Center Hill ‘ Fishing is fair. The water temperature is 92 degrees; lake is falling. Several good walleye are being caught while trolling spinner rigs on humps in 21-to-25 feet of water. Bass fishing is fairly slow, but a few fishermen are catching big fish at night on drops, with soft, plastics in 20 feet…

WASHINGTON (AP) ‘ Republicans rushing to embrace Fred Thompson’s would-be presidential candidacy might have trouble figuring out what he would do if he actually won the White House. On most public policy issues, the former Tennessee senator and ‘Law & Order’ actor has offered few, if any, specifics. Even on the dominant issue of the…

NASHVILLE (AP) ‘ A longtime friend of former Gov. Don Sundquist was sentenced Friday to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of unauthorized use of a computer. Al Ganier III, who was chairman of the Sundquist’s 1995 inauguration, had agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge in return for…

KNOXVILLE (AP) ‘ A Knox County judge ruled Friday that a newspaper’s lawsuit alleging Sunshine Law violations by county commissioners should move to trial. Chancellor Daryl Fansler refused to allow the Knox County Commission to seek an emergency appeal in the lawsuit filed by Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy. ‘I cannot in good conscience…

By Thomas Vaughn With the long-awaited ‘surge report’ less than a month away, there are some signs of military progress in Iraq, but virtually none of political and economic progress.??And therein lies the problem.?? If this turns out to be another case of ‘one step forward and two steps back’ in Iraq, President Bush will…

By Morton Kondracke Democrats, liberal historians and even a majority of U.S. voters already consider George W. Bush a “failed” or “poor” president ‘ in fact, perhaps, “the worst president in American history.” Only a thin line of loyal Republicans, led by Bush’s departing top political aide, Karl Rove, thinks Bush will be vindicated in…

By Gene Policinski As high school students head back, far fewer have a chance to participate in real student journalism owing to reduced or eliminated programs, fewer trained professional advisers, and quite possibly antagonistic school administrators. Journalism educators gathered in Washington D.C., Aug. 9 to talk about high school journalism, 20 years after the first…

Andrew David (Drew) Clayton, 24, of Rock Island, passed from this life suddenly on Aug. 15 at DeKalb Community Hospital in DeKalb County. He was born on April 18, 1983 in Dayton. He worked as a factory worker and was a member of the Bridges of Hope Fellowship Church. He is survived by his parents…

By Chuck Shepherd Miles Nurse and Jennifer Plomt, condominium owners in Vancouver, British Columbia, learned in July that they would have to cohabit with as many as 80 bats that had infested their unit for the following six weeks because the B.C. Wildlife Act prevents disturbing the critters during their mating season, which would end…

BY DALE STUBBLEFIELD It’s been a difficult two weeks for any athletic program here in Warren County as practices and preseason scrimmages had to be rescheduled because of the extreme heat that settled in over the midstate area. The Lady Pioneer soccer team finally got to hit the field Thursday night for their first pre-season…