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Davis receives Bower Youth Award
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Erica Davis is fighting for the environmental and financial rights of communities in Tennessee.

Erica Davis is fighting for the environmental and financial rights of communities in Tennessee. Her efforts earned her the 2016 Bower Youth Award for researching, writing and obtaining sponsorship for a bill to reform oil and natural gas severance taxes in Tennessee.
“Receiving the Bower Youth Award is a huge honor,” she said. “I am very grateful for the opportunity to worth with and inspire others from across the nation to find organizations and opportunities to help the planet and make a difference in our communities.”
Six young leaders are selected every year to receive Brower Youth Awards for making strides in the environmental movement. From taxing oil and gas companies, to turning recycled plastic into material for 3D printing, recipients are combining cutting-edge innovation with urgent solutions to the environmental crises the communities face. Award winners demonstrate excellent leadership as well as a commitment to the communities their work serves.
In Tennessee, severance taxes are the only legislative means to ensure that part of the wealth associated with oil and gas production remains in-state. Davis’s bill sought to raise these taxes and change the way the tax revenue is distributed.
The bill, sponsored by state senator Ken Yager and Rep. Dennis Powers, reallocates all oil and gas severance tax revenue to the county back to the county in which the resources were taken. Currently, a county would receive only one-third of revenue with the state getting the other two-thirds.
While fracking companies make huge dividends on the cheap energy alternative and capitalize on the struggling coal business and the state receives the majority of the severance taxes, the community’s monetary benefit is minimal and the environmental impact has been well documented, as it has been known to pollute groundwater and cause seismic activity. 
Davis’s bill sought to correct that injustice through legislation.
“There’s a lot of not only resource wealth, but a lot of monetary wealth leaving these communities. And it’s the same communities that have been plagued by the coal industries historically,” Davis said of fracking in Tennessee.
While Davis lobbied strongly to help raise bipartisan support for the bill. Unfortunately, it was dropped from the 2015-2016 docket. Davis intends to revive the bill in the next legislative session.
As recipient of the Brower Youth Award, she will receive $3,000 in prize money and an all-expense paid trip to San Francisco to attend the 17th annual Brower Youth Awards convention on Oct. 18.
“I am also excited to be representing Tennessee, because I truly love my home and want to help make it the best it can be,” said Davis.
Davis is currently pursuing her law degree at the University of Tennessee College of Law and resides in Knoxville. She is the daughter of Donna and Matt Crim of Lafayette, and Eric and Kelly Davis of Warren County, and the granddaughter of Billy and Sandra Nunley, Jimmy and Janice Crim, and Don and Alda Bandy, all of Warren County.

Local law enforcement on the lookout for distracted driving
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April is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Distracted Driving Awareness Month and McMinnville Police Department (MPD) is on the roads to educate motorists about appropriate hands-free driving.

The amplified focus of cracking down on distracted driving is a nationwide initiative, with many states taking part. MPD Officer Mark Mara indicated the local department is increasing patrols, funded by overtime grants, to enforce and educate about Tennessee’s Hands Free Law.

“We’re trying to get people to change their habits,” Mara said. “There’s a lot of people that are distracted while driving, whether its their cell phones or not. When driving, there are already so many distractions, so having electronics in your hands while you’re driving down the road is dangerous. We need to focus on getting where we need to go and getting there safely.”

According to its records, NHTSA estimates 3,308 lives were lost in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2022 and 8% of all fatal crashes could be attributed to the same. To illustrate the point on a larger scale, it approximates over 32,000 people have died and nearly 290,000 were left injured from crashes attributed to distracted motorists between 2013 and 2022.

Violation of the Tennessee Hands Free Law is a Class C misdemeanor and traffic citations based on the violation are considered moving traffic violations. A first-time offense is typically $50 with third-time offenses and violations resulting in a crash rising to $100; citations received in a work zone while workers or present or in a marked school zone while flashes are in operation carry a penalty of $200. Three points are also added to a motorist’s driving record for each violation with 12 points leading to license suspension.

While the law specifically mentions hands in its name, it is similarly illegal to prop the phone up with any other part of their body.

“We’re going to be stopping vehicles whose operators are distracted by using their cell phones or other electronic devices,” Mara said. “It is against the law for a motorist to be holding their electronic device or having it on their body, so if you’re holding it to your ear or with your shoulder, it’s against the law all the same.”

When using GPS technology, Mara recommends investing in windshield-, vent- or dash-mounted mobile device holder to support the phone while using it for those purposes so your hands can remain on the wheel without compromising your ability to navigate to a destination.

“I understand that your cell phones are a lifeline and we get that — we use them ourselves for GPS. If you have an important phone call that’s coming in and you really need to focus on talking to that person, just pull over to the side of the road and turn on your emergency lights,” Mara said. “When you’re on a phone call, you’re not paying attention to all of the things you need to. You’re going to be concentrating on that conversation and you’re going to find yourself drifting in your lane, going through a stop sign or not stopping properly before a red light.”

Mara additionally recommended drivers sync their phones to their vehicles in models with Bluetooth capabilities and to use phone mounts that do not obstruct vision of the roadways through the windshield.

“The greatest danger of distracted driving is ending up in a crash that was absolutely avoidable, which might hurt yourself or someone else,” Mara said. “You’ve got a lot in front of you when you’re driving and a vehicle is a piece of machinery. We want all motorists to be driving safely on the roads and getting to their destinations without misadventure.”

Warnings and citations will be rendered at officers’ discretion during the increased patrols.