NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee’s unemployment rate fell slightly in August to 5.3 percent, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday. The unemployment rate is down from July’s 5.5 percent rate, but remains above the national average of 4.9 percent, labor Commissioner James Neeley said in a statement. Job gains were seen in…

By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE — Ten white employees at a Whirlpool Corp. factory have joined a $50 million federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against blacks at the facility. The suit against the La Vergne plant and its local union was first filed in 2003 by 15 black employees. The…

McMinnville resident and Cannon County native Rosa Mae Paris, 73, died Sept. 15 at River Park Hospital.A homemaker and a member of the Church of Christ, she was the daughter of Lewis W. and Kizzie Dockery Parton.She is survived by her husband, Ernest L. Paris; son and daughter-in-law, Ernie and Rose Paris of Nashville; daughter,…

Marian E. Wierema, 86, of the Four Season’s Living Center, Morrison, Ill., died Tuesday, Sept. 13 at the living center.She was born Sept. 15, 1918, in Fenton, Ill., to Ray and Theresa (Stichter) Prestley. She married LaVerne W. Wiersema on May 20, 1939 in Burlington, Iowa. He died Dec. 21, 1983. She farmed along with…

McMinnville resident and Chesterfield, Ind., native Helen Joan Lewis, 79, died Sept. 13 at her home.A homemaker and a member of Temple Baptist Church, she was the daughter of the late Clyde and Ethel Shafter Ashby.She is survived by her husband, Hobert L. Lewis; son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Sue Lewis of McMinnville; daughters and…

Dorothy Dean Tomlin, 70 of McMinnville, passed away at her home Sept. 13.She was a department store manager at Neisner’s in Detroit, Mich., and employed by Best Western in Woodhaven, Mich. She was a member of the Baptist Church.Ms. Tomlin was preceded in death by her parents; John Smith and JoAnna Adams Tomlin; brothers, Wayne…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many welfare recipients who are victims of domestic violence are not taking advantage of government rules that exempt them from the aid program’s work requirements. That conclusion from a Government Accountability Office study is a concern because it means some women aren’t getting the help they need from the states and the…

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than one-fourth of the nation’s Farm Service Agency offices would close under a plan being pushed by the Agriculture Department, according to an agency document obtained by The Associated Press. As outlined in the document, the department would shutter an estimated 665 of the 2,353 offices nationwide. J.B. Penn, undersecretary for…

WASHINGTON (AP) — At Irene’s Myomassology Institute, students train to be massage therapists who understand human touch. Now they had better get a grip on the Constitution too. For the first time, every school and college receiving federal money must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Store-bought swordfish contained mercury levels above the legal limit in a study released Thursday by environmental groups. A University of North Carolina Lab found elevated mercury concentrations in 24 swordfish samples from supermarket chains including Safeway, Shaws, Albertsons and Whole Foods. Groups that paid for the analysis want supermarkets to post signs…