Category: News

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development has compiled the latest data that reveals the largest occupations in the state and the salaries workers in those fields earn. 

The occupational group with the largest percent of Tennessee employment in 2018 was Office and Administrative Support Occupations, taking up 15.8% and accounting for almost 469,000 workers. These include jobs like customer service reps, office clerks, stock clerks and order fillers. The occupations with the highest wages within this group were postal service mail sorters, processors and processing machine operators at $58,000. The lowest wages in this group were resort, hotel and motel desk clerks at $21,000.

The profession group taking up the second most jobs in Tennessee would be sales related occupations, occupying 9.7% or 287,000 workers. Third is food preparation and serving occupations, fourth is transportation and material moving operations, fifth is production occupations and sixth is healthcare practitioners and technical occupations. Believe it or not, the jobs taking up the fewest jobs are farming, fishing and forestry occupations and legal occupations. Get the full report by clicking here. 

Results from last Thursday’s Tullahoma municipal alderman election were very tight. Four candidates were seeking two seats, and winners were Rupa Blackwell and Daniel Berry.

Berry finished just five votes better than incumbent Jackie Duncan, according to unofficial totals. Results will be certified on August 15th. 

Unofficial vote totals are as follows:

Rupa Blackwell – 1,017

Daniel Berry – 739

Jackie Duncan – 734

Stephen Landers – 246

The skeletal remains discovered in Beech Grove on July 16 have been identified as Tracey Young, pictured at right. Young had been reported missing since June 2.

You may remember that we reported to you about skeletal remains being discovered near the Cole Ridge Rd. Area back on July 16th. Now those remains have been identified as Tracey Young, age 50. 

Young had previously been reported missing since June 2nd. 

Coffee County District Attorney General Craig Northcott told Thunder Radio News that the remains were identified by “familial DNA match.”

Connie Ray

Connie Ray, age 61, was arrested July 16 in connection with the case and charged with false reporting, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact. She remains in the Coffee County Jail on a $600,000 bond.

Skeletal remains were discovered near the Cole Ridge Rd. area at approximately 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16 and a joint investigation involving the TBI and Manchester Police Department was launched. At the time, Northcott stated that the state medical examiner’s office forensic team would help identify the remains.

We have an update to a story from June of 2016. You may remember that Garieon Simmons, of Decherd, stole a vehicle from Coffee County Funeral Chapel in 2016 and fled police from Manchester to Rutherford County. He later crashed in Murfreesboro, killing 28-year old Jennifer Campos. 

Garieon Simmons… Photo provided

At the time Simmons was charged with first degree murder, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, theft of property, criminal impersonation, evading arrest, reckless endandgerment, driving on a revoked license, violation of probation and being a habitual motor vehicle offender. 

On July 24 Simmons pleaded guilty to three of those charges in Rutherford County, pleading guilty to vehicular homicide driver intoxication, aggravated vehicular assault and reckless endangerment involving a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to 20 years at 30% for vehicular homicide, 5 years at 45 percent for reckless endangerment involving a deadly weapon. He has been in jail since the crash for the past three years in Rutherford County. 

Murfreesboro police cited a  Woodbury couple for animal cruelty after they found a dog inside of a hot car earlier this week. 

A Woodbury couple allegedly left their dog in their car at the South Rutherford Blvd. Walmart with the outside temperature 92 degrees. The responding officer paged for the couple over the intercom, when they did not respond, the officer made entry into the vehicle with a lock-out kit and removed the dog from he vehicle. The dog was placed inside of an air conditioned patrol car where it drank two bottles of water. Temperature reading devices read between 124 and 134 degrees inside the vehicle where the dog was.

The skeletal remains discovered in Beech Grove on July 16 have been identified as Tracy Young, right. Young had been reported missing since June 2.

The human remains discovered in the Beech Grove area of Coffee County on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 have been identified as Tracey Young, age 50.

Young had previously been reported missing since June 2. 

Connie Ray

Coffee County District Attorney General Craig Northcott told Thunder Radio News that the remains were identified by “familial DNA match.”

Connie Ray, age 61, was arrested July 16 in connection with the case and charged with false reporting, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact. She remains in the Coffee County Jail on a $600,000 bond.

Skeletal remains were discovered near the Cole Ridge Rd. area at approximately 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16 and a joint investigation involving the TBI and Manchester Police Department was launched. At the time, Northcott stated that the state medical examiner’s office forensic team would help identify the remains.

Coffee County Schools has announced a new principal at East Coffee Elementary School to start off the new school year – Erin Phillips will take over as principal at that school for departing Kelvin Shores.

Erin Phillips

You may remember we reported to you last week that Shores was named deputy director of the school system and would be performing duties of deputy director and principal while a replacement was named.

New director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson annonced the hiring of Phillips late Tuesday afternoon. Phillips was a frequent visitor to Coffee County during her time as a “Read to be Ready” consultant for the Tennessee Department of Education. She has previously served as a teacher, consultant and assistant principal.