Free Republic

RINGGOLD, Ga. — It's now more clear how 17-year-old Dalton McConathy wound up dead Monday afternoon, shot, police say, by 69-year-old Fred Steven Youngblood outside Youngblood's Post Oak Road home. McConathy and two others -- a 16-year-old male and 18-year-old Ansley Chrnalogar -- were looking for scrap metal at Youngblood's home, said Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk. It was a fatal mistake. And in spite of that shooting -- or maybe because of it -- Youngblood answered his front door Wednesday afternoon, gun in hand. "You need to leave right now," he told a Times Free Press reporter. (snip) "He's...

RINGGOLD — In a dark warehouse, the 700-pound bronze statue of a Confederate general most people have never heard of lies on its back under plastic wrapping. The likeness of Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, set down next to an old phone booth, represents the seven-year dream of some quirky history buffs who believe the man deserves belated honors. And it is the hope of a small town that this obscure figure will bring visitors with fat wallets. The statue almost was not finished because for years organizers couldn’t scratch up the money to pay the sculptor. When it’s put on...

Ringgold City Council is facing potential legal action based on its 2005 decision to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the Ringgold Depot Civil War Memorial. The Southern Legal Resource Center notified the city Feb. 11 by letter from SLRC chief trial counsel Kirk D. Lyons that it will face legal action unless it replaces the battle flag within 10 days. According to Roger McCredie, Southern Legal Resource Center executive director, the letter puts the city on notice that its clients, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its local Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp...

CARBON, Texas - Weary fire crews kept up their fight Monday to contain major grass fires across Texas that had burned dozens of homes and apparently destroyed a couple of tiny towns. Other fires across the drought-stricken region had charred thousands of acres in Oklahoma and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate. Officials warned that the dry, windy weather and extreme fire danger would continue. "We don't know where we will be today," Oklahoma City Fire Department Maj. Brian Stanaland said Monday morning. "At this point, we consider the whole city a target for grass fires." Computer models...

A crowd packed Ringgold City Hall on Feb. 14 to present impassioned arguments for and against the flying of the Con-federate battle flag at the historic Ringgold Depot. During renovations last year at the historic structure three flags were hoisted over the building — the Confederate battle flag, the current United States flag, and the U.S. flag of 1863. Lifelong Ringgold resident Paul Croft said the Confederate banner symbolizes hate and fear for him. Croft said the battle flag evokes memories of his childhood when his mother warned him to hide from the KKK, and he would peek out the...