By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard Caleb Underhill and Garrison Holmes combined on a two-hitter Tuesday night, helping the Security Federal Giants remain undefeated as they dropped the Hills Creek Reds, 9-1.Underhill pitched four innings of one-hit, shutout baseball, fanning 12 batters, while Holmes pitched the fifth and sixth, striking out…

JAMESTOWN (AP) — Terry Shields stares at the collection of pills and inhalers spread across the table in his modest Fentress County home and worries about the future. “There is no way I can pay for my medicines. No way,” said Shields, a 36-year-old long-haul trucker who can no longer drive professionally because of a…

MEMPHIS (AP) — TennCare aims to save millions by cutting its membership rolls, but that doesn’t mean the patients left without medical insurance will simply go away. Mostly, they will just get moved around, with the taxpayers and patients with other medical coverage taking up the slack. But for public hospitals — like the Regional…

NASHVILLE (AP) — Linda Drain is one of 323,000 people who will get an unwanted letter from TennCare sometime soon. “I try not to think about it,” said the 50-year-old from Columbia who expects to hear that she will be kicked off the state’s expanded Medicaid program. TennCare pays for the medication Drain needs to…

NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal appeals court panel has approved Tennessee’s procedures for kicking people off TennCare, the state’s expanded Medicaid program. The ruling, which overturns a lower court decision, means the state does not have to hold a hearing for each TennCare recipient before removing them from the program. A three-judge panel of the…

NASHVILLE (AP) — When lawmakers came to Nashville five months ago, their main concerns were reforming TennCare and passing a state budget. But a month later all anyone could talk about was ethics. A scandal surrounding the consulting deals of Democratic state Sen. John Ford of Memphis resulted in the state’s most sweeping ethics reform…

NASHVILLE (AP) — When Gov. Phil Bredesen walked into a room full of House Democrats late Friday, there was some question if they were with him on plans to cut TennCare. A GOP-led effort to tinker with Bredesen’s TennCare cuts was attracting Democrats and the governor said he feared a budget fiasco. But after 30…

NASHVILLE (AP) — After the state House approved a $26 billion budget that largely gives Gov. Phil Bredesen what he wanted, the General Assembly wrapped up its work with a rare Saturday session and adjourned for the year. The budget was approved two days after four state senators were arrested in a far-reaching corruption scandal,…

NASHVILLE (AP) — E-Cycle Management Inc. looked like any other company trying to win influence at the Tennessee State Capitol. They had business cards, a Web site, and a chief executive who lobbied lawmakers over wine and finger food at a downtown reception. But the electronics and computer recycling firm was phony, a front for…

FORD NASHVILLE (AP) — Powerful state Sen. John Ford, now under house arrest as he awaits trial in a federal corruption case, has resigned from the Tennessee Senate, according to a letter read Saturday by the lieutenant governor. “I hereby resign from the state Senate. I plan to spend the rest of my time with…