Walling resident and White County native Robert Woolridge Jones, 75, died Aug. 17 at NHC Healthcare after an extended illness.A laborer and a member of the Church of Christ, he was the son of Samuel J. and Alice Denton Jones and is survived by nieces and nephews, Wilma Ruth Zigler of Hunt, N.Y., Jean Eckman…

McMinnville resident and Wilson County native Mary Davenport, 86, died Aug. 16 at River Park Hospital after an extended illness.A bus agent for 27 years at the McMinnville station of Greyhound and Trailways, and a member of First Baptist Church, she served as a 50-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star.The daughter of…

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not exactly a guilt-free pleasure, but food researchers say cocoa beans could be good for you. Dolly Sullivan is a believer. She eats two or three squares of Dove dark chocolate daily and talked her mother into switching from coffee to cocoa. “I’m a chocoholic. I can’t walk by a chocolate…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Self-supporting group homes have high success rates in helping individuals recover from alcoholism and drug addiction, researchers from DePaul University reported Thursday. A pair of studies being presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association found success rates of 65 percent to 87 percent for the homes. The benefits of…

(AP) — Sex is easy, comedy is hard. A sex comedy that’s not just a raunchy, moronic romp seems downright impossible. That’s what makes “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” such a great ride. The title harkens to those single-minded slapstick-fests of the early 1980s, like “Porky’s,” “Spring Break” and “Private Resort” (the last of which is notable…

(AP) — You’d have to really love motorcycle racing to spend your money and 80 minutes of your life (that you’ll never get back) to watch the mind-numbingly repetitive “Supercross: The Movie.” You could see the same thing for free — with higher production values and snappier dialogue — watching X Games coverage on ESPN.…

(AP) — Timothy Treadwell was many things: infinitely charismatic, infectiously enthusiastic, childish, foolish, delusional and probably manic-depressive. He was also doomed, something we know before walking into “Grizzly Man,” Werner Herzog’s extraordinary new documentary. That doesn’t necessarily make Treadwell’s story more tragic; by living among the bears in the Alaskan wild for a dozen years…

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The University of Arkansas unveiled a new recruiting tool and, like the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, this one appears to be made of pork. The “Razorbug” is a street-legal Volkswagen Beetle modified to look like an Arkansas Razorback. The hood turns upward into a snout, and the tail curls above the…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rates on 30-year mortgages declined this week after posting increases for six consecutive weeks. In its weekly survey, mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 5.80 percent, down from last week’s 5.89 percent, which had been the highest level in four months. Analysts said the…

NEW YORK (AP) — An important gauge of future economic activity rose a modest 0.1 percent in July, suggesting that higher oil prices and rising interest rates are tempering the nation’s economic growth prospects. In Washington, meanwhile, the Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits rose by 6,000 to 316,000 last week, but were still…