Lisa Hobbs photo Who says running water doesn?t freeze? With the temperatures dipping down into the teens Thursday night, and still remaining at 19 degrees Friday morning according to the Regions Bank time and temperature, even the Court Square fountain needed a winter jacket. The large frozen icicles hanging from the fountain aren?t expected to…

By JAMES CLARK Editor for the Southern Standard Christmas will be somewhat happier for 63 A.O. Smith employees who will get to keep their jobs into 2007. Company spokesman Mark Petrarca says A.O. Smith?s decision to halt production in McMinnville is going slightly slower than expected. That means the plant, originally scheduled to close by…

McMinnville resident and Booneville, Ms., native Roy Celestial Scott, 73, died Dec. 8 at his home after an extended illness. An electrician with Powermatic and a member of the Baptist Church, he served his country in the U.S. Air Force. The son of Lloyd and Emma Wimms Scott, he is survived by his wife, Zelma…

Chuck Shepherd British performance artist Ian Thorley, working on grants from several local councils, did a week’s stint on an Ashington street in October, stepping onto and off of a doormat while wearing a badge identifying him as a government doormat tester. Government in Action Bright Ideas: The City Council of Greenleaf, Idaho, passed an…

KNOXVILLE (AP) The Tennessee Valley Authority on Friday set a record demand for electricity during the winter season, surpassing a mark set in 2003. Based on initial readings, the country?s largest public utility met a demand of 30,227 megawatts at 7 a.m. CST, when the average temperature across the Tennessee Valley was 17 degrees. The…

MEMPHIS (AP) Tennesseans pay the highest Medicare drug plan premiums in the country because of their poor health. Tennesseans have high rates of obesity and other high-risk health factors, prompting them to take many drugs. Last year, Tennessee tied with Kentucky and West Virginia for the highest rate of prescriptions per capita among the 50…

NASHVILLE (AP) Gov. Phil Bredesen on Friday named Stuart Brunson to succeed Dave Cooley as deputy governor. Brunson, who operated his own Nashville-based lobbying and public relations firm during 2004 and 2005, was in charge of Bredesen?s 2002 campaign for governor and this year?s re-election campaign. He also worked on Al Gore?s campaign for president…

Lisa Hobbs In the recent past, I took a trip to Florida. While on the way there, we stopped in a restaurant in Georgia. When we went inside we were asked how many would be in our party. After telling her, I also added ?Non-smoking please.? She proceeded to tell me that Georgia had banned…

Letters to the Editor TO THE EDITOR: Veterans, what do you think about County Executive John Pelham and veterans officer Chuck Mayfield charging $50 to put a 5×7 photo in a frame and hang it on the wall at the county administrative building? That looks like how Republicans do things. Look how Bush cut veterans…

Gene Lyons Absent what TV football announcers call “incontrovertible video evidence” of what took place between President Bush and Sen.-elect James Webb, D-Va., during their recent dust-up, it’s hard to know quite what to think. As reported by The Washington Post, the president asked Webb at a White House reception about his son, a Marine…