Georgia legislature sets March 20 end - and other Chattanooga region news

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Arkansas-Florida Live Blog

Legislature sets March 20 end

ATLANTA - State lawmakers in Georgia are planning to end their legislative session March 20.

Lawmakers in the General Assembly set a calendar Tuesday for the rest of their legislative year. The House and Senate will not meet for the rest of the week because of the winter storm.

By law, the General Assembly meets annually for 40 working days.

State lawmakers generally must get their legislation adopted by at least one of two legislative chambers by March 3 if they want their bills to have a chance to become law. Any bills that do not pass by March 20 automatically will fail.


State AP scores below average

NASHVILLE - A new report shows over the last decade more students are taking Advanced Placement courses in Tennessee.

But the College Board report released Tuesday shows the state is below the national average of students in the class of 2013 who scored a 3 or higher on an AP exam. The national average was 20 percent, and Tennessee was 10 percent.

A 3, 4, or 5 are the scores typically accepted by colleges for credit and placement.

Over the past decade, the report said, the number of students who graduate from high school having taken rigorous AP courses, like world history and physics, has nearly doubled.


Free slavery exhibit opens

A groundbreaking slavery exhibition opening Tuesday at the Tennessee State Museum will feature the stories of slaves and slaveholders at a former Robertson County plantation that was once the largest producer of tobacco in the U.S.

The free exhibit, Slaves and Slaveholders of Wessyngton Plantation, will give an in-depth look at life on the 13,000-acre plantation. The lives of several slaves will be featured, including that of a 10-year-old girl who, along with her sister, was sold from a Virginia planter and brought to Tennessee, never to see her mother again.

The exhibition runs through Aug. 31.


'Most Kissed' man honored

GREENSBORO, Ala. - The Alabama Historical Commission is using Valentine's Day to celebrate a war hero who became known as "America's Most Kissed Man."

Lt. Richmond Pearson Hobson was one of eight men who tried to sink the USS Merrimac in 1898 to block Cuba's Santiago Harbor during the Spanish-American War.

The Naval Academy graduate and others were captured. After their release, the Navy sent Hobson on a national tour, where women flocked to see the "Hero of the Merrimac." Newspaper accounts say one public kiss led to another until he reportedly kissed as many as 500 women at one stop. The stories about "America's Most Kissed Man" grew, and one account estimated he had kissed 10,000 women. The Historical Commission said he soon had a candy named after him called "Hobson Kisses."

The Historical Commission owns and operates Hobson's Greek Revival home, Magnolia Grove, in Greensboro. To celebrate him, the commission is giving a candy treat to anyone touring the home between Valentine's Day and Memorial Day.