Tennessee State Parks announced the participants for the 2015 Seasonal Interpretive Re-creators (SIR) program. SIRs provide interpretive programs such as guided tours, hikes, slide shows, demonstrations, campfires and other outdoor activities for park visitors during the peak season, which is late spring through summer. Most of the summer staff are still in college studying natural resource, recreation, history, or biology-related fields. Tennessee State Parks offers a one week intense training in interpretive techniques. The goal is to help visitors build emotional and intellectual connections to the park. Based upon Freeman Tilden’s Principles of Interpretation, participants learn to develop thematic...

On Monday morning at 5:36am the Coffee County Communication Center received a 911 call from an open cell phone. They summoned the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department to report to Interstate 24 around mile-marker 101. When a deputy arrived, he began speaking to the occupants of a Chevrolet Avalanche. During that time 25 year-old Jose Luis Garcia of Nashville pulled out a handgun and shot himself. The bullet apparently traveled through Garcia and struck two occupants inside the vehicle. The injured females were taken to the hospital for treatment of their non-life threatening injuries. After speaking to witnesses, it was...

Saturday morning pancakes just got a little better because now you can enjoy delicious pancakes with family and friends and support The Tullahoma Animal Shelter. The Animal Shelter is pleased to be hosting a pancake breakfast to raise money to help finance, medical operations for dogs at the shelter as well as for the new building fund. The event is Saturday (June 6) at Applebee’s from 7:30am-10am, and the cost is a minimum donation of $5. Friends of the Tullahoma Animal Shelter Fund Raising Chairman, Lincoln Brown, is pleased to announce a fundraising contest to benefit the new Tullahoma...

Tennessee Democrats have called for a special legislative session to take a full vote on Insure Tennessee. And, since the state is passing up millions of federal dollars, the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) says it is organizing a statewide tour of informational meetings about the health coverage gap. More than 280,000 Tennesseans remain uninsured after state lawmakers failed to pass Gov. Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee plan in the most recent session. According to TJC Executive Director Michele Johnson, it’s important to understand that Insure Tennessee wouldn’t increase the state’s bottom line. “This basically is budget-neutral for Tennessee taxpayers,” says...

Jonathan Micah Esslinger, 30, of Manchester was driving a 2007 Nissan Titan pickup along Parker Road late Thursday night when he lost control on a curve. According to a Tennessee Highway Patrol report, Esslinger’s truck ran off the right side of the roadway around midnight, striking a brick mailbox, two concrete columns and a culvert. The vehicle then overturned and came to rest on its wheels. Esslinger was pronounced dead at a Manchester hospital where he was transported by Coffee County EMS. Coffee County Sheriff’s Department personnel and firemen with the New Union Volunteer Fire Department assisted the THP...

Tullahoma Fire Chief Richard Shasteen worked to coordinate fire, rescue and police along with sheriff department personnel following a fall by a female at the Short Springs Natural Area last week. The victim, who fell from a trail near the Bobo Creek and Machine Falls Branch split, was reportedly awake when rescuers reached her and suffered non-life threatening injuries. Coffee County deputies, Rescue, EMS and EMA, as well as Tullahoma Fire and Rescue and Police responded. Tullahoma Police Department closed the 420-acre state-owned natural area to non-essential personnel for about an hour during the...

Fifty-thousand people in Tennessee who would qualify for new deportation-relief programs announced last year still cannot take advantage of them. This comes as a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a request Tuesday for an emergency stay that would have lifted the injunction that has delayed the implementation of those programs for people in Tennessee and the rest of the country. Eben Cathey, spokesman for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said they still have hope. “This is not the end. There’s a long way to go for this lawsuit,” he said. “This only covered whether or...