DANDRIDGE (AP) ? Four students at Jefferson County High School who were cut from the football team in October after circulating a petition calling for their coach’s dismissal have filed a federal lawsuit against the coach and two school officials. Players Derrick “Rabbit” Lowery, Jacob Giles, Joseph Dooley and Dillan Spurlock claim that they created…

By MATT GOURAS / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE ? When news organizations asked to see the state’s workplace harassment investigation files, government officials complied ? but grudgingly. State officials acknowledged the documents were open to public inspection, but they sent a response letter to The Associated Press warning of a “concern about the chilling affect…

By BETH RUCKER / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE ? When Tennessee state employees complain about sexual harassment or other workplace misconduct, the state for years has had no consistent procedure for conducting investigations, maintaining records or imposing uniform punishments. An Associated Press review of more than 600 harassment investigation files going back to late 2002…

By Joan Ryan / Columnist California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should not grant clemency to death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams.Nor should he deny it.The governor should shelve the clemency hearing. He should call a press conference instead. He should say that in listening to the debate, he has come to understand that the challenge before…

By Thomas Vaughn / Columnist The so-called “global war on terrorism” is a constant, cruel reminder of just how much the world has changed since 9/11/2001. The terrorist attacks that day were not just on the United States, though clearly we were the primary target. Instead, they were, or should have been, a wake-up call…

By Charles W. Johnson / Columnist OK, I’m not Clint Eastwood. Oh come on, quit snickering. I’m not alluding to the rather obvious physical differences. After all, I’m certainly more Nero Wolfe than Josie Wales. Appearance-wise that is. What I’m referring to is Mr. Eastwood’s reputation as the “strong silent type” and “a man of…

McMinnville resident and Warren County native Lula Mae Boyd, 92, died Dec. 6 at NHC Healthcare after an extended illness.A housekeeper with McMinnville Grammar School and the Warren County Emergency Food Bank, she was the daughter of the late Will and Lizzie Ramsey Hopkins; and was preceded in death by her husband, Homer Boyd in…

Huntsville, Ala., resident and Cookeville native Hattie Sliger Taylor, 95, died Dec. 9.A member of First United Methodist Church of Huntsville and the United Methodist Women, she was a member of the Methodist Church for 60 years and she and her husband sang in a church quartet.She was preceded in death by her husband, Arthur…

Cleveland resident and Nashville native Russell Lee Pierce, 68, died at the home of his daughter in Cleveland after a long illness Dec. 7.He was preceded in death by his mother, Besse Carver Pierce and father, Roy Johnson Jr.A graduate of Elmhurst College with an accounting degree, he resided in Memphis where he spent most…

McMinnville resident and Warren County native Robbie Omega Jones, 78, died Dec. 10.A homemaker and a member of the Baptist Church, she was the daughter of the late Edgar and Lola Davenport Holt, and was preceded in death by her husband, Leonard Thomas Jones; sister, Ruby Roena Carr; and brothers, Lloyd Wilson Holt and Floyd…