(WMC-TV) – Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell has announced a new program that will connect service providers and other partners to aid and assist in the care of children exposed to violence, and will also lend support to their families.

Dubbed “Network for Overcoming Violence and Abuse”, or NOVA, has already began providing services in the Raleigh-Frayser and Hickory Hill areas.  Research data shows the six zip codes in these areas have high incidences of children being exposed to violence at home, and are victims of or witnesses to crime.

The county Office for Early Childhood and Youth received $2 million, as part of the U.S. Department of Justice Defending Childhood Initiative, to create the collaborative network and provide counseling and other victim services in those areas.  Memphis was just one of eight cities in the country to receiving the federal funding.

Even as the half-century old Allen Steam Plant in Memphis continued to consume coal to create electricity for the Mid-South, TVA officials gathered at the other end of the state to dedicate the new John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant near Rogersville, TN.

The sleek new plant burns natural gas, and when added to the several other recently-added plants the Tennessee Valley Authority is now producing only one-third of its power from coal-fired facilities - a big change from fiscal 2011, when coal accounted for 52 percent of TVA's power generation.

The shift away from coal is part of a larger national trend, spurred on by the availability of cheap natural gas deposits that are now extracted by new shale-fracturing processes.  Federal air pollution standards have become increasingly stringent as well, contributing to the move to cleaner-burning natural gas.

Every year, yard sale bargain hunters flock to Cordova, Tennessee for the annual Countrywood Neighborhood Sale sponsored by the Countrywood Neighborhood Association.

On Friday, September 22, the huge yard event will draw crowds from all over the Greater Memphis area and from neighboring states.

Last year the sale was a huge success.  More than 200 residents participated

Rain or shine, the participating vendors will sell their almost brand new or slightly used items from furniture to clothing and televisions to motorized vehicles to make a buck.  Not to mention the local economy benefited as people booked hotel rooms for a few days to stay and visit the grand city of Memphis to shop it’s local stores and dine in local restaurants.

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