The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 12

4B Tuwdy, Ottobw 1998 THE TCNNMSCAN LOCAL NEWS Lawmakers join forces seeking Hinds for TVA BUI law is not fair, judge says Jail time avoidable in Davidson Rattlers not around for fair Usually abundant this time of year Three aim to restore $70 million to budget Ittt hti mmM. CLEMENT HILLEARY WAMP bench that the Davidson County exemption violates the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions' equal protection provisions. Bell said he cannot take away the right of judges in Nashville to sentence a defendant to community service. So he extended that provision to his jurisdiction.

"It's this court's duty to make sure that everybody is treated equally to make sure that people in similar situations are not treated differently," Bell said. "The only option this court has to remedy the problem is to strike the offending portion." The drunken-driving case before Bell involves Richard Bevill of Sevierville, who was arrested in July after he reportedly ran a red light Bevill has said he wanted to plead guilty but Bell is refusing to sentence him for 45 days to give the state time to seek an appeal. R. Stephen Jobe, an assistant state attorney general, said in written arguments Nashville was exempted because of problems with jail overcrowding. But Cocke County Sheriff D.C.

Ramsey testified his county also has overcrowding problems. NEWPORT, Tenn. (AP) A General Sessions Court judge says a state law on drunken driving is unconstitutional, and the local prosecutor agrees sort of. Cocke County General Sessions Court Judge John Bell finds fault with a 1992 state law that lets Davidson County judges sentence first-time drunken driving offenders, with blood-alcohol content of 0.21 or higher, to 200 hours of community service. All other judges in the state have to impose twolay jail sentences.

District Attorney General Al Schmutzer of Sevierville agrees in part with the judge but said he will appeal the decision to. Circuit Court. "I agree that the portion of the statute that gives the people of Davidson County 200 hours of public service instead of 48 hours in jail is unconstitutional. But I dont think the judge can just turn around and give the people in Cocke County public service," Schmutzer said yesterday. "I think everybody should get jail." Bell has not issued a written ruling but said Friday from the By PENNY BENDER Tennessean Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Tennessee Republican Reps.

Van Hilleary and Zach Wamp and Democrat Bob Clement are pleading with GOP leaders in Congress and the Clinton administration for more money for the Tennessee Valley Authority. They must move quickly in order to replace TVA's $70 million nonpower budget, or at least some of it, because Congress is expected to adjourn by next Monday. Congress voted last week to cut the nonpower money from $70 million last year to zero this year. The three lawmakers hope to secure federal dollars for TVA directly or indirectly as part of a massive appropriations bill Congress hopes to pass by this weekend: Hilleary and Wamp want a last-minute commitment from House and Senate leaders for $50 million, $20 million less than TVA received in fiscal 1998. Clement is asking the Treasury Department to permit the TVA to refinance $3.2 billion of debt it has with the Federal Financing Bank, a move that could save the authority more than $100 million a year in interest payment.

In a last-ditch effort to recapture direct federal funding, Hilleary and Wamp recently met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, asking them to renew Congress' financial support of TVA. Hilleary and Wamp said they were "cautiously optimistic that our idea will be accepted." In follow-up letters to House and Senate leaders, Wamp and Hilleary said the decision to cut off TVA's $70 million non-power funding "violates the federal commitment to land and water stewardship, is harmful and unfair to the residents of the Tennessee Valley and should be reconsidered before Congress goes home for the year." For his part, Clement urged Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in a letter to allow the TVA to refinance its federal debt, which would free up more than enough money for TVA's navigation, recreation, flood control and environmental duties. The refinancing proposal, pushed by Republican Sens. Bill Frist and Fred Thompson, would allow TVA to refinance its $3.2 billion debt to the Federal Financing Bank. Senate leaders tentatively have committed to include the measure in the massive appropriations bill.

The U.S. Treasury, which oversees the Federal Financing Bank, has rejected TVA's previous attempts to refinance its debt, arguing that it would cost taxpayers $1 billion. "The savings TVA will realize as a result of the refinancing are crucial in light of recent action taken by Congress," Clement wrote to Rubin. "I am requesting that you do your part to help avert a grossly unfair situation for 8 million residents of the Tennessee Valley," Clement wrote. Treasury spokesman John Longbreak had no comment yesterday on the proposal or Clement's By BILL ZECHMAN Slate Correspondent Are Warren County's rattlesnakes disappearing? Until this summer there were plenty of rattlers here.

But this year, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency couldnt find a single rattlesnake for its annual exhibit at the recent Warren County fair. In the Midstate, the incident probably is more an indication of continuing growth and this summer's hot, dry weather, experts say. Polly Rooker, nongame and endangered species coordinator for the TWRA's Region II office, said the apparent lack of snakes may be more a problem of too many people rather than too few snakes. "As people move in, the habitat shrinks," Rooker said. "Some of them get crowded out and some will hit the road and look for new habitat" There is only one snake in the state that is having problems and that is the Pygmy Rattlesnake, Rooker added.

The Pygmy Rattlesnake is, as the name implies, the smaller cousin to the state's most common rattlesnake, the Timber Rattlesnake. The live snakes at the TWRA's exhibit are always among the most popular attractions at the Warren County Agricultural and Livestock Fair. Ordinarily, the reptiles are captured by state wildlife officers in Warren County, then released back into the environment after spending a week in Plexiglas enclosures. This year, the exhibit's lone rattlesnake was actually a "loaner" borrowed from the biology department at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. For reasons not yet fully understood, no rattlers could be found in Warren County.

"Copperheads and rattlers were hard to come by this year," said Joey Wray, a McMinnville-based TWRA wildlife officer. Wray has had little trouble capturing vipers in Warren County for previous fair exhibitions. This year, he did manage to find three or four I GET MORE FOR YOUR MONEY WITH I State office to offer newspapers ready-to-print business articles The All New Mada In Poly-Tex toJSsee Foam Flllad Insulatad GBP Rplemnt Window With Low Qlaaa sir I I BUY FACTORY DIRECT SAVE UP TO, Enaiyy Efflctonl Chotat at Color Cuttoni Mtflt To Ft Any SU Window TftiFof Euy ClMrUng MalnMnanc Fn "FOAM FILLED I Sterling WINDOW SYSTEMS, WC 37 YEARS EXPERIENCE 1120 Elm Hill Pike I 726-2216 By JOHN SHIFFMAN Staff Writer The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has figured out a way to guarantee positive press write its own stories. Commissioner Bill Baxter announced yesterday that he has asked the state's newspaper editors to join in a campaign to "publicize and promote Tennessee's leading companies, products and services." Jane DuBose, a former business editor at The Nashville Banner and Knoxville News-Sentinel, will write feature articles that the department will distribute to state newspapers. Department spokeswoman Caroline Ragsdale said she hopes papers will run them as written or as background for other stories.

DuBose's first story will highlight "top-quality Tennessee companies," Ragsdale said, including FedEx, Goodyear Tire and Eastman Chemical Co. The good press is probably welcome at Eastman's headquarters in Kingsport. Last week, the company pleaded guilty to an international copperheads for the agency educational display. THE LARGEST EUROPEAN "A lot of people I talked to didnt see many of them" this summer, Wray added. Nobody is worried at least not yet that rattlesnakes have van end.

The live broadcasts are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. C-SPAN2 airs on Inter-Media Channel 55. The broadcasts will be produced by the C-SPAN2 school bus, which travels the nation teaching kids about public and cultural affairs.

The school bus scheduled a visit to the Nashville School of the Arts yesterday, and plans to be at Hen-dersonville High School this morning and at La Vergne High School tomorrow morning. Half-Phil: Dont look for TV investigative reporter Phil Williams on the airwaves anytime soon. Williams, who joined WTVF-Channel 5 last week after his contact at WKRN-Channel 2 expired, will be working off-air for the time being, said Channel 5 news director Mike Cutler. At issue is a one-year, on-air noncompete clause in Williams' old contract with Channel 2. Meantime, Channel 5 will launch a new face late this week, reporter Dwann Holmes, fresh from Birmingham's ABC affiliate.

Capitol Obsession: it should come as no surprise that the Washington press corps worked hard last weekend to gear up for yesterday's hearings on whether to hold hearings on whether to impeach President Clinton. Perhaps the most extreme example could be found on an inside page of Saturday's Washington Times: a picture of a photographer taking a picture of a photographer taking a picture of House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde's chair. John Shiftman can be reached at 259-8278. price-fixing conspiracy and agreed to pay an $11 million fine. Low-key Launch: interMedia subscribers in Davidson County may have noticed that Channels 9 and 10 now look a lot like WDCN-Channel 8, Nashville's PBS affiliate.

This is no coincidence, nor has the Channel 8 signal bled through the cable lines onto the other two channels. Instead, it represents the ever-so-quiet television launch of Nashville's Education Access Council, a nonprofit organization that was granted air time as part of InterMe-dia's franchise agreement with Davidson County. Channels 9 and 10 which are to focus on educational, instructional and cultural programming are similar in structure to Channel 3 (government access) and Channel 19 (community access). So far, most of Channel 9 and 10 programming has come from the Channel 8 vault, which is filled with shows produced by PBS and other public TV stations. Nashville State Technical Institute also has supplied some material.

The Education Access Council hopes to get its schedule posted on Prevue, Channel 53. The council will consider airing educational material produced by anyone in the community. Call Milt Capps, the volunteer chair of the council, at 259-9325, extension 228. Capps, by the way, also is deputy general manager of WDCN. Live Books: C-SPAN2 will broadcast live from the Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville this week COUNTRY PINE WAREHOUSE IN TENNESSEE FULL OF EUROPEAN COUNTRY PINE AND ORIGINAL PAINTED PIECES TO ACCENT ished from the local habitat What is fairly certain, however, is that these serpents are not inclined to venture out into the open.

Clear-cutting of some mountain- top timberlands could figure into the seeming dearth of rattlesnakes and copperheads, Wray suggested. Tennessee Tech herpetologist tt 1 it-It iffy feti YOUR HOME M-F10-5 SAT. 10-3 Ready To Serve You EUROPEAN WHOLESALE ANTIQUES, INC. 940 Third Ave. N.

Nashville (Behind Stockyard) 615-242-7463 HOME DELIVERY CALL 242-NEWS Ray Jordan agreed, but added that the unusually dry weather in the late summer may also have had an effect. "I'd say there are as many rattlesnakes as there ever were" in heavily wooded areas, Jordan said. Rattlesnakes have survived droughts and loss of habitat in earlier years, and probably will come through the current environmental downturn, the experts predicted. Staff Writer Warren Duzak contributed to this report. Three generations of our family use COIT to clean J7 ,1 "Gulf Pacific's Home Equity Loan Experts Saved Us $526 A Month." our carpets, arapenes sofas.

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