Stories from Monday, May 1, 2006

Leslie Smith Hastings, 52, of Bell Buckle died Saturday. Graveside services will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at Willow Mount Cemetery with the Rev. Gary Williams officiating. Hillcrest Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Funeral services for Easter Mae Hasty Riddle, 90, of Shelbyville, who died Sunday in Nashville, will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Gowen-Smith Chapel with Kenneth Smith officiating. Burial will follow at Beech Hill Cemetery.

Shelbyville Central's Golden Eaglette softball team won two of four games in the Coffee County Tournament over the weekend, claiming wins over Red Bank and Rhea County on Friday night before losing to Forrest and Wilson Central on Saturday. The Eaglettes (6-18) face Franklin County in the District 8-AAA tournament play-in game Wednesday at a site to be determined...

State and local dignitaries cut the ribbon Friday on the new Bedford County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) / Tennessee Department of Safety building on Railroad Avenue. The building houses EMA headquarters and an emergency command post; a driver's license testing station; a Tennessee Highway Patrol station; and a branch office for the Heart of Tennessee Chapter of the American Red Cross...

Two of the five public defenders here and three adjoining counties will be newly-hired attorneys this spring as an experienced lawyer has retired and the newest at that office got married and is making a new home in Nashville. Faced with the prospect of losing 40 percent of the lawyers in her office, Public Defender Donna Hargrove suddenly became a one-woman human resources director looking for attorneys to fill open positions at an overworked office...

The City of Shelbyville has hired 10 people to go door to door with red folders and name tags and put the finishing touches on a special city-wide census. According to planning and zoning administrator Kip Green, the city has about 3,000 addresses to visit and only 10 days to do it. Shelbyville firefighters already have helped out by going door-to-door to homes of those who have not yet responded to the census...

Bedford County's election polls open at 9 a.m. Tuesday, two hours later than other counties in Middle Tennessee, as voters statewide select local political party candidates for races that conclude on Aug. 3. Elections Administrator Anna Clanton doesn't know why polls open here later than elsewhere. It's always been that way, she says. But Clanton says it's legal, and that voter turnout will probably be light Tuesday...

A case of mistaken identity was resolved last week in Bedford County Circuit Court where one brother testified for another. As a result, a 21-year-old Shelbyville man was acquitted on a charge of evading arrest because his brother testified he wasn't even in the car that day early last year when police chased a blue Thunderbird from Depot Street to Kingree Road...

Webb carried a 4-3 advantage into halftime of their lacrosse match against Louisville Collegiate (Ky.) but couldn't hold on and fell 10-7 at Imre Lagler Field on Saturday. Collegiate outscored the Feet 5-3 in the third quarter and shut out the hosts 2-0 in the final stanza...