Mt. Juliet resident Charles Alvin Warren, 88, died Nov. 28 A member of Woodbury Road Baptist Church, he had been a minister of music at many churches including Shellsford Baptist Church and Campaign Missionary Baptist Church, both in Warren County, along with New Prospect Baptist in Iuka, Miss. He was also a Sunday School teacher…

WASHINGTON (AP) ‘ The White House on Thursday lowered its forecast for economic growth for next year and said unemployment will likely rise as the housing slump and tight credit stunt business expansion. Under the administration’s new forecast, gross domestic product, or GDP, will grow by 2.7 percent next year. Its old projection called for…

Robert Harper, superintendent at Boyd Christian School, has announced the principal’s list and honor roll for the second six weeks: Principal’s List Fifth Grade ‘ Clay Prater, Colin Stubblefield Sixth Grade ‘ Hunter Hobbs, Karly Pelham Seventh Grade ‘ Bailey Gilliam, Logan Hartman, Mahaley Keele Eighth Grade ‘ Emily Henry, Kaleb Tilton Ninth Grade ‘…

BY JAMES CLARK The finals of the Hickory Creek Elementary fifth-grade spelling bee turned out to be a M-A-R-A-T-H-O-N. In a 36-round battle that lasted nearly half an hour, Dillon Pelham emerged victorious when he correctly spelled the word ‘inferno.’ He edged out Colton Fincher who made the mistake of putting an ‘e’ on the…

BY CHARLES W. JOHNSON Leadership McMinnville is celebrating a major milestone this year with the 20th anniversary of the program. The program is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and is designed to help develop community leaders and encourage volunteerism. In celebration of the event, the Chamber plans to play off that theme for its…

BY DUANE SHERRILL The families of murder victims will be given an opportunity to memorialize their loved ones as the first Season of Remembrance program will be held here Friday, Dec. 7. ‘We want the families of the victims of homicide to know they are not forgotten,’ said District Attorney General Lisa Zavogiannis, who is…

BY DUANE SHERRILL A man who befriended a woman over the phone and then allegedly convinced her, sight unseen, to raise hundreds of dollars for him was bound to the grand jury for conning the woman. The suspect, Steven Utah Johnson, 31, was bound to the grand jury Tuesday by General Sessions Judge Larry Ross…

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) ‘ An appeals court has removed a barrier to supervised visits between convicted killer Mary Winkler and her children. A Carroll County judge ruled in September that Winkler could begin visits with her three young daughters, but the children’s paternal grandparents appealed that order with a last-minute court filing. The Court of…

BY CHARLES W. JOHNSON Longtime Warren County School Board member Mike Holland has been inducted into the Tennessee School Board Association Scholar’s Circle after attaining 900 plus boardsmanship points in the TSBA Boardsmanship Award Program, which recognizes individual achievements of school board members. TSBA president Dawn Robinson presented Holland with the award at TSBA’s annual…

BY DUANE SHERRILL A Van Buren County man was sentenced to 17 years for gunning down a county commissioner during a gunfight outside a Spencer-area convenience store in 2004 ‘ a fatal shooting prosecutors said was an ambush and the defense said was a case of self-defense. The defendant, Joe Hale, was sentenced Monday morning…