WASHINGTON (AP) — In consecutive days last month, Alabama lost two legends from a disappearing movement — Southern Democrats who were powerful in Washington because of their party’s majority and powerful back home because of their tendency to buck it. Look around Congress these days and you’ll find few conservative Democrats in the mold of…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush, confronting growing unrest over high energy prices, wants government action to spur construction of new nuclear power plants and oil refineries and sales of fuel-efficient hybrid and clean-diesel automobiles. In a speech to a small business group, the president plans to urge using closed military bases as sites for new…

WASHINGTON (AP) — After four record-breaking years, home sales were supposed to slow in 2005 under the weight of rising interest rates. But so far, the red-hot market keeps getting hotter. “Phenomenal. I am speechless,” said real estate agent Maurice Veissi of Miami, who has been selling homes for 33 years. “I have never seen…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unfavorable court rulings have the news media facing their most serious challenge in more than three decades over protecting the identities of confidential sources. The latest defeat came last week when a federal appeals court in Washington declined to reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling compelling Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans believe news coverage is biased and negative, but they also say they respect journalists and trust what they hear and read. A national survey conducted by the Missouri School of Journalism’s Center for Advanced Social Research found 62 percent consider journalism credible and more than half rated newspapers and television…

ATLANTA (AP) — For a growing number of students, the easiest way to make a couple of hundred dollars has nothing to do with chores or after-school jobs, and everything to do with informing on classmates. Tragedies like last month’s deadly shooting at a Red Lake, Minn., school have prompted more schools to offer cash…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The state highway commissioner says there’s plenty of blame for guardrails that were improperly installed and pose a safety risk. A private subcontractor used by the Tennessee Department of Transportation is under state and federal investigation for the work. According to WSMV-TV, the guardrails were sunk in the ground only 12 inches…

LEBANON (AP) — A Hispanic teenage mother told by a judge to learn English and use birth control has reunited with her daughter by the same judge. Wilson County Juvenile Court Judge Barry Tatum granted Victoria Luna, 18, permanent custody of her 3-year-old on Monday, one week after putting off action in a similar case…

Because of Internet connection issues, we will not be able to post today’s (4-27-2005) edition of the Southern Standard online until later this morning. We regret the delay.

Bradyville resident and Warren County native Richard William (Dickey) Judkins, 57, died April 24 at Stones River Hospital after a short illness.An employee of International Paper Company and a member of the Church of Christ, he served his country in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.The son of the late Gentry Hastings and Gertrude…