Chuck Shepherd Earlier this year in separate incidents, two physical education teachers at Ernest Ward Middle School in Pensacola, Fla., were arrested and charged with bribery for allowing students to avoid gym classes by paying the teachers money. Tamara B. Tootle, 39, charged in April, allegedly gave students credits at $1 per student per class,…

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) The next time Dan McBride rents a car, he plans to search it inside and out. “I think I will probably do that for a while,” said McBride, the assistant athletic director at Eastern Kentucky University. McBride’s new vigilance is the result of finding a two-year-old ball python in his rental car…

PITTSBURGH (AP) Dr. John Yelenic and his wife separated in 2002, agreed to a divorce and even hammered out a property settlement. But the Blairsville dentist was slain the day before he was to sign his divorce papers, setting the stage for what attorneys say is a first-of-its-kind request in Pennsylvania: a divorce decree after…

Here are some categories of comparison issued by The Taxpayers Network in its recent publication. Most categories include the District of Columbia Median Housing Value1st ? California, $391,10237th ? Tennessee, 110,19851st ? Arkansas, $79,006 Median Family Income1st ? New Jersey, $73,97340th ? Tennessee, $47,53051st ? Mississippi, $39,319 State, Local Tax Burden1st ? Maine, 13 percent48th…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) The state Senate on Friday killed a proposal to set the state minimum wage at $6.15 per hour by voting to send the bill back to a closed committee. The Republican-dominated Senate voted to return the measure to the judiciary committee, which has completed its business for the year. Sen. Doug Jackson,…

MEMPHIS (AP) Police say an officer shot and killed a man, who threatened the officer with a sharp object after he was stopped for allegedly hitting two vehicles. The man, who was driving a blue truck, slammed into the vehicles in the parking lot of a store and drove off around 8 p.m. on Friday,…

TO THE EDITOR: I am writing regarding the article about Dale Potter announcing his candidacy for district attorney which appeared in the Friday edition of the Southern Standard. Potter made several comments about Lisa Z?s experience, or lack thereof, and that drug dealers and criminals are the ones who voted for her. While this may…

To the Editor: I am outraged at the published nudity in the last several weeks. We need to be aware of child molesters in our county and state and world. However, we do not need to see the lewdness of any person?s sexual lifestyle published on the front page. We are a Christian nation and…

Thomas Vaughn Memorial Day is tomorrow.?I hope we will all pause to honor it. Traditionally, Memorial Day has served to honor those brave men and women in uniform who died in the service of our nation.?Sadly, time and circumstance have taken a heavy toll on this tradition.?In recent years, we have lost sight of the…

Morton Kondracke A fascinating theoretical debate is under way on the future of American foreign policy, but the urgent practical question is: What should we do about Iran’s nuclear program? Even though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pursuing a diplomatic track to stop Iran from going nuclear, Bush’s liberal critics are demanding an even…