It may be long distance for now, but Monica Coleman hopes to make her association with The Tunica Times “up close and personal” in the coming year.

Coleman has already started conducting telephone interviews for a series of feature stories on people who have overcome adversity. Coleman’s stories will appear in The Times in the weeks to come, beginning this week with a feature on Brady Vaughn.

Prior to becoming a successful entrepreneur, Monica Coleman served nearly six years in the corporate health care industry.  During her tenure, she worked with several C-suite executives on the successful implementation of division-wide communications tools, employee relations and community relations initiatives.  She simultaneously enjoyed a professional freelance writing career with work published in community newspapers, niche magazines, national magazines, newsletters, blogs and Internet radio.

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[Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Tunica Times in February 1995.]

Tunica Justice Court Judge R.T. Mottley, Jr. was an eyewitness to the pitched battle for the Japanese island Iwo Jima that began February 19, 1945. In 1995, Judge Mottley shared his memories of Iwo Jima with members of the Tunica Lions Club.

In 1945, Mottley was then Ensign R.T. Mottley, aboard the U.S.S. Cecil, one of a vast armada of ships that supported the Marine invasion. He remembers the preparations aboard the ship were intense.

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For local police, the last phase of training with a new weapon was the worst.

After taking practice rounds at a target Monday with the new JPX Pepper Gun, four officers with the Tunica Police Department got a taste – literally – of its effects.

Sgt. Ronnie Jefferson, Sgt. Lonnie Snowden, Patrolman Jim Woolfolk and Detective Mike Nichols lightly swabbed their upper lips and noses with the syrupy liquid that the new gun emits and then put a tiny drop on their tongues. A moment later, the four were bending forward, spitting and coughing violently.

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School lockdown precautionary

A local school was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure on Jan. 15 following a discovery on campus.

A teacher at Tunica Middle School found a single round of ammunition in the boy’s bathroom just after noon and reported it to School Resource officers. Officers called in additional law enforcement and began a search of facilities with K9s and metal detectors. No weapons were recovered on the scene.

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