By ROBERT TANNER / AP National Writer Buy now, pay later. It sounds like a late-night TV ad, but the lure of borrowing is attracting many state leaders faced with long-delayed demands for services and voters who’ve proven unwilling to support new taxes. Many states this year are looking at big-dollar borrowing plans, on top…

By DEBORAH HASTINGS / AP National Writer Dennis Hope stands in his Lunar Embassy in Gardnerville, Nev., on Feb. 27, 2004. Hope is the self-described “head cheese” of his company which sells property on the moon. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison, File) GARDNERVILLE, Nev. (AP) — On U.S. Highway 395, which cuts straight through this little town,…

By LINDA A. JOHNSON / Associated Press Writer Becky Hartman will tell you how crucial it is for a hospital to have enough nurses. When she rushed her mother to a Wichita, Kan., hospital, an ER doctor quickly sized up the older woman as another pneumonia case. Her breathing was labored and pneumonia patients filled…

FINCASTLE, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s 325-mile portion of Interstate 81 is one of the most beautiful and dangerous roadways in the nation. Now, after years of indecision about how to improve the safety and efficiency of this interstate, which begins in Tennessee and ends at the Canadian border, it may become the test case for…

FRANKLIN (AP) — A group of Tennessee officials and lawmakers traveled to Washington, D.C., last week in hopes of stopping federal regulations that are preventing the state from enacting laws against predatory lending. John D. Hawke Jr., Comptroller of the Currency, has been taking steps to reduce the portion of banks chartered by states so…

By KARIN MILLER / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE (AP) — Since 1997, five children have died after being left in Tennessee day care vans, and nothing state officials or lawmakers have done has appeared to make a difference. Earlier this month, a Memphis child was left in a van nine hours but survived because the…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) — More than half of the state’s fire departments lack personnel with formal training in putting out fires, according to a new study. One of the biggest hurdles, particularly for rural fire departments, is that most firefighting volunteers have careers and commitments that interfere with training, officials said. The departments also are underequipped,…

By COLIN FLY / Associated Press Writer Mike Cunningham, manager of the Tennessee Tanning Company holds up a Rawlings Major League Baseball which is made from the rawhide his company produces in Tullahoma, Tenn., Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/John Russell) TULLAHOMA (AP) — The mighty home runs of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Hank Aaron…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The prescription painkiller OxyContin has overtaken heroin and other street drugs as the narcotic of choice for addicts seeking help at Tennessee’s methadone clinics. And it can be more dangerous than other drugs. “A lot of people are losing limbs, getting infections and even their heart valves are getting infected,” said Dr.…

By MATT GOURAS / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE (AP) — Jill Carter, a senior at Cheatham County Central High School in Ashland City, will be part of what’s shaping up to be the largest college freshman class in state history. The surge of students is being driven by Tennessee’s new lottery scholarships. Without them, Carter…