Category: News

A 20 year-old Wartrace man was killed in a two-vehicle crash Sunday morning on Highway 64 west of Shelbyville.
According to a report in the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, the Tennessee Highway Patrol says that Josh W. Gunn, 20 was driving a 2001 Hyundai toward Shelbyville around 1:30 a.m. when his vehicle crossed the center line and ran head-on into a tractor-trailer operated by Stephen A. Lewis, 42, of Turtletown.
A passenger in the Gunn vehicle, Jacob Austin Carter, 21, of Bell Buckle, was seriously injured, according to the report. Carter is undergoing treatment at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe and Mitsubishi Motors North America officials announced Tuesday that the automaker will relocate its headquarters to Franklin, Tenn. from Cypress, Calif.
Mitsubishi Motors’ move represents an investment in the county of $18.25 million and brings approximately 200 jobs to Williamson County.
The relocation to Franklin will begin in August and be completed by the end of 2019. All departments will be relocating, including sales, marketing, IT, human resources, communications, parts and services, product planning, dealer operations, finance and legal.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe and Pilot.com, Inc. officials announced Tuesday that the company will locate its new account management headquarters in Nashville, which will be the company’s second location. The software-based bookkeeping company plans to create more than 450 new jobs in Davidson County.
Pilot.com, Inc., founded in 2017 in San Francisco, provides a bookkeeping solution for startups and small businesses.
Located in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, Pilot.com’s new office will house its finance operations and customer support teams. The company also plans on growing its base of software engineers at the facility.
Pilot.com attributed its decision to locate in Nashville to the city’s growing tech and startup scene coupled with a strong group of accounting professionals stemming from the city’s accounting and financial management schools.

The state of Tennessee is looking for 9,000 mentors for the Tennessee Promise program.
Tennessee Promise gives every graduating high school senior the chance to attend a community or technical college tuition-free.
Mentors will only need to commit one hour per month.
The program will supply them with training, a handbook and weekly communication to help in the process.
Data from the first year of the program indicates that TN Promise students are graduating at a rate almost three times their peers at the same institutions.
Program administrators believe eliminating the financial barrier, coupled with support from a mentor, is the reason students are graduating at significantly higher rates.

The local VFW Post 10904 in Manchester received 4 awards at the Tennessee State Convention this past weekend. The VFW won awards for All-State Post, Community Service, Membership and a National award for their Vietnam Day event.
The VFW also won a $100 drawing for the Post from a membership drive program.
This coming Friday is a special “Stars and Stripes Celebration” event for everyone. If you have kids or grandkids, consider taking them to this one. It is being put on by the Murfreesboro Symphony and will have food and fun. The event will be held at Fountains at Gateway; 1500 Medical Center Parkway in Murfreesboro. The event starts at 6 pm. Please consider wearing a uniform as they are asking for vets to do that or at least wear a veteran’s shirt if possible.
Lastly, this Saturday, June 29th, is their monthly VFW breakfast. All are invited and encouraged to attend. They will be serving breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Please bring a friend and enjoy some fellowship.

Trustees have approved tuition increases at each of the University of Tennessee campuses for the next academic year. Media outlets report the Board of Trustees approved a 2% tuition increase at the Knoxville campus and a 2.5% increase at the Chattanooga and Martin campuses at a Friday meeting.
Tuition will increase by $258 at the Knoxville campus, $216 at the Chattanooga campus and $236 at the Martin campus.
The board also voted to combine the UT Institute of Agriculture with the UT-Knoxville campus and to create the Oak Ridge Institute to further the university’s partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Opioid prescriptions in Tennessee dropped by about one-third between 2013 and 2018, according to new data released by the Tennessee Medical Association.
The figures show a steady decrease in the numbers of opioid prescriptions filled statewide – from more than 8.5 million in 2013, to almost 5.7 million last year.
Dr. Elise Denneny, president of the Tennessee Medical Association, says while the reduction is a step in the right direction, state health professionals and lawmakers should be focusing on the bigger picture.
“Opioid use disorder is just a symptom of what plagues our society,” she states. “We still have a problem with alcohol in our nation, and it’s even greater.”
In 2017, Tennessee legislators passed some of the most restrictive opioid supply laws in the country.
Senate Bill 2257 put restrictions on dosages and requires dispensers to check the state’s Controlled Substance Monitoring Database prior to handing out opioids the first time a patient fills a prescription.
The database is used to spot over-prescribing and make it harder for patients to “doctor shop” for drugs.
Denneny points out that many physicians are beginning to advocate for approaches to pain treatment that don’t involve highly addictive drugs.
“Physicians definitely have treatment of pain on the radar,” she states. “There’s not just one way to treat pain, because not all pain is the same kind of pain. So, multi-modality approaches for management of pain is really important.”
Some doctors say they feel pressured to give in to patients’ demands for immediate pain relief.
However, one study published earlier this year found that U.S. doctors who received direct payments from opioid manufacturers were more likely to prescribe opioids than doctors who did not.

Since his arrival in May 2018, Motlow State President Dr. Michael Torrence has positioned the College as a national leader through its ranking as the top performing college in Tennessee.
GlobalMindED recently announced Torrence as the winner of the Inclusive Excellence Leaders Award in the 2 Year and Post Graduate Higher Education category for his outstanding work and commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity. Torrence was one of three finalists in the category.
Torrence’s selection as a 2019 GlobalMindED Inclusive Excellence Leader Award winner is an endorsement of the vision and outcomes he has achieved during his first year as president at Motlow State.

The July 4th Independence Day celebration will be held at Manchester’s Rotary Park as it will begin at 6:30pm on Thursday the 4th.
Music at 7pm by the group Burning Las Vegas. Food and beer vendors will be set up in the park and Fireworks will wrap up the night’s entertainment at 9pm.
This event is hosted by the Manchester Recreation Department and the Manchester Tourism Commission. Those organizations would also like to thank their sponsors, Coffee County Bank, Coke, and Sherrill Pest Control.
Come on out and celebrate America’s independence in a big way.

The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department and Manchester Police reported that they wrote a combined 303 citations people during the 2019 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. That’s down from the numbers we reported from 2018, which were 381.
Officers, deputies and state troopers made 20 Bonnaroo-related arrests this year, down from 45 in 2018.
Despite some cooler weather during most of Bonnaroo 2019 medical transports were up.
Paramedics and medical staff transported 62 festival-goers to area hospitals, including two who were taken by helicopter during the four-day event.
The ground transports by Coffee County EMS were for a possible ankle fracture, muscle sprains, one complaint of chest pain, among others.
Last year, medics transported 44 people, including three taken by helicopter. The average is around 50 per year.