SPORTS SPRING SPORTSLIFESTYLES

Lady Blue Devils’ Softball Starts Up.

See page 12.

Edna Sue Mahaney And Jo Scott Release Fourth Book.

See page 5.

Rosters And Schedules For Jackson County Spring Sports.

See pages 6 & 7.

Volume 116, Number 12 Gainesboro, Tennessee, Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1 Section, 12 Pages

50cents

On March 6 “A Love of Nature” art and gift gal-lery hosted a membership meeting of the Upper Cum-berland Arts Alliance. Jim and Freda Whitaker, life-long residents of Jackson County, recently opened their shop on the square in Gainesboro, which offers local artists a convenient venue to display and sell their works. The business has been growing ever since.

They now offer classes on such skills as callig-raphy, wood carving and many others. It seems that there was a pent up demand for these accomplished

Art And Gift Gallery Hosts Arts Alliance Membership Meeting

artisans to show the world what they were capable of and the Whitakers were ready and able to fill the bill. They are highly talented figures in their own right. Both are sea-soned musicians with Freda having written several of her own songs. They each also contribute to items on display in the store.

It was a recognition of the success of their efforts that prompted the Upper Cumberland Arts Alliance to bring their annual meeting to Gainesboro. Their website www.uppercumberlandart-salliance.com defines their goal like this: “The main goal of UCAA is to encourage,

promote and facilitate the arts of the Upper Cumberland area. One of our goals is to reach and enrich all the peo-ple in this Tennessee region with the beauty and diversity of all art forms.”

The Upper Cumberland consists of 14 counties: Cannon, Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Smith, Van Buren, Warren and White. The re-lationship between UCAA and Jackson County has been developing for several years now. The Alliance spon-sors Granville’s Arts and Cultural Center at the T.B. Sutton General Store and

has also held their annual Gourd Gala in Gainesboro since 2011. The date for this year’s gala has been set for Aug. 17 when the Central Fire Department will also be putting on their annual car show downtown as well.

Prior to the start of the meeting members enjoyed a buffet catered by Season’s Restaurant. The meeting was called to order and Chamber Director John Dennis welcomed the group to Gainesboro and pointed

Topix Forum Post Leads To A Two-Week Investigation

On Friday, March 15 around 1:20 p.m., a one-vehicle accident occurred on North Grundy Quarles Highway. A 2006 gold Chevy Trailblazer, driven by Judith Newberry, was traveling north on Grundy Quarles Highway when the vehicle left the roadway, causing it vehicle to rollover and come to rest on the driver’s side. The driver was wearing her seatbelt, and the airbags

Single Vehicle Accident Occurs Fridaydid deploy. The driver was trapped in the vehicle and had to be extricated. The Jackson County Ambulance Service then transported Newberry to Cookeville Regional Medical Center. Gainesboro Police Department Sgt. Det. Mi-chael Smith, Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Jack-son County Rescue Squad and Gainesboro Fire Depart-ment were on the scene to help with the accident.

What you post about other people on the website Topix may not be so anony-mous after all, is what an Overton County resident recently discovered.

Law enforcement au-thorities searched a Monroe home on March 6 with a warrant after a two-week investigation was carried out because of a Topix forum post that was traced back to the residence.

“I guess I am in a lot of trouble now,” is what the resident said to authorities when they came to search, stated a recent press release through the 15th Judicial District Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force. The task force covers Jackson, Ma-con, Smith, Trousdale and Wilson counties.

According to the release, the post said the following: “We need to get all the peo-ple that don’t have popular names together and system-atically take out all those Staffords, Mayberrys and Gentrys…But we can spare the judge though, ‘cause she’s kind of hot. If we all work together and keep it a secret, we can make it look like the deaths were all ac-cidents. I know that most of the populars are dumber than hell, ‘cause let’s face it, if you have that name…You don’t need an education to make it in this town. Who’s with me?”

The post concerned As-sistant District Attorney Ed-win Sadler, who then con-tacted the Drug and Violent

Crimes Task Force.Authorities seized sev-

eral computers, all weapons and other items during the search.

The task force made the following statement in its release:

“For some reason people think that they can create a fictitious name and resi-dence and post something on Topix and law enforce-ment does not know who they are. Topix is regularly monitored by specialized law enforcement groups, and we know who is making the postings, and at times these postings result in criminal charges and other times they are witnesses to crimes and interviewed by law enforce-ment. We have interviewed people that made postings months in the past and in some investigations even years later people will be in-terviewed. This is a situation where someone, like most people who post, thought they could hide behind a computer, scare people and say lies about them and no one would ever know, and it would be funny.”

Agencies involved in the investigation were the 15th District Attorney’s Office, 13th District Attorney’s Of-fice, Overton County Sher-iff’s Department, Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and the 15th Judicial Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force.

Charges will be filed against the Monroe resi-dent and brought before the Overton County and Jackson County grand juries at a later date.

BRITTANY STOVALLSentinel Staff Writer

Please SeeMembership Meeting Pg. 3

Single Vehicle Accident Occurs - Pictured above is the 2006 gold Chevy Trailblazer, driven by Judith Newberry, that rolled over on North Grundy Quarles Highway.

Arts Alliance Membership Meeting Held - Several Arts Alliance members from Gainesboro and other members from out of town joined together for a membership meeting.