By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard A LifeFlight helicopter takes off from the rear parking lot of Wal-Mart Thursday afternoon, transporting critically injured store employee Amy McDonald, 19, for treatment in Nashville. (Duane Sherrill photo) A Wal-Mart employee was critically injured Thursday afternoon when a gun safe fell on her in…

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Warren County native Lisa Milligan is the city of McMinnville’s first-ever planner, who started work Wednesday. The newly-created position pays about $31,000. (Amy Satterwhite photo) Lisa Milligan didn’t expect to be this close to home.Nevertheless, Milligan, a native of Warren County, has become the city’s…

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Carrie Richardson shows her opposition to the liquor by the drink referendum Wednesday night across from Holiday Inn Express, where referendum supporters were holding a meeting. (Will Stewart photo) Organized under the name Citizens for McMinnville Growth, supporters of the liquor by the drink referendum…

By Will Stewart / Teacher Feature Columnist CURTIS An early childhood education major in college, Morrison Elementary teacher Gail Curtis said she never imagined she would be teaching older children.“I always thought I would be teaching kindergarten or first grade. That’s what I was trained in,” she said. “But I was assigned the older elementary…

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Local fund-raisers are hoping Warren County residents like to eat as the first ever “Taste of Warren County” gets under way next Saturday, Sept. 28.Designed to benefit the McMinnville/Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s building fund, organizer and fund-raiser co-chair Mary Robbins said the focus is…

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Above, Billy Jarrell displays some of the honey his bees have produced since he started a new hobby about a year ago. Right, the bees get stirred up as Jarrell checks on one of nine hives while wearing protective gear. (Amy Satterwhite photos) The simplest…

The Lady Pioneer soccer team improved to 8-3-1 on the season, and upped its District 7-AAA mark to 2-0 Tuesday with a 3-2 victory on the road at Cookeville.Warren County, which hosts Oakland tonight for its Senior Night game, attacked the goal from the outset of Tuesday’s contest, but Cookeville was the first team to…

By Rob Nunley / Columnist NUNLEY Your friendly neighborhood sports desk has seen its normal share of disorganization this week.But today I find myself looking among the various items that usually clutter up the birthplace of your weekly dose of Robservations, and it seems something’s wrong with the picture.You see, just about any minute of…

By DALE STUBBLEFIELD / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Lady Pioneers Kara Youngblood, left, and McKenna Rhea shut down the middle as they block a Lady Cavalier spike attempt in Tuesday’s game at home against Cookeville. (Dale Stubblefield photo) Tuesday the Warren County High School volleyball team played a District 7-AAA tri-match at home,…

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard Warren County’s football team hopes the success quarterback Jonathan Bratcher had against Beech’s reserves last week will continue tonight against Cookeville.Coming off the bench in the fourth quarter a week ago, Bratcher led the Pioneers on two scoring drives, and threw a touchdown pass in…