Coffee County’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 jumped to 17 as of 2 p.m. Thursday, this according to the Tennessee Department of Health. That number is up from 13 on Wednesday. Of those 17, four are considered recovered.  Statewide there are 6,262 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 141 deaths reported. Across the state there have been 691 hospitalizations and 2,786 classified as recovered. In Tennessee there have been 85,049 tests conducted.  The Tennessee Department of Health will offer 33 drive-through events this weekend (April 18-19) to make COVID-19 testing available to Tennesseans who are concerned about their health or the...

Unemployment claims continue to be incredibly high across the country and right here in Tennessee. The week ending April 11, 74,772 new unemployment claims were filed by Tennesseans. Combined with the prior three weeks, that makes 324,501 new claims in Tennessee over the past four weeks, with the peak week being April 4, when 116,141 filed for unemployment. For a reference, 2,702 claims were filed on March 14, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting the job market. More than 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, putting the total at more than 22 million Americans out...

Below is a statement from Manchester City Schools regarding the next few weeks and the end of the academic school year:  Manchester City Schools continue to work with our students and families as the 2019-2020 school year comes to a close. This is a school year like no other, but we hope to provide as much support and guidance during this difficult time as possible. Below are activities that will be occurring each week from now until May 22, 2020, the last day of the school year. • Week of April 20 – the past few weeks have been...

In the wake of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee extending his executive Stay-at-Home order, Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman released a statement Thursday to communicate with Manchester residents about operations at city hall.   Norman said the city will continue to operate on a four-day work week through May 1 and all offices will conduct business by phone from 7 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.   You can see the full statement below:“Gov. Bill Lee has extended his “Stay-at-Home” order until April 30, with plans to reopen the economy in May. The next two weeks are critical to our...

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced Thursday that the Paycheck Protection Program would not be accepting any more applications for the $349 billion program, because it is already out of money. The Payroll Protection Program is one of the federal government’s key pieces to the recently-passed stimulus to help small businesses and employees stay afloat. SBA reports that it approved more than 1.6 million Paycheck Protection Program loan applications totaling more than $339 billion from 4,900 ending institutions. One of the biggest draws of the program is that businesses who borrow and don’t lay off workers in the next...

Join us at Thunder Radio and Rosalyn Partin of the Manchester H&R Block and congratulate our student of the week – Kennedy Torres Kennedy is a sixth grade student at Coffee County Middle School and Mrs. Cooper is his homeroom teacher. Kennedy’s parents are Martha Hernandez and Erick Beltran. He enjoys playing soccer and hanging out with friends. When he grows up, Kennedy would like to pursue a career in soccer. Rosalyn Partin, owner of the Manchester H&R Block, has been inspired to recognize great kids in our community all year long. H&R Block gives each Student of the...

Manchester City Schools has released its plan for the final weeks of what would have been the end of the 2019-20 academic school year, along with plans for closing out the school year. The statement is as follows: Manchester City Schools continues to work with  students and families as the 2019-2020 school year comes to a close. This is a school year like no other, but we hope to provide as much support and guidance during this difficult time as possible. Below are activities that will be occurring each week from now until May 22, 2020, the last day...