Middle Tennessee Sees Rise of Counterfeit Money

A Tennessee Police and Sheriffs Department have both reported a rise in counterfeit bills used in Tennessee. Hendersonville Police and the Giles County Sheriffs’ Department have both arrested men who were caught using fake bills. 

The Giles County Sheriff Kyle Helton spoke with WRKN News about the rise in his area. In the interview, Helton said the serial numbers on the bills totaling over $1,000 were identical. One man was arrested in Pulaski County after purchasing a car with counterfeit money, and another man yet to be identified in Giles County also purchased a car with counterfeit bills. 

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Software Glitch Disrupts Lawrence County Election

Tanya White

A glitch with the electronic voting machines in Lawrence County delayed the results of last Thursday’s election by almost a day, said county Election Administrator Tanya White. Instead of using a computer, county officials had to tally votes by hand, she said. “Do you know how long it takes to count votes manually?” White asked. “A really long time.” White told the Tennessee Star that MicroVote, a company out of Indiana, manufactured the software that suddenly went erratic. Election officials in 46 of the state’s 95 counties use the same software, said Madison Tracy, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office, in an emailed statement. MicroVote has yet to explain what happened, White said. “We had our results off the machines, but we could not print off summary pages that showed all the totals for everyone,” White said. “That caused us not to be able to release anything. What was released was manually counted off what we had here. That is why all the confusion happened. That is the reason for the delay. That is the reason why what was released at first was incorrect.” No one at MicroVote returned repeated requests for comment Tuesday. County officials immediately notified…

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PTO Treasurer in Giles County Indicted on Charges of Stealing Funds

An investigation by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office has led to the indictment of Amanda McMilin, the former treasurer of the Richland Elementary School Parent Teachers Organization (PTO) in Giles County. Investigators determined that McMilin stole at least $5,649 from the PTO by keeping cash that was collected during fundraisers. These activities included a fall festival, t-shirt, sweatshirt, and candy-gram sales; a bake sale; and concession operations. McMilin failed to deposit the cash collected for many of these fundraisers into the PTO bank account. In fact, investigators discovered that McMilin did not deposit any cash into the PTO account from July 2015 through November 2015. McMilin admitted to investigators that she took money from the PTO and used it to pay her personal expenses. She resigned her position as treasurer in January 2016 after she was confronted about the missing funds by PTO and school officials. In April 2017, Amanda McMilin was indicted by the Giles County Grand Jury on one count of theft over $2,500. “While it may be tempting to let a PTO treasurer handle all money matters, it greatly enhances the possibility of theft,” said Comptroller Justin P. Wilson. “PTO’s must ensure there is oversight. The simple act…

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