Free Republic

A Harris Middle School student has told Bedford County's Juvenile Court judge that he took a gun to school on Sept. 11 and on Monday he accepted state probation among other requirements for the act which would have been a felony had the boy been an adult. Assistant Public Defender Cathy Hickerson entered a guilty plea for the eighth-grader before Judge Charles Rich, who imposed substantially the same sentence on the boy as one who appeared in court five days earlier. The only difference is 24 hours of public service work. Monday's defendant told county officials he found a gun...

One of the first Shelbyville confiscations of the African drug khat occurred early Sunday morning. "Approximately 11.26 grams of a green leafy substance believed to be khat" were found in a coat pocket of Mustaf Shire Abdi, 21, Anthony Lane, Officer Tracey Nelson said. Abdi tried to pull away as Officer Benjamin Burris was checking the pocket and was immediately handcuffed, Nelson said. "Khat use is most prevalent among immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen," a May 2003 National Drug Intelligence Center bulletin said. "These individuals use the drug in casual settings or as part of religious ceremonies. "The use...

NASHVILLE (AP) -- Federal immigration officials here say they simply do not have enough agents to process every person assumed to be in the country illegally. At the request of Gov. Phil Bredesen, representatives of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, met Friday with state and local law enforcement officials to improve communication among all agencies in handling illegal immigration. "Our biggest issue is manpower," said Katherine Molyneux, who represented ICE. "It would be impossible to handle every single (illegal immigrant)." Bredesen said he wants to determine what kinds of criminal offenses need to take priority with immigration officials...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Mid-South gamblers may be able to knock back a few more drinks in Tunica, and then take the train home. The Mississippi Legislature Monday approved a transportation bill that includes $500,000 for a feasibility study of a monorail network that would link casinos to one another as well as connect to the Tunica Airport and Southaven. The light rail line could even reach into Shelby County, connecting to the proposed Memphis rail system that is to link Midtown with Memphis International Airport. The bill is now on the desk of Mississippi...

A Shelbyville police officer shot and killed a man who allegedly fired a handgun toward him late Saturday afternoon. The victim, Fermin Estrada, 48, of Shelbyville died instantly of a gunshot wound to the head, Chief Austin Swing said. Family members said Estrada, a longtime Shelbyville resident and owner of a Belmont Avenue bakery, was escorting visitors around the property and insisted he had not fired toward the officers. Officer James Wilkerson, a 15-year veteran of the force, had ordered Estrada to stop before firing the shot, Swing said. Police had been called to Cedar River Road, in the Shelbyville...

St. William Catholic Church is preparing for a public open house at its new facility on South Brittain Street 10 a.m. until noon Saturday, followed by a dedication service at 10 a.m. on March 25. The Rev. David Choby, Bishop of the Diocese of Nashville, will conduct the dedication service. The church needed a new facility both for space reasons and because of the age of its present facility, which is located behind the new one, according to the Rev. Richard Driscoll, who serves the parish. The church owned property on North Main Street but, given that area's commercial boom,...

An employee of Tyson Foods in Shelbyville has tested positive for tuberculosis, according to complex manager Michael Sheets. The employee has been sent home, while 64 others working in the same department have been given skin tests for the disease. The company has also been educating employees about the disease. There was no word by 4 p.m. Friday on the skin test results from the 64 others tested. According to the Merck Manual of Medical Information, Home Edition, a positive skin test for tuberculosis does not necessarily mean that the subject actually has the disease. It may only mean that...

Midwife’s arrest protested Supporters gather at courthouse; charges allege lack of credentials By ROB DOWDY Staff writer The children of protester Julianna Zull of Crawfordsville, Mireil, 2, and Gabe, 4, hold signs in front of the Shelby County Courthouse showing their support for midwives. NEWS photos by DAYLA THURSTON Mary Allen Ayres (left), president of the Indiana Midwives Association, stands with Jennifer Louisa Williams among supporters in the Shelby County Courthouse. A midwife from Bloomington turned herself in to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department Friday afternoon as dozens of her supporters walked the grounds of the Shelby County Courthouse to...

A Bell Buckle resident was charged with three counts of criminal trespass earlier this month and has been ordered to have no contact with a town business owner until June 2006 as part of a plea agreement. However, John Anderson has published and distributed a newsletter which states that he was not found guilty and appears to attempt to link his legal troubles to Bell Buckle's ongoing annexation controversies. Anderson, of Maple Street, a teacher at Cascade School, was served with a summons on June 16 after three affidavits of complaint were filed by Jan B. Rowlette of Liberty Pike,...

t will cost more than $11 billion to pay for the 14-mile monorail Green Line project and the debt to finance it, according to documents made public yesterday. That's more than triple what Sound Transit will pay for construction and debt service for its 14-mile light rail line from downtown Seattle to Tukwila. The total also is more than five times the construction tab alone for the monorail, a ratio that troubles state Treasurer Mike Murphy. "You've got to be kidding me," Murphy said yesterday. "That's ludicrous." He said the typical principal and interest payments on a state project amount...

An $80 million federal grant program to distribute gun locks free for the protection of children appears to have pivoted off course since they're being used by farmers to keep their gates locked. "If you look from the road at farmers' gates, you can see them," Bedford County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Chris Brown said today when asked about comments from Wartrace Town Hall Wednesday. Wartrace Town Clerk Kim Curbow said Project ChildSafe's cable-style gun locks "look like a lock you would use on a bicycle." She and Wartrace Police Chief Ben Burris agreed the locks would also work as a...

Tyson Foods expressed its thanks to Shelbyville and Bedford County law enforcement for their quick response in helping avert what could have been a tragedy at the local plant Thursday. While team members returned to work, the company’s three chaplains came to the plant to talk with employees who were dealing with the stress of the situation. “A team member [Gregorio Proscopia Aragon Garcia] who was asked to leave the plant for disciplinary reasons returned with two guns,” the company spokesman said. “Tyson security immediately called 911 and notified plant management. Workers were evacuated within minutes to the backside of...

A man who allegedly pointed a cocked, loaded pistol at two young girls who said he was attempting to lure them into his van is in custody. Serardo Ambrocio Pul Lisorio, 42, Green Lane, has been charged with two counts each of criminal attempt-especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and stalking and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon. The girls -- ages 16 and 10 -- said Lisorio drove by them several times about 9:40 p.m. Friday on Alton Avenue as if he was following them, then stopped and asked for directions. “After they gave him directions he asked...

Two drivers face charges after hit-and-run accidents Monday. Salvador Mendez, 23, Oak Street, allegedly struck another car late Monday morning on South Cannon Boulevard, then ran on foot from State Trooper Carl Johnson after being stopped further out the road near the city limits. Officer Jonathan Osterhaus said he followed a trail of freshly walked-on weeds and found Mendez hiding in a wooded area. “He was non-compliant and I had to use the arm bar takedown in order to get him under control,” said Osterhaus. Jorge Gonzalez Hernandez, 20, Murfreesboro, was listed by police as the driver of a truck...

A year ago, the Community Clinic of Shelbyville and Bedford County was a dream. Now it provides free primary medical care to Bedford County residents who have no form of health insurance and have one household member working at least part-time. On Sept. 11, the organization will celebrate its anniversary with its second annual skeet and sporting clays shoot at the Three Bandits range just inside the Bedford/Marshall County line. Since its opening through the end of June, patients have been treated at the clinic 774 times. Of these, 26.5 percent have been white males, 31.1 percent white females. Latino...

Jim Tracy of Shelbyville has announced his candidacy for State Senate representing the 16th District, which includes most of Rutherford, all of Bedford and Moore counties, in the August Republican primary. For the past 15 years, Tracy has owned and operated Jim Tracy Insurance, with offices in Shelbyville, Lewisburg and Fayetteville. He is vice chairman of Bedford County Board of Education and a member of the Chamber of Commerce Economic Development and Tourism committee. He is a college basketball official. Tracy said his top three issues if elected would be Tennessee values, education, and keeping taxes low. "We have moved...

Shelbyville Central High School principal Don Boyd placated some and infuriated others when he confiscated Tuesday's edition of the school newspaper, The Echo. An article by a student writer, which described body piercings in a sexually descriptive manner, was the issue that concerned Boyd. In his written statement to the T-G, Boyd said: "An article was printed ... which I considered to be inappropriate for a school publication. This article was brought to my attention as the paper was being distributed to our students. After reviewing the article, I made the decision to collect the newspapers." One student said she...

Months before criticism of the Bedford County Medical Center Emergency Department hit the newspaper, hospital administration, E-R head nurse Mary Jim Thompson, other nurses and physicians began developing a plan to help alleviate the problem. Thompson referred to the steady growth in emergency services demand, growing from 11,211 persons triaged in 2002 to 11,780 last year. She expressed concern with the amount of time from a patient first being seen to their release, more than an hour's time, and the high percentage of patients who left without being seen. Their challenge: do so with little capital outlay or adding to...

Gun safety is a hot issue affecting many families with children. To help set parents' minds at ease, the Shelbyville and Wartrace Police departments and Bedford County Sheriff's Office are giving away gun locks to local residents. "Project Child Safe" is a program developed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation that will distribute millions of firearms safety kits throughout the country over the next year. The program is funded by a U.S. Department of Justice grant, with additional funding provided by the firearms industry. Several thousand gun locks were donated to Bedford County and distributed among the three agencies and...

Cars from Bedford, Davidson, DeKalb, Marshall, Rutherford and White counties dotted Fairlane Church of Christ's parking lot at 8 a.m. Saturday as applicants lined up to obtain cards that identified them as Mexican citizens. Security concerns, which led to cancellation of an earlier Mexican Matricular Card distribution in Shelbyville, led sponsors of Saturday's event to limit publicity to flyers distributed on Thursday and Friday and spots on a Murfreesboro-based Spanish-language radio station. The National Alliance, the White Revolution and similar extremist groups threatened to interrupt the December distribution. Many key local Hispanic groups and leaders were unaware of the program...