CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — With men and women of the National Guard serving everywhere from New Orleans to Iraq, Alan Bowen believes there’s no better time to be celebrating the Overmountain Victory Trail. In the weeks ahead, Bowen and other Revolutionary War re-enactors will once again retrace the path of the patriot militiamen who mustered…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Fair, which has been marred by mismanagement and other problems, is on track to draw 250,000 visitors — a 21 percent increase from last year, officials said. If the figure holds, it also would top the 226,000 who attended in 2003. The fair opened Sept. 9 and closes Sunday.…

By HUGO KUGIYA / AP National Writer The story of the last big one is the stuff of legend in Tennessee: In the winter of 1812, when a series of massive earthquakes struck the Mississippi River valley, the shaking was so violent, folks say, that the mighty river ran backward for a time, and church…

By WOODY BAIRD / Associated Press Writer MEMPHIS — Scenes of looters rampaging through the flooded streets of New Orleans while homeless survivors of Hurricane Katrina begged for food and water stirred emotions across the country. For disaster relief planners up the Mississippi River in Memphis, it prompted a question: Could that happen here? Memphis…

Bristol Herald Courier For some of the nation’s biggest engineering and construction firms, Hurricane Katrina has a silver lining — lucrative no-bid contracts to rebuild parts of the damaged coast.The number of contracts going to firms with ties to official Washington raises troubling questions and gives the appearance of impropriety.The list of those riding the…

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) As New Orleans was submerged by a sea of filthy water, it revealed how unprepared we are to meet the challenges of a major disaster in the United States. Hurricane Katrina shed a light on the administration’s willingness to fill the ranks of the Federal Emergency Management Agency with inexperienced political…

By Morton Kondracke / Columnist President Bush has made an important shift as he tries to bolster public support for the Iraq war, moving from idealism to a hard national security argument. He needs to stress the new message more.Unpopular though the idea may be, he may also have to increase the number of U.S.…

By Thomas Vaughn / Columnist In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush spoke passionately and persuasively Thursday night about the magnitude of that disaster, the need for bold new initiatives to recover from it, and the need to cope better with future disasters.Speaking in historic Jackson Square in the center of New Orleans, with…

By Charles W. Johnson / Columnist A couple of buddies here at work were asking me about the origin of some slang terms for money. The ones they brought up were sawbuck, and the short form of that one, the more commonly used buck, and simoleon. There are lots of others, and I’m going to…

James Wray works on taking the engine out of a Toyota Camry. He is the full-time mechanic at Brakes, Mufflers & More which is owned by Randy and Teresa Mullins. (James Clark photo) Tucked away on Walling Street behind the former location of Parson’s Body Shop is Mufflers, Brakes & More, a new business opened…