By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard A mother will have to spend a day in jail for every day her children miss school.The unique sentence was handed down Tuesday by General Sessions Judge Larry Ross to Jodie King, who faced three misdemeanor counts of failure to keep children in school.Warrants were…

By JAMES CLARK / Editor for the Southern Standard A McMinnville fireman washes debris from Walnut Street where a four-wheeler accident occurred last night. Walnut is a short road that connects Lind and High streets. (James Clark photo) A Hill Street resident was in critical condition last night awaiting a life flight to Vanderbilt after…

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard West Elementary teacher Beverly Ramsey tours the nation’s capitol while on a trip to Washington, D.C. to receive a Presidential Award for Mathematics and Science Teaching. If somebody asked you to explain the scientific basis of sound production, would you have to stop and think…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Calls continue to flood in following a rash of disturbing events involving a stranger photographing young children and the attempted abduction of an 11-year-old girl.According to Sheriff Jackie Matheny, reports of the incidents of the past week have prompted responses from other nearby counties, who…

NEW YORK (AP) — About one in five teenagers have tried prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin to get high, with the pill-popping members of “Generation Rx” often raiding their parents’ medicine cabinets, according to a study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The 17th annual study on teen drug abuse, released Thursday,…

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s mixed evidence on highway fatalities for safety experts and auto groups engaged in a long-standing debate over reducing casualties on the nation’s roadways. The highway fatality rate sank to a record low last year, the government estimated Thursday. But the overall number of traffic deaths increased slightly, leading the Bush administration…

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky soldier’s wife has launched her own pre-emptive campaign against a yet-unaired cable television series based on the Iraq war. Michelle Tucker is asking military families to write letters protesting the fictional depiction planned by FX network. Tucker calls it “disrespectful and distasteful” to air shows about an ongoing war.…

By MARTHA IRVINE / AP National Writer It was getting so few teachers at Westwood High School in suburban Boston wanted to chaperone school dances. There were drunken quarrels and dramas. At one school event, a student was rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. “It’s a drag to deal with it,” one teacher told…

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is among the first states in the nation to make it lawful to allow religious documents to be posted on public property. By signing the law Wednesday, Gov. Haley Barbour “thrills” the Christian conservative base of the Republican Party, which he’ll need if he plans to seek re-election or launch…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sens. John McCain and Edward M. Kennedy are putting together an immigration bill that would subject illegal immigrants to fines, but allow them to remain in the United States and earn a chance to apply for permanent residency. The measure is an alternative to President Bush’s guest worker proposal sought by employers…