Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill creating a new Tennessee license plate design featuring the phrase “In God We Trust.” The original version of the bill would have required the phrase to be printed on all license plates issued in the state. But after the State Attorney General raised constitutional concerns, sponsors agreed to make the new design optional. The new law requires the Department of Revenue to design plates to include the optional “In God We Trust” language once current stocks are exhausted. Senate Democratic leader Lee Harris of Memphis was the only lawmaker in either chamber...

Almost 40 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home this Memorial Day weekend, according to AAA’s annual forecast for the holiday. That’s one million more travelers than last year and the highest Memorial Day travel volume since 2005. AAA expects 34.6 million Americans to drive to their destinations this year. That’s an increase of 2.4 percent over last year, despite the fact that motorists will be paying the highest Memorial Day gas prices since 2015. AAA expects 2.9 million Americans to fly to their destinations over this holiday weekend; an increase of 5.5 percent over...

The 2017 National Safe Boating Week is this week. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is participating to promote the wear of life jackets as the summer boating season begins. This past Friday was Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day with the goal of demonstrating how easy it is to wear a life jacket. Participants wore a life jacket to work, demonstrating how easy to wear one, even while at work. It was just one of the events to help usher in National Safe Boating Week which is annually held the week prior to Memorial Day Weekend. Boating partners...

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry is now accepting urban forestry tree planting project proposals through the Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Program (TAEP). “Trees are vitally important to our state,” Commissioner Jai Templeton said. “Providing cost-share funding through TAEP supports tree planting projects. These activities benefit our commercial nursery industry and provide clean air and water, storm water control and aesthetic values to our communities.” Local governments, private non-profit organizations and educational institutions are eligible to apply. TAEP offers a 50/50 matching cost-share program for tree planting on public property, rights-of-way, and private non-profit land and covers half...

On Thursday, the Shelbyville Police Department Criminal Investigations Division arrested Dalton Tyree and Brittney Matthews of 400 Barksdale Lane in Shelbyville. They are charged with multiple counts of auto burglary and theft of property. Thousands of dollars in property was recovered from their apartment that links the pair to multiple burglaries and thefts occurring within the city over the last few weeks. The Criminal Investigations Division got the break they needed after Patrolman Nathan Everhart stopped Tyree and an associate walking suspiciously through a residential area in the early morning hours of May the 18th. Both Tyree and Matthews...

Tennessee’s unemployment rate for the month of April was 4.7 percent, down from 5.1 percent in March. That’s according to numbers from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The national unemployment rate for April was 4.4 percent, a drop of one-tenth of a percentage point from March. Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has not declined this much since January of 1984. Over the past year, Tennessee’s unemployment rate experienced a slight uptick of a tenth of a percentage point, increasing from 4.6 to 4.7 percent. The national rate decreased from 5.0 to 4.4...