By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard PALLAS Due to recent layoffs, enrollment at the local branch of the Tennessee Technology Center has jumped 20 percent and nearly every program it offers has waiting lists full of laid-off workers seeking additional training.But while the need for such programs has never been greater,…

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard BARRETT If the Public Chapter 1101 proposal goes through two public hearings scheduled for Monday and McMinnville city officials do not approve it in their regularly-scheduled meeting later that day, it’s back to the drawing board.State planner Joe Barrett said it will go back to…

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard RICKEY JONES City officials attending the McMinnville Regional Planning Commission meeting Tuesday indicated several new problems associated with the Public Chapter 1101 Coordinating Committee’s growth plan.If their indications are followed up on, it’s possible the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that meets Monday won’t ratify…

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard BENNETT After an intensive selection process, Morrison Elementary principal James Bennett bested three other candidates to be chosen as successor to retiring Warren County High School principal George Bolding.“I am very honored the committee has expressed their confidence in me,” said Bennett. “Becoming a principal…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard A daring gunman robbed Pit Stop North Thursday in broad daylight, perpetrating his crime directly across the street from Bobby Ray Elementary where hundreds of children were at school.The gunman, described as a tall, middle-aged, white male, remained at large Thursday evening after a painstaking…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard With West Elementary students playing in the background, Zach Latka, 5, and teacher Nichole Douglas kneel at the spot where Zach found a loaded Colt .45. (James Clark photo) A loaded and cocked handgun was found by a kindergarten student and his mother at West…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard CHRISTOPHER Wal-Mart’s parking lot was the scene of a dramatic arrest Tuesday evening when a local woman was taken into custody in the act of trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband.The suspect, Tresia Christopher, 44, was unaware the supposed cold-blooded killer with…

Ocie Mae Rhea, Anita Jean Rainey, Sarahan Lee Billings, Houston Ferrell, Clifford Franklin McClain Ocie Mae Rhea, 97McMinnville resident and Warren County native Ocie Mae Rhea, 97, died May 15 at her home after a lingering illness.A homemaker and a member of the Church of Christ, she was the daughter of the late Lymon and…

By Diana West / Columnist From San Francisco State University comes a report that should shock America. It is an open letter from Laurie Zoloth, director of the university’s Jewish Studies Program, describing a place that has become, in Zoloth’s words, “a venue for hate speech and anti-Semitism” — namely, her own campus. Such harsh…

By George Plagenz / Columnist Most of us think we have a sense of humor. You can get into a pretty good argument, of course, over what a sense of humor is.If a person doesn’t think something is funny that we think is funny, we are likely to say, “The trouble with him is that…