McMinnville resident and Cannon County native Beatrice Bell Tubb, 88, died April 28 at River Park Hospital.A retired employee of McMinnville Garment and a member of Central Church of Christ, she was the daughter of Hardy and Louella Winnett Bell; and was preceded in death by her husband, Johnnie Dillon Tubb in 1987; and son-in-law,…

KNOXVILLE (AP) — A group of women dressed in black gather every Tuesday to hold silent vigils in protest of the fighting in the Middle East. The Knoxville chapter of the international group Women in Black marked its second anniversary earlier this month. They began protests in front of a downtown federal building on April…

JOHNSON CITY (AP) — A wedding chapel owner who prompted the Legislature to enact an emergency measure guaranteeing the validity of marriages she performed in the 1990s has been arrested. Brenda Gorst, who ran the Wedding Loft in Jonesborough, has been charged with impersonating a licensed professional in performing more than 600 weddings during the…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The state is going to begin having more parole hearings under a new policy approved Wednesday. It will allow an inmate to petition for an immediate hearing if he or she is not granted parole after six years. For years, the State Board of Probation and Parole has decided how often a…

By AMBER McDOWELL / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE (AP) — As the Bredesen administration considered workers’ compensation bill revisions to address labor concerns, legislators heard Wednesday from employees who said the current system doesn’t protect them. John Bell, a former pipe fitter from Jasper, told members of the House Consumer and Employee Affairs Committee that…

NASHVILLE (AP) — Anyone who illegally sells a prescription obtained through TennCare could be banned from the health care program for life under legislation approved Wednesday by a House committee. The provision was grafted on to Gov. Phil Bredesen’s legislation stiffening penalties for defrauding TennCare, the $7.3 billion federal-health insurance program for 1.3 million poor,…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Students in Hamilton County will be able to take summer school classes online beginning this year. The school district plans to offer more than a dozen online courses, officials said. The county will no longer offer traditional summer school because of cuts in state funding, said Sheila Young, associate superintendent of secondary…

By RON FOURNIER / AP Political Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Al Gore, drawing from his 2000 campaign accounts, said Wednesday he will donate more than $6 million to five Democratic Party groups and help John Kerry fight President Bush’s “outrageous and misleading” re-election bid. The former vice president pledged to donate $4 million to the…

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD / Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — If presidential hopeful John Kerry really wants to help protect American jobs, he should push a bill stalled in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a letter sent to Kerry Wednesday. Frist noted in the letter that the Massachusetts Democrat was discussing job…

NASHVILLE (AP) — In a bid to soften opposition to a “Choose Life” license plate approved by the Legislature last year, state Sen. Steve Cohen introduced a proposal to offer a pro-choice version. The Senate Transportation Committee recommended the pro-choice plate after Cohen attached his proposal to legislation giving racing fans another year to obtain…