Stories from Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Environmentalists enforcing federal regulations are collecting air samples to measure air pollution caused by, among other things, cow flatulence and gases created by bacteria in decomposing manure. Measuring the effects of bovine backfires as a rural air pollutant is now as high tech as NASA instruments used on the Mars rover, but it's been as rudimentary as "waving a 'Zip-Lock' bag in the air" and taking the contents to a lab for analysis...

The town of Normandy wants to buy a piece of property for a small community park. The town council voted Monday to bid for the property, which is to be put up for auction at the Bedford County Courthouse Wednesday at noon. The property, located at 1 Tullahoma Road in Normandy, was owned by Robert Charles Bauer, who died a few years ago...

There were only a couple of items on the agenda of Bedford County's Road Board on Monday -- the closing of a road and word about a benefit for one of the board members. Highway Superintendent Stanley Smotherman said that work has been completed on a bridge on Comstock Road and is now open to traffic. Work is in progress on another bridge on Possum Trot Road...

For some people, moving their telephone service to the Internet sounds like a great money-saving idea -- and in certain situations, it can be. But users of new Internet telephone services should do a little research and be aware of how their discount telephone service handles calls to the emergency telephone number 9-1-1, say local officials...