Josh Peterson

As of Sunday afternoon, Feb. 21, approximately 10.25 percent of Coffee County residents have received at least one-dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, according to Tennessee Department of Health.

Meanwhile, approximately 3.45 percent of the population has received two doses of the vaccine. In total, 7,748 vaccine doses have been reported in Coffee County.

Meanwhile, numbers of those infected and hospitalized with virus-related issues continue to decline.

As of Saturday, there were 124 active cases of the virus reported in Coffee County. Statewide, fewer than 1,000 hospitalizations related to the virus were reported on Saturday.

The Federal Trade Commission received 35,638 fraud reports from consumers in Tennessee in 2020, according to newly released data.

Tennessee consumers reported losing a total of $40,622,639 to fraud, with a median loss of $270.

The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network is a database that receives reports directly from consumers, as well as from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members, and non-profit organizations. This year, the FTC welcomed the data contributions of the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. Twenty-five states now contribute to Sentinel. Reports from around the country about consumer protection issues—including identity theft, fraud, and other categories—are a key resource for FTC investigations that stop illegal activities and, when possible, provide refunds to consumers.

Across all types of reports, the FTC received a total of 59,107 reports from consumers in Tennessee in 2020.
The top category of reports received from consumers in Tennessee was Identity Theft, followed by Credit Bureaus, Information Furnishers and Report Users; Imposter Scams; Online Shopping and Negative Reviews; and Banks and Lenders.

Fraud Losses Up Nationwide

Nationally, consumers reported losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020, up from $1.8 billion in 2019. Nearly $1.2 billion of losses reported last year were due to imposter scams, while online shopping accounted for about $246 million in reported losses from consumers.

The FTC received 2.2 million fraud reports from consumers in 2020, with imposter scams remaining the most common type of fraud reported to the agency. Online shopping was the second-most common fraud category reported by consumers, elevated by a surge of reports in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Internet services; prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries; and telephone and mobile services rounded out the top five fraud categories nationally.

Sentinel received more than 4.7 million reports overall in 2020. Of these, nearly 1.4 million were identity theft reports received through the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov website.

In 2020, the FTC introduced ReportFraud.ftc.gov, an updated platform for filing reports with the agency. The FTC uses the reports it receives through the Sentinel network as the starting point for many of its law enforcement investigations, and the agency also shares these reports with more than 2,800 law enforcement users around the country. While the FTC does not intervene in individual complaints, Sentinel reports are a vital part of the agency’s law enforcement mission.

A full breakdown of reports received in 2020 is now available on the FTC’s data analysis site at https://ftc.gov/exploredata. The data dashboards there breakdown the reports across a numbers of categories, including by state and metropolitan area, as well as exploring a number of subcategories of fraud reports.

Tennessee State Senator Janice Bowling on Feb. 11 introduced legislation that would take the digital process out of voting in Tennessee.

Bowling filed SB1510 with the intention of protecting the state’s election process.

Verbiage within the bill says that county election commissions shall “not use voting machines” but instead would use watermarked paper ballots for all elections. The bill would also abolish the 2-week early voting period. The bill still needs to pass the full legislature and receive a signature from the Governor’s office.

Bowling represents the 16th District in the Tennessee Senate, which includes Coffee County. 

See more details about this legislation here 

Coffee County Communications Board (CCCB) on Wednesday (Feb. 17) voted to terminate employment of 911 director Diane Argraves after Argraves opted not to accept a severance package.

The board offered a package to Argraves that included full pay through the end of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Argraves opted not to take the package and was then dismissed by the board. The lone no vote came from board member Joe Hinch. Sheriff Chad Partain abstained from a vote.

Argraves’ termination is effective immediately. Part of the motion to dismiss Argraves gives her 20 days to accept the separation package.

Argraves was dismissed for failure to perform job duties. Scott LeDuc has been named interim director.

The CCCB announced at last week’s meeting on Feb. 10 it intended to make a leadership change at the 911 center and planned to present a financial package to Argraves.

“We have to look for new vision,” said Partin. “We need someone who can take the bull by the horns, with a vision who can take our 911 center forward into the future.”

Join us at Thunder Radio and Rosalyn Partin of the Manchester H&R Block and congratulate our student of the week – LaiLenna Garner.

LaiLenna is in sixth grade at Coffee County Middle School. Her favorite subjects are math and science. When she grows up, LaiLenna would like to work with kids. Her favorite hobbies are video games and running.

Rosalyn Partin, owner of the Manchester H&R Block, has been inspired to recognize great kids in our community all year long. H&R Block gives each Student of the Week a gift card, a commemorative plaque, as well as a special letter of recognition. Job well done, LaiLenna