A judge's ruling that strikes down Tennessee's so-called guns-in-bars law won't bother some local restaurateurs.

Home decor and gift store Kirkland's will celebrate its grand opening this weekend in the Hamilton Crossing shopping center in East Brainerd. The specialty retailer moved into a 7,200-square-foot space at 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd., a spot formerly occupied by a tanning salon.

Women are slowly nudged into combat roles.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into the death of an MTSU student who died after being arrested and booked into the Rutherford County Jail, according to TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm.

Yes, we are in charge now,” said an Iraqi army soldier, Sgt. Salman Fallah Jassim, as he led a mixed Iraqi and American patrol through the saw grass of a dried-up irrigation canal, sweeping the ground in front of him with the long wand of a metal detector. “But we need help all the time.”

When three inmates, including one of Belgium’s most dangerous criminals, escaped from a prison near Bruges last month, the script appeared to be straight out of an action film.

As Americans struggle through a dismal recession, many are trying to safeguard themselves from what they fear will be even worse times ahead. They eat out less often. They take vacations closer to home. They put off buying new cars.

U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., on Wednesday issued a statement saying he will not vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the next justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

It did not take long for anti-abortion leaders to realize that George R. Tiller was more formidable than other doctors they had tried to shut down.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is to be in Jerusalem on Monday for the first time in two and a half years to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in talks that a senior U.S. military official said would be characterized by Israel’s growing anxiety over Iran’s nuclear program.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. Man sentenced to life in prison A man accused in the 2006 murder of a prison nurse and her 4-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life without parole. Huston Lloyd, of Kingston Springs, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he will nominate the federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, choosing a daughter of Puerto Rican parents raised in a Bronx public housing project to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice.

Porsche will take longer than expected to reach a merger agreement with Volkswagen, a Porsche spokesman told Reuters on Friday.

COLUMBUS, Ga. — State Rep. Vance Smith says he’ll try for the Department of Transportation commissioner’s job again.

Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport has registered the biggest increase in wildlife strikes among airports nationally, according to new Federal Aviation Administration data released today.

Regulators on Friday shut down Omni National Bank in Georgia, marking the 21st failure this year of a federally insured bank.

Tennessee’s high school graduation rate improved more than any other state’s in a new report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

In naming his national health care team, President Barack Obama has named a Rockwood, Tenn., native to serve as director of the White House Office for Health Reform.

The House Appropriations Committee passed a revised $18.9 billion budget on Wednesday, relying in part on federal stimulus money that has not even reached the state yet.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday signed legislation funding homeowner tax relief grants worth about $250 a household, even as he continued to deride them as ineffective.

A Continental Express flight from Newark, N.J., to Buffalo, N.Y., crashed into a house about four to six miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, according to a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Georgia money managers reported plummeting tax collections and lawmakers tapped the brakes on the legislative session Friday amid worries that the state’s mounting fiscal woes could force even deeper cuts to the state budget.

President Barack Obama on Saturday pitched to Americans more details of an economic stimulus plan that could exceed $825 billion, hoping he can ease Republican resistance in Congress by building public support for spending on items as varied as health coverage, port security and home weatherization.

The General Assembly is in recess this week, but it will not be a week of rest.

A settlement agreement will resolve an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the care of residents at two Tennessee State Veterans Homes.

ATLANTA — The Braves finally have their ace.

The Phish reunion is in full swing, with plans for a summer tour just announced.

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Republican who has announced plans to run for governor in 2010, said today that members of Congress should push for federal assistance to clean up the ash spill at TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant.

Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol scored 27 and 20 points as the Los Angeles Lakers ended the Boston Celtics’ winning streak at 19 games today in a rematch of last year’s NBA finals pairing.

An 85-year-old woman is dead after faulty electrical wiring set her Macon, Ga., house on fire.

Three weeks are left before the Dec. 2 runoff elections, and it still is not a certainty this morning if there will be a runoff in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race.

Rocco Mediate’s amazing summer run continued Thursday at Roayl Birkdale at the 137th British Open.

Chattanooga-based Unum Group on Friday announced it has retired the remaining $175 million of its 5.99 percent senior notes.