Stories from Thursday, June 17, 2010

If Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were born about 500 years earlier into Italian families and decided they wanted to travel and seek their fortunes, they just might have been the subjects of a Shakespeare play. In a way -- they are. Patrick Waller and Pete Vann are taking on the lead roles in the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival's 2010 production "Two Gentlemen of Verona (Tenn.)," which opens Friday night in Bell Buckle. ...

The annual Duck River Cleanup will be held Saturday, June 26, according to co-chair Helen Garner, and as always volunteers are being sought. Boat owners are particularly needed but anyone is welcome, said Garner. The event begins with registration and breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Work begins in earnest at 8 a.m. and continues until noon; volunteers are served lunch afterward. The headquarters for the event is Riverwalk Park behind Shelbyville Power, Water and Sewerage System on South Main Street...

Bedford County Board of Commissioners' rules and legislative committee, meeting Tuesday night, placed the sixth district vacancy on Bedford County Board of Education on the full commission's June agenda, even though the seat will be filled in the August general election...

A Watertown man will spend the next 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to sending obscene text and photo messages to an 11-year-old girl. Michael Paul Rutland, 34, of Smith Hollow Road, Watertown, entered a guilty plea Monday to charges of solicitation of a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor by electronic means...

Rex Northcutt has announced his candidacy for a Sixth Ward seat on Shelbyville City Council in the Nov. 2 general election. Northcutt has been city engineer and surveyor for 28 years and a member of Shelbyville Planning Commission for 10 years. He is a past member of the Chamber of Commerce board, serving three terms; a member and past president of the Shelbyville Rotary Club, and a Paul Harris Fellow...

Russia's children's rights ombudsman says U.S. officials have agreed to the main provisions of a new agreement that would allow Americans to begin adopting Russian children again, but that more time is needed for technical details. Adoptions in Russia became a highly emotional issue after Torry Hansen of Shelbyville sent her 7-year-old boy, Justin, back to Russia unaccompanied in April. Torry Hansen claimed that her adopted son had emotional problems with which she was unable to deal...