Author: Associated Press

Southern Baptists go beyond conservative politics at meeting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Southern Baptist Convention has been closely associated with conservative politics for years, but at its annual meeting this week the nation's largest Protestant denomination showed that its concerns are becoming more diverse along with its…

Haslam still not prepared to endorse Trump following meeting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam still isn't ready to endorse Donald Trump following a New York meeting he helped organize with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Haslam told reporters on Wednesday that he and other governors spoke…

Nashville schools vote to sue state over education funding

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools board has voted to sue Tennessee for a greater share in education funding. The Tennessean reports that the board approved the lawsuit Tuesday night. The issue began after Metropolitan Law Director…

Forrest Co. Agricultural High School District seeks tax hike

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Taxes may be going up slightly for residents in the Forrest County Agricultural High School District, while residents of the Petal School District might see a decrease. The Hattiesburg American reports the high school district is…

Harrison Co. gives tax breaks to bit manufacturer, shipyard

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - On the day Harrison County supervisors OK'd tax breaks for a $450 million project at the state port, it also approved breaks for smaller projects. Metadyne Gulfport will be exempt from personal-property taxes, about $14,000 a…

Man admits using stolen identity to earn $113,000

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) - A 35-year-old man from Honduras has admitted he assumed a Gulfport man's identity and earned more than $113,000 in income reported to the Internal Revenue Service. The Sun Herald reports Gregorio Villanueva Medina had earned the…

Long Beach appoints new schools superintendent

LONG BEACH, Miss. (AP) - The Long Beach School Board has appointed Jay Smith as the district's superintendent of schools. The Sun Herald reports Smith will take his new position July 1. He replaces Carrolyn Hamilton who is retiring after…

Ocean Springs Board declines contract that would replace RNs

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) - The Ocean Springs School Board has declined to approve a contract that would restructure the school system's health-care complement. The proposal would have paved the way for the possible renewal of the contracts of its…

‘The Voice’ runner-up Adam Wakefield to visit Long Beach

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - "The Voice" runner-up Adam Wakefield is coming to Mississippi. Wakefield finished second to Alisan Porter on Season 10 of the singing competition and has been busy touring ever since. The Sun Herald reports he will be…

Dozen malnourished dogs rescued from Poplarville home

POPLARVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Officials say a dozen dogs living in deplorable conditions have been rescued from a Pearl River County home. WLOX-TV reports Poplarville animal control officers confiscated the animals Tuesday. Mayor Brad Necaise says complaints from neighbors led…

Jackson, Miss., police to receive Tasers after city council vote

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Officers with the Jackson Police Department will soon be receiving Tasers. WJTV-TV reports city council passed a motion Tuesday night allowing the department the hand-held weapons. Officials say JPD was the only department around the Jackson-Metro…

Washington trucker pleads guilty in fatal wreck in Kentucky

SHELBYVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A Washington tractor-trailer driver has pleaded guilty in an accident that killed one person in Kentucky in May 2015. The Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet says in a news release that 23-year-old Miroslav Kuzmanovic of…

Mississippi River levee repairs underway near Greenville

GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Workers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are in the Greenville area to repair several levee slides after the area had high water earlier this year. Forty slides have been found along the 212mile Mississippi…

Nominations being accepted for teacher hall of fame

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) - Western Kentucky University says it has begun accepting nominations for next year's inductees into the Gov. Louie B. Nunn Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame. A statement says the university will accept nominations through July 15.…

Nashville airport sets single-day departures record

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nashville International Airport set a record this week for the highest number of single-day departures in its history. More than 23,800 passengers left the city through the airport on Monday following the conclusion of the CMA…

Elvis Presley producer Lincoln ‘Chips’ Moman dies at 79

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Lincoln "Chips" Moman, a Memphis producer, musician and songwriter who helped Elvis Presley engineer a musical comeback in the late '60s and then moved to Nashville to record country legends like The Highwaymen, died Monday in…

Haslam names Parker to head Tennessee Correction Department

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has named longtime state prisons official Tony Parker as the new commissioner of the Department of Correction. Parker replaces Derrick Schofield, who announced earlier this month that he is stepping down to…

Report: Nuclear weapons plant mercury cleanup could cost $3B

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) - A U.S. Department of Energy report says the cleanup of mercury contamination at a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant could cost between $1 billion and $3 billion. The Knoxville News Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1rnWDV3 ) reports that the…

With benefits at risk, coal miner union rallies in Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Thousands of retired coal miners are calling on Congress to protect their benefits as the industry struggles and operators seek bankruptcy protection from debts. United Mine Workers president Cecil Roberts told the gathering of about 4,000…

Tennessee won’t hold classes Sept. 1, day of football opener

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee won't hold classes Sept. 1 due to logistical concerns surrounding the football team's season opener with Appalachian State at Neyland Stadium that night. School officials announced Tuesday that "this is necessary to accommodate the traffic,…

Tupelo man charged in brother’s death

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - Police say an alcohol-fueled fight early Saturday morning ended with a man shooting and killing his brother. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports 26-year-old Amos McGinister was formally charged with murder Monday afternoon in the killing…

Walnut Grove mayor: Prison closure could cripple town

WALNUT GROVE, Miss. (AP) - The mayor of Walnut Grove says the state's closure of a private prison could be crippling for his town. The Clarion-Ledger reports the Mississippi Department of Corrections announced on Friday that it would close the…

Man accused of beating, burning son asks for bond

PASAGOULA, Miss. (AP) - The attorney for the man accused of beating and burning his 3-year-old son wants his client to have bond pending trial. The Sun Herald reports 24-year-old Nathan Blake McCrory is being held at the Jackson County…

State port trying to land its biggest tenant

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) - The state port is trying to land its biggest tenant. The Sun Herald reports the company that would use a patented system to condition and liquefy gas on the West Pier for shipment to the Caribbean…

Police: Man facing child abuse charge after butt-dialed call

D'IBERVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Police say a man is facing a child abuse charge after he accidentally butt-dialed a toddler's mother. The Sun Herald reports D'Iberville police say John Elias Taylor III was arrested Sunday and charged with felony child…

Man sentenced for distributing child pornography

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department says a 29-year-old Chattanooga man has been sentenced to serve nearly six years in prison for distribution of child pornography through the online sales site Craigslist. Authorities say U.S. District Judge Harry…

State: Hunter Industrial moving new operations to Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd has announced that Hunter Industrial, a division of the Hunter Fan Company, is opening new operations in Nashville. State officials said the company will locate its…

UK to develop concussion protocol for jockeys

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - The University of Kentucky is developing the first ever concussion protocol for jockeys. The university announced a three-year study on Monday in partnership with the Jockeys' Guild and several thoroughbred organizations. Carl Mattacola, director of the…

UT to get $1.5 million to study fetal alcohol syndrome

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The University of Tennessee has received a $1.5 million grant to study the role of genetics in fetal alcohol syndrome. Kristin Hamre, an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, said researchers have known…

Kentucky Attorney General to serve on anti-drug committee

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear has been named co-chairman of a group of law enforcement officials that battles substance abuse. Beshear will serve on the Substance Abuse Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General. A…

MTSU offers new workplace leadership program

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) - Middle Tennessee State University is offering leadership training to adult learners already in the workforce. Each of four certificates offered in the Applied Leadership program requires two, 7-week online courses and a 1-week intensive training on…

Coalition to offer free naloxone kits, training sessions

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition plans to offer free naloxone kits and training sessions this month at the health department in Metro Louisville. A statement from the coalition says the kits and training will be offered…

Protesters want to nix Confederate sign on Mississippi flag

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Protesters plan to gather outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to say the Confederate battle emblem on the Mississippi flag is a vestige of slavery and Congress should erase it. Among the scheduled speakers for the…

Prosecutor: Former Vanderbilt player encouraged rape

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Prosecutors say a former Vanderbilt football player encouraged his teammates to have sex with an unconscious woman whom he had been dating. During opening statements Monday in the retrial of Brandon Vandenburg, a prosecutor said the…

Suspect in Biloxi Waffle House shooting pleads not guilty

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - A 45-year-old man accused in the Nov. 27 shooting death of a Biloxi Waffle House server has pleaded not guilty. The Sun Herald report Johnny Max Mount entered his plea to a murder charge on Monday.…

Kentucky Lottery CEO Arch Gleason announces retirement

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky Lottery President and CEO Arch Gleason has announced that he will retire next month. A statement from the agency on Monday says Gleason announced his plans in a letter to the Kentucky Lottery board of…

Kentucky gay rights group seeks additional security measures

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The leader of a gay rights group in Kentucky has asked officials in Louisville to consider providing more security at places that cater to the gay community after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.…

1 US judge to hear 3 lawsuits over Mississippi LGBT law

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - One judge will hear all three challenges to a Mississippi law that will let clerks cite religious beliefs to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. Each lawsuit originally had been assigned to a…

Police: Deputy fatally shoots suspect in domestic dispute

HISEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky State Police say they are investigating after a deputy fatally shot a suspect in a domestic dispute. Police said in a statement the Barren County Sheriff's Department responded Sunday evening to the dispute at a…

Hattiesburg community, job finalists call for accountability

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Accountability will play a huge role in the career of the next superintendent of Hattiesburg Public School District. The Hattiesburg American reports at least that's what community members say they want, and what the three superintendent…

Man accused in cousin’s death set for preliminary hearing

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) - A 19-year-old Meridian native accused in the beating death of his cousin is due in Jackson County Court for a preliminary hearing. Dexter Kelley is accused in the March 30 killing of his cousin, 16-year-old Cliff…

2 inmates attempt to escape, 1 falls down rock quarry

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - An inmate has been injured after authorities say he fell down a rock quarry while trying to escape with another inmate in Nashville. Media outlets report the Davidson County Sheriff's Office says they were transporting inmates…

Retrial to begin in Vandy rape case

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Opening statements could soon start in the retrial of a former Vanderbilt football player accused in a dorm room rape. Trial is scheduled to begin Monday for Brandon Vandenburg, a 22-year-old California man who is one…

State announces loans for water infrastructure projects

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - State officials have announced that five Tennessee communities have been approved to get receive more than $60 million in loans for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements. The low-interest loans are channeled through the Clean Water State…

Long lines expected at airport following CMA Fest, Bonnaroo

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nashville International Airport officials have issued a travel alert warning passengers flying out of Music City that crowds could get big at the airport. With the departure of CMA Music Festival and Bonnaroo Music And Arts…

Fort Campbell honoring late advocate of Army, soldiers

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Fort Campbell will hold a ceremony honoring a longtime advocate for the Army, especially Fort Campbell soldiers and their families. The post said Clarissa Ann Jackson "T.C." Freeman died May 19 at the age of…

Grants allow Kentucky students to visit state parks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Seven Kentucky schools have received transportation grants in the latest round, allowing more than 2,000 students to visit a state park. The Kentucky Parks Department says in a news release the grant program is sponsored by…