Josh Peterson

Join us at Thunder Radio and Rosalyn Partin at the H&R Block of Manchester and say congratulations to our student of the week – Ella Vaughn.

Ella is a fifth-grade student at Hillsboro Elementary School. She is in Mrs. Donna Harryman’s homeroom.  She is the daughter of Amanda Spaulding and Justin Vaughn.

Ella was nominated by her teacher’s because she is extremely responsible and has wonderful manners.  Her teachers say she participates in class and works well with others in her group.  

In her free time, Ella likes to play outside, ride four-wheelers, play video games and draw. When she grows up she plans to be an architect.

Rosalyn Partin, owner of the Manchester H&R Block has bene inspired to recognize kids in our community all through hockey season. What does hockey season have to do with our local students? Well, H&R Block gives each student of the week a set of Nashville Predators hockey tickets, in addition to a commemorative plaque, as well as a special letter of recognition.

Manchester City Schools and Coffee County Schools are teaming up together with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee to host a mobile food pantry Friday, February 21.

This food pantry is for families who have children enrolled in Coffee County Schools and/or Manchester City Schools. It will be held at First Baptist Church of Manchester, located at 1006 Hillsboro Blvd. Doors open at 9 a.m. and the food pantry is first come, first serve.

UPDATE  — This subject has now been identified  by Manchester Police.  

Manchester Police Department is looking for help identifying an individual who was allegedly involved in an incident at Walmart on Friday, February 14. Anyone with information should contact Manchester Police Department investigator Trey Adcock at 931-728-2099.

There have now been 10 pediatric flu-related deaths in Tennessee during the 2019-2020 season as of last week, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

Those 10 deaths in Tennessee account for over 11 percent of pediatric flu deaths across the country. Nationwide, there have been 90 pediatric deaths related to flu complications.

It’s time to purchase your new hunting and fishing license. The new 2020-21 Tennessee hunting and fishing licenses are now on sale, with over one million licenses expected to be purchased in the coming year. All current yearly Tennessee hunting and fishing licenses expire Feb. 29.

Licenses are available online anytime at www.GoOutdoorsTennessee.com, on the TWRA “On the Go App,” or at one of more than 700 license agents across the state. You can now select to auto-renew your license and never worry about your license expiring again. Customers can also purchase new design of the collector’s card for any annual license. This waterproof, durable card features paintings by Tennessee artist Abraham Hunter. Customers may choose between two new designs, a brook trout or a pair of gobblers.

If you like wildlife of any kind, you should thank a hunter or fisherman. Without them, we would not have the abundance of fish and wildlife that Tennesseans all enjoy.

Hunters and anglers have been funding Tennessee’s and the nation’s wildlife conservation for more than100 years through license purchases. One-hundred percent of hunting and fishing license fees go to support wildlife conservation in Tennessee.

By Nadia Ramlagan, Tennessee Public News Service

Tennessee will receive federal funding to fight Asian carp as part of a $25 million budget appropriation recently passed by Congress.

Asian carp are now found in all three of Tennessee’s major waterways, from the Mississippi River to the Tennessee River, north of Chattanooga.

Tennessee Wildlife Federation CEO Mike Butler said Asian carp have no natural predators. They consume the food sources of native fish and can devastate habitats, among other traits of invasive species.

“They are aggressive spawners — in other words, they reproduce very aggressively,” Butler said. “They can spawn three times a year. Each female can lay millions of eggs.”

Asian carp originally were brought to the United States in the 1970s to help maintain ponds used for aquaculture.

According to Butler, the funding will be allocated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

He pointed out that Asian carp can grow up to 100 pounds and can threaten boaters’ safety, as well. One of four types of invasive carp, silver carp are known to jump when disturbed by boats, potentially causing serious injury to passengers.

“We’ve already seen millions of tourist dollars leave parts of west Tennessee and go elsewhere because of the impact carp is having on the native fishery base,” Butler added.

The money will be spent on creating barriers to limit the movement of Asian carp, offering incentives to fishermen to capture carp, and researching more ways to control the species.

“Our position is, it’s critical these dollars go to work on the waters in Tennessee and the other states that are available for those dollars to be spent in, like Kentucky and Mississippi, and Alabama,” he added.

Tennessee’s fishing economy generates more than $1 billion annually, and supports nearly 8,000 jobs.

Coffee County Sheriff’s Department is asking for the public’s help locating a stolen vehicle. A 2001 black Audi TT 225 Roadster Quattro was stolen from the Ridgewood Drive area, according to the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department. Anyone with information about this crime should contact Coffee County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Brandon Reed at 931-570-4191. 

A data journalism professor at MTSU produced analysis using figures released in December by the US Census Bureau to show growth in Rutherford, Davidson and Williamson counties. The analysis shows that Rutherford County grew by 37,721 residents between the years 2013 and 2018. Davidson County grew by 46,000 people.

But perhaps more interesting to Coffee County residents is where the growth in Rutherford County is occurring. The professor, Ken Blake, produced an interactive map based on tracts and took raw data from Census estimates to produce this map. Tracts near the heart of Murfreesboro actually saw populations decline, as much as 8 percent on the east side of the city near The Oaklands. The west and southwest areas of the city saw population decrease of 1.3 percent. Many tracts outside of the city are seeing significant growth, including on tract south of the city that includes Salem Elementary, which experienced 42% growth, and the southern most tract, which bumps up against Beech Grove and Coffee County shows growth of nearly 23 percent during that time period.