Stories from Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A group of small time con men meet for the first time as they plan to take down the villanous mob boss who murdered their friend.

The students of the Smokestack Theatre Group are hard at work on their fall production, THE STING, based on the wildly successful Academy Award winning "best picture" of the year (1973).

Gary D. Arnold, 45, of Shelbyville died Tuesday at his home after an extended illness. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Hillcrest Funeral Home with the Rev. Jimmy Gray and the Rev. Tom Henry officiating. Burial will follow at New Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery. Visitation will be Wednesday evening from 4-8 p.m.

John Holland, who was a coordinator for the local Angel Food Ministries distribution site, said the closing of the ministry last month affected about 87 or 88 families who had been buying low-cost food from the nonprofit. "Some of them keep calling me," said Holland...

Students in Bedford and surrounding counties have a new educational option -- online courses offered by the Bedford County Board of Education in their eLearning program. The county has made use of eLearning for six years now, with classes mostly offered to homebound students, those at risk of dropping out and for classroom credit recovery...

Winter is coming, and that means it's time to put on your work gloves and haul off all the junk that's been piling up during next week's annual Fall Clean-up. From Oct. 17 to 20 -- on your regular garbage day -- Shelbyville's public works department will be giving you a hand to help you get rid of all that stuff that's accumulated over the summer months...

During homecoming week the Shelbyville Central High School student council coordinated a successful Soles4Souls shoe drive, collecting 1,258 pairs of new shoes. Non-profit organization Soles4Souls was born from the sofa of founder Wayne Elsey while he watched the devastation of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. The image of "a single shoe, stranded on a decimated beach," sparked the seed of the idea...

Video proved a Shelbyville officer's suspicion that a small bag of marijuana was tossed by a suspect, police said. The bag was within a larger bag of items officer Jose Garza said was tossed by Tyler Clay Stewart, 18, Hickory Drive, as he got out of a truck stopped by police on Madison Street...

Hank Williams Jr.'s iconic song has been played for Monday Night Football since 1989. Well that came to a screeching halt last week when ESPN decided to part ways with ole Hank after some rather controversial remarks concerning President Obama and a comparison to Adolf Hitler...

Seven seniors, along with their parents, will be recognized before the Shelbyville Central-Coffee County soccer match tonight on senior night. It will be a special evening for Erika Aparico, Maggie Burton, Aleck James, Lorrie Rittenberry, Haylie Spence, Lauren Warren and Hannah West...

After a scoreless first half, Harris Middle turned on the offense to claim a 26-0 win over host Coffee County to win the Central Tennessee Conference Bowl on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles were shut out by the Red Raiders in the regular season. "This might be the best team I've had since I've been at Harris," Eagle coach Jim Dougherty said...