thanks to our readers for their support and continued interest in quality and accurate reporting on news from Crossville and especially coverage of the Crossville city council.  We are the only Crossville news outlet consistently sharing video of city council meetings.

Some of the scoops you read here over the last year included the only story published so far on the recent First Amendment lawsuit filed by a local man against Crossville and a former councilman.
Blankenship Lawsuit Story 

No other local media has yet to interview J.R. Blankenship, the man who brought the suit after he was targeted by Jesse Kerley for distributing "unsigned fliers" under an ordinance later removed by council vote after it was determined that such an ordinance had been declared unconstitutional in 1960.

Blankenship Interview

We were the only news outlet to share video of the theft of signs from a Mockingbird Drive house by city water department manager Jerry Kerley and the only outlet to discover and share video from the Crossville airport that showed Jerry Kerley and his accomplice just before the theft and immediately after driving his truck onto the Crossville airport where the signs were later recovered.
Sign Theft Caught on Video
Airport Security Video Raises Questions on sign theft

Jim Young Reporter was the first with complete details of the lawsuit filed against Crossville and Jesse Kerley by former interim police chief Rod Shoap, Also, you read here first about the complaint filed against interim city manager Steve Hill by recreation director Tammy French along with the first release of the instant messages and emails that lead to one city employee being fired.
Shoap files $200,000 lawsuit against Crossville and councilman Kerley

Jim Young Reporter was the first to share a copy of the security camera video that showed the incident between councilmen Pete Souza and Jesse Kerley in June 2016 following a work session.  The incident later resulted in an assault charge filed against Mr. Kerley.  That charge was dismissed following a hearing in General Sessions court.
Security video of altercation between Souza and Kerley.

Thanks again for reading if you have any questions or news tips, please email us at jimyoungreporter@gmail.com