News from across the state

MEMPHIS (AP) — Recovery crews have found the body of a Memphis truck driver who was swept away in a rain-swollen ditch.
The driver, identified as 56-year-old Clyde Stewart, was one of three people who died in drainage ditches at Memphis after rain storms swept through the area Monday night.
Stewart’s body was found Wednesday afternoon.
He fell into a ditch while trying to tow a car that had run off a road in suburban Shelby County.
A 7-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man also died when they were carried away by flood waters in separate incidents.
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DYERSBURG (AP) — A Dyer County Sheriff’s deputy whose car collided with another vehicle while he was leading a funeral procession has been released from the hospital.
Authorities say 39-year-old Deputy Kenneth Goff was driving his patrol vehicle Tuesday from Dyersburg Funeral Home to Rehoboth Cemetery when the accident occurred.
Police say 71-year-old Lou S. Turner continued past officers stationed at an intersection to allow the procession to pass and collided with Goff’s vehicle.
Turner and Goff were taken to Dyersburg Regional Medical Center, where they were treated and released with minor injuries.
A four-month-old girl, Reiana Boone, was a passenger in Turner’s car but was not injured.
No charges have been filed.
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MILLINGTON (AP) — Firefighters have extinguished a propane tank fire they say was sparked by a lightning strike.
No injuries were reported but this morning’s fire forced the evacuation of 20 nearby workers.
Fire Department spokesman Brent Perkins says the fire occurred at a U.S. Zinc facility in an industrial area of Shelby County about 18 miles north of Memphis. No homes were threatened.
The area remains closed while emergency crews try to find out if any propane is still seeping out of the 27,000-gallon tank, which was 60 percent filled when it ignited.
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ABINGDON, Va. (AP) — A student pilot from Tennessee whose two-seat Cessna 150 ran out of gas while he was floating through the skies made an emergency landing on Interstate 81 Wednesday.
Matthew Edward Scott, 27, of Blountsville was on his way back to Abingdon’s Virginia Highlands Airport from Knoxville on his first solo flight when his engine sputtered and he had to find a safe place to land quickly.
He picked the interstate, and brought it down safely with the flow of traffic. Like most drivers with an empty tank, he then pulled over to the side of the road and called for help, in this case reaching Virginia State Police 1st Sgt. Danny Glick.
The landing came within sight of the airport, Glick said.
“He was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to make it,” Glick said.
Scott was uninjured and will not face charges, police said.
Airport staff brought fuel to the disabled plane, which sustained a dent when one of the wings clipped a mile marker sign. The southbound lanes of the interstate were briefly closed, allowing the plane to safely taxi the rest of the way to the airport.
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HENDERSONVILLE (AP) — A Sumner County school bus driver has been suspended for three days without pay after a 7-year-old Hendersonville boy fell asleep on the bus, was undetected and possibly suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.
School officials said the boy fell asleep Monday near the back of the bus, and the driver returned the vehicle to the garage without checking it.
According to The Tennessean newspaper, school spokesman Jeremy Johnson said that once the bus reached the garage, the child woke up and was discovered by bus drivers 10 minutes later.
Johnson said officials are waiting for a doctor’s report on the student, who became ill after the incident.
The name of the bus driver was not revealed.
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NASHVILLE (AP) — Wine won’t be available in supermarkets in Tennessee for at least another year after lawmakers agreed to study the measure after the legislative session ends.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Randy Rinks, D-Savannah, sought to break the stranglehold on wine sales held by liquor stores.
The House Local Government Subcommittee on Wednesday agreed to send the measure to a summer study committee. Rep. Ulysses Jones, a Memphis Democrat, says the Senate plans to do the same.
Opponents, including Tennessee’s wine and liquor distributors, say the measure would cause locally owned liquor businesses to lose jobs because of competition with large chains.
But supporters argued the current law is antiquated and inconvenient for consumers.
Published in The Messenger 4.3.08

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