Your Local News
Unemployment Rate Up Slightly In Tennessee
Tennessee Labor & Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips says the Tennessee preliminary unemployment rate for January was 6.7 percent, one-tenth of one percentage point higher than the December revised rate of 6.6 percent. The U.S. preliminary rate for January was 5.7 percent, also gaining one-tenth of one percentage point from the prior month. • Over the past year, Tennessee’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 percent, while the national rate declined from 6.6 percent to 5.7 percent. • Total nonfarm employment increased 8,300 jobs from December, 2014 to January, 2015. The largest increases occurred in trade/transportation/utilities, professional/scientific/technical services, and...
Powerball Winner In Lincoln County
A Powerball ticket worth $1 million was purchased in the southern Middle Tennessee town of Fayetteville in Lincoln County. The ticket matched five of the six numbers from Saturday’s drawing. Matching five numbers pays out a $1 million prize. The ticket is the 158th Tennessee Lottery ticket sold worth $1 million or more since the lottery’s inception. This is the second Tennessee Lottery ticket in two weeks that won at least $1 million. A $2 million ticket last week was purchased in Houston...
Fayetteville Man Indicted On Child Abuse, Weapons Charges
An investigation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in the indictment of a Lincoln County man charged with child abuse and illegally possessing guns. At the request of 17th District Attorney General Robert Carter, TBI Special Agents began investigating Timothy Neal Smith on November 3, 2014. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that Smith was involved in the physical abuse of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, causing bruising to the child. Agents also learned that Smith is a convicted felon and had been carrying and using firearms while operating a fugitive recovery business....
Poll: Caring for Caregivers a Priority for Americans
Tennesseans join the rest of the country in support of policies that help provide support to caregivers. A poll released this week by AARP shows 77 percent of those surveyed from both major political parties favor policies that help support those caregivers. There are 1.6 million Tennesseans who care for a family member or friend, and Rebecca Kelly, AARP Tennessee state director, says many of them do it at great personal cost. “We all want to keep our loved ones at home as long as they possibly can, but the burden of that can often be from emotional stress,...
TDOT Salt Truck Involved In Crash
According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, two Tennessee Department of Transportation salt trucks where spreading salt on I-24 eastbound at the 105 mile marker on Thursday morning around 4:35am. As they were attempting to clear snow and ice from I-24 a tractor-trailer was traveling in the left lane of I-24 behind one of the TDOT vehicles. The driver of the 18-wheeler, 24 year-old Jonathan White from Swainsboro, Ga. merged into the right lane attempting to pass the TDOT vehicle which was in the left lane. It was at this time the tractor-trailer crashed into the rear of one of...
Few Outages Associated With Latest Winter Storm
The winter blast that brought freezing rain, sleet and snow to Middle Tennessee Wednesday night and Thursday morning did not disrupt electric service like the two ice storms that hit in February. Linemen worked scattered power outages on the Duck River Electric Membership Corp. system as precipitation changed from sleet to snow soon after daybreak. The freezing rain, which would have led to icing on power lines and trees, was minor compared to forecasted amounts. The largest outage occurred when a tree fell on a three-phase circuit along Hawthorn Hill in Bedford County Thursday morning. Service was restored to...
Some Tennessee High Schoolers No Longer Eligible For Tennessee Promise
One out of three students who applied for free community college through Tennessee Promise are no longer eligible because of a problem with their applications. According to WPLN, a third of students did not complete the mandatory steps to get the scholarship. Another 11 percent of students did not apply for federal aid, which is mandatory to get any scholarship. The state had posted reminders online, in schools and on social media to remind students to complete the necessary steps. Tennessee Promise allows every Tennessee high school graduate to receive two years of free community...
Some Tennessee Students Want a Change In Voter ID Law
A group of Tennessee college students wants a federal court to require the state to accept their school identification cards as valid voter identification. The out-of-state students attending Fisk University and Tennessee State University say in the lawsuit filed on Wednesday they would like to vote in Tennessee, but they lack proper ID. Tennessee will not accept identification cards from other states, nor will the state accept student ID cards from Tennessee colleges and universities. The students say the law is unconstitutional. They note Tennessee does accept college and university ID cards issued by the state to workers, just...
