The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced Jackson County Superintendent Kristy Brown as the state’s new chief academic officer. Brown replaces former Deputy Secretary Eve Carney. who recently tendered her resignation effective July 1.
The announcement comes just a week before Lizzette Gonzales Reynolds is slated to assume the role of Tennessee’s new Commissioner of Education at the beginning of July. Reynolds replaces Penny Schwinn, who resigned on June 1.
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Two more rural Minnesota cities passed resolutions last week asking Gov. Tim Walz to allow all businesses to reopen.
According to the Grand Forks Herald, the Roseau City Council unanimously approved of a resolution during its Monday meeting that asks the governor to lift restrictions on small businesses. Roseau Mayor Jeff Pelowski said in a letter to Walz that his city is “dealing with several inequities that need to be addressed.”
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On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – live from radio row in Washington, D.C. Leahy chatted with Sheriff Andy Louderback from Jackson county Texas to talk about the issues his county faces in relation to illegal immigration.
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Federal authorities have indicted the former executive director of a Jackson County nonprofit for allegedly stealing more than $46,000 and using that money on himself. This, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Monday concerning the Community Prevention Coalition of Jackson County. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided most of the nonprofit’s funding, Comptrollers wrote. Nonprofit board members tasked its former executive director, Patrick Martin, with reducing the area’s underage drinking and tobacco use. Martin allegedly stole at least $46,335 from the coalition between January 2014 and December 2015, according to the audit. “Approximately seven days after the Comptroller’s investigation began, certain invoices and other financial records were apparently destroyed in a fire while in Martin’s custody,” according to a Comptroller’s press release. “Because these records were unavailable for examination, there is an extraordinarily high risk that additional coalition funds were misappropriated or misused by Martin.” According to the audit, Martin’s alleged schemes included: • Allegedly using coalition funds to reimburse himself for personal purchases, such as hunting supplies, a crossbow, and payment of his personal electric bill. • Allegedly using coalition funds to reimburse himself…
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The Internal Revenue Service fined Jackson County officials a sum of $86,147 for failing to comply with Obamacare, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Tuesday. That penalty money, of course, will come from county taxpayers. This is the third county in Tennessee this calendar year that must pay a huge sum of money to the feds because of the controversial health care law. Jackson County’s failure to comply with Obamacare occurred during the 2015 fiscal year, auditors wrote. “The county did not provide health insurance to employees from January through October 2015,” Comptrollers wrote. “Beginning November 2015, the county provided health insurance coverage to employees; however, this coverage was not in compliance with federal regulations for certain employees. This deficiency resulted from a lack of management oversight.” In a written response to auditors, the county mayor concurred with the findings. The current county mayor is Randy Heady, according to the county’s official website. “The county mayor and commission had been told by an affiliate with Zane Benefits, with whom we entered a contract, that the cafeteria plan we started in January 2015 made our county ACA compliant,” the county mayor wrote. “In October 2015 we found that in fact…
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