The Tennessee Board of Regents says it will invest a $2 million grant received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation into programs that will help increase graduation rates, especially among first-generation and low-income students. According to The Tennessean, the board said in a statement that the grant would help expand and improve services offered at schools. The board includes the state’s 46 public colleges that aren’t part of the University of Tennessee system. In a statement, TBR Chancellor John Morgan says the money will go toward workshops and training that will encourage faculty and staff across the system...

College students across Tennessee are relishing a break this week because of the holiday, and this year there are more of them, thanks in part to the state’s new Tennessee Promise program. The free-tuition program increased the number of first-time freshmen to more than 50,000 this year, an increase of about 10 percent in the first year of the program. Mike Krause, executive director of Tennessee Promise, said the program is helping to shift post-secondary education in the state in a way that nothing else could. “There was no way we could ever produce more college graduates in Tennessee...

Estill Springs Police searching for suspect in a Dollar General Store robbery. Just before noon this past Saturday morning a man wielding a knife walked into the Estill Springs Dollar General Store on 41A and demanded money, and he’s still on the loose. The frightened clerk opened the cash drawer and gave the man what was inside. The suspect then fled the store on foot and the clerk called police. Estill Springs Police Chief Alan Rhodes is asking for the public’s help in identifying a vehicle that may have been parked on Cinder Path Road, behind the store and...

This Thanksgiving week, advocates for families advise parents to relish time with their children. A new report from the children’s advocacy group Search Institute, stresses the importance of extra family time when it comes to development. Researchers found family time has more of an impact than demographic factors such as race and income. Peggy O’Mara, former editor of Mothering Magazine, says it confirms basic principles of how humans develop. “We really learn by mimicking and by modeling rather than by being told what to do,” she explains. “So when parents interact with their children, when they show interest in them,...

A Tullahoma woman has been arrested on several charges following an incident at Wal-Mart on North Jackson Street in Tullahoma. Allyson Nichole Spelce, 32, of Autumn Lane Tullahoma was charged with shoplifting, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, driving on revoke/suspended license, evading arrest, criminal trespass and two counts of assault. According to a warrant obtained by Tullahoma Police Officer Derrick Derlien, on Nov. 23 Spelce is accused of shoplifting from the store and having two 14-year-olds shoplift with her. The items totaled $210 in value. She fled the store when store employees attempted to...