McMinnville resident and San Diego, Calif., native Gene Womack died unexpectedly Jan. 12 at Centennial Medical Center.A homemaker and a member of the Protestant faith, she was the daughter of Gus von Bloomberg and Artie Evans; and was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Ray Womack in 1999; and daughter-in-law, Barbara Womack.She is survived…

McMinnville resident and Warren County native Ewin Gary (Willie) Wilson, 75, died Jan. 13 at River Park Hospital.A retired General Motors employee and a member of Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge 4190, he served his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.The son of the late Huston and Bryna Jones Wilson, he is…

TO THE EDITOR: On Jan. 1 at 10 past midnight, I received a loud banging on my door. It was Tara Ogden and Natalie Best. They had driven by and saw smoke coming from my building.Thank God for those two girls. They got everybody out of our building because it was on fire. We lost…

To The Editor: I am responding to an opinion column written by a Southern Standard employee called Canterbury Tales on Dec. 24 concerning the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.I’m saddened to know I live among people who let their politics blind them so severely they can’t see any patriotism and goodness in our…

TO THE EDITOR: I would like to take issue with some reprehensible comments made by Safety Committee members Teddy Boyd and Sally Brock in a story written by Charles Johnson and published in the Jan. 9 edition of the Southern Standard.My Boyd is quoted as saying he’s seen “The Bridgestone Bunch” drinking at 7:30 a.m.…

By George Plagenz What happened to all those fine New Year’s resolutions we made only a few weeks ago? Actually, New Year’s resolutions aren’t a big thing with most of us these days. Few of us even bother to make them. The rest of us break them after a few days.One survey revealed that only…

By Joan Ryan When I was a kid, I believed in cosmic balance. Everything that happened in one’s life evened out, a sort of algebraic canceling out of pain and beauty that ultimately rendered both sides of the equation equal. You could count on, say, finding a dollar on the sidewalk after school if your…

By James Clark It’s my assumption — and I hate to make assumptions — that almost every American is against terrorism. Operating under that belief, I’m going to make a few blanket statements I don’t normally feel comfortable making, but I do so using the logic that most everyone is in agreement.As Americans, we want…

By BILL POOVEY / Associated Press Writer CHATTANOOGA — A business owner charged with spanking two female employees waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday. A judge allowed Tasty Flavors Sno Biz operator Paul Eugene Levengood, 57, of Cleveland to remain free on a $2,000 bond until a Hamilton County grand jury considers the two sexual battery…

NASHVILLE (AP) — A new fee raises the price of Tennessee’s popular prepaid college tuition program. The “actuarial soundness” fee of $3.71 per tuition “unit” is on top of a $2.10 administrative fee that has been charged, at lower rates, since the program began in 1997. Combined, the fees made up almost 12 percent of…