By Jim Mullen I?m in the express checkout line at the supermarket with a diet soda and some pre-packaged sushi. Hey, what can be better than raw fish than day-old raw fish, right? Better yet, I?m in the candy-free lane. In all the other lanes, there are small children begging mom for eight 9-cent candy…

By Kathryn Lopez What?s so bad about Planned Parenthood? It?s a question Americans must wonder about as they see pro-lifers protesting or praying outside clinics. And it deserves an answer because it gets to the heart of some key and contentious questions we face as a society, one that is ever creeping toward a brave…

By Cokie & Steven Roberts They will come by the tens of thousands. They will be young and old, women and men. They will be of all races, clothed in many colors. But mostly they will be women and they will be wearing pink. In what has become an annual rite of spring, on June…

Editorial – Our Viewpoint Monday morning at Warren County Memorial Airport there will be minutes of silence as the names of those Warren countians who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country are read aloud in remembrance and honor of their service to the freedom we all enjoy. The annual ceremonies are held on the…

NASHVILLE (AP) ? The number of crimes committed in Tennessee declined by about 2 percent last year, with murders dropping 6 percent, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. In a statewide review of 2006 crime statistics, the TBI compiles information from sheriff’s departments, municipal police departments, drug task forces, college and university police departments…

NASHVILLE (AP) ? Smoking would be banned in most workplaces, including restaurants and bars, under a bill that passed the Senate by a wide margin Thursday. Following several changes, the bill closely mirrored a proposal from Gov. Phil Bredesen to ban smoking in nearly all enclosed public places. The measure that passed would make exceptions…

NASHVILLE (AP) ? A bill that would have changed the way telecommunications companies could apply for cable franchises in Tennessee will be withdrawn, the measure?s sponsors said Wednesday. AT&T was pushing the ?Competitive Cable and Video Services Act? to allow itself and others apply for cable franchises at the state level, rather than negotiating with…

By Donald Lambro WASHINGTON ? South Carolina Republican Chairman Katon Dawson isn’t about to let Florida steal the political limelight from his state’s Jan. 29 primary, so he’s going hold it a week or two earlier. Dawson’s decision will preserve South Carolina’s position as the first Republican presidential primary in the South, but it also…

By Jim Mullen I’ve always dreamed of writing a best-selling self-help book, but since I’m not very good at anything, I thought it was just another pipe dream. Then I realized I was great at being bad. I could help people become failures. Instead of taking years to become bitter, dismal, self-hating losers, I could…

Bristol Herald Courier Battle lines are drawn in Nashville over the governor’s plan to increase the cigarette tax to pay for education. Gov. Phil Bredesen and Senate Republicans are still talking. But in this legislative version of a sandbox squabble, House Republicans want to take their toys and go home. Someone should send them to…