Category: News

A Florida man is being held in the Coffee County Jail under a $506,000 bond after he was arrested at the eastbound scales on I-24 in Manchester Friday morning. Oreste Jose Garcia, 51, of Miami, Fl was charged with felony theft of property, refusal for drug inspection and evading arrest. He is a federal parolee out of Florida. According to reports by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Trooper Corey Stuart he stopped the Freightliner tractor-trailer Garcia was driving around 2:40 a.m. Friday morning. The officer requested Garcia’s log book and planned to conduct an inspection of the vehicle after noticing what he considered several suspicious indicators of violations. As Garcia went to retrieve the logbook, he fled on foot into nearby woods. The trooper then requested help from other troopers as well as Manchester Police and Coffee County deputies. After the officer chased Garcia for a while they located him and Coffee County deputies arrested him at mile marker 117 on Interstate 24, about a mile past the scales. When officers checked the truck Garcia was driving he found 18 pallets of cell phones and that trailer was stolen in Jeffersonville, Ind. The estimated value of the cargo and the trailer is approximately $200,000.

A 19-year-old woman was attacked Thursday morning, as she was about to enter the Kroger store on North Jackson Street. 19-year-old Nakayla Sullivan told Tullahoma Police Officer Cody Brandon that she and her 2-year-old son were attempting to enter the store when she attacked from behind and knocked to the ground. Sullivan stated that she covered her son to keep him from being injured. Sullivan told the officer that her attacker struck her in the ribs, back, arms, and face and head. While she was being attacked, an unknown male yelled at the attackers and said he was calling the police. The attackers left but not before checking Sullivan’s pockets as well as the pockets on her son’s clothes. They then ran from the area. After talking with the officer, Sullivan went to Harton Regional Medical Center to be checked out for injuries. According to the officer’s report, Sullivan had bruises “all over the face and arms.” Police are continuing to investigate the attack.

U.S. production of the 2013 Nissan Leaf moved one step closer to reality earlier last week. Leaf Motor production started trials at its facility in Decherd, where Nissan will start official U.S. production of the 2013 Leaf electric car’s motor production line–and its staff–are going through final production test runs before the plant commences official motor manufacturing later this year.
Currently made in Japan, the Leaf’s electric motor contains around one mile of copper wiring, and takes Nissan longer to assemble than a conventional gasoline engines. Nissan says it takes around 25 shift workers in total to ensure an electric motor is made correctly from its raw materials to finished product.

Even if U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais wins re-election after the revelation that he once urged his mistress to get an abortion, he could soon face a challenge from a fellow Republican. An operative familiar with state Sen. Jim Tracy’s plans tells The Associated Press the Shelbyville Republican has met with donors and could announce his candidacy for the 4th District congressional seat before Christmas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Tracy has not yet announced his plans. When reached by AP on Friday, Tracy said he was focusing on his current re-election campaign and supporting other conservatives for state and national office. Tracy, who considered a congressional bid this year, expressed concern over the “serious allegations” against DesJarlais but said he voted for the congressman in early voting.

A Middle Tennessee State University poll of likely Tennessee voters shows Republican Mitt Romney far ahead of President Barack Obama, a lead driven by strong support among white evangelical voters.
The poll released Saturday showed 59% of likely voters favoring Romney, 34% backing Obama, 6% undecided and 1% supporting another candidate.
The telephone poll was conducted Oct. 16-21 among registered voters who had voted early or said they were very likely to vote in the Nov. 6 election. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 points at the 95% level of confidence.
The poll found that white evangelicals, about 60% of Tennessee’s electorate, back Romney over Obama 74% to 21%, with 5% undecided.

A light blue Chevrolet car was turning left on to Interstate Drive at about 3:00pm Friday afternoon. The Chevy and a by black car collided as the black car was traveling towards Manchester on McMinnville Hwy. The male driver of the black car was unhurt. A 72-year-old passenger in the Chevy was trapped and had to be removed with the Jaws of Life. The female was transported to Medical Center of Manchester complaining of pain on her right side. A 5-year-old in the back seat also suffered head trauma and was transported to the same hospital. The driver of Chevy and one other passenger were unhurt.

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.

Despite differences in the past, Tullahoma Mayor Lane Curlee called a special meeting this week to get governments from Tullahoma, Coffee County and Manchester together to iron out their problems. Tullahoma mayor Lane Curlee told the gathering that he thinks it is important to get the leaders together and start concentrating on our strengths. The mayor noted that Tullahoma depends on the county and Manchester for certain things and the county and Manchester depend on Tullahoma for things they need. Curlee said that if the three governments work together instead of against each other, they can make the area more attractive for economic and community development.

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.