Tuesday, January 23rd

From the Tennova Healthcare Cleveland News Desk, here is your news for Tuesday, January 23rd, on Mix 104-1 and Talk 101-3 The Buzz.

From WBIR…

Educating children, making overdose-reversing drugs available to all state troopers and adding hundreds of prison beds to treat those fighting opioid addiction are part of Gov. Bill Haslam and legislative leaders’ comprehensive proposal to combat the opioid epidemic.

The proposal, released Monday afternoon, comes as Tennessee continues to fight the ongoing crisis, which now claims more lives than car accidents. More than 1,600 residents died from drug overdoses in 2016.

On the prevention side, the proposal includes a public awareness campaign and new K-12 education standards to include opioid abuse and addiction prevention.

Beyond education, the plan also seeks to make changes to opioid prescription doses, including setting caps on prescriptions.

In terms of treatment, the proposal will seek to add more than 500 beds to the state’s West Tennessee prison, while expanding drug treatment services. It also calls for the creation of a drug treatment program that would allow inmates who completed it to receive a reduced sentence.

The plan also calls for comprehensive changes for law enforcement. They include adding new Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents specifically tasked with fighting the opioid crisis, as well as providing all state troopers with naloxone – the drug that reverses or blocks the effects of opioids after an overdose.

New recovery compliance courts are also included in the proposal.

From the Chattanoogan…

A prosecutor on Monday told a Criminal Court jury from Nashville that Benjamin Scott Brewer Brewer was driving 80 mph, was high on meth and never hit his brakes when he caused an horrific wreck on June 25, 2015, at the Ooltewah exit of I-75.

Crystle Carrior asked the jury to find Brewer guilty of six counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication, four counts of reckless aggravated assault, DUI and speeding.

However, Erinn O’Leary of the public defender’s office said Brewer should be found not guilty of all counts. She told the jury repeatedly that there was no evidence that the Kentucky truck driver was intoxicated.

Six people died in the June 25, 2015, crash, including a grandmother, mother and girls 9 and 11 in one vehicle that caught on fire.

Brewer was not initially arrested, but was charged 39 days later. He has been in jail since he was later apprehended.

From the Cleveland Daily Banner…

Bradley Countians who may have had a family member killed or missing in action  while serving in the U.S. armed forces now have a chance to retrieve what may be a long-lost memento of their loved ones.

Roy Smith, with the Bradley County Veterans Squad, ran across these treasures recently while doing some cleanup work for the organization.

The photos will also tell where the serviceman served — European Theater of Operation (ETO), U.S.A., Pacific or Africa.

The Banner will be running the photos  on Sundays.

Smith said it is the desire of the Honor Guard that families be able to retrieve the photographs.

The Cleveland Daily Banner will be running these photographs on a regular basis with the serviceman’s or servicewoman’s information. They will be made available, at the Honor Guard’s request, to relatives of those servicemen at the Banner office.

An update on a story from yesterday…

Officials have released the identity of the deceased male from the house fire that occurred Friday at 685 4th Street SE. James Kline, age 77, a resident of Cleveland, perished in the fire. It is believed the fire was accidental in nature, possibly caused by a space heater.

This has been your local and state news. You can get news anytime by visiting our website, mymix1041.com. From the Tennova Healthcare Cleveland News Desk, this is Jeremy Gault reporting.