Remember early voting is still going on; In Tullahoma voting is taking place at the C D Stamps Center from 9 a.m. to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. In Manchester early votes may be cast at the Coffee County Election Commission office in the county office building. Voting there will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Early voting will continue through November 1 at both locations. Remember those casting ballots must have a photo ID, such IDs may be obtained from the Tennessee Department of Safety. So far there have been over 6,000 early votes cast in Coffee County. The busiest day was the first day of early vote, Oct. 17 when 1,152 voted.
Administrator of Elections Vernita Davis says that Coffee County voters are making it clear they want their voices heard in the election. She added that the election commission hopes more people will take advantage of early voting. For more information on the 2012 election call 931-723-5103.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has upheld the state’s new law requiring voters to show photo identification at polling places and ruled that election officials must accept an ID issued by the Memphis library. A three-judge panel of the court ruled unanimously Thursday in a case brought by the city of Memphis and two voters who lacked photo ID and cast provisional ballots during the August primary. Judges expedited the ruling because early voting for the November 6 election is under way. The opinion said the identification requirement is allowed under the state constitution and the cost of obtaining a birth certificate to get a photo ID doesn’t amount to a poll tax. It overruled a lower court by finding that the library cards qualify as government-issued identification.

County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for September 2012, released yesterday, show the rate decreased in 94 counties and increased in one.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for September decreased to 8.3 percent, down from the August revised rate of 8.5 percent. The national unemployment rate for September 2012 was 7.8 percent, 0.3 percentage point lower than the August rate.
The state unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.
Coffee County’s unemployment went down from 7.8% to 7.3%. In other surrounding counties; Cannon dropped from 7.6 to 6.9, Bedford down to 8.7 from 9.2, Franklin County fell nicely from 8.3 to 7.2, Grundy came down by 1% to 8.8 and Warren County dropped to 8.6 from 9.3%.
Williamson and Lincoln Counties have the state’s lowest rate at 5.2% and Scott County the highest at 16.2% unemployment.

Funding for expansion at the Tullahoma Regional Airport has been grant by the State Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division. The grant will be for a total of $548,337 for the northwest taxiway rehabilitation. The airport is in the process of installing new lights for the runway. The airport will be required to pay $27,417 with the rest of the funding coming from the state. According to Airport Manager Jon Glass, part of the grant will be used to install lights along one of the runways. Tullahoma Airport Authority Chairman John Miller noted that the grant will also be used to repair the pavement from the XP company’s hangar down a runway as well as making concrete repairs.