Tag: Jefferson County

West Virginia School Bus Drivers File Lawsuit Against School Superintendent over Suspensions Related to Capitol Protest

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Two veteran school bus drivers from a West Virginia school district have filed a civil lawsuit for suspensions related to their attendance at the January 6 Washington, DC protest.

Tina Renner and Pamela McDonald were suspended by Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Bondy Shay Gibson after receiving word the drivers had “posted threatening and inflammatory posts on their Facebook pages, had been present at the Electoral protest march on Wednesday that erupted in violence, and had violated […] leave policy.”

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Jefferson County Woman Charged with TennCare Fraud

Chris Butler

Law enforcement officials have charged a Jefferson County woman with TennCare fraud. That woman, Consuelo Morales, 44, allegedly falsified her income to obtain healthcare insurance through the state program, according to a state press release. The Office of Inspector General with the assistance of the Jefferson City Police Department arrested Morales. A Jefferson County grand jury charged her with TennCare fraud theft of property over $10,000, the press release said. “The indictment says Morales knowingly obtained TennCare benefits with the intent to avoid payment for services by failing to properly report to the state her spouse’s income, real estate assets and the fact that her family was eligible for private insurance through her spouse’s employer,” according to the press release. “Providing false information in order to receive TennCare benefits is a crime Tennesseans will not tolerate,” said Inspector General Kim Harmon. District Attorney General James B. Dunn is prosecuting. TennCare fraud is a class D felony punishable by up to four years in prison. Theft of property over $10,000 is a Class C felony punishable by up to six years in prison, according to state officials. As The Tennessee Star reported in December, authorities arrested and charged a Florida woman with TennCare fraud…

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The Would-Be ‘State of Franklin’ That Never Officially Existed

Gregory Watson

The United States Constitution does, of course, contain guidelines as to how a territory may enter the Union as a full-fledged state on an equal footing with all previously-existing states.  The last time that any new states were added to the United States was in the year 1959 when Alaska became the nation’s 49th state and Hawaii became the country’s 50th state. Specifically, the U.S. Constitution’s Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 — which requires only a simple majority vote — reads: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.” There has been recent chatter about admitting Puerto Rico into the Union as the nation’s 51st state. As the Constitution was not written until 1787 — and, once written, did not take effect until the following year — the procedure outlined within the still-in-force Articles of Confederation would have remained applicable to admission of news states up to…

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