• Memphis Fire Department remembers fallen firefighters

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Memphis firefighter Fredrick Edwards salutes the memorial wall at the Fire Museum of Memphis as he and fellow firefighters leave a rose for each of the 53 Memphis, Tenn. firefighters killed in the line of duty during the annual September 11th Fire Services Memorial program.

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Memphis firefighter David Schlauch helps refold a giant American flag after the annual Fire Services Memorial in Memphis.

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Memphis firefighter Kenneth Brown rolls up flags before the start of a short parade with Memphis first responders during the annual Fire Services Memorial at the Fire Museum of Memphis on Tuesday.

    The Memphis Fire Department has been honoring their fallen comrades during an annual memorial service for a long time, but after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 they now hold their remembrances on that historic date.

    "We’ve always had a memorial for those fallen firefighters, who throughout the history of the department gave their lives in service to the city of Memphis," Lt. Wayne Cooke of the Memphis Fire Department told the Memphis Daily Mail. "After 9/11, we wanted to make sure we honored those who gave their lives in the line of duty on that day.

    In other parts of the country, thousands gathered in New York, suburban Washington and rural Pennsylvania to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

    Slideshow: Marking the 11th anniversary of 9/11

    Ceremonies at World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pa. mark 11 years since the attacks.

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  • Tsavo the lion receives treatment to remove orange size tumor

    Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

    Veterinary students Nicole Bayless, left, and Megan Richards, along with technician Janet Pezzi, prepare an African lion named Tsavo for cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

    Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

    Dr. James Steeil prepares an African lion named Tsavo for cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

    Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

    An African lion named Tsavo is seen during cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

    Tsavo, a 357 pound African lion, received radiation treatments at the University of Tennessee's Veternary Medical Center on a cancerous tumor near the big cat's mouth.

    This was the fourth, and last, of Tsavo's radiation treatments. At his first visit, the tumor measured 10 centimeters — about the size of an orange. At this one, it measured about 6 centimeters, smaller than a lime. With any luck, the radiation has killed the cancer's DNA so that the tumor will continue to shrink over the next four weeks. If not, Tsavo will have surgery to remove it.

    --The Associated Press

    The photographs were shot on July 6, but made available to msnbc.com today.

    Amy Smotherman Burgess / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

    Assistant professor of radiation oncology Dr. Nathan Lee prepares an African lion named Tsavo for cancer treatment at the University of Tennessee's Veterinary Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. The 11-year-old big cat is undergoing radiation treatment for a large tumor near its mouth.

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  • Tennessee students are stuck on their principal

    Doug Strickland / Chattanooga Times Free Press / AP

    Ooltewah Elementary School students duct tape Principal Tom Arnold to a wall in the hallway during their lunch hour on April 27 in Ooltewah, Tenn. Arnold made an agreement with the students that if they reached their walk-a-thon fundraising goal of $20,000, he would spend the lunch hour duct taped to the wall.

    Slideshow: The Week in Pictures

    Alberto Di Lolli / AP

    A meeting of the sexes in Spain, a multicolored run in California, a giant street puppet performance in England, casting election ballots in France and more.

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  • Rhodes College students teach the 'music of Memphis' to local students

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Sixth grader Kenyatta Davis, 11, rests her head on her guitar as she learns a new chord from Rhodes College music student Stephanie Milazzo during a meeting of the Cypress Guitar Club, Jan. 24, 2012, at Cypress Middle School in Memphis, Tenn.

    By Robert Hood

    Rhodes College faculty member, John Bass, says the Cypress Guitar Club is an afterschool program sponsored by the Mike Curb Institute for Music, an endowed institute at Rhodes College whose mission is to research, preserve, and promote the music of Memphis and the surrounding region. The institute gives students the opportunity to interact with Memphis music in a variety of ways, from research and archival work, to performing and outreach opportunities, which the guitar club is an example of.

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Sixth graders learn a new song on Jan. 24, 2012 at Cypress Middle School. The music club has more than doubled in size since it started last year by Rhodes College faculty member John Bass, who along with two assistants, teaches the after school program twice a week.

    “It is a service opportunity for us and a way for us to work directly with the city in which we reside through music,” said Bass.

    Cypress Middle School is one of Rhodes’ Learning Corridor Schools, and has historically been a school with many challenges. The Commercial Appeal reports that the school received failing grades in reading, math, social studies and science on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests in 2010 and 2011.

    There are 12 students enrolled in the guitar club. There is no fee for joining, but membership is determined by the administration of Cypress based on their interest in music, grades, attendance, and behavior. Guitars are provided to the students free of charge and were acquired through a grant written by the Cypress band director.

    “We have several very talented students who are progressing at a very high level,” said Bass.

    The club performed twice at Cypress school assemblies last semester and is scheduled to perform at Rhodes and in the community this term. In addition, one of the senior members of the club performed solo at a presentation at Rhodes last May and served as a junior counselor at a music camp hosted by the college last July.

    Bass says, “It is a program we are proud of, and think it highlights our institutional goals of not only providing a first-rate liberal arts education for our students, but also helping them to engage with the community and become better citizens.”

    Rhodes has been ranked as the #1 Most Service Oriented School in the Nation by Newsweek for the past 2 years.

     

    The Commercial Appeal in Memphis reports:

    A 2009 study published in the journal Psychology of Music found that elementary-school children exposed to a multi-year program of music tuition displayed superior cognitive performance in certain reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers.

    Rhodes mathematics major and guitar tutor Will Lang, 21, said the work has given him a greater appreciation for teaching. One of his pupils, Cedric Wells, 12, said learning guitar was harder than he had expected, but he wants to stick with it and play during this year's school talent show.

  • Founder of dog rescue group arrested after 128 dogs found in U-Haul truck

    Kyle Kurlick / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Members of the Fayette Co. Animal Control, Animal Rescue and the West Tenn. Drug Task Force round up 128 dogs found in a U-Haul trailer that was pulled over on to investigate for drugs on I-40 East of Memphis, Tenn. on Jan. 17, 2012. Instead, the dogs and one cat were found, all of which were locked in cages with tie-fasteners and no ventilation.

    Authorities in West Tennessee arrested two women when they discovered 128 live dogs, one dead dog and a live cat inside a U-Haul truck and a minivan during a traffic stop on Interstate 40, WSMV-TV reports.

    The Commercial-Appeal in Memphis reports that the dogs were hungry, thirsty and living in squalor, without ventilation. The newspaper reported that the arrested women were associated with Hearts for Hounds, a dog rescue organization:

    By Tuesday afternoon, the women -- Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and a passenger, Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, both of the Long Beach, Calif., area -- each faced 128 counts of aggravated animal cruelty, a Class E felony, and were jailed on $100,000 bond each in Fayette County.

    Officials at the scene said the women were driving from California to Virginia. A check of the website for Hearts for Hounds showed they were relocating from Long Beach to Virginia. Sheehan is shown as the organization's founder. Read the full story.

    WMC-TV's Nick Kenny reports.

     

  • Tony Duncan / Johnson City Press via AP

    A gaping sinkhole opened in the bottom of a swimming pool, Dec. 8, at the home of Brad Thelen in Erwin, Tenn., draining the pool. The family removed valuables and is staying with relatives until the sinkhole stabilizes.

    Sinkhole sinks swimming pool and spreads toward house

    WSMV-TV and AP reports:
    Homeowner Brad Thelen said the noise of the sinkhole opening under the in-ground pool awakened his wife Chemene on Wednesday night, according to The Johnson City Press.

    The hole was about 10 feet across Thursday afternoon. By Thursday evening, it had tripled in size and was not far from the Thelans' home.

  • Dan Henry / Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP

    Cleveland, Tenn. firefighters are silhouetted in the smoke while working to extinguish a warehouse fire off of Euclid Ave. in downtown Cleveland, early Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011. The blaze burned through a multiple-story brick building that once housed the Cleveland Chair Company. No injuries were reported.

    Cleveland, Tenn. warehouse burns to the ground

    The Cleveland Daily Banner reports:

    Heavy smoke drifted over the city today as Cleveland Fire Department personnel fought the largest local fire of the year. The old Cleveland Chair Company building located on Ninth Street S.E. collapsed as fire raged through the structure.

    Historical information noted the business started making upholstered chairs in 1914. The building is owned by the Ron Jackson family who operate Jackson-Catnapper which manufactures the Catnapper brand recliner and other furniture, and was more than a block long, according to Sullivan.

  • South sees a few inches of November snow

    Dan Henry / /Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP

    Graham Shults, 9, has batting practice with snowballs before heading to school as snow fell atop Signal Mountain, Tenn., Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011.

    Weather.com reports:

    A cold low-pressure system over the South has delivered a rare late-November snow to portions of Tennessee, northeast Arkansas, northern Mississippi and far northwest Alabama. 

    By far, the snow "winners" from this winter storm have been southeast Missouri, northeast Arkansas, western Tennessee and far northern Mississippi. 

    Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP

    Amy Speek, left, and her daughter Olivia Speek, 9, walk their dog "Juno" as snow falls atop Signal Mountain, Tenn., Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011. This was Juno's first time in the snow.

    Cities in the South are under winter weather advisories while northern cities are enjoying record high temperatures. NBC's Brian Williams has more.

  • Dan Henry / Chattanooga Times Free Press viaAP

    Rich Heinsman, a Chattanooga, Tenn. criminal defense attorney, turns heads in Judge Barry Steelman's courtroom Monday, Oct. 31, while haunting the city courts building as a Halloween prank.

    Defense attorney haunts Tennessee courtroom

    By Rich Shulman

    Who said lawyers don't have a sense of humor?

  • Fans young and old flock to Graceland to remember Elvis

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Brandon Bird, 9, tries to keep cool in his self-designed jumpsuit during a series of performances by Elvis tribute artists at the Graceland Entertainment Pavilion in Memphis, Tenn., on Aug. 15.

    Jim Weber / The Commercial Appeal via AP

    Fans from all over the world gather at the gates of Graceland for a candlelight vigil marking the 34th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley on Aug. 15.

    The AP reports from MEMPHIS, Tennessee:

    Silent mourners with heads bowed and candles in hand paid their respects to Elvis Presley at his grave at Graceland, his longtime Memphis home, to mark the 34th anniversary of his sudden death. Continue reading.

  • Jeff Roberson / AP

    Floodwater is seen inside a building Monday, May 9, 2011, in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis residents are waiting for the Mississippi River to reach its peak expected as early as Monday night as the river rises near its highest level ever in Memphis, flooding pockets of low-lying neighborhoods.

    Photographer describes covering the floods in Memphis

    Associated Press photographer Jeff Roberson said about making this picture:

    I’ve been covering floods for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years, and I’ve spent the last two weeks following the latest one down the Mississippi River. You’re looking at one of the latest stops in my journey, a building in Memphis with two signs outside: “Peaches Bar” and “For rent.” I took this picture through a window — really, the hole where a window used to be — while standing in thigh-deep water. The routine was pretty typical for flood coverage: Make sure my tetanus shot is up to date (it is), grab the go pack I keep in the attic, drive to the edge of the water, put on chest waders and walk into the floodwaters, very slowly, being careful not to step into a manhole or off the end of a submerged ledge. If you can call any of that typical.

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