PITTSBURGH (AP) ‘ The U.S. Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into whether aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. participated in bribery in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain. In documents filed in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors asked a judge to halt a federal civil lawsuit that accused Pittsburgh-based Alcoa of bribing officials through overseas…

GLADEVILLE (AP) ‘ Scott Wimmer passed Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer with 21 laps to go and held on to win the Nationwide Series’ Pepsi 300 on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. The Childress cars took the top two spots, six days after the team swept the top three positions in the Sprint Cup series…

NASHVILLE (AP) ‘ Rich Peverley and Alexander Radulov scored in the shootout, and the Nashville Predators stopped a six-game home skid with a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday. Jason Arnott scored for Nashville, and Dan Ellis stopped two of three attempts to help the Predators improve to 3-5 in shootouts. Andrew Ladd scored…

Recently at Land between the Lakes Terry Connor (right), James Zahn, and Tommy Kell (left) each ran a 37-mile cross country trail run. Six inches of snow fell on the area the previous night, but wouldn’t stop the enthusiastic runners. Just because the weather turns a little cool, or a little hot for that matter,…

Monday, March 24 Boyd baseball, at home vs. MTCS, 4 p.m. (JV to follow) Boyd softball, at home vs. Richard Hardy, 3:30 (DH) WCMS softball, at home vs. Franklin South, 5 p.m. (JV to follow) WCMS baseball, at home vs. Franklin South, 5 p.m. (JV to follow) WCHS tennis, at Coffee Co., 3:30 WCHS softball,…

Several local karate fighters brought home top honors at the ‘Battle of Smyrna’ open karate championship, held recently in Rutherford County. Winning first-place trophies in the black belt division were Katelyn Vickers, Kenzie Vickers and C.J. Hunter, while local youth champion John Peyton Webb gathered a third-place trophy in weapons and a fourth-place finish in…

By Rob Nunley Are you feeling the Madness yet? Every year, people who normally wouldn’t know their Siena if it was wrapped around their Gonzaga find themselves glued to the television set, ignoring their families, friends and obligations just so they can keep track of 64 groups of young men and one tattered slip of…

By Dale Stubblefield Three members of the 2008 Lady Bronco softball team have been selected to the Middle Tennessee Softball Coaches Association’s All-Academic team. Juniors Cassie Wanamaker, Leah Walker and Monica Hillis were selected for not only their efforts on the softball field, but also their accomplishments in the classroom. Wanamaker pitches for the Lady…

By Rob Nunley Logan Seamons (12) delivers a strike during Friday’s win over University School of Johnson City. Seamons worked a complete game on his way to the pitching victory. At right, Matt McColloch swipes second during the Pioneers’ loss to Coffee County. MANCHESTER ‘ It was an up-and-down day for the Pioneer baseball team…

By Dale Stubblefield Linnsay Williamson fires the ball back to the infield. The Lady Pioneers broke a long losing streak, topping the Blue Devilettes for the first time in seven years. Thursday night in Lebanon the Warren County Lady Pioneer softball team was looking to do something they hadn’t done in seven years ‘ beat…