After being found Heffner taken to Coffee County Jail... By Barry West

Freedom for an escaped prisoner was short-lived Friday afternoon. Justin Heffner of Altamont jumped out of a Grundy County jail transport van on the Hillsboro Boulevard in Manchester but was captured later by sheriff’s investigator Jason Dendy on Powers Road. Heffner was arrested last Wednesday on charges of theft of property from Dunham Sports in Tullahoma. He was being transported to the Coffee County Jail by Grundy County authorities. Heffner is charged with shoplifting 50 boxes of ammunition from the store.

A Tullahoma man was found guilty of a number of burglaries in Bedford County. 20-year-old Austin Lawrence Tomes was found guilty of ten counts of aggravated burglary, nine counts of theft of property under $10,000, and on one count of theft of property under $500. He faces as much as five years in prison on each count. Tomes had already pled guilty in Moore County and faces similar charges in Coffee County.

Photo provided

On Thursday Franklin County Sheriff’s Office personnel responded to a residence on Carson Lane in reference to a house fire. Upon arrival, law enforcement officials along with volunteer fire departments discovered the body of a male subject inside the residence. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the State Fire Marshall Bomb and Arson Division is conducting an investigation into this matter. Franklin County Sheriff Tim Fuller identified the man as 85-year-old James Steele. An autopsy was performed by the State Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death.

Tullahoma is banding with three other similar-sized school systems to strive to get a $20 million federal grant that would move them all into the digital textbook age. Tullahoma City Schools and the systems from Lawrence, Lincoln and Warren counties have signed a letter of intent to collectively apply for a U.S. Department of Education Race to the Top district grant that would fully pay for the effort in the first four years. Then, it would be up to the individual systems to fund the programs from then on. Dr. Dan Lawson, Tullahoma City Schools director, said that the money would go toward providing technical support and the median to use the digital textbooks, such as Apple’s iPad or Google’s Chromebook. Lawson said that after the four-year period is completed, it would probably cost the Tullahoma system about $250,000 a year to add new digital media sources for the textbook material because the older iPads and Chromebooks will have reached their useful lifespan. He said the cost to the system would be less than the $300,000 to $400,000 spent annually now on printed textbooks.

Walk Time Charlie... Photo from Shelbyville Times-Gazette

Accusations of horse abuse at the Walking Horse Celebration grew louder on Friday as federal inspectors disqualified more horses. The Humane Society of the United States called the event a conspiracy and a cover-up. This has been the most contentious celebration in years partly because insiders in Shelbyville sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the way it inspects horses. The USDA has the final say in inspections. This year it disqualified dozens of horses. In response Friday morning, the industry defended itself. “Reform in this industry, it is serious. There are serious people doing serious things,” said Jeff Howard with the Tennessee Walking Show Horse Organization. The Humane Society said it firmly believes the majority of high-stepping horses suffer from some sort of abuse. “That is an unnatural, illegally-induced gait. Horses don’t walk that way”. But the Horse Protection Act, the law guiding the industry, disagrees with that statement. They contend that the horse’s distinctive walk they may be achieved through patient, careful training. Some owners promise that kind of training helped their horses. The Humane Society wants the government to revise the Horse Protection Act to give inspectors access to the training process. That could be the one thing to which both sides can agree. On Saturday night “Walk Time Charlie” was named World Grand Champion horse at the 74th Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville.