Snow in Tennessee?
And that was back in early November.
"Teachers in three states embroiled in test-taking fraud" Associated Press, November 26, 2012
MEMPHIS — A longtime educator has been charged with fraud in a scheme to help aspiring public school teachers cheat on the tests they must pass to prove they are qualified, federal prosecutors said.
For 15 years, teachers in three Southern states allegedly paid Clarence Mumford Sr. to send someone else to take the tests in their place.
Each time, Mumford received a fee of between $1,500 and $3,000 to send one of his ringers with fake identification to the Praxis exam. In return, his customers got a passing grade, according to federal prosecutors in Memphis.
Authorities say the scheme affected hundreds — if not thousands — of public school students who ended up being taught by unqualified instructors.
Mumford allegedly collected tens of thousands of dollars during the conspiracy, which prosecutors say lasted from 1995 to 2010 in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Mumford faces more than 60 fraud and conspiracy charges that allege he created fake driver’s licenses with the information of a teacher or an aspiring teacher and attached the photograph of a test-taker. Prospective teachers are accused of giving Mumford their Social Security numbers for him to make the fake identities.
The hired-test takers went to testing centers, showed the proctor the fake license, and passed the certification exam, prosecutors say. Then, the aspiring teacher used the test score to secure a job with a public school district, the indictment alleges. Fourteen people have been charged with mail and Social Security fraud, and four people have pleaded guilty to charges associated with the scheme.
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Teacher's Grade
They failed!
MEMPHIS — Bomb threats to 30 courthouses and other government buildings across Tennessee forced many to be evacuated Tuesday morning, including the federal building in Memphis, but authorities said no explosives were found.
Tennessee became the fourth state to deal with similar bomb hoaxes. One targeted 28 courthouses in Oregon and similar threats were reported in Nebraska and Washington this month....
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"Southern Baptists urge continued ban on gay Scouts" by Travis Loller | Associated Press, February 21, 2013
NASHVILLE — The nation’s largest Protestant group is calling on members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to uphold a ban on gay Scouts and leaders when it votes in May.
The executive committee of the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention passed the resolution Tuesday, stating that a proposal to alter the ban would ‘‘place the Boy Scouts organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making it an organization that would no longer complement, but rather contradict, our belief in God and His moral precepts that serve as the basis for our Christian faith.’’
The Scouts announced last month that they would consider a proposal to let the sponsor of each individual troop decide its own policy on gays.
About 70 percent of all Scout units are sponsored by religious denominations. Since the proposed policy change was announced, the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention has been among the most vocal opponents.
The resolution includes a call for like-minded corporate leaders to support the Scouts financially, ‘‘sending a strong signal to those corporations that have pressured the Scouts to capitulate to popular culture by financial coercion.’’
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Related: Boy Scouts agree to welcome gay youth
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Southern Baptists oppose gay Scouts
"New mosque opens after long battle" August 11, 2012
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Muslims in the Tennessee city of Murfreesboro said Friday they hope the opening of their new mosque after more than two years of controversy will be a new beginning for relations with the community, particularly their opponents.
Islamic Center of Murfreesboro members include immigrants from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and other countries, as well as American converts. Many of them said that before the opposition to their new building they had always found Murfreesboro to be a welcoming community.
If it were not, they would never have grown to the point where they needed to build a new mosque, they said.
‘‘We are here 30 years and I never had a problem with the people here,’’ said Safaa Fathy, a member of the mosque’s board of directors. ‘‘It only started two years ago.’’
That’s when the Islamic center received permission to build a new mosque to replace their space in an office park. Since then they have faced protests, vandalism, arson of a construction vehicle, and a bomb threat. Opponents of the project held a protest rally and then sued the county to stop construction.
Last month, a federal judge granted the mosque’s request for an emergency order that would open the building in time for the holy month of Ramadan, which is now underway.
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"Tenn. child agency head quits as deaths questioned" by Travis Loller | Associated Press, February 06, 2013
NASHVILLE — The head of Tennessee’s child welfare agency resigned Tuesday under scrutiny over how her agency handled the cases of children who were investigated as possible victims of abuse and neglect, then later died....
The Department of Children’s Services told a federal judge it could not say with certainty how many children died while in Tennessee’s foster care system.
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Related: F***ed Up Foster Care in Massachusetts
Also see:
Group chides Mass. system on foster care
Lawsuit faults Mass. on foster care system
Mass. should defend itself against foster-care lawsuit
Judge hears case over Mass. foster care system
Shuffled from one home to another, over-prescribed psychotropic medications, and staying with families who spoke little English? No wonder Massachusetts ranks among the worst states in the country in caring for foster children. But they care so much about the kids in this state!
"Jury convicts Tennessee mother in newborn twins’ deaths" by Travis Loller | Associated Press, March 20, 2013
GALLATIN, Tenn. — A jury found a 26-year-old Tennessee woman guilty of murder Tuesday in the 2011 smothering deaths of her newborn twins.
The jury of seven men and five women convicted Lindsey Lowe of suburban Nashville of felony murder, premeditated murder, and aggravated child abuse. She was immediately sentenced to life in prison by the judge.
At trial, jurors saw a video of Lowe telling police she had given birth alone in the bathroom of her parents’ home on Sept. 12, 2011, and smothered the babies soon after.
The bodies were not found until two days later.
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Also see:
They were the product of an affair?
"Tenn. mother gets 51 years in newborns’ killings" by Travis Loller | Associated Press, April 27, 2013
NASHVILLE — A Tennessee woman convicted of murdering her newborn twins was sentenced Friday to a minimum of 51 years in prison, despite her family’s pleading with the judge, who said he found the 26-year-old untruthful and selfish.
Lindsey Lowe was convicted last month of felony murder, premeditated murder, and aggravated child abuse. The murder charges carry an automatic life sentence....
She gave birth to the twin boys in the bathroom of her parents’ home in Hendersonville on Sept. 12, 2011. She told police she smothered them and placed them in a laundry basket so that her parents would not hear their cries. Lowe’s parents found one of the babies two days later and alerted police.
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I don't know who should care for the children in Tennessee.
"Protesters convicted of breaking into nuclear facility" May 09, 2013
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An 83-year-old nun and two fellow protesters were convicted Wednesday of interfering with national security when they broke into a Tennessee nuclear weapons facility and defaced a uranium processing plant.
It took a jury about 2½ hours to find the protesters guilty of a charge of sabotaging the plant and second charge of damaging federal property in July the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge in July.
Defense attorneys said that federal prosecutors had overreached in the charges because of the embarrassment caused by the break-in.
“The shortcomings in security at one of the most dangerous places on the planet have embarrassed a lot of people,” defense lawyer Francis Lloyd said. “You’re looking at three scapegoats behind me.”
Prosecutor Jeff Theodore dismissed claims that the protesters had helped security.
Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg Boertje-Obed said they have no remorse.
The defendants spent two hours inside Y-12.
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"FDA warns of infections tied to Tennessee pharmacy" by Matthew Perrone | AP Health Writer, May 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — Government health officials are investigating cases involving patients who suffered complications after being injected with potentially contaminated medications made by a Tennessee specialty pharmacy.
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday the problems involve seven patients who received steroid injections from Main Street Family Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Newbern, Tenn.
Tennessee health officials said the pharmacy has agreed to recall all of its sterile products, which are generally injectable prescription drugs. Officials from the FDA and the Tennessee Department of Health have been inspecting the pharmacy since Wednesday.
‘‘The pharmacy staff and management have been cooperative,’’ state regulators said in a news release.
An employee reached at Main Street Family Pharmacy on Friday afternoon could not immediately provide comment.
The injections contain methylprednisolone acetate, the same drug at the center of last year’s deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis. More than 55 people have died and over 740 others have been sickened after receiving contaminated injections from a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. The steroids are typically used to treat pain.
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Related: Slow Saturday Special: FDA Finds More Problems at Compounding Pharmacies
