News

A joint investigation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and investigators with the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has resulted in the indictment and arrest of the Smithville mayor and his son.
On March 7th, at the request of 13th District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway, Agents and investigators began investigating an allegation of theft from the city of Smithville, involving Mayor Jimmy Poss and his son Tony. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that the two men were responsible for the theft through the unlawful payment of wages from Jimmy Poss to Anthony Ross, from August 2017 through March 2018.

On Monday, the DeKalb County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Jimmy Wayne Poss with one count of Official Misconduct and one count of Theft over $2,500. Anthony Wayne Poss is charged with one count of Theft over $2,500. Both men were arrested Tuesday morning and booked into the DeKalb County Jail. The bond for Jimmy Poss was set at $5,000. Anthony Poss has a $2,500 bond.

Cannon County High School Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America joined more than 7,500 FCCLA student leaders, members, and advisers at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA June 27 – July 2 to participate in the annual Family Career and Community Leaders of America National Leadership Conference (NLC).The conference provided Cannon County students opportunities to come together for energizing learning while listening to inspiring speakers, expanding leadership skills, sharpening talents, and exploring career pathways. The theme of this year’s conference was “Inspired by FCCLA”, which inspired attendees to make the right choices and commit themselves to making a positive impact within their families, schools, FCCLA, and communities.
Austin Powell participated in the Leadership STAR (Students Taking Actions with Recognition) competition. These events support foundational, leadership, and workplace skills.  Competing with over 4,500 STAR Event participants in Atlanta, Austin was awarded a Silver Medal.
Destinee Byrd, Ashton Feinstein, and Austin Powell participated in the Engage Leadership Academy. The FCCLA Leadership Academy develops leadership, employability, and 21st Century skills and gives members the opportunity to be recognized for their personal growth efforts. Through the program, members are given the opportunity to explore and practice essentials for the roles of family member, wage earner and community leader. The Engage Academy strengthens leadership skills used to unify people through communication, collaboration, and conflict management.
 

New state guidelines concerning attendance procedures and policy will be implemented for the 2018-2019 school year. Parents and students will need to review student handbooks carefully at the beginning of the school year to understand changes in attendance procedures.  Due to changes in state law, students absent 3 days without adequate excuse (unexcused absence) will enter the progressive *Attendance Tier Intervention process.   
Each tier provides supports to students to help them stay in school.  Once a student enters into Tier 3 (10 unexcused days) the student and parent will be required to attend a Truancy Court.  Truancy Court, (which is a new resource in the Tier Intervention process) will be held at the Cannon County Courthouse court room. Judge Susan Melton and other community service providers will work along with the Supervisor of Attendance to address issues with students’ attendance and hopefully keep students from returning to the court room.  However, if a student continues to miss days after Truancy Court, they will be served to appear in juvenile court.  
 
 
Remember, attending school has a positive impact on children’s academic success-from kindergarten to high school graduation.  For context, most students in Tennessee miss six or less days each school year.
 
 
Although some absences are unavoidable due to health problems or other circumstances, students that miss too much school—regardless of the reason—fall behind academically. Absences can add up quickly. Students are less likely to succeed academically if they miss 10% or more of instructional days over the course of the school year (this means missing about two days of school per month or about 18 days per year).
 
Research shows:  
 
·         Tennessee students who are chronically absent in kindergarten are 15 percentage points less likely to reach proficiency in either 3rd grade math or ELA.
·         Nationally, four out of five students who miss more than 10% of both kindergarten and first grade are unable to read on grade-level by third grade.
·         The problem continues as students get older. Tennessee students who are chronically absent in 9th grade are 30 percentage points less likely to earn an
on-time diploma (62% vs. 92%).
 
We don’t want your child to fall behind in school or get discouraged. Please ensure that your child attends school every day and arrives on time. Below are a few practical tips to help support regular attendance.
 
 
 
Attendance Pointers for Parents
 
 

Make sure your children keep a regular bedtime and establish a morning routine.
 

Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
 

Make sure your children go to school every day unless they are truly sick.
 

Avoid scheduling vacations or doctor’s appointments when school is in session.
 

Develop back up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, neighbor, or another parent to take your child to school.
 

Talk to teachers and counselors for advice if your children feel anxious about going to school or show other signs of not wanting to go to school.
 
We want your child to be successful in school. Let us know how we can best support you and your child so that he or she shows up for school on time every day. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact your child’s teacher, principal, school counselor, or check out the parent resources available at http://www.attendanceworks.org/ 
For more information concerning the new attendance policy and the Attendance Tier Intervention process, contact Bonnie Patterson, Supervisor of Attendance for Cannon County Schools at 615-563-5752.
 
 

Cannon County is known for white oak baskets and moonshine, could that expand to movies?  A new venture in the county is holding a fund raiser Thursday night.Movie producer David Rosler is inviting the public to find out more about his movie Orbiter, a 3D Christian motion picture project.   The event is scheduled at Moonlight Theater in Woodbury. Christian speaker Emily Powell, Backroads Country Band, candidate for State Representative Menda McCall Holmes, singer Chaylyn Thompson and plenty of movie trailers are all scheduled.
 Rosler recently acquired property in the county for the purpose of creating a movie studio.
The fund raiser is Thursday night from 7:00pm – 11:00pm.  Adults $10.00, children 6 and older $5.00 and children under 5 are free.
 http://www.orbitermovie.com/christian-movie-studio.htmlwww.davidrosler.com
Christian speaker /host EMILY POWELLhttps://egpowell416.myportfolio.com/
 

Law enforcement agencies across the southeast are gearing up to put the brakes on high-speed drivers. The second annual “Operation Southern Shield” is underway in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. The goal of the operation, which lasts through Sunday, July 22, is to reduce crashes, fatalities and injuries by cracking down on speeding drivers.
In Tennessee, more than 9,100 citations were issued during the 2017 operation. 5,500 of those were for speeding.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says speeding killed more than 10,000 people in the United States in 2016 and was a factor in 27 percent of fatal crashes in the nation.

A veteran Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office detective is on paid leave pending a couple of investigations.  Sheriff’s office officials say narcotics division detective, Lieutenant Jason Mathis, is facing an internal investigation and a probe by the TBI.  Mathis has been with the department for 20 years.  He was part of the department’s April seizure of nearly 60-thousand Xanax pills and other drugs.  

An update from the General Assembly, naming of committee members for the new grievance committee and several other items were on the agenda for the Cannon County Board of Commissioners this weekend.In a discussion that lasted over 30 minutes to the question of buying a firetruck for the Bradyville Fire Department, no decision was reached.  Commissioners couldn’t agree if they needed to buy the truck, pay off a truck for the rescue squad or replacing an ambulance for medical services.
As we reported over the weekend, Cannon County Baseball Coach Colin Jones had developed a plan to build a small field house for the team beside of the baseball diamond at the fairgrounds.  The coach working with members of the community supporting the project.  The board of education gave approval pending budget approval and the approval of the commissioners.
Since the baseball field is on the county fairgrounds, a lease was proposed to move the sports field from the county to the school board. The question may return before the commissioners in the future, however the answer on Saturday was no.
Members were announced for the county’s new grievance committee; Judy Shone, Marty Williams, Joe Young, Randall Davis and Oletha Thomas.  James Atkins will serve as chairman.
State Senator Mark Pody gave an update to the commissioners on the past session of the general assembly and took questions from the public.
Robert Bush informed the commissioners on the work of the records preservation committee. The group is working with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office and are working to acquire some financial assist with the work.
Since the next scheduled meeting date for the commissioners is slated for election primary day, August 2nd, the meeting has been re-scheduled for 16th.
 

Cannon County School Board made policy changes and advanced the discussion on facility upgrades at their regular monthly meeting this week (July 12th).One project discussed at the June meeting was developing a field house at the high school baseball field. The field is located on the county fairgrounds.  Coach Collin Jones gave the board an update on the planning process.  Indications are the bulk of the project will be funded by fans of the program.  The board gave their support, pending approval by county government.  More is expected at the next meeting.
The board approved eight policy changes, six were revisions and two were new policies.  Many of the revisions were minor in nature and follow along the guidelines of the Tennessee School Board Association.
The continuation of a special education transportation agreement with the Rutherford County Board of Education was approved.
The board has submitted their budget to the county budget committee. 
Next scheduled meeting for the board is a workshop session on Tuesday, August 7th.  The regular board meeting is Thursday, August 9th.
 

Saturday July 14th was supposed to be a day for the Cannon County Football Team to get some work in for their offense and defense and then maybe make a splash in the tournament following the pool play in the Shelbyville “Pencil City” 7 on 7 Passing Tournament.  Don’t tell that to the 17 players from Cannon who came to compete!  Going 2-2 in the Pool play, with a last minute possible upset of Franklin County, Cannon entered the bracket as the number 8 seed to face arch rival DeKalb, the number 9 seed.  Both teams squared off for what would become a very tight game.  Cannon scored first taking almost 8 plays to reach the end zone, but DeKalb came right back and scored on their first play from 40 yards out.  Both teams settling in and creating stops on defense for both sides let Cannon finish with a 9-8 victory over DeKalb with a late interception (interceptions gain 2 points for the defense) to seal the contest as time expired. Cannon’s victory over DeKalb earned them the quarterfinal game against #1 seed Franklin County, who Cannon had just missed beating in the final seconds of their pool play games.  Franklin came out with over 40 players and were very impressive on offense as the Rebels moved down the field to take the early lead.  Cannon sputtered on offense the first two drives and threw an interception to end one of those series.  However, the Cannon defense would not be denied and responded with their own pick that put excitement back in Cannon and spurred the offense to move the ball down the field with a long pass from Reese Smith to Cort Litchford for the game winning touchdown.  Cannon’s defense shut the Rebels offense down on the 5-yard line and forced the turn over on downs.  Cannon wins the quarterfinal game 11-8.
Cannon then moved to the semi-finals to face Creek Wood who would shut Cannon’s offense down the first two series.  Luckily the Cannon defense made Creek Wood use almost all its downs to score their first two touchdowns, which gave the Cannon offensive staff time to make adjustments to Creek Woods defense.  The rain then moved in and it looked like Cannon’s run had come to an end with 3rd and long and soaked footballs.  However, Smith connected with Brady Cunningham on a 15 yard crossing pattern to get the first down.  Cannon would score in the next two plays with a deep corner route to Litchford to put the game within reach.  Cannon’s defense shined again with a pick, and two points, that gave some life to a Cannon squad that was worn out having to play both ways.  Down by 4 points with less than 7 minutes left the Lions moved down the field with catches by Conner Tucker, Dillon Taylor, Nick Phillips, and Logan Bundy.  Burning clock and making first downs, capped off with a late touchdown, the Lions punched their ticket to the finals with a score of 16-14 over Creek Wood.
Due to weather restrictions the game versus Page was delayed and then decided that Cannon and Page would be Co-Champions because the weather was becoming unpredictable.  Cannon finished the tournament 5-2 and Co-Champs of the tournament.
Coach Matt Daniel praised his team for the effort and level of commitment showed by the offense and defense.  Daniel also pointed out that the team was playing with less than 20 players and that most people played both ways all day along with 3 freshmen who made huge impacts at their position.  Big Defensive plays by Brandy Cunningham, Brady Smith, Blake Bond, Lucas Clark, Cort Litchford, and Reese Smith contributed to Cannon’s success.
Cannon has one more 7 on 7 event vs Community High School on July 17th @ 11AM @ Community.  Cannon begins fall camp on July 23rd and has its first full scrimmage August 3rd @ Huntland.  Cannon’s first home scrimmage will be August 10th vs White County and will open the season at home vs Red Boiling Springs on August 17th.

The WeCareCannon back-to-school event will be held July 29, 2018 between the hours of 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Woodbury Grammar School.  In its 7th year of existence, WeCareCannon prepares children of Cannon County for the upcoming school year.  The goal of the program is to provide school supplies, shoes, hygiene products, undergarments, haircuts, dental, vision, and athletic health screenings to all Cannon County youth (Pre-K through 12th grade) in the Cannon County area.  Kick off the school year with free check-ups, school supplies, and backpacks! Remember, children must be present to receive services.