Your Local News
Franklin County Man Dies In Mobile Home Fire
Investigators believe a Franklin County man was overcome by smoke and could not escape a fire at his home. Police told the Winchester Herald Chronicle that it appeared Roy Bethel Davis, Jr. died from smoke inhalation. Firefighters discovered the man’s body after they knocked down the fire at his mobile home on Keith Springs Mountain Road Nov. 6. Davis’ remains were transported to the state medical examiner’s office for an...
Check Gift Card Policies Before Purchasing
November marks the start of holiday shopping for countless Tennesseans and shoppers everywhere. Here is how consumers can keep gift cards’ policies from dumping snow on their holiday season. Check expiration dates and fees. In the state of Tennessee, expiration dates, fees and other terms must be clearly disclosed at the time of purchase. The expiration date and fee must be legibly printed on the gift card. Ask about restrictions. Some card issuers deduct a monthly fee from the card or apply inactivity fees, if a card has not been used for a period of time. These fees will...
Chattanooga Woman Very Lucky After Crash
A Chattanooga woman escaped serious injury Friday afternoon when a wheelbarrow fell off of a truck in front of her on I-24. According to Tennessee Highway Patrolman Carl Seagroves, 30-year-old Paulette Russell of Chattanooga was traveling eastbound when at the 106 mile marker a wheelbarrow fell off of the truck in front of her. She swerved to miss it and went off the interstate; her Honda Civic then struck a tree on the driver’s side and flipped. The car was cut in half by the crash. When the trooper arrived Russell was walking around and was able to provide...
Boy Scout Leader and Teacher Charged With Inappropriately Touching Teenage Boy
A Boy Scout leader and Liberty School teacher has been charged with inappropriately touching a teenage boy. Travis Scott Spivey, 43, was charged Tuesday with sexual battery by an authority figure, Detective Sgt. Brian Crews of the Shelbyville Police Department said Thursday. The Shelbyville Times-Gazette reports the victim is not one of Spivey’s students or involved in current Boy Scout activity. Spivey has been placed on administrative leave without pay from his teaching...
Former Band Director Heads To Jail
Stephen B. Givens, the former band director of Community High School in Bedford County, will serve nine months in jail after pleading guilty Thursday to soliciting one of his students. Givens will also forfeit his teaching license. As part of his plea, Givens will also be placed on the sexual offender...
Grandmother To Keep Mook Grandchild
The state court of appeals has upheld the custody ruling that allows the daughter of Shelly Mook to stay with the maternal grandmother in Pennsylvania. Tyler Mook, now of Decherd, had appealed the decision of Bedford County Chancery Court Judge Lee Russell. The court of appeals says the child will stay with the grandmother. Shelly Mook has been missing since earlier this year after leaving the couple’s daughter with Tyler Mook at his residence then in Bedford County. She was suppose to go to her apartment in Murfreesboro and meet a repair person but never showed up. Her car...
Store Owner In Woodbury Held-Up By Teenager
Last Thursday evening, the owner of Leland’s furniture and Home Décor on Main Street in Woodbury had a gunman come into his store to apparently rob him. Behind the gun was a 13-year-old would-be robber and owner Rickey Smotherman made a bold decision to try to wrestle the gun from the teen’s hands. Smotherman says the struggle spilled out of his store and onto the sidewalk and that’s when the suspect fired and ran off up the street. That 13-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, ran away at that point. He was arrested a short time later...
What Will Tennessee Do About New Federal Health Care Program?
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam appears to prefer to have Tennessee design its own health insurance exchange required under Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care law. But resistance in the GOP-controlled General Assembly may cause the state to hand that power off to the federal government. States have until Friday to inform the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whether they plan to set up their own health insurance markets. Haslam says that while he opposes the federal health care law, he believes the state could do a better job of running the exchanges than the federal government. But...
