Dianne Hobbs, 50, of McMinnville, formerly of Grundy County, passed from this life on Sunday, April 13 at River Park Hospital after an sudden illness. She was a member of the Baptist Church. Dianne is survived by two sisters, Shirley A. and husband, Carl Bumbalough of McMinnville, Donna Sue and husband, Kendall Mayfield of McMinnville,…

By Duane Sherrill If you’re not guilty then why are you worried about the government comparing your DNA sample to one found at the scene of a crime? The last time I looked, you lose many of your rights when you become a felon, such as the right to vote and the right to own…

By SUSAN NEWBY In case you missed it, Tennessee is one of a number of states drastically expanding DNA sampling. No longer do you have to be a convicted felon to be compelled to give a DNA sample for local and federal DNA databases ‘ you just have to be arrested as a felony suspect.…

By Duane Sherrill It’s an odd feeling when you hear on the police scanner that a tornado has touched down literally in your backyard. That’s exactly what happened Friday afternoon when the alarms first went out pinpointing ground zero of the tornado touchdown as being right in the middle of the neighborhood where I’ve lived…

By Kathryn Lopez Now that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has some time on his hands, I’d like to book him as a trainer for public figures. He’s got a message folks from all walks of life could use: Be humble. The newly minted Catholic understands who he is and what his role is.…

By William Rusher The California Court of Appeals judge who ruled recently that parents “do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children” probably thought the point was obvious. He lives in California, where liberalism is still a flourishing belief system, and where parents are widely regarded as simply the mechanism whereby new generations…

HONOLULU (AP) ‘ A technology used to track everything from cattle and bottles of Viagra to U.S. military weapons will soon be tested on an unlikely candidate for surveillance: tomatoes. The Hawaii Department of Agriculture will rollout a three-year pilot project this month to track and trace tomatoes and other produce using radio frequency identification…

The University of Tennessee and Tennessee State Extension, Tennessee Tech University, Tree Solutions and Hallers Landscaping prepare to engage arborists and other green industry professionals’ in performing tree risk assessments in their communities. Four workshops are to be held throughout Tennessee this year, providing hands-on training enabling green industry professionals to better assess the trees…

(AP) ‘ So perhaps the rumors of Judd Apatow’s demise were greatly exaggerated. Following the disappointing performance of “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and the flop that was “Drillbit Taylor,” Apatow is back in classic form with his latest production. “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is yet another crowd-pleasing comedy like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” ‘Knocked Up”…

Donald Preston Shelton, 71, of Rock Island (Campaign community) died Sunday, April 13 at Raintree Manor Nursing Center. He was born on July 24, 1936 in Coffee County. He was preceded in death by father Wiley Preston Shelton and sister Carolyn Huffer. Mr. Shelton was an avid fisherman, a veteran of the U.S. Army, and…