District Attorney Randy York and the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference today announced a new campaign including aggressive outreach through social media, printed materials and a major effort to build a statewide network of partners to increase their efforts to fight teen pregnancy.
The statewide initiative represents the second phase of the highly successful What’s the Rush? campaign that raises awareness of the legal, financial and social consequences of becoming teen parents.
“Teen pregnancy has a direct consequence, not just on crime, but on society in general. There’s an inability to care and support that child the way that it deserves. It’s really sad when you see teenagers in court for nonpayment of child support and they’re facing the loss of their driver’s and hunting licenses and the possibility of going to jail,” said General York.
The DAs started the campaign in 2008 in response to the number of court cases involving teen parents throughout the state. Printed materials and a video were created for the DAs to use when visiting schools and civic organizations to educate Tennessee’s youth about the consequences of becoming teen parents.
After receiving a substantial amount of positive feedback, the DAs decided not only to continue the campaign, but to commit more resources to expand its scope to reach even more teenagers. One of the new additions is the social media initiative the DAs will participate in using Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. They will also be working more directly with campaign partners, and sending new and updated materials to schools and medical offices across the state.
The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference is already partnered with the Tennessee Departments of Human Services, Health and Education; Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians; Tennessee Academy of Physician Assistants; Tennessee School Counselor Association; National Association of Social Workers – Tennessee Chapter; Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps Center; Hospital Alliance of Tennessee; and YMCA of Memphis & the MidSouth.
“We are pleased to partner with the district attorneys, who see this problem firsthand,” said DHS Commissioner Virginia T. Lodge. “Continuing and expanding this program can make a difference in communities across Tennessee.”
In the 13th District alone, the most recent statistics from the Tennessee Department of Health show that in one year there were 380 reported cases of teen pregnancy and more than 13,000 cases reported statewide. Statistics from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy show that teen parenthood can lead to a number of legal, financial and health consequences. Those statistics include:
Eight out of 10 teen fathers do not marry the mother of their first child.
Less than half of mothers who have a child before they are 18 years old graduate from high school, and less than 2 percent have a college degree by age 30.
Teen fathers have less education and earn much less money than teenage boys without children.
The children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and at a low birth weight, which can cause infant death, blindness, deafness, respiratory problems, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, dyslexia and hyperactivity.
Children of teen mothers are 50 percent more likely to have to repeat a grade in school and are less likely to finish high school.
The sons of teen mothers are two times more likely to end up in prison.
The children of teen mothers are two times more likely to suffer abuse and neglect compared to children of older mothers.
For more information about What’s the Rush?, call General Randy York at (931) 528-5015. To learn more and access the campaign materials, please visit www.tndagc.org/whatstherush.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/whatstherushtn
MySpace: www.myspace.com/whatstherushtn
YouTube: www.youtube.com/whatstherushtn

The DeKalb County High School Lady Tiger basketball team will make their debut in the Region 4AA tournament Friday night at Grundy County.
Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. and WJLE plans LIVE coverage.
Grundy County enters the Region Tournament as the top seed from District 7 while DeKalb County is the fourth seed from District 8. The winner of this game will advance to the next round on Monday, March 1st at 6:00 p.m against the winner of a game between Cannon County and Bledsoe County.
Cannon County is the second seed from District 8 and Bledsoe County is the third seed from District 7. That game will be Friday night at 7:00 p.m. at Woodbury.
On the other side of the tournament bracket, the Upperman Lady Bees, the top seed from District 8, will host the fourth seeded Sequatchie County team Friday night at 7:00 p.m. while Chattanooga Christian, the second seed from District 7, will host Livingston Academy, the third seed from District 8 at 7:00 p.m. The winners of those games will advance to the next round Monday night at 7:30 p.m.

DeKalb County Schools have been closed twelve days due to winter weather this school year, one day more than the eleven “snow days” allotted in the school calendar. So DeKalb County Schools will be open on Friday, March 5th, weather permitting, to make up that extra day missed.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby says March 5th was originally designated in the school calendar as a “stockpile” or professional development day and students were to be out of school. By having school on March 5th, schools will still close for the summer on time, provided no more days are missed this winter.
Eleven days are built into the school calendar each year for “snow days” or inclement weather and two days are included for so called “stockpile” or professional development days. On the stock pile days, students do not attend. One of the stockpile days has already been used and the other was scheduled for Friday, March 5th.
State law requires students to be in school a certain number of days each year.
The remaining school calendar calls for students to be off again for spring break March 29th to April 2nd
Students will not attend on Friday, May 21. That will be an administrative day and all teachers must attend.. The last day of school will be Saturday, May 22nd. That will be an abbreviated school day and report cards will be sent home.

Omega Apparel of Smithville has been awarded contracts to produce new Army Service trousers and skirts for the U.S. Defense Department which will result in the creation of 112 new jobs here. The contracts are for five years and total approximately $40 million. The new jobs are expected to increase payroll for the operation by $1.8 million.
Hiring should begin within two weeks.
The announcement was made Monday by Dick Chase, President; Brian Roberge, Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Roberge, Operations Manager for Omega of Smithville.
Chase says Omega, which currently employs 86 workers, is excited about it’s expansion plans. “The new contract will involve hiring production operators, sewers, cutters, material handlers, and clerical staff, about 112 jobs forecasted. We’ll have a contract that will produce 176,000 new trousers for the Army in this contract. The garment is called the Army Service uniforms. The Army has chosen to go away from the traditional green that everyone is familiar with and has seen and are transitioning into this new garment. By October 2014, everyone (Army) will be in that new garment.”
Omega currently operates out of the two old shirt factory buildings downtown, on either side of Mountain Street. One of those buildings is used for cutting and sewing and the other for warehousing. After a renovation, one of the facilities will be for cutting and warehousing and the other for sewing.
“This has been a very interesting contract for us”, said Chase. Because of the expansion, we’ve had to increase the size of our sewing facility. Currently we have our cutting operation within these four walls (building on the west side of Mountain Street). We’re going to have to renovate our building across the street (east side of Mountain Street) and spend a quarter of a million dollars of renovation costs to bring that building up to speed and put our cutting department in that building. Then we’ll take that other square footage we have here and add that sewing operation to this existing facility. We will start hiring operators, production people and staff within the next two weeks.”
Chase says Omega, which has been in operation since 1994, also produces uniforms for other branches of the military. “We currently have contracts for the Army, and Navy. For the Navy, we have a men’s dress trouser and that garment has been made in Smithville since 1988. So every enlisted sailor who goes into the Navy has a broad fall trouser made here in Smithville. We also have the women’s Navy slack, both in white and the new black. Then we have the Air Force skirt, Marine Corps skirt, both in green and blue, the mens and women’s khaki trouser, the Air Force dress uniform skirt for the women.”
All U.S. military uniforms have to be manufactured in the United States or U.S. territories under federal law.
Chase says Omega was in competition with several other states for the contracts. There were ten other bidders for the jobs. “Our ability to win this contract didn’t just come from having an exemplary past performance with this company and our participation. This has been a community effort. Smithville Mayor (Taft Hendrixson) has been involved. (County Mayor) Mike Foster has been involved. The county commissioners have been involved. Without their participation in helping us find ways to get our costs to a point where we can be competitive, we might not have gotten this contract. It took some real hard effort on everybody’s part to bring it here to Smithville. We were competing against Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico. We knew they were bidding on this. We beat them out because we were able to be competitive both in pricing and in our past performances”
Brian Roberge said other places made offers for Omega to relocate but company officials wanted to stay here. “Jobs are very competitive and many other states are giving a whole lot more to the industries in their states. We were offered quite a bit to move, but we started this program here with Mike (Foster) and his leadership of this county and he made it possible for us to stay here and bring these jobs here.”
Chris Roberge added “We’re excited to be able to bring 100 new jobs to Smithville. The company has worked hard for fifteen years in this community to make sure that we could provide as much opportunity inside this community as we can. We want to continue to do that and not just for five years, but hopefully for ten, fifteen, and twenty years into the future.”
Smithville Mayor Taft Hendrixson said Omega’s announcement is reason to celebrate.”I’m certainly glad to see that they have gotten this new contract and the approximately 100 new jobs will absolutely be good for our community, especially in these economic times. The military is always going to clothe their soldiers, so that’s something we’re glad we’ve got.”
County Mayor Mike Foster expressed his appreciation to Omega Apparel and to others who have helped them prepare for this expansion. “We want to thank all the people who have had anything to do with this especially Chris Roberge, Dick Chase, and Brian Roberge. For a company that’s been here for fifteen years, they’ve got a really good track history. They’re already providing jobs for 86 people here and this will be another 100 plus. It adds another $1.8 million to the local economy. The best thing about this is it’s a five year contract and based on their past performances, it should be ten or fifteen year contracts. It gets some of the county and city buildings renovated and brings new life back down town. I want to thank Don Rigsby from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. He helped put a lot of this together. I also want to thank the Cumberland Investment Corporation, the county commission, and the county industrial development board for their help.”
(Pictured above left to right: County Mayor Mike Foster, Omega President Dick Chase, Omega Operations Manager Chris Roberge, Omega Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberge, and Smithville Mayor Taft Hendrixson)

A 26 year old Smithville man was charged last week in a theft investigation by the Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Patrick Ray says Matthew Malachi Lawson of Haley Road Smithville was arrested on Wednesday, February 17th and charged with theft of property under $500. During an interview of Lawson, detectives found him to be in possession of a tea set. After an investigation into where the tea set came from, detectives charged Lawson with theft of property when they discovered that he had stolen the tea set from a residence on South College Street in Smithville. Bond for Lawson was set at $2,500 and he will appear in court on March 25th.
On Wednesday, February 17th, deputies while on patrol, spotted a vehicle parked in a field. Two people were sitting in the automobile. The officer asked them if they had anything illegal on them and 28 year old Amanda L. Pinegar of Roy Foster Road, Smithville handed him a marijuana grinder that contained marijuana. Pinegar was charged with simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and her bond was set at $2,000. She will appear in court on March 18th.
On Friday, February 19th, a deputy stopped a vehicle on Highway 70 West for several traffic offenses. Upon speaking to the driver, the officer asked for his drivers license. The driver said that he did not have the license on him, but he identified himself as Gary Woodard and provided his date of birth and social security number. When the deputy checked the information, he discovered that the man’s license was suspended. He was placed into custody and taken to the Sheriff’s Department. The officer, still not satisfied, investigated further and discovered that the man is actually 30 year old Jeremy Edward Woodard of Sparta Pike, Watertown. Woodard’s license was revoked. Woodard was charged with a third offense of driving on a revoked license and criminal impersonation. His bond was set at $4,500 and he will appear in court on March 11th.
On Saturday, February 20th, deputies were called to Highway 70 West to check out a reckless driver. The suspected vehicle was stopped on highway 70 West and 62 year old Paul Cox Herron Jr. was found to be the driver. He appeared to be intoxicated. Herron had a strong odor of alcohol on his person and he failed all field sobriety tasks performed. Herron admitted that he had drank eight beers earlier. Herron was charged with driving under the influence and his bond was set at $1,000. He will appear in court on March 18th.

As the economic squeeze continues, many Americans remain concerned that the cost of a healthy diet is out of reach. However, according to an Agriculture Department study, the cost of eating healthy hasn’t changed as much as some less-healthy alternatives. Eating healthy food while on a budget does require smart shopping.
Farm Bureau’s Food Check-Out Week, February 21-27, focuses on helping Americans learn how to stretch their grocery dollars with healthy, nutritious food. America’s farmers and ranchers are committed to producing safe, healthy and abundant food. And they share a common concern with consumers when it comes to putting nutritious meals on the table while sticking to a tight budget.
The good news: a recent USDA report favorable supports the economics of healthier eating. Recent food price data show that prices for unprepared, readily available fresh fruits and vegetables have remained stable relative to dessert and snack food, such as chips, ice cream, and cola. Therefore, as defined by food in the study, the price of a “healthier” diet has not changed compared to an “unhealthy” diet.
Farm Bureau’s Food Check-Out Week is aimed at helping American consumers learn how to shop effectively to put nutritious meals on the table with fewer dollars. Here are tips for better nutrition on a tight budget. Have a plan: Know your food budget and plan nutritious meals and snacks you’ll prepare at home that include fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Prepare a shopping list and stick to it. Compare prices, clip coupons and check ads for foods you know you need. Don’t shop when you’re hungry.
Now in its twelfth year, Food Check-Out Week also highlights America’s safe, abundant, and affordable food supply, made possible largely by American’s productive farmers and ranchers. According to the most recent information from the USDA’s Economic Research Service, American families and individuals spend, on average, less than 10% of their disposable personal income for food.