McMinnville resident and Warren County native Lannie Clemons, 77, was born Oct. 5, 1929 and died July 27 at River Park Hospital following an extended illness. A retired test driver for the Department of Defense, a United States Army veteran of the Korean War and a member of Westwood Church of Christ, he was the…

PHOENIX (AP) ‘ Two news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided and crashed to the ground Friday, killing all four people on board in a plunge that viewers saw as a jumble of spinning, broken images. Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on…

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) ‘ Kevin Kelly is a law-abiding citizen who, much distracted, left his beloved 21-month-old daughter in a sweltering van for seven hours. Frances Kelly had probably been dead for more than four hours by the time a neighbor noticed her strapped in her car seat; when rescue personnel removed the girl from…

By Chuck Shepherd Some parents feel “unprecedented levels of angst” to pick cool enough names for their kids, with some even hiring consultants, according to a June Wall Street Journal report. Baby-book authors charge clients $50 for a list of ‘special’ names, and half-hour phone consultations go for $95. Another adviser charges $350 for three…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ‘ After drinking heavily, an astronaut flew on a Russian spacecraft and another was cleared for flight on a space shuttle, said the chairman of an independent panel of outside experts Friday, citing unverified interviews. The panel’s report on astronaut health, released Friday, said NASA officials failed to listen to flight…

NEW YORK (AP) ‘ Wall Street extended its steep decline Friday, propelling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 500 points over two days after investors gave in to mounting concerns that borrowing costs would climb for both companies and homeowners. It was the worst week for the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500…

COOKEVILLE (AP) ‘ No criminal charges are expected to be filed after an 11-month-old boy was fatally mauled when two Siberian huskies got into his playpen at a home where he was visiting. Putnam County sheriff’s Detective Jimmy Patterson said he consulted with acting District Attorney Tony Craighead and said he ‘advised me that the…

By Morton Kondracke The resurgent menace of Al Qaeda should unify Democrats and Republicans against a common threat, not serve as another example of partisan rancor. It would be enormously beneficial to his credibility if President Bush admitted to the public that his mistakes — including the decision to go to war in Iraq —…

By Thomas Vaughn With less than 18 months left in the White House, President Bush is learning the cold hard truth about it being ‘lonely at the top.’??Beset by problems foreign and domestic, he seems to have lost his ‘bully pulpit’ for leading the nation.?? President Bush’s hero, Ronald Reagan, was nicknamed ‘The Great Communicator’…

By Gov. Phil Bredesen The second annual Sales Tax Holiday is next weekend and I want to encourage everyone to participate in this special opportunity. The long weekend of savings is a way to provide tax savings to Tennessee families and help our children prepare to go back to school. From Friday, Aug. 3, through…