Methamphetamine production continues in small laboratories in Tennessee and elsewhere around the country in spite of new laws regulating and tracking the sale of pharmacy products used to manufacture the illegal drug.
That is one of the findings of a report released today by the Comptroller’s Offices of Research and Education Accountability about attempts to control access to legal products sold at pharmacies which are later used to create methamphetamine.
Lamar Alexander
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.
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.”
The school shootings in Newtown, Conn., on Friday have focused attention on school security in Tennessee, led to pledges to increase the police presence at some schools, and bolstered calls for more school resource officers across the state.
It has also revived an intense debate about gun control in the United States.
The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last week killed 20 children, six adults, the gunman, and his mother. On Tuesday, the National Rifle Association said it was prepared to “offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again” and would have a major news conference on Friday.
In Tennessee, a few legislators have proposed requiring school resource officers in all schools, training at least one staff member to use firearms, or allowing teachers to carry handguns into schools not patrolled by armed police officers. But it’s not yet clear how much support—or funding—those proposals will have.
In Oak Ridge, Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer said education officials will continue to advocate for more school resource officers, or SROs. But local officials said adding SROs could depend upon funding.
In Anderson County, Mayor Terry Frank sent out information on Tuesday on the positive measures taken this week by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department after last week’s shooting, including four walk-throughs at Dutch Valley Elementary School on Monday.
Gov. Bill Haslam
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced Monday that the state will not operate a state-based healthcare exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act.
Tennessee had a Friday deadline to make a decision about the health insurance exchanges, created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Information from WYSH Radio
More than 30 courthouses and other government buildings across the state—including the courthouses in Anderson, Blount, Campbell, and Knox counties—received hoax bomb threats on Tuesday, spurring evacuations, and in at least one case, the closure of the building for the day.
A new voter photo identification law challenged in court has not caused a significant problem in Anderson County, Election Administrator Mark Stephens said Tuesday.
The new law, which went into effect this year, says registered voters in Tennessee have to show government-issued photo identification to cast ballots at polling places.
Tre Hargett
A record number of Tennessee voters cast ballots early this year, but the number of early votes appeared to be down in Anderson County and possibly Roane County.
As of Wednesday, 223,281 Tennesseans had either voted early or mailed in absentee ballots for the Aug. 2 election, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced Thursday.
That’s up from 206,174 during the entire early voting period in August 2008, Hargett said. There were 11,267 people who mailed in absentee ballots in that election.
