Category: News

Tre Hargett, Tennessee Secretary of State, recently visited Motlow College’s Moore County campus to encourage Motlow College students to register to vote. The College’s Student Government Association (SGA) hosted the event in recognition of National Voter Registration Day.
Secretary of State Hargett is urging Tennessee residents to use the Twitter hashtag #GoVoteTN in an effort to promote voter registration across the state.

Two children were flown to hospitals in a wreck that involved a school bus near a Franklin County school on Thursday morning.
A car carrying a mother and three children, twin boys age 5, and an 11-year-old, and the school bus wrecked around 7:15 a.m. near North Lake Elementary School on Old Tullahoma Road (Highway 130).
The 11-year-old was flown to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga while one of the 5-year-olds was flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The mother and her other 5-year-old boy were taken to the hospital in Winchester.
Officials said one of the children was critically injured.
Authorities report one student on the bus had a minor injury to their hand. (WSMV)

Almost 300,000 Tennesseans would have access to health coverage if Governor Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee plan is implemented – but not everyone is happy with the Republican governor’s support for expanding coverage. Last week, the state Attorney General determined the plan must have the approval of the General Assembly. The setback doesn’t sit well with Michelle Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center. She says the governor’s Insure Tennessee plan represents a bipartisan effort to help the state’s working poor. “He worked very hard to make a plan that was unique to Tennessee, to bring down the billions of dollars in federal funds, that are ours, that are set aside for us,” she says. “It fixes the problem of 280,000 uninsured folks, including 24,000 veterans.” If enacted, Insure Tennessee would make the state eligible for more than $2.6 million dollars a day in federal funds. A recent Vanderbilt University poll found 64 percent of Tennesseans support the program, but its opponents say it could increase the federal deficit – and they have doubts about whether the federal government will continue funding as promised. Johnson says it’s important to remember that 50 percent of the Tennesseans who would benefit from the expansion are working people who have fallen into the gap of being uninsured. “These are the secretaries and the construction workers,” she says. “They’re students, they’re people who are domestic violence victims who are recently divorced. These people aren’t covered by TennCare. They’re in some cases too rich for TennCare, or they don’t fall in the right category for TennCare.” The federal government has said it will cover the full cost of the expansion for the first three years, and 90 percent of the cost after that. The state would be responsible for the remaining 10 percent.

A Cannon County woman is charged for the third time with doctor shopping for prescription drugs, using TennCare benefits as payment.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG), with the assistance of the Cannon County Sheriff’s Office, have announced the arrest of Taylor R. Cantrell, 24, of Readyville. She is charged in a Cannon County indictment with using TennCare to visit multiple physicians in a short period of time in order to obtain controlled substances, with TennCare paying for either the clinical visit or the prescriptions.
Cantrell was arrested in May after she was indicted by a Coffee County Grand Jury and charged with two counts of fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance by doctor shopping. And just two months before that, in March, she was indicted in Warren County on four counts of using TennCare to obtain controlled substances by doctor shopping.
In all three incidents, Cantrell sought the treatment of several medical providers at various facilities in order to gain prescriptions for painkillers, including Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Tramadol and used TennCare as payment.
Through the OIG Cash for Tips Program established by the Legislature, Tennesseans can get cash rewards for TennCare fraud tips that lead to convictions. Anyone can report suspected TennCare fraud by calling 1-800-433-3982 toll-free from anywhere in Tennessee, or go to http://www.tn.gov/finance/topic/fa-oig.

Tennessee’s community and technical colleges are encouraging high school seniors to sign up for the governor’s free tuition program this Saturday.
Called Scholarship Saturday, the colleges are opening their doors for area seniors to sign up for Tennessee Promise and fill out their college applications.
Tennessee Promise offers eligible high school seniors free tuition to a two-year community or technical college. Out of 58,000 applicants, 15,800 students have enrolled in the program this year.
On Saturday, students may visit their local community colleges to get help and use the colleges’ computers to register online.
Motlow College’s Smyrna Center will open up its computer labs from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Saturday for area high school seniors to sign up for Tennessee Promise.

The jury in the Michael Curtis murder trial started deliberations on Monday afternoon. After a long day the jury announced it was deadlocked on Tuesday, but the judge sent them back into deliberations to try and reach a verdict. The jury came back a few minutes later with a conviction of voluntary manslaughter.
Curtis of Tullahoma was accused of the brutal killing of Kayla Qualls Nov. 26, 2012 at his residence on General Street in Tullahoma and then placing her body in her SUV and driving it to an area on Spring Creek Road in Franklin County. Two men discovered Qualls’ body, the mother of Curtis’ grandchildren in the rear seat of her vehicle. An autopsy revealed that she had been beaten to death.
Curtis’ sentencing date was set for December 9. He could serve between 3-16 years.

The Grundy County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an alleged incident between four football players and a female equipment manager in the field house during the afternoon hours of September 11. Sheriff Clint Shrum stated the alleged incident occurred after the 3:00 pm pre-game meal.
Shrum said his office is investigating whether or not inappropriate touching may have occurred and if explicit images had been transmitted.
The Sheriff also stated that rumors of rape are completely unfounded and not supported by any of the evidence in this case thus far. The findings in this case will be turned over the District Attorney’s office to determine if charges are warranted.
Sheriff Shrum said due to the sensitive nature of the case and the fact that juveniles are involved, no other information will be released.

A burglary occurred at Lee’s Pharmacy in Sevierville Monday afternoon that later resulted in a multiple-vehicle crash.
Suspect Robert F. Nunley, II, 43, of Tracy City, fled the scene in a black Land Rover that police had identified as a vehicle possibly leaving the scene after the burglary. Nunley led police on a chase in which the suspect “jumped curbs” and attempted to drive on a sidewalk before rear-ending a stopped car at a traffic light. The crash caused a chain reaction, damaging two other vehicles. The Land Rover and one police car were also damaged. Police discovered that the Land Rover had been reported stolen in Athens, TN in June.
Nunley was arrested at the scene and charged with aggravated assault, possession of burglary tools, evading arrest, reckless driving, theft of property, use of a stolen vehicle, and vandalism.
Three people suffered minor injuries from the accident and were taken to a nearby hospital.
Nunley was released after posting a $135,000 bond.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has announced the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Wildlife Management Area units 1 & 2 first come, first serve 2015 deer permits will go on sale Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 8 a.m.
Permits can be purchased at any TWRA license agent or through the internet at http://www.tnwildlife.org.
Hunters who purchase the permit are reminded that they will need to retain their receipt. The receipt will serve as the permit. No phone sales will be accepted.
A permit fee will not be charged to Annual Sportsman (Type 004) or Lifetime Sportsman (Types 402 thru 405) license holders or an Annual Senior Citizen Permit (Type 167). For all other license holders, the cost is $12 per permit, plus agent fee.
Customers can only obtain one permit per hunt choice. Customers can obtain one permit for each hunt choice for a total of three permits per person.
First come, first serve permits are sold one at a time per transaction. Customers can purchase permits for others as long as they have all their pertinent information. The same one permit per hunt choice applies.
The privilege codes for the first come, first serve AEDC WMA permits are as follows:
345 for Lifetime and Annual Sportsman and Seniors holding a current Type 167, 346 for all other license holders.
This applies to youths and adults purchasing a permit. AEDC consists of 32,000 acres and is located in Coffee and Franklin counties. Unit 1 was previously known as the TNARNG maneuver area. Unit 2 is the Camp Forrest area, from the golf course to UTSI road and Wattendorf Memorial Highway to the southern boundary. (Shelbyville Times-Gazette)