By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard A dialysis patient relaxes in a pleasant atmosphere in a clinic similar to the one Dr. Sabo will be opening here by the end of the year. (Photo provided) There’s a new nephrologist in town. That’s a good thing for local kidney dialysis patients…

For the first time since the 1999 season, the Pioneer football team stands at 2-0. Warren County needed just eight offensive plays and two huge kick returns Friday night to build an insurmountable first-half lead on its way to a 50-6 blowout win over visiting DeKalb County. Kyle Mullican brought the game’s opening kickoff 98…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department on Friday approved a controversial Georgia law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The measure’s opponents immediately vowed to challenge it in federal court. The decision, written by John Tanner, chief of the department’s voting section, says that while Attorney General Alberto Gonzales doesn’t object…

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — The governors of New Mexico and its southern neighbor, the Mexican state of Chihuahua, agreed Friday to bulldoze or board up abandoned buildings in a sparsely populated border town that is a haven for would-be immigrants and smugglers. Gov. Bill Richardson and Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza also said they…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most women hoping to buy emergency contraception without a prescription will have to wait awhile longer. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday again postponed its long-awaited decision on whether to let the morning-after pill sell over the counter. It said it still hadn’t determined how to ensure that only adults, and…

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Kodee Kennings’ story was pure gold. For nearly two years, the motherless 8-year-old spoke and wrote movingly of her struggle to deal with her soldier father being shipped off to fight in Iraq, and Southern Illinois University’s student newspaper chronicled her thoughts in its pages. But there was no Kodee Kennings,…

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — While U.S. motorists complain at having to pay $2.60 a gallon, the relentless surge of oil prices is leading to even more colossal gas pains for Europeans who were paying much more than Americans even before crude began climbing. So far there has been no repeat on the old continent of…

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Charges have been dropped against the “Raging Grannies,” five women accused of trespassing after they tried to enlist at a military recruitment center to protest the war in Iraq, a city prosecutor said. The five women tried to enlist on July 13, saying they wanted to go to Iraq so their…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Potato chips and french fries could soon come with a warning label in California if the state’s top attorney prevails in a lawsuit filed Friday against nine fast food chains and snack-food makers. Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked for a court order requiring McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Frito Lay and other…

WASHINGTON (AP) — People with friends or relatives serving in Iraq are more likely than others to have a positive view of a generally unpopular war, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Some of those surveyed said their relationships with troops helped them learn more about what’s going on in Iraq beyond the violence. Others said their…