So here is a topic that never crossed my mind, even in passing, during my entire 37 years on this planet until it became the center of the universe in the last six months: golf.

Sitting on the front stoop of our house in the dusk of late August, my son and I watched a white cat saunter up the driveway toward us. And then we realized, as the little creature got closer, that the cat was a dog.

June 6, 1985. My mother circled the date on the calendar, informing me that from that moment forward, I would no longer be on her payroll.

Dakota Knighten showed up at a Young Marines orientation 14 months ago sporting baggy pants, a sideways cap and a defiant attitude.

After 16 months of waiting, Robin Patterson still is not sure what she will say this week when she has the chance to confront the man charged in the death of her son, Lance Cpl. Kristopher Cody Warren.

Plans for a Tennessee sales tax holiday March 21-23 are being rearranged after lawmakers realized they had scheduled the event for Easter weekend.

A father-son business forging handmade tomahawks from hunks of steel has bloomed into an enterprise that supplies the lightweight, wickedly sharp weapons to hundreds of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Marine from Soddy-Daisy who was shot in the face during combat in Iraq returned to the war zone soon after the incident that killed his comrade, his family said.

Lured indoors by technology, fewer people are visiting America’s national parks, picking up fishing rods or toting backpacks through the woods, a trend researchers and experts say could hurt long-term conservation efforts.

Jesse Epstein was a runner, and one of his favorite places was the Brainerd levee, where he would lope past woods and water.

Advocates say stigma over the “s” word thwarts prevention efforts

Since 14-year-old Jordan Venable returned to school following her father’s death by suicide in November, she has spent a lot of time talking to school counselors and using their offices as a place of solace.

Eric Powell’s room is just the way he left it nearly nine years ago.

Gloria Hastings facilitates Suicide Isn't The End, a local support group for suicide survivors.

Gloria Hastings often wondered what her older brother was thinking, what his pensive expression concealed.

Four victims of a Saturday morning shooting at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre have tentatively identified their assailants, and investigators are seeking the suspects, according to Chattanooga Police Department spokeswoman Lt. Kim Noorbergen.

Tennessee’s 529 college savings plan, which allows parents to save tax-exempt money against the future costs of higher education, will end in May after years of low enrollment and poor returns, said state officials and investment experts.

A deal that will put “free money” in the hands of an estimated 130 million Americans may deepen the nation’s already steep debt, but that’s a risk worth taking in dire economic times, said University of Tennessee economics professor Matt Murray.

Joe Warren is scheduled to get on a plane in March and travel to Camp Pendleton, Calif., for the court-martial of a Marine charged in his son’s death.

In Kim Dees’ office there is a map of Iraq on the wall and a file on his computer desktop titled “Getting Hajer Back.”

Soldiers from a Chattanooga-based Army Reserve unit are working at Fort Bragg., N.C., to help thousands of troops prepare for service in Iraq and Afghanistan and return home at the end of their deployments.

With her husband serving in Desert Storm and two teenage sons at home, Denise Lindsey spent hours waiting nervously by the phone for calls from the Middle East that came just a few times a month.

As a 6-year-old shopping at flea markets with his father, James Michael Gluff always wanted to buy military surplus clothing and gear to wear as he imagined someday serving in the military.

Friends and family gathered today to remember Lance Cpl. James Michael Gluff, 20, during his funeral service at Love Funeral Home in Dalton, Ga.

In July, Spc. Thomas Graham, a Rossville resident serving a second tour in Iraq, lost his legs in an explosion that claimed the lives of two other soldiers.

The percentage of new recruits to the U.S. Army who have at least a high school diploma has fallen nationwide, including sharp drops in Tennessee and Georgia, a recent report by a nonprofit research organization shows.

A Marine charged in the death of Lance Cpl. Kristopher Cody Warren, a 19-year-old Marine from Calhoun, Ga., faces a general court martial at Camp Pendleton, Calif., next month, according to the victim’s mother. Cpl. Douglas Michael Sullivan, serving in Iraq with a military police unit based at Camp Pendleton, faces a charge of culpable negligence, authorities said. Lance Cpl. Warren was shot and killed during deployment to Iraq in 2006.

A Marine charged in the death of Lance Cpl. Kristopher Cody Warren, a 19-year-old Marine from Calhoun, Ga., faces a general court martial at Camp Pendleton, Calif., next month.

Soddy-Daisy native Cpl. Daniel O’Keefe is hospitalized in Germany. His wife, Tera O’Keefe, 19, left Chattanooga on Thursday afternoon to see him. “He wants to go back to Iraq,” said Mrs. O’Keefe, whose husband was injured on the first anniversary of their wedding. “He is so hard-headed.”

The body of a 20-year-old Marine from Tunnel Hill, Ga., who was killed Saturday in Iraq arrived in Chattanooga today. Lance Cpl. James Michael Gluff, 20, is survived by a wife, Hope, also 20, and a 14-month-old son.

Though it may be too soon to declare a new baby boom, an increase in the number of births in the United States has caught the attention of demographers and made the newest generation of Americans the largest in 45 years.

The body of Lance Cpl. James Michael Gluff, of Tunnel Hill, Ga., will arrive in Chattanooga today. The 20-year-old Marine was killed in Iraq on Saturday.

Author and teacher Colman McCarthy urged students at Girls Preparatory School to become peacemakers in a violent world by reaching out to those in need and using their collective power to push for everything from a peace curriculum to higher wages for school workers.

Pacifist and author Colman McCarthy spent today talking to students at Girls Preparatory School about ways to be peacemakers in a violent world — from raising loving children and reaching out to people in need to staging non-violent strikes that can move the balance of power.