The Week That Was
She's Got Legs
Monday night, while most Americans slept, speedy Nashvillian Jennifer McFalls sealed the deal on the U.S. Olympic softball team’s gold medal, as she touched home ahead of Japanese left fielder Shiori Kosecki’s wild, ugly, and high throw to the plate. As comebacks go, this one was a classic. Team USA was 4-3 in the round robin part of the tournament, losing to China, Australia, and Japan in extra innings. After the three straight losses, ace pitcher Lisa Fernandez hosed down the ballplayers in a mass anti-bad-luck shower. It must’ve worked. In the medal round, the U.S. women whipped the same three teams, repeating their gold-medal performance in the 1996 Atlanta games. Final score: 2-1.
Bounty set
State Attorney General Paul Summers announced last week that tiremaker Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. is offering a $10 bounty for every one of its more than 6.5 million recalled tires in an effort to keep the flawed product out of dealer inventories and prevent them from being placed on vehicles. The bounty is an incentive to keep the tires from being resold illegally and potentially threatening the lives of those driving on them.
A heroine officer
There’s a new hero in the Metro Police Department. Working an off-duty job at Walgreens earlier this week, 49-year-old Linda Massengale, a 20-year officer, was shot in the leg when four armed and masked robbers broke in and opened fire. Massengale was shot in the leg, and after the bandits left, taking her pistol with them, she calmly radioed for help. She was recovering earlier this week at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
