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Cleveland Daily Banner—Wednesday, January 6, 2016—3
Grumbling results from bid to adjust state Senate schedule
NASHVILLE (AP) — Some state
Senate Republicans are grumbling about an effort to have the
upper chamber’s committees
meet on an additional day during
the upcoming legislative session,
saying the change would allow
less time to attend receptions
and to prepare for other meetings.
Under the proposed changes,
the full Senate would meet earlier on Mondays to allow some
committees to meet later that
day. In exchange, the chamber
would not meet on Thursday
mornings for much of the session.
Senate Majority Leader Mark
Norris, R-Collierville, said in a
memo
obtained
by
The
Associated Press that the
changes are designed to relive
the time pressure of all nine
standing committees meeting on
two days. The changes would
allow members to spend two full
days home in their districts and
help avoid committee meetings
running deep into the evenings,
he said.
“The goal of these modifications is not to speed up session,
but rather to be more efficient
with existing time,” Norris said in
the memo.
While Norris said that each
member had been briefed the
Senate clerk’s office, two senators sent emails raising concerns
about the new schedule on
Monday.
Republican
Sen.
Janice
Bowling of Tullahoma wrote to
colleagues that she worries the
change would allow for less time
to spend with constituents and
at legislative receptions.
“Two nights for the extensive
legislative receptions will create
additional scheduling problems,”
Bowling said in an email to colleagues. “I suspect many groups
have already reserved venues for
Wednesday night receptions and
dinners. We are eliminating
access of the people.”
While eliminating Thursday
morning floor sessions would
allow members to return to their
districts as early as Wednesday
evening, the Legislature’s daily
allowance for meals and hotel
costs would remain in place for
overnight stays for Monday
through Wednesday.
Senate Judiciary Chairman
Brian Kelsey said the change
would make it harder for his
committee to operate because it
would leave less time for members to prepare the day before.
“This new schedule may make
it harder for Senate Judiciary to
close on time because we were
taking advantage of the Monday
work day being free to prepare
for our Tuesday afternoon meeting,”
the
Germantown
Republican said in an email.
“Much of that time will now be
taken up by an earlier Monday
session.”
Kelsey said in a phone interview on Tuesday that he begins
meeting with staff members and
attorneys on Monday mornings
to work on schedules, amend-
ments and other committee
details. That work would be curtailed by the earlier floor session
and committee meetings, he said.
“There are many potential positive outcomes from a schedule
change, and there’s a possibility
that there will be some negative
outcomes, too,” Kelsey said.
“I’m not discouraging anyone
from trying it,” he said. “A lot of
positives are positives for other
committees, and not necessarily
positive results for the Judiciary
Committee.”
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School officials
to discuss
Ooltewah
player case
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OOLTEWAH (AP) — A group of
more than 120 Ooltewah High
School
alumni
in
the
Chattanooga area have written a
letter requesting that an outside
authority to investigate an alleged
assault on a freshman basketball
player.
The 15-year-old victim was
hospitalized Dec. 22 after he was
allegedly attacked by three of his
then teammates during a team
trip to Gatlinburg, authorities
have told a Chattanooga newspaper. They say three teens were
arrested and charged with aggravated rape and aggravated
assault.
School district officials haven’t
spoken publicly about the investigation, prompting the group of
Ooltewah graduates to sign a letter urging the school and district
administrators to have an outside
auditor or detective review the
case. The graduates write: “... our
concerns are not only for the victim but also for all of the current
and previous students of
Ooltewah schools.”
The letter is addressed to
Hamilton
County
Schools
Superintendent Rick Smith,
Assistant Superintendent Lee
McDade, Ooltewah High School
Principal Jim Jarvis, and members of the Hamilton County
School Board. It asks that students be educated on rape, sexual assault and bullying. The letter
also asks that students learn how
to identify it, stop it and how to
get help if they have been victims.
The Hamilton County District
Attorney’s office is investigating.
School board members are set
to meet at 5:30 p.m. today in
executive session. Following that
closed session, a special called
meeting is scheduled in which the
board can act and publicly discuss the situation.
Est. 1948
Tennessee prison
to be split into male,
female facilities
NASHVILLE (AP) — One of
Tennessee’s most troubled prisons is due to be split into a male
facility and female facility.
According to a Tuesday memo
by Department of Correction
Commissioner Derrick Schofield
obtained by The Tennessean,
the West Tennessee State
Penitentiary will make one of its
two sites a female prison and
will house only maximum-security male inmates at the other
site.
The prison currently consists
of two sites that house general
population and high-security
male inmates.
In the memo, Schofield points
to the increase in the number of
female inmates as a reason to
make the change.
The prison has seen some of
the most drastic staffing shortages, as well as some of the
more publicly reported acts of
violence, including the stabbings of two inmates in July.
Company accused of
charging for dead
patients’ meds settles
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Nashville
company will pay as much as
$7.8 million in a settlement related to accusations that it charged
Medicare and TennCare for medications for dead patients.
The Tennessean reports U.S.
Attorney for the Middle District of
Tennessee David Rivera on
Tuesday announced the settlement of the False Claims Act case
involving Nashville Pharmacy
Services, which specializes in dispensing HIV and AIDS medications.
Bradley Squa &R