FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) Garbage falls from a conveyor belt into a WastAway machine to begin the process of turning trash into fluff. The fluff can be used as mulch or made into board-like building materials. Welcome to the future, where trash is fuel and landfills are obsolete. While trash to power isn’t a new…

COVINGTON, Ind. (AP) A van struck bicyclists riding to raise money for families of officers who died while on duty, killing a state trooper and a sheriff’s deputy and injuring another cyclist, police said. The van, which was providing support to the bicyclists and was marked with a large banner that read ?Caution Cyclists Ahead?…

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) MORVA William Morva was known as a “fringe character” around the Virginia Tech campus, but was considered harmless by students, police officers and store clerks who knew him. They were shocked Monday at his arrest following a manhunt that shutdown the campus for hours as police sought him for the slayings of…

CHATTANOOGA (AP) COOPER A federal grand jury charged state Sen. Jerry Cooper with bank fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy Tuesday in an indictment that says Cooper was ?deep in debt and trying to avoid bankruptcy.? Neither Cooper, D-McMinnville, nor his attorney, Jerry Summers of Chattanooga, responded to telephone messages seeking comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary…

Letters to the Editor TO THE EDITOR: I?m writing this letter on behalf of my mother and other teachers I know who attended Monday night?s Warren County Commission meeting. My mother has been a teacher in this school system for 14 years. The purpose of this letter is to address comments made directly to her…

Letters to the Editor TO THE EDITOR: I want to disagree vehemently with my friend Thomas Vaughn, whom I have great respect for and almost always agree with. His ?My Turn? column in Sunday?s paper entitled ?Israeli-Hezbollah conflict has winners and losers? is a column on a subject he should have waited a few months…

Kathryn Lopez Move over, Hillary: Russ Feingold is going to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. For far too long the assumption has been that the former first lady would be the Dems’ obvious pick. The storyline had dynastic flair, plus the sexy-milestone first-woman-president aspect. It had the wronged-woman-coming-out-on-top Style-section and glossy-headline opportunities.…

William Rusher In the last couple of decades, the conservative movement has grown so large, and subdivided into so many factions, that even discriminating observers can be forgiven for confusing one with another. Just who are these “neoconservatives,” who are allegedly so influential in the Bush administration, and how do they differ from ordinary, garden-variety…

Duane Sherrill OK, I want to know what would cause a person to take time out of their lives to count how many cases are on a court docket in the newspaper to see if it jives with the number of cases I?ve listed in the beginning paragraph. With the exception of hot news stories,…

J. Dale Beaty Extension Leader A few tons of grapes head for Beans Creek Winery in Manchester from the Passons Vineyard in Newtown. Maybe these grapes will be part of a winning wine produced at Beans Creek Winery this fall. I was visiting with Jimmy Passons out at his Newtown vineyard the other day and…