Category: News

Accused double murderer Bryan Cooke was brought back to Warren County Thursday afternoon after spending the last month in a Florida jail cell.
Cooke is accused of murdering his in-laws, Gary and Gail Dodson, at the Dodson’s home in the Fairview Community. He then left the area and drove the victim’s vehicle to Jacksonville, Florida, where he was taken into custody at a motel.
He fought extradition until just recently. Deputies made the long drive to Jacksonville and Cooke was brought to the Warren County Jail Thursday afternoon.

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the slaying of four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga was the act of a ‘perverted jihadist.’
Biden’s comments came during a memorial for the five servicemen killed in a shooting rampage by 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez last month.
The vice president’s statement appears at odds with the official comments of investigators who have said they have not been able to determine a motive behind the attacks. The FBI has said it has not been able to determine whether Abdulazeez was “radicalized” before the July 16 attacks and has been treating him as a homegrown violent extremist.
Speaking before Biden, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said officials may never know “what combination of disturbed mind, violent extremism and hateful ideology” was behind the shooting.

A traffic stop Wednesday lead to a meth bust and two people arrested.
A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper made a traffic stop on I-24 in Marion County after he saw a car with illegal window tinting and following too closely to traffic and noticed the driver was not wearing a seatbelt.
While interviewing the driver and the passenger, the trooper was alerted to possible indicators suggesting criminal activity. The driver gave the trooper permission to search the vehicle where 2.5 pounds of Meth/Ice were discovered. The drugs were in the dashboard on the driver’s side.
Both suspects were taken to the Marion County jail where they asked for counsel and refused to answer questions.
The trooper reports the driver, 31, and passenger, 50, were travelling from Miami, FL to Louisville, KY. Names of the suspects are being withheld due to an ongoing investigation.

Nominees for the 26th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards were announced this week at a special event in the SiriusXM Bluegrass Junction studios in Nashville, TN.
The Gibson Brothers announced the nominees, along with SiriusXM’s Kyle Cantrell. Thunder Radio’s Becky Buller performed, as did The Gibson Brothers.
Becky, her husband Jeff and daughter live in Manchester. Becky and Jeff are two of the hosts on Bluegrass Crossroads heard 3 times per week on WMSR.
Buller-Haley was nominated for several awards; Fiddler, Female Vocalist, Emerging Artist, Song Of The Year for “Southern Flavor”, Recording Event Of The Year for “Southern Flavor”, Broadcaster and Songwriter.
The Awards Show will be Oct. 1 at 7p.m. in Raleigh, NC.
Becky is flabbergasted and exceedingly excited to announce that she has been nominated for the seven IBMA awards:
Becky also spoke to us about one specific award, the broadcaster award.

The owners of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival have discussed with Nashville’s top tourism executive the possibility of bringing a country music and camping festival to the event site in Manchester.
The Tennessean reports that the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. President and CEO said in July that he has talked with organizers, who also own the Manchester farm where Bonnaroo is held, about a new country music festival that would be in addition to Bonnaroo.
Earlier this year, Live Nation purchased a controlling stake in Bonnaroo, though co-founders Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment will remain in charge of running the festival. After the deal was announced, Superfly co-founder Rick Farman told Billboard magazine that organizers are “going to put a greater emphasis on bringing some other events to the farm, which I think will be beneficial to everyone involved, the Bonnaroo community and the local and regional community as well.”

School is open for most public- and private-school students across the state. While much is made over supporting your child as he or she returns to school, the teacher group Professional Educators of Tennessee is encouraging parents to keep in mind that support for teachers is just as important. Picking up a few extra supplies, including dry-erase markers and paper, goes a long way in easing the burden on schools, said Samantha Bates, the organization’s director of membership services. “Supplies are very important,” she said. “Extra anything is always a plus. Everybody runs out of paper and pencils at some point. Everybody — the poor kid, the rich kid — everybody runs out of paper. So having extra supplies is really useful.” According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, teachers on average spend almost $500 of their own money on school supplies, totaling roughly $1.6 billion nationwide every year. The average salary for a Tennessee public school teacher is slightly more than $44,000 a year. If your child is in need of special attention to manage behavior disorders or other issues, Bates said, it’s important to remember that the teacher is trying to get to know the needs of 20 or more students – and it will take a little time. “If there’s something specific your child should be getting, they may not have the official documentation for that,” she said. “It’s fine to send an email, but you know to call every day is a little bit much, so some patience and understanding can definitely go a long way.” Bates, who spent several years as a teacher, said it’s also important to ask your child’s teacher what kind of classroom support he or she needs. In some school districts there is an overabundance of parent volunteers, and in others there is a need. The National School Supply and Equipment Association report is online at edmarket.org.

On Saturday (August 8, 2015) Deputy Phillip Smith of the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department says someone called the jail stating that a Douglas Christian was at the Sleep Inn in Manchester selling heroin. Deputy Smith called Investigator James Sherrill. Sherrill called the complainant back and was advised that Christian may have the narcotics in the trunk of his car, if they were not with him in his room. Deputy Smith went to the motel and observed the man allegedly putting something in his trunk.
After Sherrill arrived, he saw Christian come out of the Sleep Inn and was walking in the parking lot. The investigator requested for the man to come over to where he was and he complied. Sherrill asked if he was on the sex offender registry due to it was showing in the portal that he was, and he replied he was no longer on the registry. Sherrill explained to Christian why I was there and he replied he had no narcotics in his room nor in the car. The investigator asked the man for consent to search his car and he hesitated, stating shouldn’t you advise me of my rights and Sherrill says explained to the man that he was not under arrest and he didn’t have to consent.
Christian then popped the trunk of the car and the investigator says he immediately detected a strong odor of marijuana, and Christian also said he also could smell the odor. Upon searching the trunk Sherrill supposedly found a black bag in the wheel well of the car. When he opened it he observed a clear bag of marijuana. Also found were allegedly 6 bags of what was believed to be meth, 2 bags of approximately 16 grams of marijuana, one bag believed to be approximately 4.5 grams of cocaine, 5 bags believed to be approximately 8 grams of heroin, digital scales, baggies, and blunts.
Consent to go through Christian’s cell phone revealed conversations to subjects in Georgia to pick up narcotics.
Christian kept insisting he didn’t use narcotics, but Investigator Sherrill explained you don’t have to use narcotics to sell them.
Douglas Edward Christian age 64 of School Rd Hampton Ga. was arrested for manufacture/sell and delivery of controlled substances. His Bond was set at $250,000 and a court date was issued for August 18, 2015.

Tullahoma Police are searching for someone with an apparent breathing problem.
Loss prevention personnel at the Kroger Store on North Jackson Street reported that an unidentified white female wearing a pink ball cap entered the store on Aug. 7 and took 31 boxes of Breath Right Strips. According to store personnel the woman placed the products in her purse and left the business without paying $433.69 for the items.
The investigation is continuing by the Tullahoma Police Department.

Over half of Tennessee residents take part in outdoor recreation each year, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Among them are hunters and anglers who consider themselves conservative, yet support an EPA clean water policy that has been described as controversial. According to a survey commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), a percentage of more than four of five hunters and anglers favor the plan to apply Clean Water Act protections to some smaller headwaters and wetlands – protections that had been under a legal cloud. Steve Moyer, vice president for government affairs at Trout Unlimited, is a longtime fisherman. “People in Appalachia really do care about the health of their streams and rivers, and they worry about the threats to clean water,” he says. The new policy clarifies which waterways are defined as Waters of the U.S., and are therefore protected under the Clean Water Act. The coal industry has criticized the plan as over-regulation, and Republicans in Congress may attempt to overturn it. But the NWF survey was conducted jointly by two polling firms, one Republican and one Democrat, and found strong support for the rule even among political conservatives. Across the spectrum – age, geography, political orientation – Tennesseans who took part in the survey said clean water is a top priority. Lifelong hunter Ed Perry, outreach coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, says the poll found three out of four Republican outdoor enthusiasts support the policy. “It was deep and broad-based support, all across the country, with 73 percent of Republican hunters and anglers supporting the rule, 83 percent of Independents and 95 percent of Democrats,” he says. Some national farm and real estate development groups oppose the new EPA policy. Farm groups argue it would mean regulation of every irrigation ditch and stock pond under the Clean Water Act. According to the EPA, that is an inaccurate interpretation of the policy.