Legislation Focus On Property Rights, Suicide Coercion
As a new legislative session begins, initiatives to criminalize the act of moving property boundary markers and additional legislation to establish felony charges for coercing someone to commit suicide via social media are being introduced. State Representative Ryan Williams working with the Attorney General’s office to revise current state laws regarding protected speech and digital […]
New Law Honors Allons Man, Prorates Tag Refunds
New legislation requires the Tennessee Department of Revenue to offer registration fee refunds to families of deceased freight vehicle operators. District 41 State Representative Ed Butler said he worked to pass the Ethan Wade Walls Act after working with the Allons-based family. He said Walls and his brother borrowed money in April, 2023 to pursue […]
New State Legislation Makes Requirements For City Council Meetings
Some changes could be coming to the way the Cookeville City Council conducts its business. Mayor Laurin Wheaton said this comes as a result of two state legislation changes. She said one of those has to do with public comments during meetings, which they already allow at the end of the meeting or during public […]
Rep. Williams Working With Farris On Ideas For School Safety Legislation
State Representative Ryan Williams working with Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris on legislation for safer schools. Williams said they are in the early stages of exploring ways for state funding to fortify schools. “We even looked into some ideas about a system by which you can have check points for SROs to make sure they […]
State Representative Williams Sponsors Bill To Support Alzheimer’s Patient Families
A new three-year pilot program that would provide a short break for Alzheimer’s caregivers has been signed into law by Governor Bill Lee. State Representative Ryan Williams said the bill would provide four hours of respite care for family members caring for an Alzheimer’s patient. “The reason why we think it is worth using state […]
Bailey Sponsoring Bill To Help EMS Staff Shortages
State Senator Paul Bailey pushing forward a bill that would allow retired EMS workers to return to work without impacting retirement benefits. The state’s retirement system currently does not allow these workers to return to work without suspending benefits. “This actually came from Tommy Copeland within the Putnam County EMS Department,” Bailey said. “He contacted […]
Rep. Weaver Pleased With Session But Wants Teacher Shortages Addressed
Representative Terri Lynn Weaver said she wants to bring back a state bill next General Assembly to address teacher shortages. Weaver said she is pleased with the education funding, but she wanted to make it easier for teachers to add other subject areas to an existing license. “Just to take a lot of the bumps […]
Cookeville Among Cities For Nationwide Votercade Event Saturday
The Cookeville-Putnam County NAACP is hitting the streets to celebrate the life of U.S. Representative John Lewis and the right to vote. President Thomas Savage said Cookeville will be joining 180 other U.S. cities on May 8 at 1:00 PM. He said participants will use their vehicles in a votercade across Cookeville, starting at the […]
Legislation Changing UCHRA/UCDD Boards Likely To Pass
UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said legislation that would change the organization’s governing boards appears to be moving forward. Farley said the proposed bill would cut down the number of required city mayors that participate in meetings. “I would suppose in our situation is what we would do is just limit our board to just […]
Social Health Courses In Schools Deferred To 2022
Senator Paul Bailey said he is not deterred by a bill he sponsored to improve social health skills being moved to the 2022 calendar. Bailey said the idea was brought to him by a Tennessee Tech Professor. Bailey said the bill creates course work to build skills for things like for healthy relationships, technology use […]
