Authorities don’t know what possessed a man to vandalize an elementary school so badly that it had to be closed for an entire day.

Police say 22-year-old Aaron Roden entered Westview Elementary School around 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Windows in at least 15 classrooms were shattered, a urinal and toilet were crushed, ceiling tiles were torn down, smart boards were destroyed, and shelves and desks were pushed over.

Roden, who is from Franklin, Tennessee, doesn’t have any known connection to the school.

He was found inside the building and charged with burglary, assaulting a police officer, and vandalism over $60,000 dollars.

And he was arrested just days ago after police say he used a butcher’s knife to stab a 19-year-old in the neck in North Chattanooga.

Sheriff Jim Hammond says Roden will undergo mental health testing.

After a massive clean-up effort last night, the East Brainerd school is set to reopen - today.
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Two men have been arrested after attempting to rob some downtown businesses at gunpoint.

Police say around 5 a.m. Tuesday, a man walked into the Courtyard Marriott hotel across from the aquarium and demanded cash.

But the clerk was unable to open the register, and the man ran away.

About 20 minutes later, police say the same suspect walked into a McDonald’s near Erlanger with a gun, and left with cash.

Police were able to corner the vehicle.

Now 27-year-old Rodrick Smith and 36-year-old Kevin Perkins faces charges of aggravated robbery - and criminal conspiracy.
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More apartments and stores are planned near Hamilton Place mall between I-75 and Gunbarrel Road.
The Waterside property currently holds an Embassy Suites hotel and the Mellow Mushroom restaurant.
New plans for the 69-acre plot show three- and four-story apartment buildings with more than 250 units.
The land would also include office and retail space, a fitness center, an entertainment center, a grocery store, pharmacy, sporting goods store, - and at least one more restaurant.
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Overlook Apartments on the city’s westside is battling a bedbug outbreak.

Resident Karl Epperson says at least 10 apartments at the complex have been infested.

Management called in exterminators, but since one apartment is treated at a time, Epperson says the bugs, which live in the walls, just move to the next unit.

And after exterminators visited his apartment, the bedbugs, moved back in.

At least a dozen bedbug infestations have been reported in Hamilton County hotels and public places in just the past two years.
Environmental health director Bonnie Deakins says bedbugs have apparently become resistant - to the pesticides.
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Construction on the second reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is now more than 90 percent complete.

TVA says the unit is now moving through key testing to generate power by December 2015.

In doing so, it would become America’s first new reactor to generate power in the 21st century.

By the time it’s done, the project is projected to cost - up to $4.5 billion dollars.
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Finally, Some school enrollment numbers have dropped in Hamilton County.
Middle school enrollment is down by 93 students from last year’s first day of school.
And elementary school enrollment is down 84 students.
High school enrollment, however, is up by more than 300 students.

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