Stories from Friday, May 16, 2008

Drew Turner has achieved just about everything a high school student-athlete can hope to, both on and off the field. The Shelbyville Central soon-to-be graduate can now add one more check mark to his impressive list of accomplishments after signing a college baseball scholarship with Belmont University of the Atlantic Sun Conference...

A Savannah man who thought he was driving 130 miles to meet a 13-year-old girl Wednesday was met instead by Shelbyville police detectives. Hoppy Joe Brown, 45, had been in contact over the Internet since Saturday with Detective Charles Merlo, who said he posed as the girl in a chat room...

Bedford County Board of Education, meeting Thursday night, accepted a guaranteed maximum price of $16,489,445 for the new Community High School, plus a separate contract for water and sewer work at the site for $275,000. That puts the project $700,000 over its estimated cost. ...

A steady amount of rain over the region has resulted in the northwestern half of Bedford County being downgraded to a "moderate" drought status, a drastic change from the rank of "exceptional" that plagued the state last year. However, data released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor for Tennessee shows that the southeastern part of the county still remains in the "severe" drought category...

"It means everything." Cascade senior Matt Bain said it best. He and the third-ranked Champions put their season on the line tonight at 7 when they host No. 4 Richland in one of eight Class A sectionals. "If we lose, we're packing our stuff," Bain said. ...

Shelbyville and 20 other towns in Tennessee now have two allies in their fight to stop forced union representation for police and fire departments: Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Corker has proposed an amendment to the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R. 980), which would require states to have mandatory collective bargaining for public service employees, according to a press release from his office...

The final day for 55 workers at Aleris International is coming within the next few weeks. The employment terminations are expected to commence June 8, according to a letter recently sent to Shelbyville Mayor Wallace Cartwright. Aleris announced last month it will permanently close its Shelbyville alloy plant, located on Railroad Avenue across from Central High School...

A west Shelbyville woman told police Wednesday she was raped late Sunday night at her home. The victim named a man who allegedly entered the home about 10 p.m., grabbed her hair, forced her to a bedroom and attempted to remove her clothes. She managed to escape the home but the man grabbed her, forced her inside and raped her before making a threat while leaving, police said...