Morrison Ruritan has announced that Ed Partin, co-owner of Warren County Furniture, is its Citizen of the Year. He is the 34th person to be honored since the award began in 1975. For more information, see Sunday’s edition of the Standard.

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) ‘ General Shale has temporarily halted production at its Kingsport brick plant. Mark Kinser, vice president of marketing and corporate development for the Johnson City-based company, says nearly 50 workers were temporarily laid off. Kinser says the economy and the slowdown of the construction industry were the cause of the shutdown and…

By JAMES CLARK Local officials concerned about continued funding for the four-lane to Woodbury can join a growing list of Tennesseans worried about road projects. The Tennessee Department of Transportation announced last week it won’t receive around $66 million in funding it had already been promised from the federal government. Combined with previous cutbacks, the…

WASHINGTON (AP) ‘ The Pentagon announced today it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear components for an intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan but has recovered them and launched an investigation. At a Pentagon news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for intercontinental ballistic missiles. He also…

WASHINGTON (AP) ‘ Trustees for the government’s two biggest benefit programs warned today that Social Security and Medicare are facing ‘enormous challenges’ with the threat to Medicare’s solvency far more severe. The trustees, issuing a once-a-year analysis of the government’s two biggest benefit programs, said the resources in the Social Security trust fund will be…

The four-lane to Woodbury is no longer projected to extend all the way to Woodbury. Seven miles have been removed from what was once a 21.1-mile project. According to TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Osborne-Flynn, seven miles of Nashville Highway, from Woodbury to Billy West Road, will no longer be funded in the four-lane project. Current construction…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ‘ Tennessee’s felon population is projected to grow by 12 percent over the next eleven years. The Oversight Committee on Corrections received that figure Monday from the state Corrections Department. The department commissioned a research company to analyze growth between 2007 and 2019. In 2007, the felon population was 26,849. By 2019,…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ‘ There would be no limit on how many toll roads or bridges could be built in Tennessee under a proposal being considered in the General Assembly. House Transportation Chairman Phillip Pinion, a Union City Democrat, says the measure is necessary to jump-start infrastructure projects amid dwindling federal resources. Tennessee transportation officials…

Elizabeth Anne Turner became the bride of Stephen Vance Smith in an intimate ceremony held in Las Vegas, Nev. on Feb. 10. The evening ceremony was officiated by Julie Nourish in front of the Bellagio Hotel, overlooking the Bellagio fountain. Classical musical from the fountain water show set the scene, as well as the lovely…

By Duane Sherrill A 63-person docket was heard Thursday by Judge Larry Ross in General Sessions Traffic Court. Included in traffic court action: ‘ Brandon Kirby was ordered to serve seven days of an 11-29 sentence, pay $1,070 and lose his license for one year for DUI. ‘ Felicano Rojas and Cole West were instructed…