NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A university police officer testified Wednesday that an ex-Vanderbilt football player on trial for rape placed a towel over a campus surveillance camera on the morning of the incident.
The evidence from Lt. Donnie Harville came during the second day of testimony in the trial of Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey.
They are accused of raping an unconscious coed in a dorm at the Nashville school in June 2013.
Two others charged in the case are expected to testify against them. All have pleaded not guilty.
Harville spent the day testifying about the movements of the woman and the former players. He said Vandenburg put a towel over a surveillance camera.
Prosecutors say the school’s surveillance video prompted the investigation, even though the rape is said to have taken place in a dorm room. Video footage shows the woman lying on the floor of a dorm hallway and being photographed in a compromising position.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to offer health coverage to more than 200,000 low-income Tennesseans is getting a tepid response from fellow Republicans in the Legislature - so much so, that he has yet to find a Senate sponsor for his proposal.
Senate Republican leader Mark Norris of Collierville, who is normally tasked with carrying bills in the governor’s legislative agenda, has yet to commit to sponsor the Insure Tennessee proposal.
“We understand the concept, and the administration has put forth a plan that’s worthy of consideration, but what form that takes remains to be seen,” Norris said Wednesday. “I don’t think there’s much appetite for it, but I’m not quite sure what it is going to be yet.”
Norris’ counterpart in the House, Rep. Gerald McCormick of Chattanooga, has agreed to sponsor the measure, but doesn’t sound particularly enthusiastic about it.
“Majority leaders carry governors’ bills,” McCormick said. “So I’m going to cover the governor’s bill.”
“I’d rather carry motherhood, apple pie and the Tennessee Promise,” McCormick said, referring to Haslam’s free community college tuition program enacted last year. “But you take the good, the bad and ugly.”
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A top Republican in the Tennessee General Assembly expects his colleagues to approve the state share of a $300 million incentive package for Volkswagen despite misgivings over a “secret deal” for the United Auto Workers union at the German automaker’s plant in Chattanooga.
House Republican leader Gerald McCormick of Chattanooga said Tuesday that while he understands some of his colleagues’ concerns about the union’s growing role at the plant, he doesn’t want to backtrack on deal struck by Gov. Bill Haslam last summer that is leading to a 2,000-job expansion at the factory.
“The state of Tennessee will keep its promises, and the Legislature will help the state keep its promises that that were made to Volkswagen,” McCormick said.
Lawmakers will be asked to approve a $178 million in grants to help Volkswagen with site development, machinery, construction and jobs training. Other portions of the incentive package come in the form in tax credits that don’t need legislative approval, or come from local governments or the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The UAW narrowly lost a union election at the plant in last February, but Volkswagen has since created a labor policy that guarantees regular interaction with management and access to meeting space within the plant to unions sign up at least 15 percent of workers. The UAW last month qualified for the top tier of the labor policy by showing it had signed up at least 45 percent of workers at the plant.
While the new policy does not address exclusive bargaining rights, several Chattanooga-area Republicans have grumbled about approving incentives for Volkswagen.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Authorities say a woman and a child have been killed in a house fire in south Memphis.
Memphis Fire Department spokesman Wayne Cooke says firefighters arrived at a one-story, wood-frame house Wednesday morning to find the structure engulfed in flames.
Cooke says firefighters entered the house and found the two victims in a bedroom. Their names and ages were not immediately released, pending notification of family members.
Cooke says a 19-year-old man suffered second-degree burns to his hands and face. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
A fourth person was able to escape unharmed. The house suffered severe damage.
The origin and cause of the fire is under investigation. Cooke says it is not immediately known if the home had a working smoke detector.
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