Category: News

The assistant manager of a Manchester restaurant has been arrested for fraudulent use of a credit card. Tracy Jewel Edwards, 28, of Allie Boynton Road in Manchester was arrested Tuesday by Manchester Police Investigator Stuart Colwell on the charges. According to a police report, Sherrie Decker of Hillsboro Boulevard stated that she used her debit card at Kentucky Fried Chicken on Nov. 29 to purchase $10.47 of items. She told officers that she did not get her debit card back or give her a receipt. Decker said that she called the store and spoke with the assistant manager, Edwards, who stated that she would put the card and the receipt in the office of the restaurant. Decker was unable to pick it up due to illness for several days. She told officer that she had deposited her payroll check into her account on Friday and the attempted to make a purchase on Sunday and was told that her card had been denied. She checked her account on line and found that $494.38 had been charged to the account at KFC. Decker called KFC and spoke with Edwards who told her that her debit card had been found in the cooler of the restaurant.
Edwards allegedly admitted to using the debit card, according to Coldwell’s report. She was booked into the Coffee County Jail under a $2,500 bond and is due to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court on Dec. 18.

The Coffee County Commission last month has approved the issuance of $22 million for the construction of a new 400 bed jail. Yesterday groundbreaking was held on the property where the new Coffee County jail will be built. The current jail is averaging nearly 300 inmates on the weekends and a little less during the week. The new site is on Hillsboro Boulevard beside Fann’s Salvage. Part of the land was formerly used as a mobile home park.
Sheriff Steve Graves and construction manager Elvis Butler with Bell Construction Co. said the actual work starts Dec. 18, when the subcontracting process begins.

A former jailer is suing Bedford County for gender discrimination, claiming she was fired for the escape of a male prisoner earlier this year, while a relative of the sheriff kept his job. Virginia Lynn Hall, a correctional officer hired by the county in 2001, filed the suit Tuesday in Bedford County Chancery Court, and is demanding unspecified damages for loss of earnings, front pay compensation or reinstatement, compensatory damages for mental distress, emotional anguish, humiliation, and embarrassment, attorney fees, prejudgment interest, a trial by jury and “other and further relief.”

Gov. Bill Haslam says that while the crime rate is showing an overall decline in Tennessee, instances of aggravated assault, prescription drug abuse and domestic violence remain a major concern for his administration.
The Republican governor said at a meeting of more than 400 public safety officials in Nashville on Thursday that domestic violence accounts for about half of all crimes committed in the state each year.
Haslam this year introduced and signed into law a measure to require mandatory jail time for repeat convictions for domestic violence. But the governor said it’s too soon to tell if the change has made a significant difference.
The governor said his Cabinet will continue to work with law enforcement to seek ways to reduce violent crimes and drug abuse.

Children’s Christmas Around the World” is the theme of the 56th Annual Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade, scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight, Dec. 7. Grand Marshal for this year’s event will be Miss Tennessee, and Tullahoma native, Chandler Lawson. If you are coming to the Tullahoma parade tonight you’re advised to get to your viewing point early because a very large crowd is expected.

The Miss America Organization is proud to announce your opportunity to vote for a finalist at the 2013 Miss America Competition, broadcast live from Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, January 12, 2013 on ABC. The Miss America Organization has posted 53 exciting videos made by each of our 2013 contestants, showing off their style and personality and explaining why they should be chosen as the next Miss America!”

Cast your vote via one (1) of the following two (2) methods:

Vote for your favorite contestant’s video via this link: http://www.missamerica.org/videocontest/

OR

Visit the “Video Contest” tab at www.facebook.com/missamericaorganization.

Chandler Lawson of Tullahoma will be a contestant and we are encouraging you to go online and vote.

Day 2 of the murder trial of Jeffrey Smithson on Wednesday (Dec. 5, 2012) saw a call from defense attorney Margo Kilgore for a retrial. Kilgore made the request after a Manchester Police officer testify that he was told by a friend of Virginia White who was found murdered in her apartment that Jeffrey Smithson had just been released from prison, when in reality he had been out of prison for some time. Kilgore stated that the statement was not true and would prejudice the jury. But District Attorney Mickey Layne argued that the judge could instruct the jury that the statement was not accurate and that they should disregard it. That is what Judge Vanessa Jackson did and instructed the jury that the statement was not true and for them to put it behind them. Manchester Police Officer Sgt. Justin Smith who was the first officer on the scene the night that Ms. White’s body was found testified that after he found the body he secured the murder scene and called for investigators to assist at the Ingram Apartments in Manchester. TBI agent Kendall Barham testified about the murder scene when he arrived to assist Manchester Police investigators in the murder investigation. He told of the evidence that he collected at the scene and sent to the state crime lab in Nashville as well as finding the body with panty hose tied tightly around Ms. White’s neck. The trial continues today in Manchester.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced yesterday (Dec. 6, 2012) that federal and state aeronautics grants totaling $12.2 million have been approved for 13 Tennessee airports. The grants are made available through the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division. The Division administers federal and state funding to assist in the location, design, construction and maintenance of Tennessee’s diverse public aviation system. In Coffee County the Tullahoma Airport received a grant for Drainage System Repairs. State= $90,250. Local =$4,750 Total=$95,000. Also the Tullahoma Airport got a grant for the NW Taxiway Rehabilitation – Phase II. State= $760,000 Local=$40,000 Total=$800,000.

Gun sales are spiking in Tennessee, and whether that is tied to presidential politics or hunting season, it depends on whom you ask. This year, gun sales could break records across the state. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, some 51,330 people applied for the background check necessary to buy a gun last month alone. That is compared to just 37,347 in November 2011. “The only other time that there was kind of a peak in November was in 2008, and it was an election year as well,” said TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm. However, those numbers may not tell the entire story because customers can buy more than one gun on a single background check. So the actual increase might be even higher. The overall increase in recent years has led the TBI to add more staff in order to keep pace with the demand.

Tennessee’s original, handwritten Constitutions are going on display to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the state’s Supreme Court Building. The trio of documents, from 1796, 1834 and 1870, have never been put on public view together. They’ll be available to the public at the Tennessee Supreme Court today, Friday and Saturday, then again on Monday before moving back into storage. The state’s first constitution gave almost total control to the legislative branch. After forty years, it was replaced with a new one that balanced powers along the same principals as the US constitution. The third was written after the Civil War, when the former Confederate states were required to draft new constitutions.