David Fowler plans civics class on radio, Internet

Saturday, September 3, 2011

photo Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler

Grab your pencil and a napkin: Beginning Mondays on Sept. 12, Nashville-based WTN 99.7 talk show hosts Michael DelGiorno and Gwen Freeman are launching a "WTN University class" on American government.

And who's teaching the class, which also will be available on the Internet and podcast?

None other than Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler, the former Republican state senator from Signal Mountain who now lobbies former legislative colleagues on conservative Christian family oriented issues.

"And I will team together to create what we call WTN University. This will be a class that I will be teaching every Monday ... for the next several weeks, giving you the truth about the foundational principles behind America's government and how it's supposed to work," Fowler says in a video promo.

"It's eighth-grade civics on steroids," Fowler promises about the program, which airs at 10 a.m. central time. "It's the stuff liberals never wanted you to learn in schools."

Fowler is a natural for the class. An attorney, he used to teach political science at Bryan College, a four-year Christian college in Dayton, Tenn.

1,500th Tenncare fraud case

A Wayne County man has earned the dubious distinction of become the 1,500th person arrested for committing TennCare fraud since the Office of Inspector General began investigating the crime.

Mickey Brown, of Waynesboro, was arrested at his home and charged, Inspector General Deborah Y. Faulkner said in a news release.

Brown was charged with one count of TennCare fraud.

He is accused of filling a prescription for Hydrocodone through TennCare and then selling some of the pills. If convicted, Brown faces up to two years in jail.

The inspector general post, which is separate from TennCare, was created in 2005 amid complaints from state legislators that drug fraud was driving up costs in the multibillion-dollar health care program.

The Office of Inspector General says the agency has investigated cases that have led to more than $3.5 million paid in restitution or recoupment to TennCare, with a total estimated cost avoidance of over $173 million.

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