Stories from Thursday, April 23, 2020

Shelbyville Police Department has placed on its mph sign in front of city hall some sage advice to motorists, which is simply to stay home and stop the spread of the coronavirus. We used this graphic so that the message would show up better.

Job seekers who are exploring new career opportunities may find the Motlow “Career in a Year” program the quickest and most feasible route to high-wage, high-demand employment. Not all careers require a two or four-year degree. Motlow’s “Career in a Year” initiative promotes several career and technical education programs that train students in a year or less...

A hit-and-run crash Monday morning on East Depot Street at Highway 82 Bypass left one driver injured, according to a Shelbyville Police Department report. Video footage from the area shows Andrew Beckham’s truck running a traffic light and striking a car driven by Donna Floyd of Wartrace, the report said...

Unionville newlyweds Jessica Marie Leverette and Jessica Lee Brown repeated their respective ‘I dos’ in March — one walked down the aisle to her husband a week before the coronavirus hit the United States and the other kissed her groom as the pandemic was slowly inching its way into Bedford County...

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Tyson Foods suspended operations Wednesday at an Iowa plant that is critical to the nation’s pork supply but had been blamed for fueling a massive coronavirus outbreak in the community. The company said the indefinite closure of the Waterloo, Iowa, plant would deny a vital market to hog farmers and further disrupt the nation’s meat supply. Tyson had kept the facility, its largest pork plant, open in recent days over the objections of local officials...

Farmers across Tennessee say sweet and juicy strawberries are nearly ready for harvest. While picking your own berries from the field will not be the same this year, you will still find the freshest fruit by going straight to the source. Delvin Farms in Arrington says the recent cold snap has slowed the ripening of their strawberries but they expect them to be ready the first week of May. ...

Proposed zoning changes which would allow structures referred to as “solar panel farms” concern several Bedford County commissioners. Some farmers in the Flat Creek area consider solar panels on the same category as “rock quarries and landfills,” Rules and Legislative Committee chairman P.T. “Biff” Farrar said at a committee meeting Tuesday...

Adorned in masks and gloves, First Baptist Church members stand outside Monday to serve food to those in need on drive-by basis. Church officials said hundreds of food boxes have been given away to those in Shelbyville Housing Authority. The food drive continues on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the front of the church. An appointment is necessary for the food give-a-way by calling 684-1634. Jeff Rasnick has served as senior pastor of First Baptist Church for several years. While he’s never experienced a pandemic in the life of the church, he says the church continues to serve the “least of these” through their food drive.

The number of cases of COVID-19 is growing faster in Bedford County than in any other county in Tennessee. Every four days the number doubles in Bedford County, according to a report in The New York Times that lists the figures for every county in the U.S...

Josh Hammonds has been around the game of baseball his entire life and has been a cornerstone in the baseball culture at Cascade Middle and High Schools for the better part of the last 15 years. First hired in the mid-2000's, Hammonds helped mold the structure of the program by becoming the school's first middle school coach...