Tennessee

Editorial Roundup: Tennessee

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2022

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Kingsport Instances Information. April 15, 2022.

Editorial: Legislators ought to get their info straight

U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Kingsport, together with six different members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation, has despatched a letter to the Veterans Administration complaining that the state’s nationwide cemeteries for veterans are shortly operating out of area.

If a lot of the state’s congressional delegation is worried, one thing have to be finished. Definitely, our federal lawmakers know what they’re speaking about particularly in going public with this allegation. Or do they?

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Our veterans deserve and have earned the precise to be buried in Tennessee’s nationwide cemeteries. How might this be allowed to occur?

Factor is, it hasn’t, says a spokesman for the Veterans Administration.

Please relaxation assured that our veterans cemeteries aren’t operating out of burial area,” says Gary Kunich of the U.S. Division of Veterans Affairs.

Harshbarger, together with the opposite U.S. representatives from Tennessee, forwarded their letter to the VA on March 31 and requested that the VA reply by April 30. Kunich mentioned the VA can be “responding to the seven members of Congress shortly.”

Apart from Harshbarger, the opposite members of Congress who signed the letter are U.S. Rep. Mark Inexperienced, U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleicschmann, U.S. Rep. David Kustoff and U.S. Rep. John Rose.

Of their letter, the congressional members say that Tennessee is “dangerously shut” to not having funeral area for veterans. “Of the 5 nationwide cemeteries positioned in Tennessee serving our veteran constituents and their households, solely two at present have burial area accessible and even these restricted areas are quickly operating out,” the letter states.

However Kunich mentioned there are extra than simply 5 cemeteries throughout the state accessible to veterans and one other two which can be accessible simply throughout state strains. Two of 5 nationwide cemeteries in Tennessee are at present open for burials: Chattanooga and the Mountain Residence Nationwide Cemetery in Johnson Metropolis. The opposite three are cremation solely.

There are additionally 4 grant-funded state veterans cemeteries with two positioned in Knoxville. “Each certainly one of Tennessee’s 440,000 veterans dwell inside 75 miles of an open veterans cemetery,” Kunic mentioned.

He mentioned all three of the nationwide cemeteries which can be at present not accessible for burials and are cremation solely even have close by state veterans cemeteries.

It could seem that somebody’s confused, and we don’t consider it’s the VA, which “actively screens the capability of each VA nationwide cemeteries and VA grant-funded state cemeteries,” Kunich mentioned, “and can proceed to fund expansions of those cemeteries.”

We count on our congressional representatives to know what they’re speaking about earlier than they act. However that is one other in a rising variety of examples of that not being the case, and never for simply Tennessee’s representatives.

Johnson Metropolis Press. April 17, 2022.

Editorial: Don’t be distracted by the noise, Tennessee’s felony sleeping legislation is inhumane

The Common Meeting handed a invoice additional criminalizing homelessness this week, however we’ve let one senator’s confounding and abhorrent feedback distract us from the inhumane contents of the invoice.

Whereas lawmakers debated Senate invoice 1610 on Wednesday, Strawberry Plains Republican Sen. Frank Niceley stood earlier than the complete chamber and splattered out a complicated story about Adolf Hitler that gave the impression to be both an expression of admiration for the Nazi dictator or an try to pressure a correlation between him and folks with out properties.

A soundbite of Niceley’s baffling assertion was shortly seized upon by nationwide media shops, and Tennessee’s popularity within the outdoors world as soon as once more acquired one of many beatings our lawmakers and officers appear to attract with nice relish.

No matter his intention, the senator was flawed, however his feedback, regardless of how loathsome, shouldn’t be the primary focus of the dialogue on this invoice.

Now authorised by each the Home and Senate and headed to the governor for his signature, this legislation elevates the crime of sleeping — “tenting” within the authorized language — on native public land to a felony crime and makes sleeping or panhandling at freeway offramps and underpasses a misdemeanor. The legislation expands the scope of a statute enacted two years in the past that made it a felony to sleep with out authorization on state-owned land.

The brand new legislation will make it unlawful for people to be homeless almost in every single place within the state, however it would do nothing to deal with the causes of homelessness.

As an alternative, the brand new onslaught of felony fees and convictions for the crime of illegally sleeping will take away hundreds of individuals’s civil rights and make it much more troublesome for them to safe employment and housing.

In Johnson Metropolis, we’ve already been down this highway.

4 years in the past, underneath the guise of it being just one a part of a complete plan to deal with the complicated social drawback of homelessness, metropolis leaders made “tenting” on public property a neighborhood offense.

To date, all we’ve seen from this complete plan are lots of of tickets written to individuals who can’t afford them, a worsened relationship between indigent people and the police sworn to guard and serve and homeless individuals in our group pushed additional into the shadows and away from the outreach applications that will assist them.

The required act of sleeping ought to by no means be thought-about against the law, however classifying it as a felony is plainly inhumane.

As an alternative of pouring assets into the felony justice system to seek out, cost and incarcerate individuals for sleeping in public, primarily punishing them for current, we needs to be dedicating our efforts to outreach and assist to assist individuals discover and preserve dependable housing and employment.

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Tennessee

Tennessee senator wants former NYPD commissioner’s help tackling Memphis crime

Published

56 mins ago

May 29, 2024

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Tennessee senator wants former NYPD commissioner’s help tackling Memphis crime

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – Can the former top cop who dramatically reduced crime in New York City in the 1990s help make Memphis a safer city? State Senator Brent Taylor wants former New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton to tackle the Bluff City’s crime problem.

Under former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Bratton’s tough-on-crime approach reduced crime in the Big Apple by double digits in the first year.

Bratton is now executive chairman of Risk Advisory at Teneo, a global consulting firm that Sen. Taylor thinks the state should hire to help Memphis fix its crime problem.

“We have to do something immediately,” Taylor told Action News 5, “and the best way to do that is with crime suppression, with our police arresting people, and with our DA hopefully prosecuting people, getting convictions and getting people incarcerated.”

Taylor sent a letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday, May 28, requesting a meeting to talk about the state hiring a consultant who can create a crime reduction strategy for Memphis.

“If we don’t get a handle on the crime problem,” said Taylor, “we’re going to wind up being the new Detroit, which is the example of a failed American city.”

Sen. Taylor said Bratton’s experience in reducing crime is what Memphis needs right now. NYPD’s “Broken Windows” approach, making arrests for small crimes, worked, but not without controversy.

State Senator London Lamar called the department’s “stop and frisk” policy inhumane and unfair to Black and brown citizens.

”I am feeling the challenges around public safety just as much as you are, I get it,” she told Action News 5. “It is of urgency that we get this under control, but that doesn’t mean we need to implement policies that will do more harm than good.”

Sen. Taylor’s letter said the state should avoid working with criminal justice reform groups like Just City, Decarcerate Memphis, Vera Institute of Justice and Justice Innovation Lab.

“They are about defunding the police,” said Taylor, “decarceration, and they are about cashless bail, and I think they are part of the problem.”

In a statement, Just City Executive Director Josh Spickler told Action News 5:

“Sen. Brent Taylor’s latest letter again misrepresents the work of Just City and those doing the most to interrupt cycles of injustice and harm in our state. His proposals are unserious and would do nothing to address crime in our city. Instead of exploring legitimate policy solutions, Taylor continues to make boogeymen of advocates like us in order to score political points.

Just City values safety and justice for everyone, and we will not be defined or deterred by Sen. Taylor’s latest letter-writing stunt. We will continue to work tirelessly to make our city safer and more fair for everyone, as we have for the past nine years.”

And the Vera Institute of Justice provided the following statement:

“Vera Institute was invited to Memphis by local organizations, like Decarcerate Memphis, that are led by directly-impacted people. Victims, community members, and advocates overwhelmingly want alternatives to incarceration. While police are an important part of keeping Memphis safe, they are not the only solution. Restorative justice is a solution that people want; by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, research shows that victims prefer the criminal legal system to focus more on rehabilitating people who commit crimes than punishing them. When Memphis city council passed the Tyre Nichols Act reprioritizing traffic stops to keep people safer and build community trust with police, state officials responded by passing legislation attempting to reverse it. Vera will continue to collaborate with local governments and support community demands for policies and practices that truly keep people safe.”

In 2013, a federal judge found the manner in which NYPD carried out “stop and frisk” was unconstitutional.

Sen. Lamar said she does agree with Bratton on several issues: He’s against arming teachers with guns, he supports bans on assault weapons and champions tougher gun laws.

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Tennessee

Nearly 30 cats, kittens dumped on side of Tennessee road

Published

8 hours ago

May 28, 2024

Press Room

Nearly 30 cats, kittens dumped on side of Tennessee road

BELFAST, Tenn. (WSMV) – On Tuesday morning, Lucky’s Cat House was contacted by officials in Marshall County about a report of cats in cages on the side of the road in Belfast.

Lucky’s and an officer with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office responded to the incident. Upon arrival, 28 cats and kittens were found in three plastic totes and two metal dog cages including one dead kitten.

Lucky’s said they’re working with the sheriff’s department in hopes of finding the person responsible for dumping the animals. The cat rescue said they’d be discussing with Marshall County Mayor Mike Kenny about the situation.

Last week Lucky’s Cat House was “begging” for fosters. The rescue said it had 87 cats and kittens in its care between their fosters and the cat house. The nonprofit added that they have less than 20 active volunteers.

“We desperately need fosters, donations of both kitten and cat food and monetary donations for medical needs,” they said.

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Tennessee

Tennessee Vols No Longer Favorites to Win College World Series

Published

15 hours ago

May 28, 2024

Press Room

Tennessee Vols No Longer Favorites to Win College World Series

The Tennessee Volunteers are no longer the odds on favorite to win the College World Series in Omaha, according to some books in Vegas.

The road to Omaha and the College World Series begins for everyone in the sport of College Baseball on Friday afternoon across the country. With 11 of 14 SEC conference members having made the tournament, with 5 of those 11 hosting regionals, it’s a familiar pool of opponents for all SEC members.

With regionals set to take place this weekend, and super regionals the next, with Omaha and the College World Series kicking off June 14th, the championship odds have been set by DraftKings.com.

Odds to Win The College World Series

Entering Monday’s selection show, it was Tennessee who was the odds on favorite at +500 to win the title. Though following the selection show where Tennessee was awarded the No. 1 overall seeding and given their regional opponents, Texas A&M’s odds were adjusted ahead of the Vols.

Tennessee Regional:
Tennessee
Indiana,
Northern Kentucky
Southern Miss

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