Josh Peterson

As we start to settle into 2020, this is a good time to remind everyone that a REAL ID will be required by October 1, 2020, to gain access to most federal buildings, enter nuclear facilities and board commercial flights within the United States.

You will not need a REAL ID to drive, vote, purchase alcohol or cigarettes, access hospitals, visit the post office, access federal courts or apply for federal benefits.

You can get your REAL ID from any full service driver’s license center for the standard rate of an 8-year license renewal. You’ll need to take a few documents with you – including proof to establish citizenship or legal presence, proof of your full social security number and two proofs of Tennessee residency. All documents must be originals or certified. No photocopies will be accepted. For a full list of required documents, click here. 

Story provided by Nadia Ramlagan, Public News Service – TN

A handful of substance-abuse and mental-health treatment centers around the state will receive funding to hire regional housing facilitators tasked with helping people who are in recovery find safe and affordable housing.

Michael Waltke is senior director of adult outpatient mental-health and recovery services at the Helen Ross McNabb Center, which has several locations in east Tennessee. He said housing access is one of the biggest obstacles faced by individuals trying to piece their lives back together.

“It’s very difficult to get into housing if you’re looking for low-income housing that is safe and affordable,” Waltke said. “There are lengthy waiting lists, and then if you have a substance-use issue, unfortunately what tends to happen is those issues lead to behaviors that make it difficult for you to maintain your housing.”

The recovery housing initiative receives $6 million in funding from both the state’s budget and the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.

Waltke said housing facilitators are trained to not only help people in recovery navigate renting and applying for affordable housing, but also work with landlords and community organizations to help create new housing.

“Their role is really to help the state increase the number of housing units available for people who are low-income and have a substance-use history,” he said.

Waltke said addiction often burdens community resources, leading to higher levels of homelessness and over-utilization of local emergency services. He said reducing homelessness among substance-abusing populations is a positive step for communities.

“The overall impact on the community is that you have less people who are homeless and struggling and impacting all of those other different systems,” he said.

According to federal data, in 2018, nearly 8,000 people in Tennessee experienced homelessness.

Over the past few years, the U.S. Senate has confirmed 185 of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, the majority of whom have a conservative track record.

Along with two Supreme Court justices, senators have confirmed 50 circuit court and 133 district court judges.

According to States Newsroom reporter Allison Stevens, who has covered politics for nearly a decade, the sheer number of conservative confirmations amounts to what some are calling a repeal of progressive reforms that hearken back to the New Deal.

“And what President Trump is doing, and Mitch McConnell is supporting and doing in the Senate, is supporting hundreds of conservative judges, who oppose a lot of progressive reforms, throughout the country,” Stevens explains.

The Senate recently confirmed Clifton Corker to be U.S. District Court judge for the eastern district of Tennessee, which includes Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Stevens says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell regularly speaks in public about his goal of filling all of the remaining vacancies left on the federal judiciary.

“But I don’t think it’s something that the media pays much attention to, and I don’t think it’s something that the public really cares all that much about, for the most part,” Stevens states.

Stevens says groups such as the American Constitution Society and the Alliance for Justice are trying to change that.

“They’re trying to call attention to the impact that these judges have on so many aspects of daily life, but in general, they do sort of fly under the radar,” she points out.

According to the American Constitution Society, more than 70 vacancies on district and circuit courts have yet to be filled.

For the first time since the TBI crime laboratories began keeping detailed statistics, methamphetamine eclipsed marijuana as the most-submitted drug in the state in 2019.

“Drug addiction continues to be a major issue in Tennessee, and I believe this sharp increase in methamphetamine has a connection to our state’s ongoing opioid epidemic,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “Drug abusers often flow from depressants to stimulants and back again. As more people struggle with opioid addiction many of them will – with time – seek out stimulants like methamphetamine. Unfortunately, those who run drug operations, often based outside the United States, know there’s an increased demand here. Alongside our local, state, and federal partners, we’ll keep doing what we can to dismantle these operations, but we’d also urge anyone struggling with drug problems to get help before addiction costs you your life.”

TBI’s crime laboratories in Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville received a total of 9,795 submissions of marijuana in 2019, compared to 10,652 in 2018. Historically, the TBI analyzes approximately 10,000 submissions identified as marijuana every year.

Comparatively, methamphetamine has continued to trend significantly upward in recent years, increasing from 3,748 submissions in 2015 to 12,072 in 2019. That has occurred, however, at the same time the state has seen a sharp decline in the number of meth labs over the past decade, indicating an influx in imported methamphetamine.

“The drug trade continues to evolve,” said Tommy Farmer, TBI Special Agent-in-Charge of the Tennessee Dangerous Drugs Task Force. “Though we’ve seen an increase, recently, in stimulants in our state’s illicit drug supply, I’m encouraged we’ve made progress in addressing other illicit drugs, like opioids. This data, however, proves we have more work to do. We will continue to do what it takes to address this problem from the law enforcement side and stand prepared to help law enforcement agencies across the state in this collective fight.”

“While our state’s addiction crisis continues to evolve, it’s important to remember that treatment for substance use disorder is effective, and people do recover,” said Marie Williams, LCSW, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. “We want to encourage everyone, whether you’re living with an addiction or you love someone who’s struggling, there is hope for a new life in recovery.”

Both state agencies encourage those struggling with substance abuse issues to take advantage of free and confidential resources available through the Tennessee REDLINE.

More information can be found online at https://www.tn.gov/behavioral-health/news/2019/7/10/tn-redline-adds-new-text-communication-capability.html or by calling or texting 1-800-889-9789.