Southern Standard readers are invited to extend happy birthday and anniversary best wishes to friends and loved ones through this weekly column. Please submit your messages by our noon deadline each Thursday. No more that three wishes to any individual, please. Happy Birthday Wishes: April 3 ? Happy 10th birthday Lucas Stepp to a very…

Margaret Hobbs Warren County has finally reached a new pinnacle. That being, ?We have enough beauty pageants!? Now, let me say this at the first of this column, I really enjoy pageants and my three daughters have all participated in them over the years. We have always been a family that couldn?t wait to watch…

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) KAHNE Kasey Kahne hopes his second Nextel Cup pole of the season translates into another trip to Victory Lane. Kahne qualified first Friday for the Samsung/RadioShack 500 with a fast lap of 190.315 mph. The Dodge driver?s other pole this year came last month at Atlanta, a similar 1 1/2-mile track…

Duane Sherrill It?s all so obvious now. Of course Florida is going to win the NCAA basketball tournament. Oh, wait. Too late. Brackets hit the floor everywhere recently as Florida took home the championship, something which most basketball purists failed to predict. In a pool I voted in, with about 100 people participating, not one…

KNOXVILLE (AP) The Tennessee Volunteers closed spring practice Saturday showing some improvement, but coach Phillip Fulmer said the team needs to climb a bit farther ?to get back to where we want to be.? Tennessee is coming off a 5-6 season ? the worst under Fulmer, who has been revamping the offense with new coordinator…

TUNICA, Miss. (AP) FAVRE Brett Favre, one of the NFL?s great quarterbacks, is still unsure if he will play another year with the Green Bay Packers. ?No change. I don?t know, once again,? he said Saturday during a brief news conference from the site of his charity golf tournament. ?I don?t know why you guys…

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) A pair of baseball players and their coach left Duke University last April in a steroid scandal. Two months later, the school?s world-renowned hospital revealed doctors operated on nearly 4,000 patients with instruments washed in used hydraulic fluid. Now the campus is reeling from allegations that members of the nearly all-white men?s…

Denver Nuggets guard Julius Hodge was shot and wounded early Saturday while driving on a highway, authorities said. The team said he is in fair condition and is expected to make a full recovery. Sheriff?s deputies said the 22-year-old player was struck in his lower body. ?The preliminary reports are that he?s going to be…

By DALE STUBBLEFIELD Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Lady Bronco catcher Leah Walker attempts to block the plate as Cascade?s shortstop Heather Lemmon slides in for the Lady Champions? third run of the game Thursday. Thursday afternoon at Boyd Christian, the Lady Broncos fell to Cascade 9-0 in District 9-A softball action. Lady Champion…

Photo provided Tiger Woods watches his approach shot during Tuesday?s practice round for the 2006 Masters while playing partners Mark O?Meara and Jim Furyk, left, look on. Local resident Wayne Stubblefield snapped this photo while n Augusta for the tournament, which was suspended by rain on Saturday.