KNOXVILLE (AP) — A federal judge has approved an unusual request for an alleged drug dealer to leave jail temporarily to have an abortion. U.S. District Court Magistrate Bruce Guyton approved the medical furlough on Monday for Heather Natasha Marie Whitt, who was indicted last month on a federal charge of crack cocaine conspiracy. Discussions…

NASHVILLE (AP) — Lt. Gov. John Wilder said he didn’t use his position to have land his family owns included in a 3,500-acre tract being touted as a potential site for an automobile manufacturing plant. “My land hasn’t got anything to do with it,” Wilder, a Democrat who lives in Mason, told The Tennessean on…

LEBANON (AP) — It’s time to shed light on the legislature, lobbyists and the money in politics to make sure decisions aren’t being made in secret, “smoke-filled rooms”, the governor’s special ethics panel was told Tuesday. An engaged crowd of about 50 citizens, along with a few lobbyists and elected officials, told the panel that…

MEMPHIS (AP) — A Memphis woman has been charged with forgery and attempted theft for trying to collect funds meant for Hurricane Katrina evacuees, police said. But Emma Hill, 31, said she was desperate for help after she and her four children were evicted from their South Memphis home Sept. 8 and went to a…

HOUSTON (AP) — Thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees in Texas are being moved, via bus and air, away from coastal areas due to the threat of Hurricane Rita. Tennessee emergency officials agreed to take up to 3,000 Katrina refugees who need to be relocated. “Last night we were asked if we could take more,” Tennessee…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered tens of thousands of mobile homes and travel trailers on Tuesday to accommodate Katrina evacuees, approving manufacturer bids totaling at least hundreds of millions of dollars, an agency spokesman said. FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said the specific number of units and dollar totals were not immediately…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The widow of an East Tennessee man says he died because TennCare quit covering all his prescription drugs, but her claims are being disputed by state officials and partially by her husband’s doctor. Barbara Bryant of Rutledge said her husband, James, suffered from a hereditary bleeding disorder called von Willebrand disease, hepatitis…

By William Rusher / Columnist One would think that by this time Hurricane Katrina had been analyzed from every conceivable point of view. Certainly the liberals wasted no time co-opting it for every cause in their playbook. The anti-Iraq war crowd complained that so many members of the Louisiana National Guard had been sent to…

By Joan Ryan / Columnist Say what you will about the president’s legacy as a leader, but give him credit for acknowledging the shameful conditions he saw in the Deep South among the most impoverished of his fellow citizens.The people were, he said, “that other nation within a nation — the poor — whose distress…

By Duane Sherrill / Columnist What’s with people who have to leave a veritable rendition of “War and Peace” on your answering machine? Can’t people just come to the point?If you’re anything like me, then you hate long messages. There’s nothing that chaps me more than someone who calls my cell, work or home and…