TIANJIN, China (AP) ‘ Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly held a players meeting in their hotel room a day before the United States played England in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup. All meetings should be so productive. Having aired any grievances, the U.S. went on to defeat England 3-0 Saturday on second-half goals…

CHICAGO (AP) ‘ Alfonso Soriano hit two of Chicago’s four homers and had five RBIs as the Cubs continued their late-season power display, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-5 Saturday to solidify their lead in the NL Central. The Cubs began the day with a 11’2-game lead over Milwaukee, which played later at Atlanta. Soriano hit…

Jerry D. Seal, 63, of Hamburg, Ark., died Monday, Sept. 17 at his home. Mr. Seal was a native of Cannon County, a resident of Hamburg for the past 35 years, and a former resident of Woodbury. He worked for Hamburg Shirt Factory and Bemis Bag Company for many years and he was a veteran…

By Chuck Shepherd In July, National Hockey League player Derek Boogaard, an “enforcer” known for his willingness to brawl, opened the Derek and Aaron Boogaard Fighting Camp in Regina, Saskatchewan, to train teenage hockey players in that highly essential skill. (2) Iran’s state-sponsored news agency IRNA announced in July that its agents had broken up…

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) ‘ More than three months after disappearing during a tornado, Smoky the cat has been reunited with his owner. Smoky was last seen June 7, before a tornado destroyed Wanda Ploeger’s mobile home in rural Riverview, scattering her belongings. Ploeger was at work that evening and couldn’t find her kitty when…

NASHVILLE (AP) ‘ Tennessee’s unemployment rate for August was 4 percent, the lowest monthly rate since July 2000, the state Department of Labor and Work force Development announced Thursday. There was a slight drop from July’s rate of 4.1 percent. ‘Over the past year alone, the state’s jobless rate has fallen from 5.2 percent to…

NASHVILLE (AP) ‘ Gov. Phil Bredesen disagrees with a federal judge’s ruling that Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional and says it will be more difficult to appeal than in previous cases. The state would have a difficult time meeting the criteria to make the state’s lethal injections constitutional under U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger’s…

Letter To The Editor To the Editor: I can understand why they are trying to raise taxes on cigarettes to the point they become hard to afford. There are three good reasons I can think of: (A) use the tax money to cover the funds the health care problems they cause are draining, (B) add…

By Thomas Vaughn College students don’t know much about civics ‘ and colleges are partly to blame. This ??is just the tip of the iceberg of civic illiteracy revealed in the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s latest report, ‘Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions.’ The Institute’s report analyzed the…

By Morton Kondracke President Bush is so convinced that he’s got the right policy in Iraq — and that it can succeed — that he rejects pleas from Capitol Hill moderates for a declared change of mission. In an interview with a group of columnists that I attended Wednesday, he dismissed the notion of establishing…