Category: News

The holiday season in Tennessee is one of fun with friends and family, but it’s also the deadliest time on the roads because of drunk driving. Kate Ritchie, state program director with Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Tennessee, says because of the increased risk, they’re once again partnering with Nationwide Insurance for the “Tie One On For Safety” campaign. “We are asking individuals to recognize themselves as a designated driver by stopping by any of the 50 Nationwide offices in the state of Tennessee or any of the MADD offices to pick up a red ribbon and tie it to the antenna of their car to indicate they are a designated driver,” she says. Last year in Tennessee, more than 200 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes across the state, while state troopers arrested nearly 6,500 people for driving under the influence. The number of alcohol-related traffic crashes in Tennessee has been trending down over the past decade, but Ritchie notes they still account for about a quarter of all traffic fatalities. “Being in this field and hearing so many heartbreak stories of parents that have lost their child or loved ones that have lost their spouses,” says Ritchie. “They continue to share their story, to fight drunk driving because it’s a heartbreak that nobody can understand to lose a loved one to a 100 percent preventable crime.”

The state fire marshal’s office is reminding Tennesseans to be careful when using different methods to heat their homes.
Officials say heating equipment is a major cause of home fires. According to the Tennessee Fire Incident Reporting System, last year heating equipment was involved in 654 structure fires, which caused 12 deaths, 14 injuries and more than $9 million in property damage.
Some safety tips include:
Keep anything that can burn at least 3 feet away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove or portable space heater.
Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
Use fuel specified by the manufacturer for fuel-burning space heaters.
For more safety tips, visit: http://www.tn.gov/fire .

Just after 5pm Monday afternoon 73 year-old Howard B Lambert, Jr of Manchester, TN was driving his 2004 Buick north bound on the Old Woodbury Highway in Coffee County just behind the new middle school. According to a report from Tennessee Highway Patrolman Donnie Clark, for an unknown reason, Lambert apparently veered off the right side of the road way and struck a utility pole at which time the vehicle came to rest.
Lambert died as a result of the injuries he received in the accident.
Along with the Tennessee Highway Patrol the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department and Coffee County EMS responded to the accident scene.

A Winchester resident has been charged with aggravated armed robbery in Tullahoma and faces similar charges in Winchester.
Courtney Lamont Somerville, 30, of Eighth Avenue Winchester was arrested Saturday by Winchester Police. Tullahoma Investigator Rana Pawlowski then served him with the arrest warrants from Coffee County. Somerville was arrested by Winchester Police on the Tullahoma charges.
He is accused of robbing the United Food and Gas of Tullahoma on East Carroll Street on Oct. 12.
According to a store clerk, the robber entered the store wearing a black hoodie, a full face back mask and medical gloves. After entering he jumped over the counter and pulled a black gun and held it to the back of the clerk’s head. He then grabbed her arm and pushed her into the cash register and demanded she give him the money. He then grabbed a pack of cigarettes and jumped the counter and left.
According to a warrant obtain by Pawlowski, DNA, video and audio evidence were collected by investigators that allegedly linked Somerville to the robbery.
Police are still investigating the robbery of a second convenience store and the East Carroll Liquor Store.
Somerville was charged with possession of a quantity of marijuana by Winchester Police. He faces the Franklin County Grand Jury on 3 robbery charges there.
According to authorities, Somerville has several robbery convictions out of west Tennessee.
He is being held the Coffee County Jail on $250,000 bond.

When 41.3 million Americans load-up the family vehicle for a Thanksgiving road trip, they are likely to find the cheapest gasoline in five years.
The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded was $2.82 Sunday, 46 cents cheaper than the price on Thanksgiving Day 2013.
The majority (89%) of Americans will drive to their destination this Thanksgiving. Of the 41.3 million road trippers nationwide 973,710 are from Tennesseans.
The average round trip is forecast to be 549 miles this holiday weekend. Travelers expect to spend an average of $573, 31% of budgets will go toward gasoline expenses.
The low price in Manchester and Tullahoma is $2.49.

A tax credit helping many low-income working families keep more of their earnings is proving to be especially important in rural areas and small towns across Tennessee and the country, according to a new study by the Center for Rural Affairs. “The Earned Income Tax Credit was used by more people in rural and small-town, small-city areas than in big urban areas in the country,” says Jon Bailey, who conducted the nationwide analysis. The Earned Income Tax Credit has been touted as one of the most effective anti-poverty policy efforts. Bailey, the center’s rural policy director, says the higher use of the tax credit tracks right along with the other economic indicators that point to many rural families still struggling financially. Nationwide, the number of those who claim the credit is less than 19 percent in metropolitan areas, compared to more than 21 percent in rural areas and small towns and cities. Bailey predicts that divide will continue to widen. “Because the gap between rural areas and urban areas has been growing,” he explains. “So if that trend continues, I would suspect that more people are going to need to use the Earned Income Tax Credit. It’s going to be even more important.” Bailey says the increasing importance of the Earned Income Tax Credit to working families should send a message to federal policymakers to strongly consider proposals to expand its reach, making more people eligible.

A few weeks ago, those of us at Thunder Radio asked for your help in honoring our local First Responders in and around Coffee County. Your submissions honoring the First Responder Heroes in your life have been received and will be heard on air throughout this week on Thunder Radio. Plus, to see your First Responders honored all you have to do is watch the all new Thunder TV News video online at WMSRradio.com. Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, share joy with those you love, and honor those who protect the safety we enjoy every day. From those of us at Thunder Radio, thank you to all of our First Responders in and around Coffee County. While we could never thank you enough, we hope that you know how much you are and will always be appreciated. Happy Thanksgiving, from Thunder Radio.

Charges against two men for multiple thefts will be presented to the January term of the Coffee County Grand Jury.
According to a report by sheriff’s investigator James Sherrill, the men are facing charges of six counts of theft of property over $1,000.
On Nov. 18 a trailer was reported stolen from Noah Road. A deputy taking a report informed the investigator that the resident on Noah Road had security video of the theft of a trailer from the residence. Sherrill and Investigator Kerry Farrar went to the residence and viewed the video and made a copy of it for their files.
The investigators were able to get a description of the vehicle being used by the thieves and a description of the two men taking the trailer.
The officers then located the men at a residence in the Lakewood Park area. After talking with the officers, the men admitted to taking a 4-wheeler on Noah Road and agreed to show them where they had taken trailers and four wheelers.
The men advised that they had taken a four wheeler from a residence on Jack Davis Road. But it fell off of a trailer on Ferrells Loop Road and they place it behind a vacant mobile home and recovered it the next day.
One of the men admitted to taking a trailer from a residence in Cannon County.
The investigators then spent Friday, Nov. 14 traveling to locations in Murfreesboro and Nashville working with police from each city and recovered the stolen trailers, tools and 4-wheelers. The men had sold the items to several other individuals for a lesser value than what they were worth.
Investigators have recovered several tools and a compressor that have not been reported stolen.

Because the men have not been charged with the thefts their names have not been released.

The former husband of a Bedford County teacher missing since February 2011 has been charged with trying to drown his girlfriend in Florida.
The Shelbyville Times-Gazette reports that Tyler Mook was on a boat with the girlfriend, his brother Andrew Mook and another woman in Palm City, Fla., on Oct. 4, Florida investigative reports indicate.
The reports indicate Tyler became enraged after his girlfriend asked him to slow down the boat. He is accused of throwing the woman off the boat, following her into the water and holding her under until Andrew came to her rescue.
Andrew and the other woman told investigators Tyler said he wanted to kill the girlfriend for “disrespecting” him in front of his family.
Tyler Mook remains in jail in Florida. He is considered a “person of interest” in the disappearance of his wife, Shelley, whose burned car was found near Murfreesboro after he met with him earlier on the day she disappeared.