By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard YATES Early voting for the city sales tax referendum has been disappointing thus far as election officials say just 130 people have cast their ballots since voting began last Friday.“You’d hardly know we’re early voting,” said Election Administrator Donna Yates. “The turnout is way down…

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard ANDERSON An estimated 1,300 to 1,500 county students will be tested for drugs and alcohol this school year under a new school board policy which requires the random testing of all seventh- through 12th-grade students participating in athletics and extracurricular activities.Many questions accompany the new…

James William Dempster, 86McMinnville resident and Jackson native James William Dempster, 86, died unexpectedly Aug. 16 at Manchester Medical Center.A graduate of Jackson Central High School in 1936, and a graduate of Freed Hardeman College in 1938, he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Vanderbilt in 1941 and opened his first law office for six…

By Joan Ryan / Columnist The room looks like a mad scientist’s lair: Rows and rows of looming metal shelves crammed with clear jars of varying sizes, each filled with a formaldehyde-like liquid to preserve the long-dead creatures inside. Taped to the end of each long shelf is a typewritten sign indicating the range of…

By Hope Hines / Columnist Make up you mind! It’s one of the hardest things for most people to do. Make up your mind, and you can do anything! Decide, with resolve, to do a thing, and it surely will be done.I certainly can’t physically perform like an athlete, but I most assuredly can use…

By Duane Sherrill / Columnist You’d expect people to change a lot over a period of two decades, much as I had assumed in last week’s column when I talked about going to my 20-year class reunion.Well, assumptions are often wrong, and they were to a large part in this case. Much to my surprise,…

Our Viewpoint It’s all too easy for parents to find problems and openly complain about our public school system. Whether it’s a long wait to pick up children from West Elementary or a bus mishap at Bobby Ray, we are all quick to holler when the slightest thing goes wrong.But very seldom do we stop…

He’s from a foreign country, he’s shy, he wants to be left alone. Who better to tell your troubles, especially since he can’t understand a word.Set in a rural Georgia Fishing Lodge, Larry Shue’s wildly funny comedy The Foreigner, features hilariously devious characters dealing with a stranger who (they think) knows no English!The play runs…

Entries must be postmarked by Saturday, Aug. 23 for participation in the annual Warren County Fair Baby Show getting under way Sept. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in front of the grandstands.Joining the American Association of University Women as business sponsors are Baby and Me, Your Tot To Teen and J.C. Penney. Entry forms may be…

The annual Little Fairest of the Fair Pageant, slated Tuesday, Sept. 9 at the Warren County A&L Fair, will get under way at 7 p.m. at the grandstand.Registration is scheduled Saturday, Aug. 23 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Warren County Fairgrounds cattle barn. This is the only opportunity for the forms to be…