A school district in Tennessee voted to cancel classes and shut down its schools as a result of a budget problem that has left the government unable to fund the facilities. The school director blamed Obamacare for its problems.
Clay County, Tennessee operates three schools total – one high school and two that cover pre-kindergarten through eighth grade – on a $9.5 million budget. However, now more than 1,100 students are sitting at home while officials try to figure out how to reopen the doors. A school board meeting last week saw the board voting 6-4 to close the schools. A separate vote to keep them open failed.
Notably, the county’s financial issues are not new. Clay County Director of Schools Jerry Strong told Associated Press that officials have been struggling with the budget for three years, and blamed county obligations such as state and government mandates, particularly the Affordable Care Act, for the monetary hole.
“Clay County’s inability to generate the revenue to offset the mandates is what’s caused this to come to a head,” he said.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.. – April 24, 2014. Yesterday, a Missouri house committee gave approval to a bill which would authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within the state, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal ban on the same.
Introduced by Rep. Mike Colona and cosponsored by Reps. Galen Higdon and Paul Curtman, House Bill 2054 (HB2054) passed by a vote of 16-1 in the house committee on economic development.
The bill states, quite simply, “Industrial hemp production, possession, and commerce in industrial hemp commodities and products shall be permitted in this state.”
HB2054 sets up “shall issue” licensing program. In short, the Missouri department of agriculture will be required, under broad parameters, to issue licenses to those wishing to grow industrial hemp or become an industrial hemp seed producer. A similar requirement was included in a bill passed by the Tennessee legislature earlier this month.
Three other states – Colorado, Oregon and Vermont – have already passed bills to authorize hemp farming, but only in Colorado has the process begun in practice. Farmers in SE Colorado started harvesting the plant in 2013 and the state began issuing licenses on March 1, 2014. In Vermont and Oregon, hemp farming was authorized, but no licensing program was mandated, so implementation has been delayed due to regulatory foot-dragging.
HUGE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL
Experts suggest that the U.S. market for hemp is around $500 million per year.
But, since the enactment of the unconstitutional federal controlled-substances act in 1970, the Drug Enforcement Agency has prevented the production of hemp within the United States. Many hemp supporters feel that the DEA has been used as an “attack dog” of sorts to prevent competition with major industries where American-grown hemp products would create serious market competition: Cotton, Paper/Lumber, Oil, and others.
An outdoor hemp plantation in the UK. This particular varietal of Cannabis sativa is “industrial hemp” which contains ultra-low levels of Delta-THC and other cannabinoids, which makes it useless for recreational/medicinal purposes.
NASHVILLE, May 15, 2014 – Yesterday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill which some supporters consider the strongest pro-hemp legislation in the country. House Bill 2445 (HB2445), introduced by Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), would mandate that the state authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within Tennessee, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal ban on the same.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 28-0 and the House by a vote of 88-5. It reads, in part:
“The department shall issue licenses to persons who apply to the department for a license to grow industrial hemp.”
Mike Maharrey, communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center, noted that one word strengthened the bill considerably. “By including the word ‘shall’ in this legislation, it has a great deal of impact,” he said. “This means that rather than keeping it open-ended like other states have done, hemp farming will be able to move forward in Tennessee whether the regulatory bureaucrats there want it to or not.”
‘Shall’ is a legal term which creates a specific requirement far stronger than a word like ‘will.’ The former is more closely interchangeable with the word “must,” while the latter allows leeway for the object of the term to delay. In this case, the bill states that the Tennessee department of agriculture will have a mandate to license farmers for growing hemp.
Three other states – Colorado, Oregon and Vermont – have already passed bills to authorize hemp farming, but only in Colorado has the process begun. A similar bill was passed in South Carolina this week and awaits action by Gov. Nikki Haley.
Farmers in SE Colorado started harvesting the plant in 2013 and the state began issuing licenses on March 1, 2014. In Vermont and Oregon, hemp farming was authorized, but no licensing program was mandated, so implementation has been delayed due to regulatory foot-dragging.
With passage of HB2445, Tennessee will most likely become the 2nd state in the country to actively produce hemp. The legislation also ensures that not only will hemp licenses be issued, but the process for doing so will start quickly. It reads:
The department shall initiate the promulgation of rules … concerning industrial hemp production within one hundred and twenty (120) days of this act becoming law
In other words, now that the bill has become law, the process in Tennessee will start no later than November, 2014.
LOUISVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Ruth Bennett died clutching the last child left at her day care center as a tornado wiped the building off its foundation. A firefighter who came upon the body gently pulled the toddler from her arms.
“It makes you just take a breath now,” said next-door neighbor Kenneth Billingsley, who witnessed the scene at what was left of Ruth’s Child Care Center in this logging town of 6,600. “It makes you pay attention to life.”
Widespread Damage And Casualties After Tornadoes Rip Through South
VILONIA, AR – APRIL 29: A passerby stops to look at damage caused by a tornado on Sunday evening, on April 29, 2014 in Vilonia, Arkansas. After deadly tornadoes ripped through the region leaving more than a dozen dead, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee are all under watch as multiple storms are expected over the next few days. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
…
Bennett, 53, was among at least 34 people killed in a two-day outbreak of twisters and other violent weather that pulverized homes in half a dozen states from Iowa to Tennessee. The child’s fate was not immediately known.
As crews in Mississippi and Alabama turned from search-and-rescue efforts to cleanup, the South braced for a third round of potentially deadly weather Tuesday. Tornadoes usually strike in the late afternoon and evening.
One of the hardest-hit areas in Monday evening’s barrage of twisters was Tupelo, Miss., where a gas station looked as if it had been stepped on by a giant.
Francis Gonzalez, who also owns a convenience store and Mexican restaurant attached to the service station, took cover with her three children and two employees in the store’s cooler as the roof over the gas pumps was reduced to aluminum shards.
“My Lord, how can all this happen in just one second?” she said in Spanish.
On Tuesday, the whine of chain saws cut through the otherwise still, hazy morning in Tupelo. Massive oak trees, knocked over like toys, blocked roads. Neighbors helped one another cut away limbs.
“This does not even look like a place that I’m familiar with right now,” said Pam Montgomery, walking her dog in her neighborhood. “You look down some of the streets, and it doesn’t even look like there is a street.”
AP
Tornado hits Mayflower, Ark.
Travel trailers and motor homes are piled on top of each other at Mayflower RV in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014.A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning tornadoes.
UPDATE 4-U.S. storm system that killed 16 causes tornado in Mississippi
Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:35am IST
* Tornado touches down in Mississippi
* More than 100 injured
* Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia at risk (Adds Mississippi governor)
By Colin Sims
VILONIA, Ark., April 28 (Reuters) – A ferocious storm system caused a twister in Mississippi and threatened tens of millions of people across the U.S. Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned tornadoes that killed 16 people and tossed cars like toys in Arkansas and other states.
A tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi in the northern part of the state at about 3 p.m. (1800 GMT), damaging hundreds of homes, downing power lines and toppling trees, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant told CNN.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries after six instances of tornadoes touching down in the state.
“It is not over. This is going to be a prolonged storm,” Bryant said.
Parts of Alabama, western Georgia and Tennessee also were at risk as the storm system that produced the series of tornadoes headed east toward the Mid-Atlantic states.
Rescue workers, volunteers and victims have been sifting through the rubble in the hardest-hit state of Arkansas, looking for survivors in central Faulkner County where a tornado reduced homes to splinters, snapped power lines and mangled trees.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said at least 14 people died statewide in the storm that authorities said produced the first fatalities of this year’s U.S. tornado season. He previously told a news conference 16 had been killed but later said there was a mistake in calculation.
Nine of the victims came from the same street in the town of Vilonia, with a population of about 4,100, where a new intermediate school set to open in August was heavily damaged by a tractor trailer blown into its roof. A steel farm shop anchored to concrete was erased from the landscape.
Beebe told reporters of the capricious nature of tornadoes. He said a woman died when the door of her home’s reinforced safe room collapsed, while a father and three daughters survived by seeking shelter in a bathtub that was flipped over in winds that leveled the house.
One person was killed in neighboring Oklahoma and another in Iowa, state authorities said.
‘LONG ROAD TO HEALING’
“Everything is just leveled to the ground,” Vilonia resident Matt Rothacher said. “It cut a zig-zag right through town.”
Rothacher was at home with his wife and four children when the tornado passed through. While his home survived, The Valley Church where he serves as pastor was flattened.
| by By MELISSA NELSON-GABRIEL and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Posted: 04/30/2014 4:18 am EDT Updated: 04/30/2014 9:59 pm EDT
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — People were plucked off rooftops or climbed into their attics to get away from fast-rising waters when nearly 2 feet of rain fell on the Florida Panhandle and Alabama coast in the span of about 24 hours, the latest bout of severe weather that began with tornadoes in the Midwest.
On Wednesday, roads were chewed up into pieces or wiped out entirely and neighborhoods were inundated, making rescues difficult for hundreds of people who called for help when they were caught off guard by the single rainiest day ever recorded in Pensacola.
Boats and Humvees zigzagged through the flooded streets to help stranded residents. A car and truck plummeted 25 feet when portions of a scenic highway collapsed, and one Florida woman died when she drove her car into high water, officials said.
Near the Alabama-Florida line, water started creeping into Brandi McCoon’s mobile home, so her fiance, Jonathan Brown, wrapped up her nearly 2-year-old son Noah in a blanket and they swam in neck-deep water to their car about 50 feet away.
Then, the car was flooded.
“Every which way we turned, there was a big ol’ pile of water,” she said.
Brown called 911 and eventually a military vehicle picked them up and took them to a shelter.
Kyle Schmitz was at his Pensacola home with his 18-month-old son Oliver on Tuesday night when heavy rain dropped during a 45-minute span. He gathered up his son, his computer and important papers and left.
Maizy was a young beagle when she followed the children of her family into the woods of Knoxville five-and-a-half-years ago, but she got lost that day – so very long ago for a dog. Somehow miracles do happen when luck and technology joined together to help Maizy and her long lost family find each on Tuesday reported wbir.com.
The beagle stray was rescued by the Young Williams Animal Center in Knoxville, and as a routine practice, all pets are scanned for microchips. Not only did Maizy have a microchip, her information was current; in turn her owners Chad and April Helland were called with the good news.
The Helland family had been distraught years before when Maizy lost her way. The friendly beagle who loved to cuddle was part of the family. Four-year-old Parker cried for his four-legged friend. Posters were displayed everywhere, but Maizy never came home.
Eventually the family adopted another beagle named Cooper, but no one ever forgot their first dog.
Dog missing for six years reunited with her family
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) — The last time the Helland family saw their dog, their youngest son was four years old.
Now he’s ten and the dog they never thought they’d see again is back home.
“The day before we had taken a trip to Nashville. So the last thing that was on our minds was gee, I wonder if our dog that went missing six years ago is gonna come back,” says son Tyler Yonce.
But finally it started to sink in that a family member was back.
“My husband told me and I just broke down immediately. I thought I would never see her again,” says April Helland.
“It was a whole range of emotions — shocked. I couldn’t believe it,” says her husband, Chad Helland.
Monday, the family got a call from Young-Williams Animal Shelter telling them that someone found their beagle Maisy, the family pet that went missing back in 2008.
“I spent many hours out in the woods. I took old t-shirts and put them out in the woods so I could leave my scent out there for her,” Chad says.
Dog owners are on alert in Cordova, Tenn., following the mysterious killing of several pets in one neighborhood, reported Friday’s WREG News.
The unidentified animal, described as “elusive and fearless,” has killed three dogs so far and injured one other; the dogs who were attacked were contained inside of their fenced-in yards.
Though evidence, such as “cat-like” paw prints suggest that the animal may be a cougar, residents in the area are referring to the animal as “the thing,” and “the creature.”
Whatever the predator is, large dogs are not safe – one of the victims was over 100 pounds.
Residents in this area are on edge – worried about the safety of their pets, and their children. Those hoping to avoid a devastating loss of their companion animals are choosing to bring their pets inside at night, rather than risking a loss from the night-time “beast.”
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Provided by Teach n’ Kids Learn – For more information contact PD@TeachnKidsLearn.com.
This lesson is centered on helping students with understanding the concept of a function. To explore growing patterns using three representations: pictures or drawings, table values, and a rule. To identify the relationships between the step number and the value at that step in a growing pattern as a foundation for the concept of function.
Abby Martin cites a new report by the Arizona Republic about the Phoenix International Airport about TSA misconduct, highlighting instances where agents have abused the elderly and the disabled.
Federal air marshal arrested for taking cell phone photos up women’s skirts (Video)
A federal air marshal was arrested in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday for allegedly taking cell phone photographs up women passengers’ skirts. Adam Bartsch, 28, was arrested after another male passenger noticed him taking the inappropriate photos, and wrestled the federal air marshal’s cell phone from his hands, according to ABC News2 on Oct. 17.
Passenger Rey Collazo said he first saw Bartsch, who he did not know was an on-duty air marshal, taking the pictures while boarding the plane.
He described how he reached over and grabbed the cell phone from Bartsch. Collazo said he had to twist the phone out of the marshal’s hand, and after a short struggle he shoved him back and took the phone away from him.
Collazo notified the flight crew, who in turn called authorities, after first calling Bartsch a “disgrace” to men and human being.
Heavy rain from the Nashville metro area eastward has triggered flash flooding. Water running down city streets swamped cars windshield-deep in some low spots and flooded some ground floor apartments. Nashville firefighters waded waist-deep water to lead some residents of Parkwood Villa Apartments, along Ewing Creek, to higher ground. Video shown by WTVF-TV showed other residents sitting on second-story balconies. In the area of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, traffic was stopped by high water on Briley Parkway for a time. The water began receding as the rain moved east, out of the metro area. Estimates of more than 5 inches of rain were common from the center of the city northeastward across the Madison neighborhood. There have been no reports of injury.
Torrential rains shortly before dawn Thursday triggered widespread street flooding across Wichita, authorities said. The National Weather Service reported 1.59 inches of rain fell in about an hour, starting shortly after 4 a.m. “It just came down so fast our drainage systems couldn’t handle it,” said Scott Smith, a meteorologist at the Wichita branch of the weather service. Flooded streets were reported throughout downtown Wichita as well as numerous locations around the city, a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said. While no water rescues were necessary, several cars became stranded at flooded intersections – including a reported five at 13th and St. Paul in west Wichita alone. Westar Energy reported more than 1,300 customers without power just before 7:30 a.m., most of them small clusters scattered across west Wichita north of Kellogg. Much of south-central and southern Kansas received at least 1 1/2 inches overnight, Smith said, which will only aggravate flooding in the saturated region. Light rain is projected to fall across Wichita and much of the area the rest of the morning, Smith said. A lull will set in until tonight, when another round of heavy rain is expected to move through.
Cars stall out in flood waters on Brick Church Pike August 8, 2013 in Nashville, Tenn.
(ST. LOUIS) — Torrential rains continued across the nation’s midsection on Thursday, causing flash flooding that killed a woman, damaged homes and forced multiple water rescues.
Up to 10 inches of rain pounded southern Missouri early Thursday. A woman died near Jane, Mo., in the far southwestern corner of the state when creek water washed over a highway, sweeping away her car.
“Early this morning it just unleashed,” said Greg Sweeten, emergency management director in McDonald County, Mo.
Authorities in the south-central Missouri town of Waynesville continued to search for 23-year-old Jessica D. Lee, whose car was swept up in a flash flood early Tuesday. The body of her 4-year-old son, Elyjah, was found Tuesday, hours after his mother made a distress call from her cell phone.
Flash flood warnings were common in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. And things could get worse: Heavy rain is in the forecast into the weekend.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A southwest Missouri woman died after another round of torrential downpours caused flash flooding that swept away her car, authorities said Thursday.
McDonald County emergency management director Greg Sweeten said the woman died early Thursday when water from normally dry Brush Creek suddenly overwhelmed Route 90 near the town of Jane, Mo., flooding the road up to 6 feet deep.
The victim’s name has not been released.
National Weather Service meteorologist Drew Albert said parts of southwest Missouri got 10 inches of rain overnight. McDonald County in the far southwest corner of the state was inundated with rain that seemingly came all at once.
“Early this morning it just unleashed,” Sweeten said.
Fifteen people camping on an island on the Elk River near Noel had to be rescued. In fact, the county boat rescuing them broke down, and the rescuers themselves had to be saved by a boat from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Sweeten said. Two women were rescued from their homes in Powell, Mo.
The town of Hollister also was hard hit, with about 100 buildings damaged when Turkey Creek came up suddenly, said Melissa Duckworth, assistant emergency management director in Taney County. More than two dozen people had to be rescued from homes, mostly mobile homes, in Hollister, which is near Branson. Two of the mobile homes were washed away. Another 50 or so residents were evacuated, and several trucks parked at a strip mall were washed down the creek.
1 dead as flooding washes over 12 Midwestern, Eastern states
Posted on: 3:20 pm, August 8, 2013, by Matt Knight
(CNN) — A Missouri woman was killed in the state’s flash flooding Thursday as inclement weather hammers several states in what forecasters predict will be a particularly nasty storm season.
As rescue teams were performing 18 “swift water rescues” in McDonald County, Missouri, Thursday morning, the woman — thought to be in her 60s — was driving over a bridge when she was caught up in “rapidly rising waters,” said Gregg Sweeten, the county’s emergency management director.
Sweeten said he was hopeful the Elk River, which runs through this county on the Arkansas state line, about 80 miles southwest of Springfield, Missouri, would crest late Thursday night.
South of the capital, Jefferson City, Interstate 44 was shut down because of high water. It’s since been reopened.
Forecasters warn that areas along the Gasconade River could see record water levels, and widespread flooding is expected to continue in Missouri and Kansas into the weekend.
Southern Missouri has witnessed widespread flash flooding as parts of 12 Midwestern and Eastern states experienced some sort of flood watch or warning Thursday.
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March 21, 2014
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