Stories from Friday, April 16, 2010

The voting may have ended, but something may have just begun. The Kraft Singles and Disney competition to find the Best Single Town in America ended Sunday and Bell Buckle, out of more than 400 nominees, came in second place. The winner was Three Lakes, Wis. -- the same town Bell Buckle Mayor Dennis Webb issued a personal challenge to a few weeks ago. If Three Lakes won, Bell Buckle would send them a basket full of local treats, from Moon Pies to Captain Rodney jellies...

The Community Vikings clubbed 14 hits and were the recipients of excellent relief pitching to record a 15-4 win over Zion Christian Academy on Thursday afternoon in the Walking Horse Classic at Cascade High. The Vikings (8-8) came out smoking offensively with five runs in the first inning, tacked on a run in the second, scored four in the fifth and closed the game strong by matching their first frame total of five to win the game going away...

Webb advanced to the semifinals of the Tullahoma Invitational by defeating the tournament host Wildcats 2-0 on Thursday. "I was tremendously proud of the men tonight because they played like men," Webb coach Adrian Anderson said. "They took ownership of the game early and set the tone on how the game was going to be played and they didn't let up in the slightest."...

Ten different players contributed to a 15-hit attack as Cascade trounced the Middle Tennessee Monarchs 15-8 in the first game of the Walking Horse Classic early Thursday afternoon. Kyle Saylor's double was one of four knocks the Champions (11-9) posted in a four-run first inning...

Cascade Middle finished off a season sweep of Mid-South Conference foe Riverside Christian Academy by winning 14-6 in Fayetteville on Thursday. The final score wasn't entirely indicative of how the game went as the Champions (7-4) rallied back from a 6-3 deficit after four innings by exploding with a nine-run fifth...

NEW YORK (AP) -- For the Zukors in Maryland, and hundreds of other families across the U.S., there were anxious and confusing moments Thursday as reports surfaced -- and then were questioned -- regarding a freeze of adoptions from Russia. "You've got to expect the unexpected," said Christie Zukor, who along with her husband, Ken, adopted four siblings from Russia in 2007 and has a pending application to adopt their 15-year-old half-sister...

NASHVILLE -- Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday that lifting Tennessee's sales tax cap to plug an $80 million budget gap would avoid a pay cut for all state employees. Bredesen told reporters after a speech to educators that the alternative to lifting the cap would be to require a 5 percent salary decrease for all state workers...

The District Attorney General says that unless his office can speak to a 7-year-old boy adopted from Russia, he may not have a case against a Shelbyville woman who sent the boy back to his homeland by himself. Meanwhile, there was confusion over the issue after a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Moscow said that adoptions of Russian children by U.S. families had been suspended, even as other Russian and U.S. officials disputed this...