By Karen Hall Staff Writer Cautious enthusiasm was expressed by County Commission Education Committee members after they listened to the director of schools' $17 million proposal for new school construction last week. The school board's maintenance committee held a joint meeting with the education committee Thursday, and the only item on the agenda was the presentation of the school building project... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer Tennessee's lieutenant governor wants reapportionment of judicial districts because their populations vary greatly; it's been 30 years since lines were drawn; and politics played too great a role in the process last time... more

As the result of a traffic stop on Nashville Highway on Feb. 10, the following arrests were made Seferina Munzo, 42, Shelbyville. Bond: $1,000; court date: March 26. Charge: driving without a license. Also cited for driving left of center line. George M. Franco, 22, Shelbyville. Bond: $1,000; court date: March 26. Charge: allowing an unlicensed driver to operate a motor vehicle... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer A memo from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey paves the way for more women to serve in direct combat roles and in more occupational specialties now open only to men... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer Marshall County's Election Commission chairman advocates election centers to make voting more convenient. And the Tennessee Association of County Election Officials (TACEO) says election centers could lower the cost of elections... more

By Karen Hall Staff Writer A month before jury selection is scheduled to start for a murder trial, the defense attorney announced his client may use an insanity defense. Jerron Braden, 19, is accused of the first-degree murder of Penny Blackwell Coyle on Nov. 21, 2011. His appointed attorney, David McKenzie, filed a motion in Circuit Court Wednesday, stating that he may use an insanity defense... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer A Shelbyville Central High School sophomore died Wednesday morning in a two-vehicle crash on Highway 64 in Marshall County, authorities said. Jackie "Trey" White III, 16, of 351 Helton Road in Bedford County near the Palmetto and Wheel communities, was driving a 1994 Mazda toward Shelbyville on Highway 64 at about 7:30 a.m... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer CHAPEL HILL - Two military contractors face Marshall County's Board of Zoning Appeals this month for limits on their proposed firing range and, recently, the men joined America's gun debate arising from school shooting deaths... more

From Staff Reports Chapel Hill town leaders and advisors say municipalities can't pay for a sheriff's deputy serving as a school resource officer because it would be a "double expenditure" by town residents. That's according to the first publicly released document in response to Marshall County Mayor Joe Boyd Liggett's appeal to three municipalities on behalf of Sheriff Norman Dalton, county commissioners and the school board... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer Marshall County Jail trusties will soon sort recyclable metal, plastic and paper in a 60,000-square-foot building instead of a few blocks from Lewisburg's public square in an open-ended Quonset hut behind the Hardison Office Annex... more

Arrested on a bench warrant Star L. Skowronek, 39, Villa Green Drive. Bond: $15,000; court date: March 6. Skowronek admitted to Marshall County Sheriff's Deputy Travis Childers she had a syringe for injecting illegal drugs when she was taken to jail, so Childers charged her with introduction of contraband into a penal institution. On this charge, the bond is $7,500; court date: March 5... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer A Lewisburg Middle School student won the Marshall County Education Association District Spelling Bee on Tuesday at Marshall County High School. The winner, participating with the lucky No. 7 sign displayed on his chest, was Bryan Westmoreland, son of Lewisburg residents Adam Westmoreland and Dieardra Cozart... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer State Rep. Billy Spivey is drafting a bill to address issues arising from Cornersville Police patrol of Interstate 65 and its state safety department permit to do so. "It would make some consequences automatic for bad actors, for lack of a better term, that are operating under a permit from the Department of Safety," Spivey said Tuesday afternoon... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer A state-licensed bail bondsman, who's been outspoken about City Hall activities, has filed a petition at the election office to be named on Lewisburg's May 7 ballot as a candidate for mayor. In doing so, Michael Farrar is competing with Jim Bingham, a professional engineer who's serving as chairman of the city planning commission, for the office being vacated by Mayor Barbara Woods... more

William Bruce "Bill" Crigger, 70, of Verona, died Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, in NHC Lewisburg Healthcare. Mr. Crigger was a native of Marshall County, and son of the late Dean and Evelyn Stewart Crigger. He served his country in the U.S. Air Force and was an electrician and small motor repairman... more

By Karen Hall Staff Writer A capacity crowd applauded and cheered as 18 people received their GED certificates in a ceremony at the Rec Center Monday night. Forty people have achieved their GED since July 1, said Adult Education Coordinator Sarah Campbell, but these were the ones who could make it to the ceremony. Other graduates are already at work, some far from Lewisburg, thanks to the doors opened to job-seekers who have the equivalent of a high school diploma... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer A Lewisburg lawyer and his associates are investigating Cornersville's police patrol of Interstate 65 to see if there's been a violation of motorists' civil rights. Attorney Rob Dalton has been contacted by motorists about tickets written by town police, he said Friday. Saturday, Mayor Amos Davis said town officers stopped - sometime in the last few months - using the truckers' rest stop on I-65 as a place to conduct radar patrols to find speeding drivers... more

By Clint Confehr Senior Staff Writer A northbound freight train was struck by a bullet Sunday afternoon and the engineer stopped the train near Hobo Shaw Road at Cornersville, authorities said Monday. The bullet came from the U.S. 31A side of the tracks and broke the first pane of a double-paned glass window on the right side of the engineer's cab, Sheriff Norman Dalton said... more

Thefts and vandalism reported A Columbia woman reported her black 1990 Chrysler LeBaron, worth $1,000, was missing from a property on Wright Road. The woman's ex-boyfriend had been driving the car without permission, she said, and left it parked in Murfreesboro in August or September... more

By Karen Hall Staff Writer Friendships and connections are being made across county lines, thanks to a new regional leadership group whose first class spent two days in Lewisburg last week. Graduates of Leadership Marshall decided they wanted to form a regional group, said Mike Wiles, Executive Director of the Joint Economic and Community Development Board... more