CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Three people injured by gunfire at a Chattanooga nightclub suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Chattanooga Police say the shootings early Sunday morning at Club 2301 occurred after a fight in the nightclub. Antoine Armor, 21, was shot three times; 27-year-old Ellis Roberson was shot in the right leg and Allen Tucker was struck in the shoulder, police said in a statement.
Witnesses told police that after the fight, a man began shooting inside the club, when Armor was hit. Roberson and Tucker were struck when the shooting continued outside the club.
No one had been charged in the shooting Sunday evening, but police arrested two people they say have a connection to the incident. Michael Owens was arrested on five outstanding warrants and police also arrested a juvenile who was not identified.

Pilot killed in
ultralight plane crash
GREENEVILLE (AP) — A pilot in an ultralight aircraft was killed when the plane crashed during takeoff in East Tennessee.
The Greeneville Sun reports that 46-year-old Edward Molden went down in a cornfield in Greene County early Sunday.
Greene County Sheriff’s Sgt. Terry Rader says witnesses reported that Molden nearly hit a parked camper before takeoff. Rader says Molden’s craft went up about 150 feet, then took a sharp left turn and did a nosedive into the ground. Rader says a wind gust could have caused the crash.
Molden was taking off from Cooper Field, a grass airstrip in far western Greene County. Molden lived in the Hartford community in Cocke County.
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Information from: The Greeneville Sun, http://www.greenevillesun.com/

Grassroots approach
helps success of black films
NASHVILLE (AP) — Supporters of black films are using a grassroots style of marketing to draw people to theaters and hopefully appease major studios hesitant to continue backing them if they don’t do well at the box office.
Hazel Joyner-Smith is executive director of the International Black Film Festival of Nashville, which will be held Wednesday through Sunday. She said one of the festival’s objectives is to make studio executives aware of black films they may not know about and their potential for success.
“This is an opportunity for anyone who has a film to have movie executives come and take a look at those films,” said Joyner-Smith, adding that the venue will feature actors, film and television producers, writers and industry professionals from across the United States and abroad.
Her effort, however, may be challenging. Hollywood has little enthusiasm for movies with predominantly black casts because they don’t believe the general public will turn out to see them, critics say.
Rick Rosenberg, an executive producer of the Emmy award-winning movie “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” released in 1974, had such an experience recently. When he tried to pitch a movie that had a black person as the lead character, he was told it would probably be tough to sell the movie abroad.
“It’s all about the money,” said Rosenberg, who is white. “If they think they can make money, then they may do the movie.”

Tenn. man sees
‘moon boxes’
he helped create
OAK RIDGE (AP) — A Kingston man got a surprise when he visited the American Museum of Science and Energy: He saw the “moon boxes” he helped build.
Don Prichard, a retired machinist at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, handled the “moon boxes” the Apollo astronauts used on lunar voyages.
Tuesday marked the boxes’ 40th anniversary. Prichard was on the team that made them.
He saw one of the Apollo Lunar Sample Return Containers, called “moon boxes,” and got to wear some white cotton gloves while handling the 13.5-pound box. It’s normally on display behind glass in the museum.
“I’m speechless, kind of tongue-tied,” Prichard said.
Also on hand and wearing the special gloves: John Gertsen, vice president of engineering for B&W Y-12, the contractor that operates the weapons plant for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Published in The Messenger 10.13.08