TENNESSEE NEWS

Judge sends sex charges to grand jury A judge in Maryville has sent child sex charges against two Georgia men to a grand jury. Police say the 19-year-olds came to the Smoky Mountains foothills city to meet two girls they chatted with on the Internet. Both girls are 12. Authorities say Juan Manuel Coronado the Second of Marietta (Georgia) and Geoffrey Ray Dennis of Kennesaw (Georgia) spent the night with the girls at a motel on October fifth after the girls told their parents they were staying at a friend\'s house. Coronado was charged with child rape and contributing to the unruliness of a minor. Dennis is accused of aggravated sexual battery and contributing. One of the girls told police she at first told Coronado she was 15, then said she was 13, but finally told him she was only 12 before the men drove up from Georgia. The other girl told police she didn\'t reveal her age. Three airport workers burned Three airport workers were burned as they unloaded fuel from an airplane at the Jackson airport this morning. Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork says two of them were taken to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis by helicopter. The security chief at McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport says the men were defueling the plane when a spark ignited the fuel. The victims\' identities weren\'t immediately available. Couple found guilty of child abuse A Juvenile Court judge says greed, not love, motivated a Gibson County couple to take in 18 children. An attorney says the court found Tom and Debra Schmitz guilty of \"severe child abuse\" a ruling that should lead to termination of their parental rights. Lawyer Mitch Tollison for the Children\'s Services Department says Debra Schmitz angrily denounced the ruling and Judge Robert Newell had bailiffs remove her from the courtroom yesterday. The judge found the Schmitz’s neglected their dependent children, many of whom have physical and mental disabilities. Tollison says the Schmitz’s collected about $84,000 a year from various state and federal welfare programs to keep the children. The court also found them guilty of not repaying more than $12,000 dollars in such funding they\'d received since the children were removed from their home in June. The couple will be tried on criminal charges of child abuse and neglect in Circuit Court. That trial is scheduled to begin March 8. DCS finds homes for kids For six-year-old Charlie Pinson of Blount County, the gift he will most enjoy this Christmas is much more important than a flashy bike or the latest video game, it\'s a family. He is one of several hundred children the state Department of Children\'s Services has worked to place in a home for the holidays. It\'s part of a campaign that began in November as part of national adoption awareness month. More than three thousand Tennessee children are eligible for adoption. About 900 children have been adopted statewide during the last year. Highway construction suspended State transportation officials will shut down highway construction, beginning Christmas Eve. There will be no work through Monday, January 3. Transportation Commis-sioner Jerry Nicely says drivers still should observe lower speed limits in construction zones because of lane shifts, narrower driving lanes and uneven pavement. Nicely points out seven projects that call for special care in driving. In Nashville, there are two zones on Interstate 40. One is near the airport, between I-24 and Donelson Pike. The other is on the west side, at the Briley Parkway/White Bridge Road exit. In Memphis, be watchful at the I-40/I-240 midtown interchange. In Chattanooga, watch the I-75 Enterprise South interchange. In Unicoi County, there\'s a work zone along I-26. And a work zone remains at the Rhea/Meigs County line on the state Route 68 Bridge over the Tennessee River.