Chattanooga
Chattem Inc. acquired the rights to ACT mouthwash in Western Europe together with worldwide trademark rights from Johnson & Johnson for $4.1 million in cash plus certain assumed liabilities. Chattem acquired the U.S. rights to ACT from Johnson & Johnson as a part of its acquisition of five OTC brands in a transaction that closed in January.

The City of Chattanooga moved all 385 of its diesel vehicles to a biodiesel blend, including its refuse trucks, dump trucks and heavy equipment like earth movers, bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, light- and medium-duty diesel pick-up trucks.

Covenant Transport agreed to no longer ask its employees to sign paperwork stating they waive their rights to seek workers’ compensation. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development took the publicly traded truckload carrier to court after it learned of the practice.

Chattanooga-based Web site development firm episode49 was awarded the contract to manage the online environment for former Speaker of the House and possible presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Kenco Logistic Services helped establish in Chattanooga the first U.S. distribution facility for Turkey-based Kordsa, a global supplier of nylon and polyester industrial yarn, fabrics and single-end cord serving the tire, mechanical rubber goods, webbing, ropes and cordage markets.

Knoxville-based Holston Gases, whose chairman is former TVA director Bill Baxter, completed the acquisition of Tennessee Toolroom in Chattanooga, formerly owned by Bill Clanton. The purchase adds in excess of $1 million in revenue to the company.

Unum announced a new partnership with ESPN that involves the sole sponsorship for the “Injury Report” to run during the network’s Major League Baseball programming of Baseball Tonight. The report is an updated summary of which players are hurt, the nature of their injuries and their expected return dates.

Cleveland
Ford Motor Co. announced plans to idle the Cleveland Casting Plant in 2009. In addition, the company began deferring production at Cleveland Engine #1, for approximately 12 months. Cleveland Casting opened in 1952 and employs 1,100 hourly and 118 salaried workers.

Clinton
Clinton City Council approved zoning for commercial development on the recently annexed Bethel community site near Interstate 75. Fox Toyota of Clinton will set up shop there, and other retail stores are considering the property. Another section of nearby land is being considered for heavy industry development.

Greeneville
Wellmont Health System and Adventist Health System reached an agreement in 2006 to share ownership of what was formerly known as Takoma Adventist Hospital, and for Adventist’s transfer of ownership to a new, not-for-profit corporation with Wellmont serving as majority owner. The 108-bed hospital has undergone enhancements including advances in medical equipment technology, significant growth in cardiology services and increased availability of physician specialists.

Kingsport
Eastman Chemical Co. completed the sale of Eastman Chemical Iberia, S.A., located in San Roque, Spain, to La Seda de Barcelona. The sale includes Eastman’s PET polymers manufacturing assets in Spain and the related polyester resins business. Overall corporate sales revenue for the first quarter 2007 was $1.8 billion, flat compared with the first quarter 2006.

Jenkins Community Hospital in Southeast Kentucky has joined Wellmont, which will invest $1 million in improvements. Adding the 60-bed hospital to the burgeoning Tri-Cities health care system makes Wellmont the largest health care provider in its region.

Knoxville
Knoxville’s tallest building, the 27-story First Tennessee Plaza, was sold along with a five-story office building, for $59 million. The seller was Mississippi-based Parkway Properties. The buyer was not identified. The building was formerly the headquarters of United American Bank owned by the Butcher brothers. Current tenants include the Brunswick Boat Group and brokerage firm Merrill Lynch.

Protein Discovery received a $750,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health for commercial development of the company’s medical sampling purification system for clinical mass spectrometry. The company will use the funding to further develop this system, called the MALDIplex M5 Sample Prep Station, for clinical diagnostics.

Regal Entertainment Group enjoyed a marked improvement in its first quarter 2007 results, reporting total revenue at $625 million compared to $585.1 million total revenue for the first quarter of 2006. Net income of $229.1 million in the first quarter of 2007 stemmed from a $209 million after-tax gain on the initial public offer of Regal’s in-theater advertising company, National CineMedia. This was a jump from $11.2 million net income in the same period of 2006.

Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital and TeamHealth have established an Emergency Medicine Administrative Fellowship that will help physicians to be better prepared to handle common issues like overcrowding, staffing shortages and budget constraints. The collaborative effort between the 118-year-old medical institution and TeamHealth is believed to be a unique partnership in the health care sector.

Loudon
DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products and Fort Madison, Iowa-based Cryotech Deicing Technology have partnered to introduce Susterra propanediol, a new 100% renewably sourced product marketed to airports and the aviation industry. This product will be created through the patented biological process to convert corn into Susterra at the Loudon location and will be available for use at airports beginning late 2007.

Maryville
An otherwise decent quarter was overshadowed as one of Ruby Tuesday’s franchisees filed for bankruptcy during the company’s third fiscal quarter 2007. A lease-related charge reduced the casual dining company’s earnings per share to $0.49 on net income of $28.7 million compared to $0.50 earnings per share on $30.2 million net income for the third quarter last year. In April, Ruby Tuesday changed its NYSE trading symbol from RI to RT.

Oak Ridge
UT-Knoxville economist Matt Murray, associate director of UT’s Center for Business and Economic Research, produced a report stating that the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge activities provide about 12,000 jobs and an annual payroll in excess of $760 million. In all, Oak Ridge operations provided about 1.8% of the state’s total gross product. The report found that Oak Ridge operations were actually responsible for over 44,000 jobs across Tennessee.

Brentwood-based GBT Realty Corp. has proposed to construct a $65 million shopping center with more than 400,000 square feet of retail space, enough for 17 stores, on the Summit site off S. Illinois Ave. The development, named Crestpointe, will be anchored by a SuperTarget.

Pigeon Forge
A new, upscale $100-million mountain resort called RiverStone has opened on Dollywood Lane near the Little Pigeon River. The upscale resort, once built out, will offer more than 300 condos ranging from $200,000 to $550,000, five-star quality services and amenities, plus bridal areas capable of entertaining five weddings simultaneously.

Memphis
The world’s leading delivery company is getting greener. FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx, signed a deal with Azure Dynamics Corp. to develop gasoline parallel hybrid-electric power trains for its fleet of Ford F-450 delivery vans. FedEx committed to purchase a minimum of 20 parallel hybrid-electric vans by May 2008. The company already has almost 100 hybrids rolling in North America.

First Horizon National Corp’s First Horizon Home Loans mortgage group acquired Nevada-based Republic Mortgage, that state’s largest employee-owned mortgage company, with $1.092 billion in originated loans in 2006. The retail and prime-focused company has four branches in the Las Vegas area, which enhances First Horizon’s presence in that significant marketplace. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The bird-flu specialists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have made another breakthrough in combating the lethal H5N1 influenza virus, announcing a 100% successful animal test of new antiviral peramivir, which blocks influenza viruses from spreading to other cells. Researchers are advising the drug be administered immediately in high-risk areas.

Progressive developer Henry Turley and J. Kevin Adams, co-founder of CB Richard Ellis Memphis, were named to the short list vying to head the rebuilding effort in Gulfport, Miss., which is still mired in the carnage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. Turley and Adams are two of the three names being considered to become the master planner for Mississippi’s second largest city. The long-term position would include immediate projects as well as future developments several years out.

Memphis and Shelby County have the most under-funded economic development program in the country, according to a recent study commissioned by County Mayor A C Wharton Jr., Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, the Regional Chamber and business collective Memphis Tomorrow. The study is part of a four-stage, five-year growth initiative titled “Memphis Fast Forward.” Focusing on logistics, music/film, biosciences and tourism, the architects of the plan intend to create nearly 50,000 jobs, generating more than $85 million in new tax revenue for the city and county.

Clarksville
The Tennessee Titans elected to hold the team training camp at Baptist Sports Park in Nashville this summer instead of returning to the campus of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.

Lebanon
Louisville, Ky.-based Brown-Forman Corp., makers of Jack Daniels whiskey, announced a deal to sell high-end luggage maker Hartmann Inc. to New York private equity firm Clarion Capital Partners. Terms were not disclosed.

Dell Inc. announced plans to move its re-manufacturing operations from Austin, Texas, to Lebanon later this year. Lebanon is already home to a Dell manufacturing facility. About 360 workers were affected.

Madison
Accelerated Christian Education, a curriculum provider for home schools and church-based Christian schools, relocated its corporate headquarters from Largo, Fla., to Madison and announced plans to open a distribution facility locally and eventually employ 250 people. A.C.E. materials are used in more than 6,000 Christian schools in 138 countries.

Nashville
Independent Nashville country music record label Big Machine Records, started two years ago by record executive Scott Borchetta, announced the addition of platinum-selling country music star Trisha Yearwood to its label roster.

Shreveport, La.-based Sealy & Co. and Boston-based Winthrop Realty Trust teamed as equal partners in the purchase of 13 industrial buildings (1.16 million square feet) near the Nashville airport for $87.2 million. The seller was Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust.

Vastland Realty, whose past residential projects include Nashboro Village, purchased for over $4 million the Starwood Amphitheatre, a 65-acre tract of land in Southeast Davidson County. Starwood shuttered in February.

Symbion, an owner and operator of short-stay surgical facilities, announced a merger agreement with a newly formed subsidiary of Crestview Partners, a New York-based private equity firm. The transaction is valued at approximately $637 million.