Around 8:30pm Friday evening a man and a woman were traveling west on Wayside Road.  The male driver claims to have reached down to change a CD, then went off the road and struck a power pole. The driver of the truck was wearing a seatbelt and was uninjured. The passenger was not wearing a seatbelt, and she struck the windshield with her head. She was taken to a local hospital complaining of head and neck pain. The power pole was broken completely off and will have to be replaced. The Tennessee Highway Patrol was in charge of the...

Final preparations are underway for this year’s Bonnaroo. Local law enforcement, ambulance personnel and EMA officials have been meeting with officials of the promoters to review the routes that will be used to get festival goers to grounds and other plans of services. The 11th annual festival will be held June 7-10 and will attract attendees from all over the country and some foreign countries as...

The Coffee County Emergency Communication District has filed a federal lawsuit against AT&T, demanding $76,000 in service charges. The suit claims that the phone company has billed the communication district in excess of the number of phone lines for which the company reported and remitted 911...

A Bedford County judge has ruled the mother who sent her adopted son back to Russia must pay $1,000 a month in child support and thousands more in court costs and past fees associated with the case. Torry Hansen was living in Shelbyville in April 2010 when she sent her then-seven-year-old son on a plane alone back to Moscow with a note that said the boy was violent and she no longer wanted to keep him. A judge ruled earlier this year that Hansen is liable for child support and that she must also pay damages to an international...

Dollar General Stores will be adding a 6th location in Coffee County. The newest store will be located on Highway 55 in Northeast Coffee County in the Summitville Community. The company currently has 2 stores in Manchester, one on the Woodbury Hwy in New Union, one in Hillsboro and one in Tullahoma. The Goodlettsville-based discount retailer says it company has enjoyed strong sales over the past several...

Tennessee’s unemployment dropped slightly in April, marking the ninth straight month of decreases in the state’s unemployment rate. The 7.8% unemployment rate is down from 7.9% in March and the lowest it’s been since November 2008. Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Karla Davis said in a release that the decrease in the jobless rate is largely caused by fewer people seeking work. The national unemployment rate was 8.1% in April, also 0.1% age point lower than the previous month. State manufacturing saw the biggest increase compared with last month, at a growth rate of 1.8%. Next were jobs in...

Students participating in spring sports next year such as baseball, softball, track, and soccer may have to find their own transportation to “away” events, due to cost cutting measures by the county school system. Coffee County School and Transportation Department officials told the Budget and Finance Committee this week that they were requesting an additional $390,000 for the upcoming school year, primarily to purchase three new school buses and increased fuel cost despite the fact that the department is losing a total of eight buses now considered “too old” by state standards. The county finance director says the cost...

A recent drought report shows Tennessee as abnormally dry just ahead of a long stretch of dry weather expected this summer. According to the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers, many lakes in the Cumberland River Basin are at levels below normal and Percy Priest Lake is at its lowest level since 1986. Similar conditions brought severe drought to Tennessee in 2007 and 2008. In late 2007, Normandy Lake was 15 feet below normal. The lake is currently two feet below where it was in the spring of 2007. According to National Weather Service forecasters, June, July and August are expected...