NEW YORK (AP) — Saying “I am a businesswoman and I am a homemaker,” Martha Stewart served up details of the two upcoming series that mark her return to TV and call on those two roles. The studio full of reporters and photographers on Thursday got to take stock of the set for “Martha,” her…

WASHINGTON (AP) — An overwhelming number of people say critics of the Iraq war should be free to voice their objections — a rare example of widespread agreement about a conflict that has divided the nation along partisan lines. Nearly three weeks after a grieving California mother named Cindy Sheehan started her anti-war protest near…

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Anybody want to play host to a famous beauty pageant? Replies to Miss America, please. And fast. Fighting for its survival, the famous beauty pageant is taking to the road, hoping to reinvigorate the tired franchise by finding a new city and arena — more than one, perhaps. The 84-year-old…

Diddy poses at MTV studios in New York, Aug. 16, 2005. Diddy will host this year’s MTV Music Video Awards Aug. 28 in Miami. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper) MIAMI (AP) — Scoring an invite to one of Diddy’s dazzling, decadent bashes is a notoriously difficult get. But on Sunday, Diddy is relaxing his stringent admission rules…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army’s top general said Thursday he is encouraged by a recent rebound in recruiting, and he rejected suggestions that the stress of war in Iraq and Afghanistan is pushing the service to a breaking point. “We’re a long way from what anybody would call dire straits,” Gen. Peter Schoomaker said in…

NASHVILLE (AP) — Most Tennessee hospitals have yet to see an increase in emergency room visits by people cut from the state’s public health care program, but hospital officials say that could change when the fall cold and flu season begins. “It’s probably just too early in the ballgame to tell what is going to…

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A woman accused of fatally shooting a corrections officer while helping her husband escape from a Tennessee courthouse left in her Ohio jail cell writings detailing the crime, a prosecutor said. Jennifer Hyatte’s 34-page diary, which she titled, “A Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde,” calls husband George Hyatte the love of…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) — U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings visited a pair of city schools Thursday that have improved to “good standing” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. “Your (test) results are really powerful,” Spellings told students at Orchard Knob Middle and Elementary schools. “You are a role model not only for the state…

MEMPHIS (AP) — Lawyers for state Sen. Ward Crutchfield and former Sen. John Ford told a federal judge Thursday that they’re nowhere near being ready for trial in the Tennessee Waltz investigation. Crutchfield’s lawyer said the recent guilty plea of a co-defendant has caused unexpected work for his attorneys. And Ford’s lawyer said he is…

By ROSE FRENCH / Associated Press Writer WILSON NASHVILLE — The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song “Redneck Woman” a hit to stop “glamorizing” the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts. State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from…