News 2015

The Tennessee Department of Health encourages parents to have their school-age children immunized now to avoid long lines and extended wait times that may occur closer to the start of the 2015-2016 school year. Immunization requirements apply to any student enrolling in a Tennessee school for the first time including all Kindergarten students. Requirements also apply to all rising seventh graders.“The recent measles outbreak is a wake-up call,” said TDH Commissioner John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH. “Vaccines protect our children and vulnerable children around them. If your child still needs vaccines for school, getting them now is much easier and less stressful than when clinics are busy with the last-minute rush.”
“Clinics are not running short on vaccines and in many clinics it’s much easier to get an appointment,” said Tennessee Immunization Program Director Kelly Moore, MD. “This is also the time for a complete well-child physical and to make sure your child is up to date on all recommended vaccines, not just required ones. Your child can enjoy the rest of the summer and start the school year on time, fully prepared for healthy learning.”
Here are the requirements for school vaccinations in Tennessee:

Kindergarteners and other children enrolling in a Tennessee school for the first time must provide schools with a complete Official Tennessee Immunization Certificate before classes begin. The certificate must be signed by a qualified healthcare provider or verified by the state’s immunization information system.

All current students entering seventh grade are required to give the school a limited Official Tennessee Immunization Certificate showing they have had a second dose of chickenpox vaccine (or a history of the illness) and a booster shot for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. The HPV cancer vaccine and first meningococcal meningitis vaccine are also recommended, but not required for school, for this age group.

Incoming college students in Tennessee public colleges who will live in on-campus housing must provide proof of immunization against meningococcal meningitis after age 16. Most private colleges also have requirements for this vaccine and some schools require it of all new students. Check with your college for details.
Immunizations required for school are readily available from most healthcare providers across the state, including county health departments. Children younger than age 19 may be eligible for free vaccine if they have no insurance, are enrolled in TennCare, have private insurance that does not cover vaccines or are American Indian or Alaska Native.
“If your pre-teen or teen is getting a required vaccine, be sure he or she does not miss the recommended Human Papillomavirus cancer vaccine,” Moore said. “This vaccine can prevent HPV cancers in men and women. HPV causes many head and neck cancers and cervical cancer that affect tens of thousands of people each year in the U.S. The vaccine’s protection is strong and very long-lasting. It will protect against cancer-causing infection for years and years.”
The complete list of Tennessee child care and school immunization requirements is on the TDH website at www.tennesseeiis.gov and the kidcentral tn website. Kidcentral tn also has additional information about the importance of immunizations. Local schools and school districts can provide information about when and how immunization certificates need to be provided.

Motlow College will be closed for the Independence Day holiday on Friday, July 3. The closing includes all facilities on the Moore County campus and at the Fayetteville, McMinnville and Smyrna centers. All Motlow locations will close at 4:30 p.m. on July 2 and reopen under normal operating hours on Monday, July 6.
Students enrolled at Motlow College during the spring and/or summer semester and new degree-seeking students who have completed admission requirements can register now through Aug. 24 for fall classes, according to Greer Alsup, director of admissions and records at the college.
New students have until Monday, Aug. 17 to submit a Motlow College application.
Staff members are available for advisement and registration assistance at all Motlow locations, and the fall class schedule is posted on the Motlow website (www.mscc.edu). Students are advised to check the website or call the location where they plan to attend to verify course availability and fee payment deadlines.
Regular fall classes and Motlow College online classes begin Aug. 24, Friday-only classes begin Aug. 28, and Saturday-only classes begin Aug. 29.
For further information regarding Motlow College application or registration visit the college website, contact the Admissions and Records Office at 931-393-1520 or admissions@mscc.edu. – See more at: http://mscc.edu/news/061715July3Closing.aspx#sthash.OcZQD6TB.dpuf

As a nurse for more than 40 years, I saw how health care decisions in Washington impacted real people and I learned that one of the biggest challenges of health reform is finding ways to keep costs low while improving outcomes and helping Americans lead healthier lives. I also learned that, in order to get there, we should not have to ask more of American taxpayers. This year alone, the government will spend about $1 trillion on healthcare programs. So instead of simply throwing more money at the problem, we need to spend our dollars more effectively to improve the value of care delivered.
One way we can control spending is by addressing manageable problems before they become big problems. Studies have shown that regularly taking doctor prescribed medication is an important step in preventing health issues from escalating into serious, life-altering conditions that can place a tremendous financial burden on the healthcare system, on patients and their families. With such a simple solution, why aren’t more folks taking their medication?
As anyone with a chronic health condition will tell you, sticking to a constant regimen of medication isn’t cheap. A diabetic, for example, could end up spending $250 a month on test trips and $200 a month or more on insulin. When families are forced to choose between buying groceries and getting a prescription filled, their health is sidelined and the long-term costs to our healthcare system can increase as a result. By the same token, evidence has shown that reducing co-payments for high-value prescription drugs results in increased use, better health, and cost savings.
One of the most promising approaches to addressing the cost of medication without overstepping the government’s bounds in the marketplace is Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID). Instead of the current one-size-fits-all approach to cost-sharing or copayments, V-BID embraces the idea that, by lowering a patients’ out-of-pocket costs for essential prescription drugs and services, consumers will then be motivated to stick to their regimen and stay healthier – in turn decreasing the overall long term costs to our healthcare system.
Based on these facts, I introduced H.R. 2570, the Strengthening Medicare Advantage through Innovation and Transparency for Seniors Act. My bipartisan legislation establishes a regional demonstration program for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that allows the use of V-BID to reduce the copayments for beneficiaries with specific chronic conditions. This bill would enable individuals with chronic diseases to stick to a sustainable treatment regimen and avoid more costly care in the future.
H.R. 2570 also drives down healthcare costs by eliminating unnecessary  burdens on physicians and providers.  Today, many outpatient surgery centers are penalized for not adopting a new, government-mandated system of electronic record keeping. While these systems may make sense in a hospital setting, they don’t always work for a small outpatient surgery center. It is a catch-22 situation that forces physicians who work in these settings to either perform even minor, outpatient procedures in a hospital, which means higher costs for the patient, or face enormous government penalties. My legislation gets Washington off the backs of our healthcare providers by eliminating this burden for doctors.
I was proud to see my legislation passed unanimously yesterday on the House floor. Our bill now heads to the Senate, where I hope it will be brought up for immediate consideration. As Congress continues working to repeal Obamacare and roll back other burdens this Administration has placed on patients and their doctors, H.R. 2570 is a meaningful, real-world solution that offers a chance to improve health outcomes and reduce barriers to quality, affordable healthcare for those who need it most

Tennessee Labor & Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips announced today the Tennessee preliminary unemployment rate for May was 5.8 percent, two-tenths of one percentage point lower than the April revised rate of 6.0 percent. The U.S. preliminary rate for May was 5.5 percent, one-tenth of one percentage point higher than the prior month.Economic Summary
Tennessee’s May rate declined to 5.8 percent, the fourth consecutive monthly decline.

Over the past year, Tennessee’s unemployment rate decreased from 6.5 percent to 5.8 percent while the national rate declined from 6.3 percent to 5.5 percent.

The number of unemployed persons is the lowest since March 2008.

Total nonfarm employment increased 10,000 jobs from April to May. The largest increases occurred in leisure/hospitality, education/health services, & trade/transportation/utilities.

Over the year, nonfarm employment increased 53,800 jobs. The largest increases occurred in trade/transportation/utilities, leisure/hospitality, and education/health services.

This weekend is full again of family activities here in Cannon County especially for those that enjoy music.  The Cannon County Senior Center presents it’s bi weekly music night series tonight with the group 1 Eyed Dawg.  Cost is $5.00 for a fun filled night of entertainment.  Saturday night Georgia Native Robert Eskew will perform at the Birdsong Studios on West High Street in Woodbury.  Blues Artist Keb Mo gives Robert a thumbs up by saying
“When (Robert) digs down in his stuff and pulls out his guitar, man can he rip some Charley Patton! When I encounter young men like Robert, I’m encouraged.”
Robert says  “I grew up listening to my grandmother’s old blues 78s, including Blind Boy Fuller, Big Joe Williams and Muddy Waters. As I kid I didn’t know there was any other kind of music. I thought there was only blues or church music. I remember my grandmother saying “No blues on Sunday, It’s the Lord’s Day..” So we would only listen to gospel… Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson.
I’ve been playing guitar since age 12. I play all types of music, but feel the closest connection to the sound of the old country blues singers. I want to carry the torch for the next generation of blues musicians and keep the old tradition alive. I only really played for enjoyment and at church until a once in a lifetime meeting with Keb Mo at a Christmas party. There was a band setting up to play and he was talking to the guitar player looking at his guitar. I joined in the conversation. He turned to me and asked “do you play”? I started picking on the guitar, Peidmont style, and he offered me a gig on the spot. I became one of the guitar players for his Monday night blues show with Keb Mo at Fontanel in 2013. Since then I have been working with Gary Nicholson, Jon Tiven and Bekka Bramlett. I am currently finishing up my solo album.”
The Concert is part of the Hills of Tennessee Roots Music Series and will start at 7:30 Saturday night.  More information is available on the website www.thebirdsongstudio.com

More than $9,000 worth of illegal drugs such as LSD and cocaine were seized last week by Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies patrolling on Interstate 24 before the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, said Sheriff Robert Arnold. Deputies seized 37 hits of LSD, almost an ounce of cocaine, illegal mushrooms and numerous prescription pills, said Lt. Kenneth Barrett, who supervises the K-9, Active Crime Enforcement and the Interstate Crime Enforcement divisions. Deputies in those divisions patrolled on I-24 to prevent serious traffic crashes during the high volume of traffic traveling to the festival.
Sheriff Arnold said the deputies’ visibility helped prevent crashes and fatalities with the heavy traffic.
“Our deputies did an outstanding job in making safety a top priority,” Sheriff Arnold said.
Lt. Barrett said deputies arrested seven suspects and issued 97 citations on drug violations. Deputies wrote 125 warning citations and four traffic citations.
The K-9s and their handlers did 40 different scans of vehicles, making several positive alerts of illegal drugs.
ICE Sgt. Shawn Applegate said most of the drugs found were for recreational use.
 “We found people who had medicinal marijuana from California with different strains with banana and strawberry flavoring,” Sgt. Applegate said.
ACE Deputy James McFerrin said LSD was found in paper hits, in sugar cubes to dissolve when tasted or dropped into drinks or in candy.
Lt. Barrett said the deputies found THC oil and wax. THC is the mind-altering chemical in marijuana.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse explained, “A newly popular method of use is smoking or eating different forms of THC-rich resins. Smoking THC-rich resins extracted from the marijuana plant is on the rise. Users call this practice dabbing. People are using various forms of these extracts, such as oil and wax.”
McFerrin said the THC wax is put in a vaporizer and the oil is smoked in an electronic cigarette or added to food products such as lollipops and baked goods.
 “The unusual trend is the amount of LSD, THC and the amount of ‘Molly,’ (a form of Ecstasy),” McFerrin said.
Deputy Jonathan McGee said some of the hash oil seized came from dispensaries in Colorado. Some marijuana was found in cookies.

For many Tennesseans, summertime weather signals the start of outdoor recreation and travel, including camping trips. While camping can create many wonderful memories, it can also result in devastating wildfires or serious burn injuries if fire-safe practices are not used.“Enjoy the beauty that our Tennessee landscapes provide, but remember that carelessness with fire can produce tragic consequences,” said Tennessee Commerce & Insurance Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak. “Protect your family, your property, and our state’s forests and wildlife by brushing up on campfire safety before setting up camp.”
Injuries from stepping or falling on burning coals pose a threat to children and adults alike. Hot coals just below the surface of soil or sand can retain intense heat for up to 24 hours, severely burning anyone who walks or falls on them. These coals are especially dangerous for small children, whose skin is thinner and more easily damaged than the skin of adults. However, these types of painful injuries can be prevented.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office offers the following safety tips to all campers and outdoor enthusiasts enjoying Tennessee terrain this summer.Before leaving home
·         Check with authorities at your camping location for outdoor burning restrictions. During especially dry seasons even recreational and cooking fires can be restricted. For more information on burn bans, visit the state Department of Agriculture here.
·         Check the weather forecast. Be aware of any unsafe weather conditions, such as high winds.
·         Talk to your group about the importance of fire safety. Make sure everyone knows to stop, drop, cover their face and roll should their clothes catch on fire.
·         Set family boundaries. Only designated adults should light the campfire, add wood or put out the fire. Never let children use matches or light a fire.Preparing and managing your campsite
·         If possible, use an existing fire pit or fire ring at the campsite.
·         If there is not an existing fire pit, and pits are allowed, look for a site that is at least 15 feet away from tent walls, shrubs, trees, or other flammable objects. Avoid areas with overhanging branches, steep slopes or dry grasses. Clear the area of all debris, down to bare soil.
·         Construct a fire ring from rocks and keep the ring under four feet in diameter with a ten foot clearance around the perimeter.
·         Fill the pit with small pieces of dry wood; never rip or cut branches from living trees.
·         Stack any extra wood upwind away from the fire.
·         Have a bucket of water and shovel nearby to put out the fire. Never leave a fire unattended.
·         Do not use flammable liquids to start a campfire.
·         Never use matches or lighters inside tents. Never burn charcoal, or use portable camping eaters, lanterns or stoves inside tents, campers or vehicles.
·         Never burn aerosol cans, pressurized containers, glass, or aluminum cans.
·         Set and enforce a safety zone around the campfire where all can sit and relax around the fire. Stress to children the importance of staying out of the safety zone. Always supervise children when a campfire or hot coals are burning.Putting the fire out
·         Allow the wood to burn completely to ash, if possible.
·         Pour lots of water on the fire; drown all embers, not just the red ones.
·         Pour until hissing sound stops.
·         Stir the campfire ashes and embers with a shovel.
·         Scrape the sticks and logs to remove any embers.
·         Stir and make sure everything is wet and cold to the touch.
·         If you do not have water, use dirt. Mix enough dirt or sand with the embers. Continue adding and stirring until all material is cool. REMEMBER: do NOT bury the fire as the fire will continue to smolder and could catch roots on fire that will eventually get to the surface and start a wildfire. If it is too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.
Don’t forget to practice fire safety indoors as well. For information on making your home fire-safe, click here to download and print the State Fire Marshal’s home fire safety checklist

In response to a Korean outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, commonly known as MERS Co-V, the Tennessee Department of Health has issued an alert to healthcare providers. The alert issued Friday, June 12, urges clinicians to ask their patients about recent travel, to look for evidence of the illness in patient assessments and to share their findings and information with public health officials.“While we remain vigilant and ready to respond rapidly should the need arise, at this time there are no known cases of MERS Co-V in Tennessee,” said TDH Commissioner John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH. “Our health care partners have been asking the critical travel history questions for many months and we are simply reminding them to heighten their index of suspicion and to remain operationally ready to assess any such patient.”
For more information about the current situation in Korea and China, see www.who.int/csr/disease/coronavirus_infections/risk-assessment-3june2015/en/.
MERS Co-V is a respiratory illness first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia; it is now known to exist in more than 20 countries. Those infected with the viral illness may develop severe respiratory issues accompanied by fever, shortness of breath and coughing. MERS Co-V can be fatal.
The mission of the Tennessee Department of Health is to protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of people in Tennessee. TDH has facilities in all 95 counties and provides direct services for more than one in five Tennesseans annually as well as indirect services for everyone in the state, including emergency response to health threats, licensure of health professionals, regulation of health care facilities and inspection of food service establishments.  Learn more about TDH services and programs at http://health.state.tn.us/.
 

This week, Middle Tennessee Electric, sent 15 high school students including two from Cannon County  to Washington D.C. to participate in the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Washington Youth Tour.The annual tour provides some of the nation’s best and brightest high school students the opportunity to meet with their local elected officials on Capitol Hill, train in leadership and form a peer network with students from across the United States. This year, 1,700 students participated in the youth tour.
“These 15 students are winners of this year’s writing contest,” said MTEMC Community Relations Coordinator, who serves as one of the chaperones each year. “This trip allows the students to learn and experience so much about our nation’s government and see the sights of Washington, D.C.”
This year, Kody Margarito, Alayna Reed from Cannon County along with 13 other area students join the nearly 50,000 previous Youth Tour visitors to Washington in the last 51 years.
Previous Youth Tour participants have become University Presidents, CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, and Members of Congress. In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook credited the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour with his first trip to Washington in his commencement speech to the graduates of The George Washington University this year.
Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative providing electricity to more than 203,000 residential and business members in Williamson, Wilson, Rutherford and Cannon counties.

The Auburntown Historical Society is scheduled to meet tonight at the Auburntown Church Of Christ Fellowship Hall at 7:00.  Greg Tucker a historian columnist, and President of the Rutherford County Historical Society will be the featured speaker.  Presentation  will be on what you do not really need to know about Rutherford and Cannon Counties.  For more information contact Bobby Dutton at 615-464-4789