say the project would rip away their "ancestral land." In an earlier hearing in April, a public hearing officer said using eminent domain to take the Sparta landowner's property served "a ...

Since the controversy began, it has pitted a politically connected railroad against longtime property owners, some whose families have ties to their land dating to slavery.

Approaching its 20th year of operation, Veritas Christian Academy in Sparta is raising funds for its own building in nearby ...