New law requires parental consent for non-emergency care at schools
(The Center Square) – A new Tennessee law requires a doctor or nurse to contact parents before providing non-emergency medical care.
The law also applies to school counseling services when a child is in a physical, psychological or emotional crisis. School counselors are required to contact parents if psychological issues are brought to the attention of a counselor.
The Family Rights and Responsibilities Act went into effect July 1. Similar laws exist in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas.
“In Tennessee, we want parents to be fully informed of their child’s emergency and non-emergency situations at school,” Sen. Ferrell Haile and Rep. Jeremy Faison said in a statement. “This law keeps parents in-the-know and ensures they are properly consulted.”
The Republican lawmakers who sponsored the bill and are looking to inform parents on the law changes as the new school year begins.
 WOULD YOU HELP US TODAY?? |
More than 800 classes will start the year without a teacher in Middle Tennessee
By: Emily R. West
Posted 10:33 AM, Aug 07, 2024 and last updated 3:51 PM, Aug 07, 2024
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF — Hope Holcomb didn't grow up wanting to be a teacher.
She didn't even know what she wanted to do until she considered pre-law. But working after school changed Holcomb's course. Ultimately, she decided to trade the courtroom for the classroom. She is now a first-year teacher at Murfreesboro City Schools — the same district she went to throughout her childhood.
Listen to Hope talk about her love for teaching in the player above.
"I had to go back to education," she said. "I knew I would be my happiest in a classroom."
This year, she is one of 130 new teachers in the kindergarten through sixth-grade district. Together, they spent two days at Middle Tennessee State University learning the ropes while the district did its final cleaning of classrooms.
Holcomb — who will teach fourth grade — said she thought of her own teacher from that age. She said she wanted to emulate her style and engagement, one that kept her excited to come back to school every day.
Drug Dealer with Long Criminal History Charged with Murder in Death of Customer Under Tennessee’s ‘Death by Distribution’ Law
August 9, 2024 Peter D'Abrosca
A fentanyl dealer from Crossville has been arrested and charged with Second Degree Murder after one of her customers overdosed and died.
“On September 14, 2021, officers with the Crossville Police Department responded to a 911 call at a home on Willow Street in Crossville. Samuel Mashburn … was found deceased in the driveway,” according to a press release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). “An autopsy determined Mashburn died from acute combined multiple drug intoxication.”
After nearly three years of investigating, TBI and local law enforcement identified Jericia Hayes, who TBI describes as a “friend” of Mashburn’s, as the person who sold the fentanyl to Mashburn.
She was charged with one count of Second Degree Murder and one count of Delivery of Fentanyl and is being held in the Cumberland County Jail on a $ 1 million bond.
Tennessee has a law that punishes drug dealers if their customers overdose and die.
TN Code § 39-13-210 (2021) defines Second Degree Murder in part as “A killing of another by unlawful distribution or unlawful delivery or unlawful dispensation of fentanyl or carfentanil, when those substances alone, or in combination with any substance scheduled as a controlled substance by the Tennessee Drug Control Act of 1989…”
Second Degree Murder is a Class A felony in Tennessee, carrying a penalty of up to 60 years behind bars.
Complicating matters, Hayes has a long criminal history, according to records obtained by The Tennessee Star.
Tennessee governor’s voucher election tactics produce unclear mandate
Political expert says results were based on variables that changed race to race and indicate no strong support for Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher plan
By: Sam Stockard - August 7, 2024 5:01 am
Despite gubernatorial backing and massive independent spending, support for private-school vouchers failed to produce a clear mandate in last week’s Republican primary.
It’s an outcome that could come back to haunt Gov. Bill Lee if he’s banking on the shift of students to private schools to cement his political legacy.
In Williamson County’s District 65 state House race, a pro-voucher political action committee poured nearly $1 million into expenditures for Lee Reeves’ campaign, which Lee backed. Yet Reeves won by only 95 votes, picking up 35% of the total, to defeat County Commissioner Brian Beathard. Reeves will be the favorite to claim the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Sam Whitson, who opposed Lee’s voucher plan to create a universal program providing $7,000 each for every student in the state to enroll in private schools.
Lee’s endorsement of several pro-voucher candidates was considered unusual at best. He picked a winner in Sumner County where Sen. Ferrell Haile rode some $400,000 in donations from Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s PAC to defeat Chris Spencer, co-founder of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans.
But Lee took losses in the race between Sen. Jon Lundberg, the Senate Education Committee chairman who carried the Senate version of the voucher bill and fell to Bristol pharmacist Bobby Harshbarger, and longtime Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, who lost to Rick Scarbrough, a veteran police chief.
The Lundberg defeat is likely to be the governor’s biggest drawback because not only could it be one less vote for private-school vouchers but it could cut into the power of Lt. Gov. Randy McNally as he nears the end of his political career.
MTSU political science professor Kent Syler said the primary results don’t indicate any mandate for the governor’s education initiative.
Harshbarger, for instance, benefited from a political action committee’s funding and the support of his mother, U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who ran ads of her family with an endorsement by former President Donald Trump, indicating he supports her son.
“It looks like a mixed bag where a lot of different issues were at play and … other variables that changed race to race,” Syler says.
In Senate District 8, the Education Freedom Fund, which was funded by the Club for Growth, spent heavily on Jessie Seal, helping him handily beat veteran Sen. Frank Niceley, a voucher opponent.
The PAC spent north of $3.5 million targeting Lee’s voucher opponents.
TN Congressman Mark Green
Rep. Stephen Lynch and I are introducing the K2 Veterans Total Coverage Act of 2024.
This bill is a significant step forward in the fight to ensure K2 veterans receive the medical care they need and deserve.
State appeals court ruling keeping Nashville’s 40-member council intact
By: Cassandra Stephenson - August 7, 2024 3:58 pm
Tennessee lawmakers are pushing back against a July court decision that allowed Nashville to keep its 40-member Metro Council.
Gov. Bill Lee and other state defendants filed their notice of appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals Wednesday. At-large Metro Council member Delishia Porterfield, who is one of the plaintiffs in the case against the state, posted a copy of the appeal to social media.
The decision, made July 29 by a three-judge panel, nullifies a 2023 state law requiring all metropolitan governments in Tennessee to limit their local council size to 20 members or fewer. Of the state’s three metro governments, Nashville is the only one that would have to shrink its council to comply with the law.
The panel’s 2-1 decision bolstered the capital city’s efforts to fend off what city leaders say is unconstitutional state overreach.
The council size law had been under injunction since April 2023, allowing Nashville to proceed with its August 2023 Metro Council elections with a 40-member body.
The law is among several passed by the Tennessee legislature’s Republican supermajority in 2023 that have since landed in court. The volley of legislation followed the Nashville Council’s decision to block the city from hosting the 2024 Republican National Convention.
The Democratic-controlled council blocked the convention following the redistricting of the city’s congressional seat by state Republicans. The new seat switched it to Republican control, and made it so three congressman represent Nashville, but none of those elected so far are from the city.
THIS IS EMBARRASSING
Statewide turnout in Tennessee's August primary falls below 14% for first time in decades
Gannett
Vivian Jones, Nashville Tennessean
August 6, 2024 at 6:50 AM
Statewide voter participation in Thursday’s primary elections was the lowest in decades, with fewer than 14% of Tennessee's registered voters voting early, absentee or on election day.
While voter registration has increased steadily in recent years, fewer registered voters are actually participating in elections. Just over 637,500 voters cast ballots in the Aug. 1 elections, according to unofficial vote totals submitted to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office. The number is expected to change slightly as results are certified, spokesman Doug Kufner said.
As of last month, there were nearly 4.6 million registered voters in Tennessee, according to the Secretary of State’s office — a significant increase from 3.9 million in 2016. About 13.9% of registered voters participated in state primaries last week.
Over the last decade, participation in August primaries has trended higher in gubernatorial primary years, with the exception of 2020, when more voters cast absentee ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Statewide voter turnout in August state primaries has dipped below 15% just three times in the past 30 years, all in presidential election years.
Still, only a fraction of registered voters routinely participate.
Tennessee was ranked 51st in the U.S. for voter turnout in 2022 in an elections performance analysis conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While voter registrations have increased steadily, only an estimated 80% of Tennessee citizens eligible to vote are actually registered, despite online registration being available.
But state election officials expect much better turnout in November for the presidential election. Participation is historically much higher during presidential general elections — and rose to 69% in 2020.
“It has never been easier to register to vote or cast a ballot in Tennessee,” Kufner said. “Voters have the convenience and flexibility of the 14-day early voting period, as well as Election Day to make their voices heard. The Secretary of State’s office wants all registered voters to cast a ballot during the November election cycle, and we anticipate a robust turnout this fall.”
