WKOM/WKRM Radio
Southern Middle Tennessee Today
News Copy for January 6, 2025
All news stories are aggregated from various sources and modified for time and content. Original sources are cited.
We start with local news…
Columbia Man Sought (MSM)
The Franklin Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in locating a convicted felon who was recently sentenced for striking an officer with his vehicle.
Roy Nicholson III, 28, of Columbia, was scheduled to turn himself in on Jan. 2, 2025, to begin his five-year prison sentence but never showed. A capias warrant has been issued.
In April 2022, Nicholson struck Officer Dustyn Stevens with his vehicle while attempting to flee a traffic stop along I-65. Nicholson was convicted in August 2024 of reckless aggravated assault, evading arrest with a deadly weapon (vehicle), possession of marijuana with the intent to sell and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. He was sentenced in November 2024.
Anyone with information on Nicholson’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Franklin Police Department at (615) 794-2513, or Crime Stoppers of Williamson County at (615) 794-4000. Callers can remain anonymous.
Tom Hitch Parkway to Partially Close (Press Release)
Repairs to a bridge crossing the Duck River will lead to a temporary closure of a portion of Tom J. Hitch Parkway, Maury County and City of Columbia officials announced last week.
Beginning on Monday, Jan. 13 at 10 a.m., Tom J. Hitch Parkway will be closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic between Bear Creek Pike (Highway 412) and Iron Bridge Road. Construction is expected to last through summer 2025.
Highway 31 through downtown Columbia is the preferred detour, officials announced.
Anyone with additional questions is encouraged to contact the Maury County Highway Department at (931) 375-6202.
Investigation into Ogles’ Campaign Finance Recommended (CDH)
After a preliminary review, an independent federal agency has recommended the U.S. House Ethics Committee conduct a full investigation into U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ campaign finances, centering on a $320,000 contribution reported by Ogles' 2022 congressional campaign.
The Office of Congressional Ethics made the recommendation this week. Ogles and his wife did not cooperate with the agency's preliminary review and the office is recommending the couple be subpoened as part of the investigation.
Following an ethics complaint last January, Ogles admitted that the self-loan of $320,000 that he had reported as cash to the Federal Election Commission for two years was in fact a “pledge” for funding for which the need never arose. He later amended disclosures to reduce the loan reported to $20,000. A complaint against Ogles was referred to the Office of Congressional Ethics in August.
The preliminary investigative report released Thursday found “substantial reason” to believe Ogles’ campaign “accepted excessive contributions that were reported as personal loans and contributions from the candidate,” and “may have intentionally misrepresented the amount of money he loaned to his campaign.”
“Rep. Ogles’ campaign operated with $300,000 less than it reported – but did not dip into the red or spend general election dollars, suggesting Rep. Ogles was aware of the campaign’s true, unreported cash on hand,” the report states. “Rep. Ogles controlled his campaign finances and provided his treasurer with misleading documentation of the reported $320,000 loan.”
The Trump ally and House Freedom Caucus member was reelected to a second term in November, weeks after the FBI took possession of his cell phone as part of a probe believed to surround his campaign finances.
Ogles has publicly dismissed allegations of wrongdoing as a symptom of a “weaponized Justice Department”. The FBI probe didn’t hurt Ogles with his base.
Office of Congressional Ethics staff deposed Ogles’ campaign treasurer Thomas Datwyler and chief of staff Grant Henry – who was campaign manager for his 2022 and 2024 campaigns – finding Ogles “exercised significant control” over his campaign’s finances “to the point that both his campaign treasurer and campaign manager lacked access to his campaign bank account and relied on Rep. Ogles for information about campaign finances.”
House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., and Ranking Member Rep. Susan Wild, D-Penn., said in a statement that further review of Ogles’ case does not in itself indicate that any violation has occurred.
Ogles has faced scrutiny and multiple complaints over his federal campaign finance disclosures for more than two years, including a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging a “pattern of malfeasance” in his financial dealings in 2022, and $5,750 in civil penalties for campaign finance violations after the 2022 cycle.
He was first elected to Congress in 2022 – 20 years after he first ran – becoming the first Republican to represent Nashville in the 5th Congressional District after state lawmakers split the city into three GOP-leaning districts.
Maury County Teachers of the Year (MSM)
Maury County Public Schools recently announced its District-Level Teachers of the Year for the 2024-25 school year. These outstanding educators represent the very best in teaching excellence, dedication and leadership at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
Elementary School Teacher of the Year: Jill Mitchell
Jill Mitchell, a teacher at Spring Hill Elementary School, has been recognized as the District-Level Teacher of the Year for Grades PreK-4. Known for her passion and creativity in the classroom, Jill fosters a love of learning among her young students and inspires them to achieve their fullest potential.
Middle School Teacher of the Year: Brooke Davis
Brooke Davis, from Santa Fe Unit School, has been named the District-Level Teacher of the Year for Grades 5-8. Brooke’s commitment to her students’ success and her innovative teaching practices have left a lasting impact on the SFUS community.
High School Teacher of the Year: Anna Arnold
Anna Arnold, a dedicated educator at Mt. Pleasant High School, has been selected as the District-Level Teacher of the Year for Grades 9-12. Anna’s unwavering dedication to her students and her ability to inspire academic excellence make her a valued member of the MPHS family.
Motor Vehicle Record (Press Release)
Beginning Jan. 10, 2025, new or returning Tennessee residents who currently have a driver license from California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Nevada, Oklahoma, Vermont or West Virginia must present a Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) from their former state when applying for a Tennessee license.
Individuals from these eight states must obtain an MVR from their former state before applying for a Tennessee license or ID. An MVR must have been issued within 30 days before its presentation at a Driver Services Center. The MVR is required alongside other necessary documents to apply for a Tennessee credential. For more information about the documents required to obtain a license in Tennessee, visit tn.gov/safety/driver-services.html.
All other states, including Tennessee, participate in the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators’ State-to-State (S2S) Verification Service. This service allows participating states to electronically access the complete Driver History Record of anyone applying for a driver license. As a result, individuals moving from one of the 41 participating states do not have to obtain an MVR to qualify for a Tennessee driver license.
Through the S2S system, states can share real-time information about individual drivers, including convictions and license withdrawals. By providing a driver’s complete history, states can reduce the risk of fraud and improve safety by keeping dangerous drivers off the roads. Additionally, S2S enhances accuracy and reduces the processing time for a obtaining a new credential in Tennessee.
The MVR requirement will change as additional states join the S2S Verification Service. For the latest information, please visit tn.gov/safety/.
Maury Alliance Annual Meeting
Join Maury Alliance on Thursday, January 30th for their annual meeting, their most anticipated event of the year as they celebrate their accomplishments for 2024 and recognize the transition of their volunteer leadership.
This will be a lively night of entertainment and networking celebrating business and industry in Maury County with a social hour, dinner and live music!
The event will take place at the Memorial Building, located at 308 W. 7th Street in Columbia. The event will begin at 5pm with a networking/cocktail hour and wrap up by 8pm. Purchase tickets now to guarantee a seat at Maury Alliance’s biggest event of the year! Get them by visiting www.mauryalliance.com.
Registration will close January 20 at 5:00 pm.
Night of Hope (Press Release)
The Well Outreach is pleased to present their 2025 "Night of Hope" on February 22nd, 2025 at Worldwide Stages featuring Christian Contemporary Artists, We The Kingdom! It's going to be an evening full of inspiring live music, worship, and hope - plus, your ticket helps feed local families in need.
What's Included:
- Your ticket feeds a family of four with groceries for a week
- VIP/Meet & Greet opportunities (with upgraded ticket)
- Small bites and tastings before the show
- A live auction to support The Well Outreach’s cause
- A powerful concert and worship experience with We The Kingdom
This event raises important funding for the rest of the year so that The Well can meet the needs of thousands of families coming to their food pantry with food insecurities. This is more than just a concert - it's a night to come together in faith and make a tangible impact on the lives of those who need it most.
Tickets are still available, including limited seats to a special meet-and-greet with We The Kingdom plus tickets by the seat or table.
For more information on the work and mission of the Well Outreach, please visit their website: thewelloutreach.org
Maury County’s Cold War Spy (CDH)
In 1954, Robert "Bob" Jones ran for this life onto a busy street in Hamburg, Germany covered in fresh blood. By a stroke of a miracle, none of it was his.
What happened in Room 204 at a hotel just minutes before was almost unspeakable and would not be uttered to anyone for the next 62 years.
Jones now shares his story partly with pride regarding serving his country during the threat of communism but also with tears for lives lost and deeds done. He gently holds the key to that Hamburg hotel room in his hands, still stained with blood, a physical reminder of what happened that day — one of the only items in his possession while serving as one of the first security agents, or Cold War spy, in U.S. National Security Agency.
Jones tried to hail a cab, but he repelled anyone who laid eyes on him like a gruesome scene from a horror movie.
He had just witnessed one of the most traumatic and violent incidents of his life as a young 21-year-old U.S. Cold War spy, during a clash with the Russian KGB.
Jones's clandestine mission — to secure a state-of-the-art (at the time) Russian cryptology machine — had gone awry, leaving four dead agents, two Russian, one Danish defector and Jones's protector, a CIA "shadow agent," who had narrowly saved Jones’s life in the hotel room.
If Jones's fate had been different that day, and he met his death, no one would have been the wiser. He had no ID. No one knew his real name, and no one who loved him knew his location in the world.
That was his life as a secret agent, one of the first U.S. Cold War spies to be trained in the U.S. National Security Agency, newly formed in the 1950s.
According to Jones, as he recently recounted the event, his mission to confiscate a cryptology machine from a Danish colonel defector took a turn when somehow two Russian agents found out and burst into the room. They confronted the Danish colonel, pulled out a 14-inch knife and decapitated him on the spot.
"His head bounced off of my shoulder and onto the ground," Jones said. "Then my shadow CIA agent, burst out of the closet where he had been hiding and shot both Russian agents. One was shot in the forehead and the other in the heart.
"I rushed to my shadow agent, who had also been shot, and I told him I'd get help. But he said, 'finish.' I realized he wanted me to finish the mission, sacrificing his own life. I held him in my arms, while he was dying.
"I still think about him. I didn't even know him or his name, but he saved my life," Jones said.
Jones paid off a cab driver to drive him to safety, and once clear of danger, he collapsed and wept in his NSA supervisor's arms.
Jones realized what he had been training for was to be a spy in the NSA when the department was first announced in 1952 on the radio to the American public by President Harry S. Truman. At the time, Jones was just one of a handful of people in the NSA, whereas now the department employs thousands.
"I was the only one in plain clothes that showed up [to report]. That's when I realized something was going on," he said.
"They took everything that could identify me. They took my driver's license, all of my army clothes and belongings and sent me to Frankfurt Germany. They even took a picture of my girlfriend."
By the time Jones faced the KGB in Room 204, he was an experienced spy.
He initially went through rigorous psychological training with Central Intelligence Agency agents at Langley, Virginia and Vint Hill Farms in Virginia (once a U.S. communications base) in psychological exercises such as observation, decoding and hypnosis.
"It appeared the aim was to push us relentlessly and find our breaking points," he writes in his book, "Room 204: Story of a Cold War Spy" published by CFS Printing & Promotional Products in Columbia, Tenn.
One of his first missions is also emblazoned upon his mind and heart, even today. Taking advantage of a German soldier's drunkenness one night, Jones manipulated the soldier into selling him a Morse code machine that would translate encrypted British codes for the U.S. war agenda.
"Later I heard that the soldier had been arrested and had consequently taken his life. I knew it was because of me," Jones said becoming emotional. "I slumped into a chair. I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I dream about it."
Born in 1933 in Davidson County during The Great Depression, Jones moved with his large family, seven siblings, to a farm outside Mt. Pleasant when he was 7 years old so his father, a blacksmith, could be closer to viable work.
With no running water or electricity in the house, Jones remembers tough financial times when his family sometimes couldn't afford coal to keep the house warm or food.
"I remember once my father told my mother she had to stop me from using too much jelly when I ate toast," Jones writes in his book.
Foreshadowing what was to come while serving five years in the military, Jones remembers playing "Army" with his friends as a young boy when his family moved inside the city limits of Mount Pleasant, then "the phosphate capital of the world."
"I had a golf iron with a wooden shaft, and that was my gun," he writes.
Jones learned a strong work ethic young when he began working as early as 10 years old with jobs ranging from cleaning his family's chicken coop for 10 cents, to selling black walnuts to the local grocery store, shining shoes and delivering the Tennessean and Nashville Banner newspapers.
Laying the groundwork for his eventual placement in the NSA, Jones learned Morse code from his Mount Pleasant Boys Scouts Troop, which helped him score high on a U.S. Army aptitude test taken at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
Jones can't remember how many passports he used with a false identity to travel to more than 20 countries on clandestine missions as a spy.
Sixty-two years after Jones survived the incident in Room 204 and other dangerous missions, he lived a quiet life back in his hometown of Mt. Pleasant retiring after a 35-year career with Union Carbide in Columbia, Tenn.
No one knew the secrets of his past until he opened up several years ago during a chance conversation at a youth conference, telling about his experience in the military. He then spoke publicly for the first time about his role as a spy at a Veterans Day program at his church, First United Methodist Church in Columbia, Tennessee.
A constant throughout Jones's life was his relationship with his wife Jean, his high school sweetheart who he married half way through his service in the U.S. military. She's the reason he decided to turn his back on a career of espionage and come home.
When offered a permanent job with the NSA, he declined.
"I knew being the wife of a military officer was not what Jean signed up for. I decided that it wasn't for me," Jones said.
The couple has been married for 71 years and have three children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Since retiring from Union Carbide in Columbia, Jones also worked for the Kings Daughters School for 15 years and has been involved in his church and various civic activities.
With such work as a secret agent that blurs the lines between fighting for one's country and bending moral boundaries, Jones said, and he has sought God's forgiveness for any wrongs he carried out.
He now has peace with the Lord, he said.
Throughout life, it's important to put God first, he said.
"We are not perfect, none of us are. We have our ups and downs and bad times, but the good times way far out measure the bad. Why did God spare me? Does he still have something for me to do? ... My faith in God is everywhere. Everything I see, I know it's God's hand that makes it. We don't always understand God's decisions."
Taking up wood working as a hobby later in life, he has carved 7,000 cross necklaces and given them out to strangers, family and friends.
He has no doubt God has protected him from close calls, including almost being revealed during a flight passport check after a clandestine operation. And the number 204 has been a constant and comforting reminder of God's protection, Jones said. The number address of his home in Columbia with Jean, a director of United Way for many years, was 204, where the couple raised a family for over 50 years, a happy and peaceful life.
"Of this Jean and I are certain: God gets all the credit and the glory for our lives," Jones says.
And now, Your Hometown Memorials, Sponsored by Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home…
Stevan Harris “Steve” Howell, 73, retired owner and operator of Maury Construction Company and a resident of Santa Fe, passed away Saturday, January 4, 2025 at Maury Regional Medical Center.
Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM at McCain’s Cumberland Presbyterian Church with Rev. Jimmy Peyton officiating. Burial will follow in McCain’s Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Monday, January 6, 2025 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home and Tuesday, January 7, 2025 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at the church.
And now, news from around the state…
Tennessee Ranks 5th in Growth According to U-Haul (MCS)
Tennessee is the No. 5 growth state of 2024, according to U-Haul® Growth Index data analyzing one-way customer transactions during the past year. This marks the fifth consecutive year the Volunteer State has been a top 10 U-Haul growth state. It also ranked fifth in 2023.
South Carolina climbs three spots to dethrone Texas for the top growth spot.
U-Haul customers coming to Tennessee accounted for 50.6% of all one-way traffic in and out of the state (49.4% departures) last year.
Looking at year-over-year changes, U-Haul arrivals into Tennessee fell 1% while departures also fell 1% as overall moving traffic slowed in 2024.
U-Haul ranks growth states according to each state’s net gain (or loss) of one-way equipment from customer transactions in a calendar year. The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from more than 2.5 million one-way U-Haul truck, trailer and U-Box® portable moving container transactions that occur annually across the U.S. and Canada.
“A lot of people are moving here because of how pro-business our government is,” said Jeff Porter, U-Haul Area District Vice President. “Tennessee is a great place to start a business with the low tax burden. We continue to see people moving in, and U-Haul is actively working on getting permits for multiple new facilities across the state to address growing demand.
“People here are friendly. We say hello to someone when they pass you on the street. I think Southern charm goes a long way and appeals to a lot of people. Tennessee is just a good place to live, and there is a lot to do.”
Tennessee’s notable leading growth cities include (in alphabetical order): Athens, Brentwood, Bristol, Clarksville, Cleveland, Cookeville, Crossville, Franklin, Greeneville, Hendersonville, Johnson City, Kingsport, Knoxville, La Vergne, Lebanon, Madison, Mt. Juliet, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Pigeon Forge, Shelbyville and White House.
North Carolina and Florida are also among the top five growth states for 2024. It’s the same top five from 2023, but in a slightly different order.
California ranks 50th for the fifth year in a row with the largest net loss of one-way U-Haul customers. Oklahoma (+30), Indiana (+19) and Maine (+18) are the biggest risers YOY, while Colorado (-31), Nevada (-24), Wyoming (-22) and New Mexico (-21) saw the biggest slides.
Find past growth rankings and reports at uhaul.com/about/migration.
Final Story of the Day (Maury County Source)
The Nashville Symphony is excited to announce that its 31st annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day celebration concert, MLK: A Celebration in Song, will now be free to the public thanks to a generous sponsorship from Spencer Fane. Reservations are required. Tickets and more information are available now at nashvillesymphony.org/mlk.
Led by conductor Jonathan Taylor Rush, MLK: A Celebration in Song will feature the world-class Nashville Symphony, the powerful voices of the Celebration Chorus, Celebration Youth Chorus, and W. Crimm Singers, and four-time GRAMMY®-nominated artist and country music trailblazer Mickey Guyton. The evening promises a moving blend of classical, contemporary, and spiritual music that celebrates Dr. King’s enduring message of hope, equality, and justice.
For more information and to reserve tickets, visit nashvillesymphony.org/mlk.