Stories from Sunday, May 30, 2010

After a wonderful first year of college, I was so excited to be able to come home for the summer. Not because I was ready to leave Memphis, but because I missed my family, my friends, my own bed and all of the little things that make home special. However, most college students know that when summer rolls around, it's time to get to work, even more than during the school year...

I really, really, really hate going to graduations. It's not just the heat and the crowds. It's not even the fact that I have to listen to the wonderful achievements of everybody else's children when I'd rather hear about the amazing achievements of my own...

The kindergarten teachers at Southside Elementary School have been seeing double double double double double all year long. At the kindergarten graduation Tuesday morning not one or two, but five sets of twins joined their classmates on the stage singing songs, accepting awards, and grinning proudly as they waved their certificates...

To the Editor: One of our forefathers once said words to the effect, we have given you a constitutional democratic republic and it is up to you to keep it. This government by the people, for the people and of the people, allowed the nation to flourish for many generations of people...

The county's jobless rate dropped half a percentage point last month to 12.3 percent, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by the state's labor department. Labor force estimates for Bedford County for the month of April showed a workforce of 22,060 people, with 19,350 working and 2,710 unemployed...

The chairman of the city's planning commission wants to take another look at drainage issues following the flooding earlier this month in Nashville. Chairman Morton Renegar stated that many of the homes that were impacted were in a 100-year flood plain, "and you can see under a heavy rain what that's worth."...

In 2009, in Bedford County alone, farmers had to dispose of 585 tons of dead cattle, calves, horses and hogs. A great many of those animals were picked up from farms by Kentucky-based Griffin Industries, a service for which the county paid $30,000 in the current fiscal year. Griffin Industries rendered those carcasses into byproducts like animal feed...

Bedford County Relay for Life, to benefit the American Cancer Society, will kick off Friday at the Celebration grounds and continue through Saturday morning. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. The annual event is the focal point of a local fund-raising campaign which kicked off in November, with a goal of $125,000. ...