By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard SLATTON Saying it is time to retire, longtime County Trustee Joy Slatton has announced she will not seek an eighth term in the job she has held since 1978.“I’ll be 65 next May so I feel it’s time to step aside,” Slatton said of her…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Pam Turner scurries to the jail for her booking in February. A plea bargain is on the table for former Centertown teacher Pamela Rogers Turner, who must now choose between accepting the state’s terms or going ahead with trial by jury this November.In the meantime,…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Existing homes were sold in April at the fastest pace in history as the nation’s red-hot housing market just kept getting hotter. The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that existing single-family homes and condominiums were sold at a seasonally adjusted rate of 7.18 million units last month, a gain of 4.5…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest threat to computer users doesn’t destroy data or steal passwords — it locks up a person’s electronic documents, effectively holding them hostage, and demands $200 over the Internet to get them back. Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. uncovered the unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would…

NEW YORK (AP) — Stealing Social Security numbers and other sensitive data isn’t always a cloak-and-dagger, ultra-sophisticated operation: It’s often a low-tech job made easier by carelessness and flimsy safeguards. Plenty of inexpensive measures can protect data from the large-scale theft that big banks, data merchants and other companies have recently disclosed. But “security and…

McMinnville resident and Warren County native Nettie Bottoms Clemons, 83, died May 23 at River Park Hospital after an eight-month illness.A factory worker and a member of the Baptist Church, she was the daughter of the late W.P. and Burnette Hayes Bottoms; and was preceded in death by her husband, Fred (Ross) Bottoms; several brothers…

Morrison resident and Hardwick, Mass., native James Howard Blackwood, 57, died May 23 at his home.The son of the late Howard Andrew and Alda Delia Beaudin Blackwood, he is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Blackwood; daughter, Candace Blackwood of Monson, Mass.; stepson, Elvin Maupin of Winchester, Ky.; sister, Alda Chmura of Marietta, Ga.; several aunts,…

McMinnville resident and Detroit, Mich., native Fred R. Morton, 91, died May 23 at River Park Hospital.A retired employee of Chrysler Corporation, and a member of McMinnville First Presbyterian Church, VFW Post 5064 and the Noon Exchange Club, he served his country in the U.S. Air Corp during World War II.The son of the late…

Beersheba Springs resident Arthur D. (Stub) Killian, 67, died May 21.A retired employee of AEDC and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at Altamont, he was the son of the late Vernon and Estelle Fults Killian; and was preceded in death by his brother, Jerry Killian.He is survived by…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite their sizable stake in the outcome, America’s young people largely have been absent from the debate about the future of Social Security. That is beginning to change as Congress gets more involved in legislation to overhaul the federal retirement program. Student presidents from 150 colleges in all 50 states have written…