Stories from Sunday, June 8, 2014

Runners in Saturday's Fired Up and Fit race take on the "Spider Web," one of many challenges in the unique event at Tennessee Fire and Codes Academy. Some found different ways of completing the challenges. See additional photos at t-g.com.

Shelbyville's council is looking at a plan to buy all of the new popular residential garbage containers to cover the rest of the city this year. The original plan would have taken six to seven years to place them at every household, but instead of buying 1,200 of them this fiscal year, the council favors purchasing the rest of the 6,864 needed to finish distribution...

At some point in late summer, the city council may take up updating Shelbyville's ordinance dealing with dogs. It's an issue that seems to crop up each spring, city manager Jay Johnson said, and this year is no exception. Councilman Jamie Williams had discussed the topic with Johnson, who said that a couple of addresses in town, which all of the council can likely name, are continuing to have issues with the number or condition of the animals...

Melissa Smitty points to a large butterfly discovered near a Shelbyville home Thursday morning that remained on this tree all day. This photo was taken during the middle of a rain shower late Thursday afternoon. Jeff Smitty quickly shared the news with his neighbors. "We'd never seen anything like it before," said Melissa, who is Jeff's mother and neighbor. "Everyone was taking pictures with their phones." (T-G Photo by Sadie Fowler)

Here's our weekly look back at the past seven days in local news. Choose the best answer for each question. 1) According to discussion at a meeting of Bedford County Financial Management Committee, the county has a greater-than-normal 25 commercial property owners who are contesting their...

Christopher Philpott hauls his catch of the day to the check in table during the Ed Carson Memorial Free Fish Day held at the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy. The event honored Carson, a longtime Bedford County teacher and coach who died last year. (T-G Photo by Jim Davis)

From time to time I have the opportunity to cover events that might be a little more special to me than others on a personal level. I got to experience another one of those special occasions a few weeks ago at former Cascade head football coach Kenny Parker's fish and chicken dinner...

More than 275 Girl Scouts and volunteers were honored at the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee's Salute to Outstanding Leadership Awards ceremony last month. The ceremony took place at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena and Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee alumna Sarah Lankford was the featured speaker...

The toss told the story -- at least, to a police officer who arrested a Belfast man for allegedly throwing away illegally-possessed pills Thursday. Leonard Boon Casteel, 39, of Belfast is accused of pouring alprazolam and oxycodone pills into his hand from a bottle, then throwing them after being told to walk to officer Jose Garza...

The Fly Arts Center will offer the following art classes: Grades 1-4, 9-11 a.m. -- June 9 & 12: Ceramic Bowls for Keep June 16 & 17: Painting Beyond the Brush June 30 & July 1: Chalk Exploration Extravaganza July 7 & 8: Building a Better Future...

Shelbyville native John Brown believes the city's nearness to Nashville allows Bedford Countians to utilize Music City in a unique way. If anyone knows how to view things from a unique perspective, it's Brown. As a self-taught photographer, Brown has been using his relationship with Nashville's burgeoning art community to generate opportunities for his own creativity and growth in Bedford County...

Phillip Heikkinen is originally from Tullahoma, but currently resides in Shelbyville. A former teacher, Heikkinen now serves as the Elk River District Executive for the Boy Scouts of America. He has also been actively involved in coaching and playing sports and calls himself "a huge Atlanta Braves and Kentucky basketball fan."...

It was a sad day last week when I checked the Forgie's Fruit Farm website to see when the cherries would be ready over in Marshall County. What I learned was that they lost their entire crop to the cold weather this spring. No local cherries (the good news was that the peaches are fine)...

Jesus. Demons. War. Infidel. Brashness. Family strife. Islam. Christianity. Pastor. These are some of the themes in the riveting life of Naeem Fazal, a former Muslim who immigrated to America to build a better life -- and hook up with blonds -- but ended up fighting demons and finding Christ...

Thanks to all of you who turned out for our groundbreaking on May 27! It was hot and muggy, but what a joyous occasion! We were especially happy to see so many of your smiling faces. It was so great to see generations represented from the "soon-to-be-borns" to the octogenarians. You helped prove once again that libraries are for everyone!...

It's been a long time since my wife and I have potty trained a little one. And my memory is a little sketchy on the specifics of how we did it back then. But, we are working on potty training one of our granddaughters right now, and she's not really that interested in all the work involved...

I am a '90s child through and through. I have written about this and perhaps I am being repetitive. Nonetheless, I occasionally get on YouTube and watch the "If you were a 90's kid..." videos and sit there shaking my head in agreement. I was born in 1984, so the early 1990s are when I first started actually remembering stuff. I can't recall much about life before the five to six year old marks. A few glimpses here and there that my brain allows me to recollect only ever so often...