Stories from Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Younger horses -- in the 2, 3 and 4-year-old divisions -- and smaller horses -- in the under 15.2 hands division -- still provided big action at Monday night's session of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. Paid attendance was 22,369, with actual attendance at 9,518. ...

Sometimes you have to ride a lot of frogs before you find the right horse. Such has been the case for Jessica Popp of Bell Buckle who rode eight or nine horses before her grandfather, Bobby Hurt, purchased her Dr. Liz earlier this month. Popp had been on the talented mare only five times, including one other appearance in the 68th annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, before winning Division A of the Owner-Amateur Novice Youth 6-11 on Novice Mares or Geldings Sunday night. ...

A state contract for repaving Madison Street next month will be cut into two parts, according to the contractor and state officials who've explained the work close to North Main Street is too complicated to be included with the longer section. "There is concrete under that section," Tennessee Department of Transportation Community Relations Officer B.J. ...

A suspect in a brutal attack on a Shelbyville man Saturday afternoon eluded police by swimming across Duck River. An intensive search through brush on the east bank of Duck River between Shelbyville Power Co. and Kinder Drive for Bill Freeman Jr., 41, proved unsuccessful, police said. It was Freeman's second escape from police in slightly over a year...

An attorney involved in a complicated land dispute says the property will likely be sold to a Nevada firm once a court in Nashville rules on issues surrounding the ownership. But even if the land sale is made to the company, there could be problems getting the proposed factory rezoned and approved in the area of Horse Mountain Road...

KEUMBU, Kenya -- I first met Abel Onchari a year ago. Even though our 2005 LEAMIS International Ministries team worked in Ndonyo, the leaders of that trip -- LEAMIS co-founders Rev. Debra Snellen and Gail Drake -- had been in Keumbu for a few days before we arrived conducting a pastoral training seminar. ...

Willa Mae "Buz" Birdsong, 90, of Bunker Hill, mother of Jerry Lane Birdsong of Shelbyville, died Saturday at Meadowbrook Nursing Home in Pulaski. Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at Carr & Erwin Funeral Home in Pulaski with Dr. Terry L. Greer officiating. Burial will follow in Giles Memory Garden...