
Tennessee State Capital
The three-day organizational session will kick off with the formal elections for speaker in both chambers, though heavy Republican majorities in both the Senate and House mean that little drama is expected for the Republican nominees, Sen. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge and Rep. Beth Harwell of Nashville.
The next day the two chambers are scheduled to meet in joint session to elect the comptroller, treasurer and secretary of state. And on the last day of the organizational session lawmakers are to participate in ethics training.
Once those tasks are complete lawmakers plan to take a recess until the end of the month before returning to hear Gov. Bill Haslam’s annual state of the state address.

At 5:45am Monday morning a pedestrian was struck and killed as she was walking along Blanton’s Chapel Road in the northern part of Coffee County.
Area law enforcement would like to alert all citizens of another scam that is targeting our area. The caller will identify himself as a public defender and states that your grandson or granddaughter has been involved in a traffic crash and is ok but currently in jail.
Officials say two adults and a child have died in a residential blaze in Middle Tennessee and two others were injured.
Vicious fires have swept through the Smoky Mountains, displacing thousands and leaving many jobless and homeless. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, no stranger to emergency response, has created the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville Emergency Response Fund to support the affected communities and nonprofits that are helping victims address their ongoing needs. Grants from the Fund will be made to nonprofits providing assistance both immediate and long term.
Motlow State Community College has a new program that makes it easy for businesses to provide high-quality training for their employees—no matter how many employees they have or where they’re located. Motlow has partnered with ed2go to offer hundreds of online, instructor-facilitated employee training courses.
Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman has announced the Manchester Christmas Parade has been rescheduled for this Saturday Dec.10th at 6pm with lineup beginning at 5pm. Mr. Coolidge Holt has been selected to serve as the honored Grand Marshal for the 2016 ‘Under the Christmas Tree’ Manchester Parade.
Michael “Moty” Nunley, was found in the Clouse Hill area of Grundy County Saturday afternoon, according to Sheriff Clint Shrum. The area is between Monteagle and Tracy City.
The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce is launching a program to encourage more workers to gain a high school equivalent diploma. The chamber says more than 300,000 people currently working in Tennessee have not completed their high school education. The trade association is partnering with GEDWorks to provide access to advisers, online study materials, practice tests and connections to local adult education programs. Chamber President and CEO Bradley Jackson says the program provides employers a “turnkey” option to help their workers finish their high school education. He says employees are more likely to earn their GEDs if they can work toward them during working hours. Bradley says earning a GED is a key step toward workers obtaining technical degrees and other postsecondary education opportunities.

