Manchester Police are investigating the abduction and assault of a Tullahoma woman early New Year’s Day. According to Manchester Chief Investigator Billy Butler, around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning a woman, who was not identified, was standing near a soon to be open gas station on Hillsboro Boulevard in Manchester, near the 41 South Bar & Grill, when she was approached by a male who then abducted her. The abductor then forced her into a vehicle and drove away. According to the investigator, the assailant then took her to another location and assaulted her. After assaulting the woman the man...

A Tullahoma woman is facing a number of charges following a single vehicle crash early New Year’s Day in Franklin County. According to a report by Tennessee Highway Patrolman Duane Stevens, around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday Donna F. Wright, 53, of West Grundy Street, Tullahoma lost control of her 1997 Ford Escort on Highway 130, left the roadway and collided with a utility pole. The trooper’s report states that Wright and passenger Gary Painter, 34, of Nashville got out of the vehicle and left the area. However, the trooper later located them. When the pair left the scene, according to...

A new law requiring Tennessee residents 60 years or older to have a photo on their driver’s license is among those that toke effect on Tuesday. State Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville, the legislation’s sponsor, said seniors who don’t have a photo on their license before Tuesday won’t be required to get one. However, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis said the new requirement poses an inconvenience to seniors with mobility issues, or those in rural areas, who may be unable to get to the proper location to make the change. Kyle said they were exempt when...

State Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, is expected to announce today during a press conference in Murfreesboro that he will challenge U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., in the 2014 Republican primary. According to a Republican with close ties to Tracy, the 56-year-old insurance agency owner has scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning in Murfreesboro where he will formally declare he is running. Tracy will become the first Republican to declare he is running against DesJarlais, who touts his anti-abortion positions but has been caught up in a personal scandal surrounding affairs he conducted with at least two patients in...

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development is warning that federal extended unemployment benefits are about to expire. Congress created the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program in 2008 to provide unemployment benefits to workers who had exhausted their state benefits. The legislation has been amended 10 times since it became effective, but it is set to expire today. About 30,000 Tennesseans currently receive the benefits. Labor Commissioner Karla Davis said in a news release that claimants can get help finding jobs by using the Jobs4TN.gov website or visiting one of the department’s career centers. As of yesterday, Tennessee will...

A northwest Georgia amusement park hopes to open a new water park with a tax break under a new Georgia law. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that the Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement Park hopes to break ground in January on the new five-acre water park just south of the Tennessee-Georgia line. Park officials also hope to know by then whether they’ll get a $198,050 tax break on the water park’s equipment under Senate Bill 386, a new Georgia law that exempts projects of “regional significance” from state and local use taxes. Chickamauga Republican state Sen. Jeff Mullis says there’s...

A murder trial scheduled to start Jan. 3, 2013 in Coffee County Circuit Court of a Winchester man has been rescheduled until Feb. 13, 2013. 42-year-old Marcus Wade of Elm Street Winchester is charged with the October 2010 murder of 50-year-old Richard Wayne Elliott of Estill Springs and 34-year-old Timothy Wayne Gill of Winchester in the Quality Inn motel on North Jackson Street in Tullahoma. A motion to delay the case was heard Friday before Coffee County Circuit Court Judge Craig Johnson. The delay was requested after assistant district attorney Jason Ponder underwent surgery. According to the Billy Cook,...

County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for November 2012, have been released and they show the rate decreased in 91 counties, increased in one, and remained the same in three. Williamson County had the state’s lowest rate at 4.4%. The highest remains in Scott County at 15.3%. Tennessee’s unemployment rate for November decreased to 7.6 percent, down from the October revised rate of 8.2 percent. The national unemployment rate for November 2012 was 7.7 percent, 0.2 percentage point lower than the October rate. Coffee County continued a downward trend going from 7.4 to 7.2%. Other area counties; Bedford Co. fell...