Written By: Eamon Smith and Allison Jones, Legal Aid Society The CHOICES program offered through TennCare is designed both for people in need of nursing home care and people who can’t afford the cost of an assisted living facility or nursing home but need help remaining in their own homes. Most of the people served by CHOICES are seniors. Few people know how to navigate TennCare procedures well enough to pursue these options independently. But there’s help available through the Tennessee Senior Law Alliance (TSLA), a program launched in 2018 by Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the...

Crowdfunding is one way to support a project you believe in and get rewards for that support. But the project you’re backing is only as good as the people behind it. Some dishonest people can take your money but produce nothing – no product, no project, and no reward. Here’s how crowdfunding works: People called “creators” ask for small amounts of money from lots of people to fund projects through websites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. In exchange, creators offer rewards to contributors, like a product that the creators are trying to make. Sounds great…unless the creators don’t create anything...

With fires burning hotter and faster than ever before, every second counts when escaping a home fire. To commemorate the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Home Fire Sprinkler Week (May 19-25), the Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) is raising awareness of the life-saving capabilities of residential fire sprinkler systems. Home fire sprinklers can provide valuable peace of mind to homeowners residing in newly constructed or renovated homes that were constructed with modern building materials, which can burn faster and hotter than “legacy” building materials. According to the NFPA, the civilian death rate is 81% lower in a home...

Motorcycle riders in Coffee County are warning people about the consequences of grass clippings left on roadways. Those patches of loose grass clippings can cause riders to lose their traction on the road. The clippings are often blown or left in the road and can lead to serious injuries or even death for those that ride. But leaving clippings by the curb isn’t just dangerous for bikers, it’s illegal. THP troopers say it’s the same as leaving garbage or anything else in the road. If you do leave any significant amount in the road, please use some type of...

A Facebook post has Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott answering questions. The DA’s comments were brought to light by the online news site TNHoller. Northcott responded to a post made by Tullahoma Alderman candidate Daniel Berry, asking about accepting stereotypes for an entire group. Some of what Northcott said claimed was that Islam is evil, violent and against God’s truth” and that being Muslim is no different than “being part of the KKK, Aryan Nation, etc.” He also wrote, “there are no Constitutional rights. There are God-given rights protected by the Constitution. If you don’t believe in the...

Jackie Wayne Bean of Soddy-Daisy has pleaded guilty to felony reckless endangerment and was sentenced to probation for his part in a deadly 2017 police chase in Grundy County, Tennessee. Now, the District Attorney’s Office says he may testify in another Grundy County murder case. Bean was driving with 20-year-old Shelby Comer in the car when Grundy County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Holmes tried to make a traffic stop. Officials said Bean failed to stop and led a chase onto B Mine Road, where he spun the car around. The TBI report said Holmes fired on the vehicle several times...

For the third consecutive month, Tennessee’s preliminary statewide unemployment rate for April remains at the all-time low of 3.2 percent. That’s according to data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Tennessee first set its all-time low unemployment rate in February and it has remained at 3.2 percent each month since establishing the record. Over the last twelve months, unemployment across the state dropped by four-tenths of a percentage point when compared to numbers from April of 2018. Tennessee employers added 5,000 new nonfarm jobs between March and April. The national unemployment rate for April was 3.6...