By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard More names continue to surface as possible candidates in what is shaping up to be some hotly contested elections in 2006 for a variety of offices.Since qualifying papers will not be available for the upcoming elections until late this fall, the early barometer of candidates…

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard COOPER The first phase of a multi-phase project to build a four-lane highway from McMinnville to Woodbury is now officially under way.The Tennessee Department of Transportation reports it is currently negotiating to purchase right of ways for the new road.According to U.S. Rep. Lincoln…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Pamela Rogers, shown leaving the courthouse in handcuffs, has been at Warren County Jail since Thursday morning. She is being kept in a cell by herself initially. (James Clark photo) In jail for the first time in her life, former Centertown teacher turned convicted sex…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Under strong pressure from the United States, Iraqi leaders met Sunday in a last ditch bid to reach agreement on a new constitution only one day before the deadline for parliament to approve it. One lawmaker raised the possibility the deadline may have to be postponed. Talks seem to be concentrating…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers and interest groups are gearing up for a fight this fall over Social Security, each side hoping to use the retirement and disability program’s 70th birthday to build momentum. President Bush and House Republicans have yet to build a groundswell for shifting a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to individual…

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) — Even by the scenic route, past the weathered stone walls and long driveways of some of New York City’s wealthiest suburbs, it’s only 14 miles from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s big colonial in Chappaqua to Jeanine Pirro’s modern mansion in Harrison. The homes are different, but not far apart — a lot…

NEW YORK (AP) — They were the men you could depend upon, the faces you’d see every night at dinnertime. In times of trouble, they were always there. Their words rang with authority. For a generation of television viewers, it was a role assumed by Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. Not just anchormen,…

NEW YORK (AP) — They had traveled 1,400 miles and waited two decades for this night — three beautiful women from Long Island, wearing little black dresses to a concert by the pop star they’d drooled over when Reagan was president and hair was feathered. The Heidelberger sisters, together again, had flown all the way…

NEW YORK (AP) — It doesn’t match the impact of “Schindler’s List” or “The Pianist” — and what portrayals of the Nazi era reach such Academy Award-winning heights? But the Hallmark Channel’s must-see presentation on Pope John Paul II’s life carries a special double whammy all its own. Poland’s young pontiff-to-be and his colleagues are…

NEW YORK (AP) — Lucille Ball is America’s most beloved dead star. The company that developed the “Q score” that broadcasters and advertisers quietly consult to measure a personality’s popularity has done a survey that tests the reputation of performers who have gone on to that big soundstage in the sky. The redheaded sitcom star…