Stories from Saturday, December 29, 2007

Over the past few years, this community has given a helping hand and opened their arms to the new arrivals from Somalia. In return, many of these refugees have given Shelbyville the finger. When I began researching this story about the Somalis, I knew it would be controversial. We were aware that many in Shelbyville were having serious concerns about hundreds of Sunni Muslims moving here...

From now until New Year's Eve, the Times-Gazette is looking back at 2007 by counting down the top 10 news stories of the year as voted by a panel of T-G staffers. Here are the stories revealed so far: 10) Standardized School Attire proposed...

The Tony Rice Center has helped men overcome their problems associated with drugs and alcohol since 1990, and they've recently expanded their program to include help for chemically dependent women. "The Tony Rice Center for Women is designed for the specific needs of women in the grips of addiction," according to the center's Web site...

National Pen Corp. in Shelbyville may be seeing some new faces soon. According to both the South Florida Business Journal and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Atlas Pen & Pencil Co. will close its Hollywood, Fla., facility and move its production to Shelbyville and Tijuana, Mexico, on April 1...

Voices were raised during Shelbyville's city council study session Thursday over a proposed fee schedule for wreckers, with operators accusing the council of "price fixing." The ordinance dealing with wreckers performing non-consent tows for the city proposes that any wrecker service that is on the Tennessee Highway Patrol schedule or meets the requirements of the Tennessee Department of Safety towing standards manual and those regulations may contract with Shelbyville...

Shelbyville's planning commission approved a zoning change Thursday that would make it easier to develop apartments on the square. The commission approved a recommendation to add apartments as a permitted use in two commercial zones. According to comments submitted by the planning and engineering staff for the city, it was recommended that the use table be amended by allowing C-1 (Central Business District) and C-2 (Highway Service District) zones for multi-family uses, or apartments...

MURFREESBORO -- Shelbyville Central turned on the afterburners in the fourth quarter on the way to an impressive 67-57 win over Wilson Central Friday afternoon in second round action of the Venture Express Holiday Tournament at Riverdale High. Trailing 49-42 after three periods, the Golden Eagles (11-3) outscored Wilson Central 24-10 in the fourth quarter to claim the win...

Hunter Foutch torched the nets for 22 points to lead the Webb Feet to a hard-fought 52-45 road victory Friday night over the Community Vikings, extending his team's unbeaten streak to eight games. It's the best start for a Webb team in recent years...

Kassidy Lane and Heather Small combined for 20 points and Carly Daffern dished out 10 assists to lead the Community Viqueens over visiting Webb 56-35 on Friday night in non-district action. Dormant for the past nine days, the Viqueens (7-3) expected to be a bit rusty -- and they were in the early going as shots that would normally fall were well off the mark...