Author: Associated Press

The College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee and Fisk University in Nashville have entered into an agreement to offer a dual-degree program in science and engineering. According to a news release from UT, the five-year program will allow…

A former teacher and coach at St. Martin High School has been indicted four felony charges of engaging in sex acts with a student aide. The Sun Herald reports 39-year-old Robert Griffin of Ocean Springs first was arrested in March…

Friday will be a furlough day for most Kentucky state workers, the sixth one and last of the fiscal year. The General Assembly authorized the furloughs, which are expected to save taxpayers about $24 million and prevent laying off more…

The Mississippi Health Department says the state's first human case of West Nile virus of 2011 has been confirmed in Tallahatchie County. Health officials say Tuesday there were eight confirmed cases last year. That's down from the previous year, but…

A new report is criticizing two middle Tennessee veterans' hospitals for not doing enough to prevent harm to patients. The Tennessean reports that the Office of the Inspector General survey comes two years after the Veterans Affairs hospital in Murfreesboro…

Volkswagen is jumping into the U.S. auto market with a new Passat that is bigger, cheaper and built domestically in hopes of breaking into the competitive midsize sedan market. During a grand opening for their new plant in Chattanooga on…

A Somali man has entered an Alford plea to accusations that he tried to kidnap a 12-year-old girl in Mayfield. The plea entered Monday by 24-year-old Yusuf Hassan does not admit guilt, but concedes that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to…

A Franklin businessman who bilked millions from investors in a Ponzi scheme will spend the next six years in a federal prison. Jerry Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, announced on Tuesday that 30-year-old Barron Mathis was…

Archivists from Virginia and Tennessee are in Bristol to create digital records of the Civil War. They are spending Tuesday and Wednesday at the Bristol Public Library, examining Civil War-era documents and artifacts brought in by Tennessee and Virginia residents.…

The Tennessee Valley Authority says last month's storms are expected to cost the utility up to $200 million to replace lost power generation and to repair damaged transmission lines. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, TVA restarted its oldest…

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has apologized to dozens of civil rights activists who were carted off to the state's notorious Parchman prison in the 1960s for attempting to desegregate interstate travel. In remarks Sunday at hotel in Jackson, Barbour told…

Death row inmate Robert Simon Jr. will ask a federal appeals court to stop his execution now scheduled for Tuesday at the state penitentiary at Parchman. Oxford attorney Tom Freeland says the notice of appeal has been filed with the…

A Kentucky high school has called off a trip to France for 31 students after prosecutors a threatening letter related to the voyage. Officials with Assumption High School in Louisville declined to discuss the matter with The Courier-Journal, but a…

A computer glitch in a new $37 million computer system installed at the Tennessee Department of Children's Services has led hundreds of foster-care parents to miss monthly room and board payments from the state. A call log shows that foster-care…

Police in Nashville have identified a woman they say died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator kept inside her home. Metro Nashville Police Metro Sgt. Pat Bianconi said exhaust from the generator killed 26-year-old Latoya Kincaid in what appears…

Williamson County has the lowest percentage of smokers in Tennessee, with 15 percent of adults choosing to light up. That figure puts the county directly on the national smoking benchmark of 15 percent The National Center for Health Statistics, using…

A proposal that would require Tennessee voters to show photo identification before they can cast ballots is headed to the governor for his consideration. The Senate voted 18-14 on Friday to concur with changes made by the House, including prohibiting…

Republican candidate Hilda Legg has asked for a review of election results that show her opponent Bill Johnson edging her out for the GOP nomination for Kentucky secretary of state. The secretary of state's office said Friday the recanvass will…

A proposed constitutional amendment to allow the state to impose stricter limits on abortions will go before voters in 2014. The House on Friday gave final approval to the resolution sponsored by Republican Rep. Debra Maggart of Hendersonville on a…

A Bradley County Sheriff's deputy was injured when he hit a runaway cow with his patrol car. On Thursday morning, Doug Boucher was driving around searching for the cow, which had escaped from her pen. Sheriff's office spokesman Bob Gault…

A 25-year-old Fort Campbell soldier from Colorado has died in Afghanistan. The Defense Department says Cpl. Brandon M. Kirton of Centennial, Colo., died Wednesday in Kandahar province. The military says he was wounded when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms…

The FBI is warning Tennessee residents about a phone scam following severe weather that hit Tennessee late last month. The agency says people have reported receiving automated calls asking for banking information, saying the information was "lost" because of a…

The Legislature's progress toward passing Tennessee's $30.2 billion annual spending plan has hit a snag over efforts to extend unemployment benefits to thousands of jobless Tennesseans. The House plan includes about $3 million in state funds to help draw down…

The state House has passed a bill to dial back teachers' collective bargaining rights but stops short of eliminating union negotiations altogether. The chamber voted 59-39 on Thursday to pass the bill sponsored by House Republican Caucus Chairwoman Debra Maggart…

Tennessee's unemployment rate in April increased to 9.6 percent, up 0.1 percent from the March rate. Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development Karla Davis said in a news release on Thursday that the rate increased because "of a substantial increase…

Knoxville Zoo officials said a 5-year-old boy was injured when he was pinned against a fence by a baby camel and was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Officials told WATE-TV in Knoxville that the boy was visiting…

Police say a 12-year-old boy from the Memphis suburb of Germantown has been charged with raping a 9-year-old boy. Germantown police say the 12-year-old middle school student was charged Tuesday, according to The Commercial Appeal. Police Inspector Lee Covey says…

A man pulled from floodwaters near downtown Vicksburg, Miss., has died from what authorities say was a brain injury related to drowning. The death of 69-year-old Walter Cook is believed to be the first in Mississippi related to the Mississippi…

The children's hospital at Vanderbilt University is once again being ranked as one of the best in the nation. U.S. News & World Report gave rankings to 10 out of 10 pediatric specialty programs at the children's hospital. The hospital…

State police have recovered a stolen ambulance but are still looking for the people who took it. Police received a call at about 9:15 Wednesday night after the ambulance was stolen from outside the St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington. Police…

Flood waters are going down at Lake Between The Lakes National Recreation Area, and that means more campsites are opening up. Some campsites are already open, and others are expected to be open by the end of this week. Also,…

General admission tickets have sold out for the 10th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, but other ticket packages are still available. This year's festival, which takes place June 9-12 on a farm in Middle Tennessee, features performers…

A proposal to prohibit the teaching of homosexuality in Tennessee public schools has been delayed in the Senate, but a measure to study the issue is advancing. The delayed legislation would require the state board of education to review current…

Legislation that would allow law enforcement agents in Tennessee to question suspects about their immigration status has likely failed this session. Republican Rep. Joe Carr of Lascassas on Tuesday delayed the measure in the House Budget Subcommittee till next year.…

A proposal that would allow Tennessee judges to carry guns in courtrooms is headed for a full Senate vote. The measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 6-2 on Tuesday. The companion bill…

Predictions of low voter turnout for Kentucky's primary election proved correct. The Secretary of State's office reports on its website that with almost 100 percent of the precincts reporting Tuesday, voter turnout statewide in unofficial results totaled 10.3 percent. That's…

McCracken County Sheriff's deputies have arrested two men accused of dragging a gas station owner as they drove off without paying for fuel. The sheriff's office had circulated a photo of the dark blue pickup truck the men were driving…

Tennessee Valley Authority ratepayers in June will pay slightly more due to an increase in fuel cost, and a spokesman said the utility's use of pricier replacement power due to the devastating tornadoes and storms will be in bills starting…

Overnight riverboat passenger service may be coming back to Memphis and bringing hundreds of jobs along with it. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that the Great American Steamboat Co., which owns the American Queen and the Mississippi Queen vessels, is…

Gov. Haley Barbour has rejected Mississippi death row inmate Rodney Gray's petition for clemency, all but clearing the path for him to be executed Tuesday at the state penitentiary at Parchman. Gray has been moved to a holding cell near…

A fire and explosion at a Nashville ammunition store has claimed the life of at least one person. A Nashville Fire Department spokeswoman said firefighters discovered the body inside the business Monday afternoon but could not yet tell whether it…

The House has passed a bill to require that the school year could no longer start before the fourth Monday in August, but not before lawmakers adopted changes to exempt dozens of counties. The measure sponsored by Democratic Rep. John…

The Department of Agriculture is recommending that horses be vaccinated against West Nile virus because heavy infestations of mosquitoes are expected in the wake of severe flooding. More than 680 horses have been diagnosed with the disease over the past…

The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center will offer free counseling to disaster victims. Victims of the Memphis floods can attend sessions at the UT Psychiatry Clinic on the Health Science Center's main campus. Tennessee…

Gaylord Opryland Resort of Nashville has made an unspecified donation to The Land Trust for Tennessee to be used to preserve land. The money will go to Nashville's Open Space Plan, which calls for the preservation of 22,000 acres of…

The maker of Jack Daniel's says it is rolling out a newly designed bottle for the popular whiskey made in rural Tennessee. The new packaging for Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 - known as Jack Daniel's black label - accentuates…

A federal panel has given Mississippi lawmakers two choices: immediately craft a redistricting plan or run in the current districts in 2011. The ruling came Monday in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Mississippi chapter of the National Association…

A snake dealer and two other men arrested in a Tennessee wildlife agency investigation after a fatal copperhead bite in a Chattanooga suburb have avoided jail time in a plea deal that requires them to pay fines. At a hearing…

Alcorn County authorities plan an autopsy on human remains found in a vehicle belonging to a missing Prentiss County woman. Alcorn County Chief DeputyTommy Hopkins said the vehicle has been identified as belonging to Tammy Renee McVey Wright, who has…

A coalition of Tennessee prosecutors and police is trying to get the state legislature to pass a law that would stiffen penalties for some felons caught with guns. The Tennessean reports that there's been an increase in crimes involving felons…