Stories from Saturday, July 23, 2005

Just over a week to go .... I am a certified United Methodist layspeaker, and I fill the pulpit on occasion at my father's church or anywhere else that asks me. But twice during my Kenya trip, I will do something I've never done before: preach a sermon someone else has written...

What's everyone's hurry? I ask this as we in the T-G newsroom are once again confronted with horrid photos of yet another head-on collision that has claimed a life. A Marshall County man was killed Wednesday near "Dead Man's Curve" on Highway 64. Last month, two young girls' lives were snuffed out after another head-on collision on Fairfield Pike took place...

A thief or thieves found some excitement around River Bend Country Club at the expense of others Wednesday night, according to Bedford County Sheriff's Department reports released Friday. Golf clubs and a golf cart belonging to Paul Neese were taken from his Riverbend Country Club Road garage...

Bedford County commissioners' law enforcement committee unanimously voted Thursday to change two policies for operations at the animal control shelter. One prohibits employees from driving their county vehicles home from work. Discussion indicated employees aren't on call after working hours. However, if they're to respond after hours, they'll now go to the shelter and get a county truck...

Funeral services for Lucille Bevers Leverette, 84, of Unionville, who died Friday at her home following an extended illness, will be 10 a.m. Monday at Lawrence Funeral Home in Chapel Hill. The Rev. Jim Whitaker, the Rev. Mike Hannah and Tim Marks will officiate and burial will follow in Swanson Cemetery...

A gun pointed at a man's head persuaded him to surrender thousands of dollars on Belmont Avenue nearly five months ago and this week Bedford County's sessions court judge sent the case to grand jurors set to meet Aug. 15. Such are the results of a preliminary hearing conducted Tuesday for Parker Lee Merlo, 36, of Madison Street who's charged with the alleged robbery on March 2, according to court records and Sessions Court Clerk Thomas Smith who witnessed Merlo's hearing...

A Shelbyville man was sentenced to nearly four years in jail this week following his conviction in May by a Bedford County jury on charges leveled a year ago alleging he drove down Deery Street firing a gun. Alonzo Mason 29, of Deery Street, was convicted on the charge of unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, although a caller to E-911 on July 8 last year complained that Mason was allegedly firing from a Chevrolet Lumina...

A man who's accused of ordering wine over the Internet and having it delivered by UPS was indicted by the Bedford County Grand Jury last week. The charge was possession of untaxed alcoholic beverages, court records show. Tennessee residents can't receive alcoholic beverage shipments that aren't sent by a distributor...

Bedford County Circuit Court Judge Robert Crigler on Friday granted a public defender's request to be removed from two murder cases and appointed two succeeding attorneys to represent the accused. Jack Dearing, assistant district public defender, told the court on July 6 that investigations into the two cases revealed a conflict for his continued representation of Leslie Raydell Jones, 30, and Jason Christopher Underwood, 22...

Funeral arrangements for Herman W. Sims, 77, of Shelbyvlle, who died Saturday at his home after an extended illness, are incomplete and will be announced by Feldhaus Memorial Chapel.

Sam Chin was a card-carrying member, and a branch leader, of the Chinese Communist Party at a time when membership was difficult to obtain. Chin, a native of central China whose original Chinese name was Xinmin Qin, was the youngest party official working at the New China News Agency, the world's largest news service. ...

Eleven years and two months was the sentence handed down Friday in Bedford County Circuit Court for a Lewisburg woman who pleaded guilty of vehicular homicide in the deaths of two Bedford County women on State Highway 64 West in September 2003. To avoid reversal on appeal, Chancellor J.B. Cox, serving as a circuit judge in this case, said he's allowing Regina C. Andrews, 43, to serve two sentences at the same time for the deaths of Sandra Voelkel, 40, and her mother Mattie Bell Smith, 80...

Bell Buckle's Planning Commission held their first meeting with state planners Thursday as the small community continues to grapple with the contentious issue of growth. Planners Bo Logan and Angela Fernandez were introduced to the commission and citizens who had gathered at the town hall to see how their government intends to tackle the many facets of the growth controversy which has split the town over the past year...

An asphalt plant currently under construction on L. Fisher Road in Shelbyville contains a site for proposed rock quarry that was the topic of protests from local residents last year. The $1.8 million plant is owned by Wright Paving and owner Tommy Wright sees the business as a benefit to the area...