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Chattanooga Update - June 19, 2013

119 views · Published 19 June 2013 · 4:31 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: chattanooga times free press · 2013 · News & Politics

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Hello Chattanooga. Here's a quick look at today's top stories.

First of all, Tennessee has kicked off its most ambitious teacher training program in history.

Thousands of teachers are learning more this summer about the changes that will accompany the new Common Core Standards.

While the new guidelines are considered more rigorous, the shift away from locally developed standards has sparked controversy.

45 states have signed on to the Common Core guidelines and some worry the changes will result in a nationalized curriculum, taking too much control away from states and local school districts.
Most teachers, however, seem to say the move will be beneficial for students.
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Next up, we're learning more about the massive meningitis outbreak that sickened hundreds and killed at least 15 people in Tennessee.

Two Chattanooga health care providers were served subpoenas this week in connection with a federal lawsuit against the drug manufacturer at the root of last year's outbreak.

Two local patients, one at Erlanger, and the other at Chattanooga Neurosurgery and Spine, became sick from fungus-infested drugs that originated from the New England Compounding Center.
The two Chattanooga-area victims included in the lawsuit have not been identified.
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Next up, the McMinn County city of Niota has shut down.
The town's liability insurance expired Tuesday. Without the insurance, most city departments can't function.
So now the police department is closed, parks are closed, the library is closed. Even the street department has been laid off. In all, six employees were fired.
The town's sewer department has been contracted out and the garbage department might be as well.
Niota shut down once before this year, on april 19, but leaders later agreed on a 60 day extension.
That ended Tuesday. Now we're told that the only way the city may be given insurance coverage again, is if Niota's leaders cooperate with investigations into claims against the city.
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In crime news, a nurse at Parkridge Hospital East has been charged with stealing drugs and billing them to patients not under her care.

Hospital officials became suspicious of Shannon Rene Williams in April after several kinds of painkillers, including Morphine, went missing. 
Williams is now facing fraud and felony theft charges.
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Also, UTC police have charged a man with indecent exposure and statutory rape.

28 year old Nathan Keith Vega was arrested Sunday morning after an officer found him and a 17 year old girl naked in a car on campus.

Statutory rape cases are extremely rare at universities. According to TBI reports, this is the first recorded statutory rape ever to occur at UTC. The last forcible rape reported there was in 2012.

Vega and the girl claim they were just making out. Now Vega is in Hamilton County Jail on a $10,000 dollar bond.
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And it's been 18 days since an inmate complained that two Rhea County sheriff's deputies beat him, kicked him in the face and groin, and slammed him against a patrol car AFTER he surrendered to police.

18 days, and yet Rhea County Sheriff Mike Neal says he won't open an investigation unless he gets a direct complaint from the inmate.

The indecent happened after Walter Gann led police on a 65-mile chase from Dade County, Georgia, across the state line to Dayton on May 30th. Afterwards, Gann wrote THIS complaint about the beating.

District Attorney Mike Taylor says he's now examining the situation to decide if he should call in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
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Finally, Dunkin Donuts is planning to open a new location on Signal Mountain Boulevard.

The new restaurant will open in early september and include a drive-through. The location will be the fourth in the Chattanooga area.

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