Category: News

Tennessee Promise recruiters are scrambling to attract 4,000 volunteer mentors to apply to become part of the scholarship program within the next four weeks.
News outlets are reporting that about 5,000 Tennessee adults have applied to be mentors statewide, leaving the program 4,000 mentors short of its 9,000-person goal with less than a month remaining before the Nov. 20 application deadline.
Tennessee Promise Executive Director Mike Krause says his focus will shift exclusively to mentors after students’ Nov. 2 application deadline.
Krause says he would rely on partnerships with employers such as AT&T Tennessee and Nissan to drive more participation in the mentor program.
Gov. Bill Haslam has pushed for the program to use more mentors in order for closer relationships to be established between mentors and students.

Mayor Lane Curlee and the Tullahoma Board of Aldermen invite veterans and the public to attend the Veterans Day Ceremony to be held on Wednesday, November 11 at the South Jackson Civic Center at 404 South Jackson Street. The doors will open at 10:30 a.m. At the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month of 2015, the City of Tullahoma will pause to honor America’s Veterans and celebrate their contributions to our way of life.
Colonel Beverly Lee- United States Air Force, Retired, will be the featured speaker at the City of Tullahoma’s annual Veterans Day Ceremony. She has had a distinguished career in the USAF from 1975 to 2005
She is a graduate of Tullahoma High School, Motlow State Community College, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Memphis, and a Master of Arts Degree in Psychology, Guidance and Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado.
Colonel Lee was the first female cadet in the Memphis State University Air Force ROTC, a graduate of Air Intelligence officer school at Lowry AFB, CO, Air Force Survival School, Foreign Internal Defense/Counter-Terrorism courses, as well as the Air Command and Staff School and Air War College.

The Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) proudly announces that the 10 Tennessee fire departments chosen for the inaugural “100 For 100” smoke-alarm installation challenge on Oct. 10., 2015 exceeded the event’s goals and set the stage for other “100 For 100” events before year’s end.
Fire departments went the extra mile and installed 1,116 smoke alarms during the event.
“I congratulate all our fire prevention partners for demonstrating during the ‘100 For 100’ event their commitment to helping make Tennessee a safer place,” said State Fire Marshal and Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak.
Results of the inaugural “100 For 100” event are as follows:
Paris Fire Department (FD): 141 alarms
Madison County FD: 123 alarms
Manchester FD: 119 alarms
Mt. Pleasant FD: 109 alarms
South Greene FD: 108 alarms
Cookeville FD: 107 alarms
Ripley FD: 105 alarms
Cocke County FD: 102 alarms
Pigeon Forge FD: 102 alarms
Memphis FD: 100 alarms
Total: 1,116 alarms installed

Just 12 percent of American workers are offered paid family leave through their employer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – while other developed countries offer as much as a year of leave to care for a child. While that is shifting here among a handful of private- and public-sector employers, Kelly Johnson, spokeswoman for Attachment Parenting International, said there’s a need to change the attitudes of the American workforce. “There’s such a stigma in the United States about taking that time off for any type of parental leave – whether it’s male or female – and especially if it’s a man taking time off,” she said, “I feel like that is so frowned upon here.” Tennessee’s parental-leave law gives eligible employees up to four months of unpaid leave for adoption, pregnancy, childbirth and nursing an infant, but they have to work for an employer with more than 100 employees. October is Attachment Parenting Month, and Johnson said her organization is highlighting the importance of parental presence in the life of a young child. Increasing access to paid leave is part of their effort to enable parents to shape the life of their child and nurture the bond that will benefit them both as the child ages. Beginning this year, federal employees were given the right to take six weeks of paid leave when they became parents. California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have paid family-leave programs. According to the Center for Economic Policy Research, about 90 percent of California businesses say it either had a positive impact or none on profitability and helped reduce turnover. When employees are able to fulfill responsibilities at home, Johnson said, they are better able to do the same at work. “I don’t think businesses realize just how crucial that is,” she said. “It makes for a healthier child. It makes for a happier family. There’ve been businesses that have found that it has actually increased their profitability.” Increasing access to paid leave is part of the effort to enable parents to shape the life of their child and nurture the bond that will benefit them both as the child ages.
The Center for Economic Policy research is online at cepr.net.

The Tennessee State Board of Education is seeking public comment on newly revised K-12 math and English language arts standards.
The standards were developed by expert educator advisory teams throughout the summer. They set grade-specific goals that exemplify what students are expected to know and be able to do by the end of a given grade or course.
The standards will be available for feedback online through mid-November at https://apps.tn.gov/tcas/.
Once data has been collected from the public, officials say it will be given to a recommendation committee that will review the standards and the public feedback throughout October, November and December.
The committee will then make recommendations to the board at its January meeting.

A Tracy City man has been charged with burglarizing a Shelbyville pharmacy in 2012.
Robert Ferrell Nunley, 43, of Tracy City was charged Friday with burglary, theft of property over $10,000 and criminal conspiracy in the Jan. 8, 2012 burglary at McGee’s Prescription Center, Det. Lt. Brian Crews of the Shelbyville Police Department said Monday.
“We caught a large break in September when a pharmacy was burglarized in Sevierville,” Crews said. “A black Range Rover was seen on video.”
“The Range Rover was spotted the next day by a Sevierville officer. He discovered it had a stolen tag and started a pursuit.”
The pursuit ended in a crash and Nunley’s arrest.
Crews said he saw the police mug shot of Nunley and recognized him from video of the McGee’s burglary.
A regional law enforcement website, in which messages detailing incidents including robberies such as these, helped investigators pin down the details, Crews said.
“He is suspected in a number of pharmacy burglaries throughout the Southeast,” Crews said.
A large number of pills were stolen in the 2012 incident.
(Shelbyville Times-Gazette)