WASHINGTON (AP) — While the high-flying housing market still holds risks, especially for the financially stretched, most homeowners are in a fairly good position to weather a shock if prices drop, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Monday. “The vast majority of homeowners have a sizable equity cushion with which to absorb a potential decline…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A school district is undermining science education by raising false doubts about evolution and offering “intelligent design” as an alternative explanation for life’s origins, a biologist testified at the start of a landmark trial. “It’s the first movement to try to drive a wedge between students and the scientific process,” said…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Things may be falling into place for abortion foes who have long wanted a Supreme Court friendlier to their cause. They will soon have two new justices and a readymade abortion showdown. The Bush administration has set up the issue for the term that begins next Monday, asking the justices to overturn…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The use of special computer games to train their brains improved healthy youngsters’ ability to pay attention, scientists reported Monday. It’s not clear just how much the games helped, other specialists cautioned. But with booming interest in developing therapies for attention problems, the research sheds light on how a normal youngster’s brain…

GATLINBURG (AP) — The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has four new hybrid cars to use in its educational programs and during patrols of the roads. Toyota donated four Prius vehicles to Friends of the Smoky Mountains National Park, which immediately turned them over to the park, during a ceremony atop Clingmans Dome on Saturday.…

NASHVILLE (AP) — Three cases of West Nile Virus were found last week in horses, the first reported equine cases this year, according to the state Department of Agriculture. The horses were from Jefferson, Lauderdale and Tipton counties. The virus claimed its first human victim this year in Shelby County on Sept. 13. The state…

JOHNSON CITY (AP) — A newly crowned high school homecoming queen on the way to get her pictures developed was killed when the sport utility vehicle she was in was hit from behind and burst into flames. Courtney Hensley, 17, of Telford was killed and the driver of SUV, Cortney Beard of Erwin, also 17,…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday granted a stay of execution for Paul Dennis Reid Jr., convicted in the 1997 slayings of seven people in Nashville and Clarksville. Reid was to have been put to death by lethal injection on Oct. 5, but the court granted his request for a stay and…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Police charged a Chattanooga man in the fatal shooting of a Katrina evacuee from Louisiana and the victim’s mother said she had no way to pay for the funeral. Edward Antwan “Meatloaf” Jones, 24, was charged Monday with first degree murder in the Sept. 17 slaying of Don Maurice Airline, 24, of…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The state attorney general is suing a computer company, charging that it has been taking advantage of Fort Campbell soldiers with inflated prices and unfair finance contracts. Attorney General Paul Summers says a company operating under the names Laptoyz Computers and Electronics, Britlee Inc., and Rome Finance Co., lured soldiers into paying…