Rick Wagner reports on Sullivan County government and local politics in the county, as well as business and economic development and some education. In the past he has covered Sullivan County and Kingsport education along with colleges and the heathcare business and business for the Kingsport Times News. He has spent more than 21 years with the Times News and before that worked 17 years at the Bristol Herald Courier and a summer internship at the Nashville Banner. He worked at The Daily Beacon 1984-1987 while in college at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and became editor there in 1986. He also took part in the inagural Institute on Political Journalism in 1985, when he interned at the Voice of America and took classes at Georgetown University. In 1986 worked on capital hill for a U.S. congressman's press secretary as part of the Sears Congressional Internship Program. A native of Surgoinsville, he attended Surgoinsville Elementary School, Surgoinsville High School and graduated from Volunteer High. He also took classes at East Tennessee State Univeristy's campus in Kingsport while at UT. He is engaged and has three children and two grandchildren. Hobbies have included playing music, buying and selling antiques, woodworking, some gardening and farming, as well as model railroading.