WDEF News 12 - Covering Tennessee

2 appellate court judges are stepping down

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:35:30 -0400

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Two Tennessee appellate court judges have notified Gov. Bill Haslam that they will not run for another term on the bench in the August 2014 retention election.

Patricia J. Cottrell, a judge on the Court of Appeals, and Joseph M. Tipton, who sits on the Court of Criminal Appeals bench, will both leave after September of next year.

The announcements come after the state legislature left Tennessee without a way to replace judges who step down or die when a commission expires at the end of next month.

Members of the soon-to-be-defunct Judicial Nominating Commission will make recommendations for replacements to give to Haslam before the panel expires. Haslam will appoint the replacements from those recommendations.

Ozone advisory for counties in Tenn., Ark., Miss.

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:35:17 -0400

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Health officials have issued an ozone advisory for residents in three counties in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The Shelby County Health Department is warning that ozone levels are going to be higher than normal Saturday in the Memphis metropolitan area due to stagnant conditions, increased temperatures and decreased winds.

The advisory affects residents of Crittenden County, Ark., DeSoto County, Miss., and Shelby County, Tenn.

The expected ozone levels have been qualified as "unhealthy for sensitive groups." Very active children and adults, and people with respiratory problems such as asthma, are asked to limit prolonged outdoor exertion.

Residents are asked to drive less, carpool and combine daily errands, and refuel cars and mowers after 7 p.m.

Memphis is offering 25 cent bus rides Saturday to reduce automobile usage.

Former Bears first-round draft pick Dick Evey dies

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:35:10 -0400

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dick Evey (EE'-vee), a former first-round draft pick who played eight seasons in the NFL, has died at the age of 72.

Lynn Gibson of Smith Funeral & Cremation Service in Maryville, Tenn., confirmed that Evey died Thursday at the Ben Atchley State Veterans Home in Knoxville after a long illness.

Evey played tackle from 1964-69 for the Chicago Bears, who selected him out of Tennessee in the first round of the 1964 NFL Draft. Evey played with the Los Angeles Rams in 1970 and the Detroit Lions in 1971.

Evey lettered at Tennessee in 1961, 1962 and 1963.

Trial wraps up in international custody battle

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:44:24 -0400

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal trial involving two 13-year-old twin boys at the center of an international child custody dispute has concluded without a decision yet made on the children's fate.

The trial this week won't determine who gets custody — only whether a court in Eastern Europe or Sumner County, Tenn., will have jurisdiction.

The boys are American citizens who were born in Texas but have spent the majority of their lives in Hungary.

Their mother, a Romanian national, accuses the father of wrongfully retaining the boys in Tennessee after visiting their paternal grandparents. She has argued that custody should be decided in Hungary. The father is a U.S. citizen who claims the mother consented to the children enrolling in school in the U.S. and are now accustomed to life here.

Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert at country fest

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:44:17 -0400

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The sounds of country music take over the City of Baton Rouge as the Bayou Country Superfest brings some of the genre's biggest names to LSU's Tiger Stadium for a Memorial Day holiday jamfest.

Headlining Saturday are Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker and Aaron Lewis, the former frontman for rock band Staind. The two-day festival concludes Sunday with performances by Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan and The Band Perry.

Festival producer Quint Davis says the talent and free fan fest held before the nightly concerts help to entice attendees. In its fourth year, the festival drew 75,000 people last year.

Visit Baton Rouge executive vice president Renee Areng says Superfest has encouraged people to travel to Baton Rouge on a traditionally sleepy weekend.

County to ponder school building use by suburbs

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:44:11 -0400

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The issue of what to do with some Shelby County school buildings is re-emerging, now that a new statute will allow suburbs to form their own school districts.

The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/18bEtdp ) reported the chairman of the unified Memphis and Shelby County school board's ad hoc facilities committee is suggesting a middle ground approach.

Kevin Woods said if the suburbs carry through with forming their own districts, he hopes the countywide system will neither give away the school buildings nor demand full market value for them.

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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com

DA: Victims shot after drugs handed over

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:44:03 -0400

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Prosecutors say a Tennessee pharmacy owner killed during a robbery had handed over several bottles of oxycodone before he was shot.

Grainger County District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn made the comments Friday, one day after the owner of Down Home Pharmacy in Bean Station, a town in East Tennessee, was shot and killed during the robbery. Police say a customer was also killed and two people were wounded.

A former Bean Station police officer, Jason Bryan Holt, has been charged with two counts of premeditated first degree murder, two counts of attempted first degree murder, two counts of felony murder and one count of especially aggravated robbery.

Dunn says police apprehended Holt within 100 years of the pharmacy.

The 37-year-old suspect was an officer in Bean Station from 2002 to 2004 and later worked at the Grainger County Sheriff's Department.

FDA warns of infections tied to Tennessee pharmacy

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:43:55 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Government health officials are investigating several health problems reported with potentially contaminated medications made by a Tennessee specialty pharmacy.

The Food and Drug Administration says it has received seven reports involving patients who received steroid injections from Main Street Family Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Newbern, Tenn.

The injections contain 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 usually used to treat pain.

The FDA says that at least one of the seven cases appears to be a fungal infection. The government recommends doctors stop using any sterile drugs distributed by the pharmacy.

Nissan marks 10th anniversary of Canton plant

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:43:46 -0400

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Nissan is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Canton plant with a free-to-all Saturday festival at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson that includes a circus, concert by Kool & the Gang and fireworks show.

It's part of a series of events that included January's announcement that Nissan would start making its Murano crossover in Canton in 2014. That will add 400 jobs to the current 5,200. Canton, built to focus on trucks, now makes six vehicles and will add the Sentra sedan this summer.

State and company leaders laud the plant, even as the United Auto Workers has stepped up effort to unionize Canton workers.

Despite Nissan's arrival, employment in making transportation equipment and auto parts has fallen in Mississippi and only begun to rebound in the last three years.

Hungry TennCare eating more of state budget

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:43:38 -0400

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — State Treasurer David Lillard says expanding health care costs could absorb funding the state used to spend on other needs.

The Jackson Sun (http://bit.ly/16eqTpT ) reported Lillard talked about the potential impact of the Affordable Care Act on Tennessee finances as he spoke to the West Tennessee Association of Health Underwriters on Thursday.

Lillard noted the state budget that goes into effect July 1 contains $391 million in new revenue and more than $300 million of that will be consumed by TennCare.

Lillard said support for higher education could further erode as a result. In 1990, state revenue funded more than half the cost of state universities. That percentage has already declined to about 38 percent and could be further reduced.

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Information from: The Jackson Sun, http://www.jacksonsun.com