Stories from Thursday, February 5, 2015

It's a simple thing -- an inch tall, an inch and a half wide, made of reflective material and sticky on the back. But for the staff of Bedford County Clerk Donna Thomas, license tag renewal stickers are a big part of their business. That's why a new method for printing the stickers on demand was a big deal for the office on Tuesday...

Shelbyville's city council is expressing support for buying land on Frank Martin Road for the long-anticipated commerce industrial park. Following several weeks of discussion, the final offer from Peoples Bank of $925,000 for the 86.5 acres tract "is agreeable," according to a letter from mayor Wallace Cartwright to Chamber of Commerce CEO Allen Pitner...

The pieces are starting to come together for a commerce business park in Bedford County. As it is now, the city and county would kick in $600,000 each -- totaling $1.2 million, plus a grant of $350,000 from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). That amount should be enough to bring utilities to the property, to build approximately 100 feet of road and other items. Because of the TVA grant, they may be able to do more than that, city manager Jay Johnson said...

Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans has failed during a special legislative session. The Senate Health Committee defeated the Republican governor's Insure Tennessee plan Wednesday on a 7-4 vote. Haslam spent 21 months negotiating with federal officials for a special deal for Tennessee that included market-based elements like vouchers to buy private insurance, co-pays and assurances that the state could pull out of the deal if it ended up being more expensive than expected.. ...

City public work crews got to work Wednesday morning, cracking the surface of the pavement, where a part of the Shelbyville's underground storm water flume has failed. The city council declared an emergency Monday night, authorizing a $500,000 note to be repaid in five years, at 2.04 percent, to pay for the repairs. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely)

Half of the participants in a non-scientific poll at the Times-Gazette web site want as much snow as Mother Nature can dish out, while others would rather see a light dusting, or none at all. "Let it snow!" wrote one participant. "Just keep the ice storm out of it!"...

No one was living in a Hoover Street apartment unit destroyed by fire early Wednesday night, investigators said. "I saw fire coming out the back side of the building," officer David Curley said. "Smoke was coming out the Hoover Street side. The apartment was fully engulfed. I cleared the building and kicked the west side doors in."...

Batik painting, or painting on silk, dates back to long before Christ was born, and originated in Indonesia. And you can learn how to paint it here and now, in Shelbyville. Davorka Whiteside teaches a class on the technique at Antiques, Arts, & Collectibles Mall. Whiteside, a native of Croatia, learned the technique in Moldova, a country known for its creativity and art, she said...

Army Pvt. Jordan F. Sanders has graduated from basic combat training at Fort Jackson, Columbia, S.C. During the nine weeks of training, the soldier studied the Army mission, history, tradition and core values, physical fitness, and received instruction and practice in basic combat skills, military weapons, chemical warfare and bayonet training, drill and ceremony, marching, rifle marksmanship, armed and unarmed combat, map reading, field tactics, military courtesy, military justice system, basic first aid, foot marches, and field training exercises.. ...

"A Matter of Faith" will play for one showing only at the Capri Theater on Depot Street at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The movie will show on both screens at the Capri, for a total seating of more than 500. "A Matter of Faith" stars Jordan Trovillion, Jay Pickett ("General Hospital"), three-time Emmy nominee Harry Anderson ("Night Court," "Dave's World") and Clarence Gilyard ("Matlock," "Walker, Texas Ranger"). It deals with the issues of evolution and creationism in a college campus setting...