When Lisa Evans’s grandmother fell ill last year, she was struck by the warmth and compassion of the hospital’s nurses.

Sumner County farmers are getting some relief after experiencing another year of drought in 2008.
The federal government has declared Sumner County an agricultural disaster area, enabling farmers to qualify for government assistance in the form of federal farm disaster assistance programs, including supplemental farm revenue payments, livestock assistance and low-interest emergency loans, according to a release from Congressman Bart Gordon’s office.
There are approximately 1,673 farms in Sumner County with 183,419 acres of land, according to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) census of agriculture conducted in 2007. An average farm is 110 acres, according to the census.
“This drought has destroyed crop yields across Sumner — it has hurt farmers and their families in the county, and throughout the rest of the state,” Gordon said. “With this declaration, the many affected farmers can begin to rebuild and prepare for the start of the next farming season.”
Farmers are entering the 2009 with a rainfall deficit, not unlike in 2008.
“We began the year with a deficit in rainfall, and even though we got some spring rains to help that out, once those drought situations presented themselves in 2008, then we didn’t have any reserves for the plants to draw on,” said Bob Ary, UT Extension agent for Sumner County.
An average year of rainfall for Sumner County is 48 inches.

A Gallatin man faces several felony statutory rape charges for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old.
Anthony S. Harding, 27, 1215 Lake Rise Overlook, was charged Friday with seven counts of aggravated statutory rape for allegedly having sexual intercourse and oral sex with the teenager in the woods next to a creek near the Bluegrass Yacht Club in Hendersonville, according to a Hendersonville Police affidavit.
Each charge is a Class D felony, which carries a minimum of two to four years in jail with a requirement that at least 30 percent of that time be served before the defendant is parole eligible, according to sentencing guidelines provided by the Sumner County District Attorney’s office.
HPD continues to investigate the case and additional charges are possible, HPD Lt. Scott Ryan said.
“We will assertively investigate any case of this nature that comes to our attention,” Ryan said.

The cause of a fire that destroyed a Hendersonville home once owned by Tammy Wynette has been ruled accidental, according to Hendersonville Fire Investigator Bob Galoppi.

New Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Chip Forrester will speak at the March 12 monthly meeting of the Sumner County Democratic Party.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Clarksville has not installed any of the ticketing red-light cameras it plans to scatter around town.

The state Senate on Monday approved a bill to strengthen Tennessee’s law requiring school districts to come up with plans to stop bullying and harassment.

It is alarming to me that the first cases of salmonella poisoning due to contaminated peanut butter and peanut paste produced by the Peanut Corporation of America were reported back in September while the federal investigation of these cases still continues months later.

More than 600 people have become ill and nine have died in the widespread salmonella outbreak originating at a peanut plant in Georgia.