A winning Powerball ticket worth $50,000 was purchased in Winchester, Tennessee. The player won by matching 4 of the 5 white numbers drawn along with the red Powerball number. No additional information about the winner is available until the prize is claimed. Lottery officials said Wednesday night’s drawing created 37,217 winning tickets of various prize levels across the state. The jackpot also grew to a massive $478 million for this Saturday night’s...

Despite some portions of the area receiving heavy downpours of rain, an area near the Franklin, Grundy, and Coffee county lines is considered to have moderate to severe drought conditions. William Henley of Henley Farms told WKRN-TV that the extreme heat has affected his corn crops. Henley said he is lucky that he will be able to salvage at least some of this year’s yield, adding he feels sorry for farmers south of his location who have seen their whole corn crop burn up. Since part of his farm is near the Elk River, Henley has set up an...

Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN) has announced the recipients of their Creative Communities Grants program. This initiative was created to connect rural and underserved populations with entrepreneurial education, tools and resources. All grantees will be using their awards to run entrepreneurial or workforce development programs. Applicants were encouraged to collaborate with other local partners to customize their programming based on the demand and niche in their communities. LaunchTN provided a “tool kit” with ready-to-deploy curriculums, such as CO.STARTERS, 100 Girls of Code and Dev Catalyst, that organizations could utilize when creating proposals. Creative Communities was a competitive application process and grantees...

A Grundy County teacher and coach has been suspended pending an investigation into an altercation between two students. Jerry Wayne Brown Jr., who according to the school’s website is a physical education teacher and the boys’ basketball coach, was suspended from his teaching and coaching duties on July 22. Director of Schools Jessie Kinsey told reporters the suspension comes after allegations of neglect of duty. Kinsey would not comment on how the allegations relate to the altercation between the two...

Tennessee’s sale tax free weekend is this week. Freedom from sales tax on certain items begins at midnight Friday, July 29th and continues until midnight Sunday, July 31st. Even though the tax free weekend is earlier this year, the great news is that the benefits remain the same. No sales tax on clothing, school and art supplies costing $100 or less per item; and no tax on computers that cost $1,500 or less. And if you’re trying to figure out when this major sales weekend began, it was back in 2007–when our economy had many challenges. It accomplished its...

On Tuesday (July 26) the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department began the process of installing stickers on the back of patrol cars. The stickers say “In God WeTrust”, and deputies are very proud to display the statement on their vehicles.  Sheriff Steve Graves says that this has been something his department has been wanting to do for around a year. Graves says, “We wanted to do this without using taxpayer money, and that has now been accomplished.” The sheriff added that installing “In God We Trust” stickers has been a movement within the law enforcement community, and he is proud...