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Roane State volleyball wins conference title

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The 2021 Roane State Raiders volleyball team shortly after winning the program’s first-ever conference championship 3-2 over Walters State on Tuesday night, Oct. 19, 2021. (Photo submitted by Roane State)

It came down to the last game of the regular season for the Roane State Raiders volleyball team to become the 2021 Tennessee Community College Athletic Association regular season champion.

In only the program’s second season, the Raiders achieved the unexpected with a come-from-behind, five-set win over five-time defending champion Walters State (19-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-16, and 16-14), a press release said. By winning the regular season crown, the Raiders earned the top seed in the upcoming National Junior College Athletic Association Region VII tournament. It is scheduled for October 29 and 30 at Walters State Community in Morristown.

Led by freshman Mattie Arnett’s 32 kills on 61 attempts, Roane State came back from a 2-1 deficit in what was certainly the program’s most hard-fought and exciting match, the press release said.

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Letter: Residents urge legislators to raise minimum wage

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To the Editor:

Two bills in Congress to raise the minimum wage by about 95 cents per year for the next three years are HR1010 and S460. We, the undersigned, urge readers to contact their congressmen and senators to urge passage of these bills.

The minimum wage is now $7.25. If these bills pass, then over the next three years, the minimum wage would increase to $10.10.

Currently, if a worker is able to get 2,000 hours of work per year (in 50 40-hour weeks)—and unfortunately, not all can—he or she earns a yearly gross wage of $14,500, which is below the U.S. Department of Labor threshold of $1,245 per month ($14,940 annually) for receiving food stamps. If this worker’s wages increased by 95 cents an hour, he or she would earn $16,400 and thus would be raised above the poverty guideline. [Read more…]

McNally, Yager named honorary members of Roane State Foundation board

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Randy McNally

Randy McNally

Ken Yager

Ken Yager

State senators Randy McNally and Ken Yager have been named honorary members of the Roane State Foundation’s board of directors.

McNally and Yager have lengthy records of civic involvement, a press release said. McNally has received the Legislative Hero 2012 award from Tennessee Association of Mental Health Organizations; received the CASA President’s 2012 Award; was named a Rotary International Paul Harris fellow; and received the 1996 Distinguished Service Award from the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy.

Yager serves as a board member of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee and the Roane County Heritage Commission. In addition, he is a member of the chambers of commerce in Dayton and Spring City, and in Campbell, Fentress, Morgan, Pickett, Roane, and Scott counties. He was named 2013 Legislator of the Year by the East Tennessee Development District. [Read more…]

Alexander, Corker vote for ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Senator Bob Corker

Bob Corker

U.S. senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker voted in favor of a “fiscal cliff” deal early Tuesday morning that would allow tax rates to rise only for wealthy Americans while temporarily suspending sweeping federal spending cuts.

The deal was approved 89-8 in the U.S. Senate but still has to be passed by the House. Approval there is not guaranteed.

The agreement would raise tax rates for individuals who earn more than $400,000 and couples with incomes of more than $450,000. It would also extend unemployment insurance for another year and temporarily delay $110 billion in across-the-board spending cuts to military and domestic programs.

Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, released a statement after the 1:39 a.m. vote early Tuesday, New Year’s Day. The vote could help the nation avert the so-called “fiscal cliff,” a package of automatic across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to start going into effect this month.

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Corker, Alexander propose dollar-for-dollar spending, debt limit plan

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Tennessee senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander have introduced a plan to reduce the growth in federal entitlement spending by almost $1 trillion in exchange for increasing the nation’s debt limit by $1 trillion, possibly this spring.

The Dollar for Dollar Act of 2012 would reduce the growth in spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, according to a statement posted on Corker’s website. Most of the spending reductions—$689 billion—would come from Medicare reform.

Corker and Alexander seemed confident that Congress and the White House would reach a deal in the so-called “fiscal cliff” negotiations, a high-stakes debate that has dragged on for weeks over how to avoid automatic spending cuts and tax increases starting Jan. 1.

“When the dust settles, federal income taxes will not increase for almost all Americans next year,” Corker and Alexander said.

The two Republicans said their dollar-for-dollar plan “focused on helping Americans avoid falling off the fiscal cliff no one wants to talk about, the looming bankruptcy of Medicare.”

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