It?s football time once again, and that means it?s time for the Southern Standard?s panel of self-described ?experts? to offer their opinion on the weekend?s games with their weekly ?On the Line? contest. Standard publisher Pat Zechman and crime and courts reporter Duane Sherrill will continue their heated rivalry, along with sports editor Rob Nunley,…

By DUANE SHERRILL Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard DICHRISTINA A youth basketball coach will serve a year behind bars for inappropriate contact with a 12-year-old girl five years ago. The defendant, Mark DiChristina, 40, entered a best-interest plea Thursday morning before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to reduced charges of attempted aggravated sexual battery.…

By DUANE SHERRILL Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Troopers believe wearing a seatbelt saved the life of Amanda Wilson when she ran into a county road truck head-on Wednesday afternoon in Centertown. She was airlifted from the scene and is in critical condition at Erlanger. A local woman was critically injured when her car…

Rocky River community resident and Warren County native Jeffery Scott Powers, 45, died suddenly Aug. 16 at his home. An employee of M-Tek in Manchester and a member of the National Guard, he was the son of Carmon and Carl Powers of Rock Island; and is also survived by his wife, Cheri Powers; children, Amos,…

Franklin Weldon Reynolds, 47, of McMinnville died Tuesday, Aug. 15 at River Park Hospital. Born on March 31, 1959 in Warren County, he was a welder by trade. Mr. Reynolds was preceded in death by his father Franklin Cordell Reynolds and nephew Deric Wilson. Survivors include his mother, Roberta Dean Reynolds of McMinnville; daughter, Susan…

McMinnville resident and Warren County native E.C. Hillis, 72, was born Sept. 10, 1933 and died Aug.16 following an extended illness. The owner and operator of E.C. Hillis Trucking and a member of Grace Chapel Methodist Church, he was the son of the late Bernie Wayne and Jessie Emma Carroll Hillis. He served in the…

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) JONBENET For a moment, it seemed the decade-old mystery surrounding the slaying of a child beauty queen had been solved. But authorities Thursday cautioned against rushing to judge the schoolteacher who made a stunning confession that he killed JonBenet Ramsey. For now, the only public evidence against John Mark Karr are his…

DETROIT (AP) A federal judge on Thursday struck down President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program, saying it violated the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit is the first judge to rule on the legality of the National…

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Police arrested two Nashville teenagers who showed up at Maryville High School looking for two girls they had met online. Student Resource Officer Jason Pesterfield found boys, ages 17 and 15, at the school Monday morning. The teens were charged with criminal trespassing and held in the Blount County Juvenile Detention Center…

NASHVILLE (AP) MARCH A jury on Thursday convicted a former Nashville attorney of killing his socialite wife, whose body has never been found after she disappeared 10 years ago. The sequestered jury from Chattanooga deliberated for two days in a murder case that has fascinated and mystified Nashville since Janet Levine March went missing in…