By Chuck Shepherd Eventually, robots will have to be given legal rights (and accept certain responsibilities) if advances in artificial intelligence (AI) continue to create sensitive quasi-organisms, according to a paper solicited for Sir David King, the UK’s chief scientist. According to one AI researcher, “If robots are granted full rights, states will be obligated…

BEAUFORT, Mo. (AP) ? Two boys kidnapped four years apart and found in the same suburban St. Louis apartment smiled shyly but said nothing to media at two hug-filled news conferences Saturday, a day after they were rescued. The boys’ parents clung to them and focused on their joy at the shocking outcome, saying little…

NASHVILLE (AP) ? Gov. Phil Bredesen said he foresees the state?s gas tax increasing in the next four years to help pay for new road construction. Bredesen said he doesn?t know how much the gas tax would rise, but with gas costing consumers more than $2 per gallon, he thinks the price could support a…

NASHVILLE ? Major General Gus Hargett, Tennessee?s Adjutant General, expects no immediate impact on the Tennessee National Guard following the president?s announcement that additional troops will be sent to Iraq. The Tennessee Army and Air National Guard has been a vital part of the global war on terrorism since 9-11, deploying more than 10,700 soldiers…

By Morton Kondracke Politically and militarily, this is President Bush’s last chance to avoid catastrophe in Iraq, and the Democratic Congress ought to let him play out his hand. Hard as it might be, Democrats should resist extreme pressure from antiwar forces in their base to undermine what little is left of Bush’s popular support…

By Thomas Vaughn Now that President Bush has revealed his new strategy for the way forward in Iraq, Democrats and more than a few Republicans are raising concerns about whether his so-called ?surge? of American ground combat forces in and around Baghdad is really a step forward, or one step forward, and two steps back.…

By Gene Policinski How will Americans’ five basic freedoms ? religion, speech, press, assembly and petition ? fare in 2007? No answers here, just some of the questions we all should consider. First, what will the first full term of the Roberts Supreme Court mean for free expression and religious liberty? In recent years, the…

By Charlie Johnson As anyone who knows me is aware, one of my major pet peeves is e-mail chain letters and hoaxes, most of which are simply efforts to clog up and slow down Internet traffic and generally create a major nuisance. The problem has become so prevalent that a number of Internet sites have…

Detroit, Mich., resident and Warren County native Mary Ellen Melton, age 88, was born April 4, 1918 and died Jan. 8 at Garden City Hospital in Detroit. A retired employee of Ford Motor Company and a member of the Assembly of God, she was the daughter of the late Franklin and Josie Smith Ritchey. She…

Louise Ramsay Poag, 85, of Nashville/McMinnville died Jan. 6 at Vanderbilt Hospital. Mrs. Poag was the daughter of the late Jennie Belle Ligon and James Fulton Ramsay of Lebanon. She was preceded in death by her husband of 51 years, Charles Hugh Poag. Her survivors are two daughters and sons-in-law, Jennie Poag and Roger Brown…