Stories from Saturday, July 8, 2006

Relatives of a Bedford County man accused of shooting his grandfather are praying that officials will believe that it was an accident, according to the mother of the defendant held on $500,000 bond in the county jail. "It was truly an accident," says Sandra Sorrells, mother of Matthew Wayne Sorrells, 20, of Indy Court, who's charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of George Houston Arnold, 67, who was found dead at his Old Columbia Road home on June 9...

How to deal with growth in Bedford County was a chief topic at the candidates forum conducted Thursday by the local branch of the NAACP. Crowded schools and congested roads were mentioned by county mayoral candidates Mike Fisher and Eugene Ray while Chris Brown, a candidate for sheriff, suggested deputies' use of rural fire halls as substations...

Now is probably a good time to retell a story from another time and place where an experiment in local government proved to be helpful. It could be so here. A student was placed on the Board of Education in Anne Arundel County, Maryland back in the 1970s. It's recalled as one of those ideas that grew from free thinking in the 1960s...

A Shelbyville woman told police she managed to escape the clutches of two alleged kidnappers by telling them she was going to "chill out," then jumping from their moving car Thursday night. Officer Gregg Loyd saw a car fitting a description given by the woman and arrested Antwan Deron Buchanan, 19, and Marcus Eugene Page, 25, both of Fayetteville, during a traffic stop about 11 p.m...

The battle over custody of a 4-year-old boy between his family in Bell Buckle and a foster couple in Florida appears far from over. According to the Orlando Sentinel, an attorney for Denise and Ivar Baklid of Orange City, Fla. filed a notice of appeal with the 5th District Court of Appeal Thursday asking the court to overturn Circuit Court Judge Frank Marriott's decision last month to reject their attempt to adopt the boy...

There's a lot of good going on at the building on the east side of the square in Shelbyville. Empowering kids and families to thrive is a big task, and the Center for Family Development has its hands full in fulfilling this mission. Since the agency serves Bedford, Coffee, Lincoln, Marshall and Moore counties, the work never seems to end...