Local News

When 300 motorcycles rumbled into Waddy on Wednesday, the bikers received a warm greeting as they gathered at the Flying J truckstop to refuel.

The group, Rolling Thunder, was making its annual journey from California to Washington, D.C. to pay homage to American veterans at the Vietnam War Memorial at the nation's capital. Known simply as "The Wall," the monument, erected in Constitution Gardens in 1982, contains the names of all the veterans who served in Vietnam.

"Even though we're born with the ability to be compassionate and to empathize, to really put those words into action we have to be taught," said Teresa Bottom, chair of the board of Lifebridge for Animals.

The organization is celebrating its first year of teaching children to be kind to animals and help control the animal population.

Next Monday, the nation will once again take time out to honor its veterans, a tradition that America has observed for 140 years.

Memorial Day ceremonies will take place at Grove Hill Cemetery at 11 a.m., beginning with a welcome by Col. Roger C. Green Jr., Army (ret.), post commander of VFW Post 1179.

After Jim Morris of Post 1179 delivers the invocation, the speaker will be Col. Ron Turner, an Iraqi war veteran and currently the chief of staff of the Kentucky National Guard.

The placing of the wreath will follow his speech.

Nearly all of the prairie settlers found on their way across North America is now gone. But if efforts at Red Orchard Park pan out, visitors can get an idea what those early settlers may have seen when the crossed the country in their covered wagons. And they may hear the increasingly rare call of the bobwhite quail to boot.

On Tuesday, Shelbyville/Shelby County Parks workers planted 15 acres in Red Orchard Park to a mix of grasses that mimic those found in the short grass prairies of bygone days. Kentucky originally had hundreds of thousands of acres of prairie lands.