A man remains in critical condition at Erlanger hospital after Chattanooga police say he was stabbed and cut multiple times.

LOS ANGELES — Federal prosecutors dropped their investigation of Lance Armstrong on Friday, ending a nearly two-year effort aimed at determining whether the seven-time Tour de France winner and his teammates participated in a doping program.

NASHVILLE — A former top state Senate Democrat is joining the list of Democratic lawmakers who won’t seek re-election following Republican redistricting.

Scottie Mayfield, the president of the dairy company that bears his name, said he’ll challenge U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann in the 3rd Congressional District GOP primary.

Three Georgia football players were dismissed from the team today by coach Mark Richt for violating team rules.

West will take over defensive line

Two Monroe County men have been charged with bribing voters in a mayoral election last year, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina announced Thursday he won't seek re-election in what's become another blow to conservative Democrats on Capitol Hill and the party's state congressional delegation.

Chattanooga officials broke ground this morning on a $4.1 million health and wellness center on 11th Street to serve city employees.

A jury found a 38-year-old Chattanooga man guilty of voluntary manslaughter today in a decades old murder case.

NEW YORK — After three days of controversy, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity says it is reversing its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood.

A Guild, Tenn., man was jailed Thursday night after authorities say he fired shots at another vehicle on Interstate 24 near Jasper, Tenn.

From the "Talk too much studios," let's go.

IVC US announced today it is adding a third shift and boosting its Dalton, Ga., staff by another 30 employees.

Actually, I've left Cullowhee for a motel in Asheville. I have plans to interview the executive director of the Asheville Sports Committee at the U.S. Cellular Center on Friday for an upcoming story.

The unemployment rate fell for the fifth straight month after a surge of January hiring, a promising shift in the nation's outlook for job growth.

The Tennessee Valley Authority lost $173 million in the final three months of calendar 2011 as milder winter temperatures cut electricity sales by $260 million compared with the same time a year ago.

ATLANTA — Fifteen teenage girls report a mysterious outbreak of spasms, tics and seizures in upstate New York. But tests find nothing physically wrong.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Roy Hallums was enduring his 311th day of captivity, blindfolded, his hands and feet bound, stuffed into a hole under the floor of a farm building outside Baghdad. He heard a commotion upstairs and managed to get the blindfold off. Delta Force troops broke open the hatch. An American soldier jumped down.

LAS VEGAS — With his trademark flair for spectacle, Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday on the famed Las Vegas strip — just hours after Newt Gingrich’s advisers were spreading the word that The Donald would be anointing him instead.

The Band Perry, recently nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy Award, will headline Wednesday, June 13, at this year's Riverbend Festival, according to Joe "Dixie" Fuller, talent and production coordinator.

Director Scott Dunlap was able to showcase his creative genius in the refreshing production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” which opened last weekend on the MainStage of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre.

New Amazon distribution centers such as the one in Chattanooga will vault Tennessee to the top three among states in terms of the Internet retailer's footprint, officials said Thursday.

Chattanooga motorists traveling on U.S. Highway 27 will likely have to maneuver around orange cones and construction crews for at least the next five years as workers rebuild, revamp and expand the downtown thoroughfare.

For several years now, LaQuisha Jackson has had a plan in mind for her future. Since her breakout freshman season in which she became Tennessee's fastest female sprinter, Jackson began to focus on becoming not just the best in her home state but in the nation and eventually reaching the Olympics.

Those first days burn into Lisa Chandler's memory -- the heaps of debris, the splintered trees across the landscape and the grief of the families.

Vonn Bell’s list of football scholarship offers grew by one Thursday, and it was the one he had been waiting on for some time.

The federal food stamp program without a doubt provides vital help to many individuals and families who truly need assistance in putting food on their tables. Is it a program without fault? No. Can it be improved? Of course.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman used to have one spot to fill on his staff following the departure of running backs coach Jamaal Fobbs. Now, in a sense, he has three.

Forget the fact he's the No. 1 or No. 2 tailback nationally depending on the recruiting service, and forget that he rushed for nearly 1,900 yards this past season.

Whirlpool is expected to manufacture and ship the first products from its new Benton Pike site this quarter, officials say.

Michael Patton has upgraded from the Legos of his childhood to building and programming complicated robotics. "I've always been an engineering-minded person," he said. "It was just kind of a natural fit."

The nursing program at Cleveland State Community College faced such high demand, the school decided to offer an evening program — which also filled up.

State lawmakers are a step closer to passing a constitutional amendment addressing a Georgia Supreme Court ruling that disbanded the state’s charter school commission last year.

Republican lawmakers are building support for a plan to wait until the end of the year to take action on state requirements set by President Barack Obama’s federal health care law.

Try as he might, Mike Duffie cannot hide the frustration. The Dalton High School boys’ basketball coach has been around the game long enough to know when something isn’t right, and what’s happened to Tristen Harrell has Duffie a bit on edge.

Gov. Bill Haslam is a fine, enthusiastic leader in tough economic times. His common sense and his sense of hope for Tennessee shone through in a visit Thursday to Chattanooga's Downtown Rotary Club.

Every morning Robert Richelson makes a smoothie for his wife. “Sweetie?” he asks while she gets ready for work. “Do you want blueberries? Blueberries and banana? Strawberries and blueberries?”

Rebecca Eaton has been the executive producer of "Masterpiece Theatre" since 1985, so she has both an intimate knowledge of the PBS series and a true love for its mission of presenting classic works.

Anyone with siblings knows there's no point in asking a mother which of her children she loves the most.

Rob Kapilow didn't want classical music to be something people listened to because they should.

Though written and set in the Elizabethan era, "The Merchant of Venice" offers characters who may look very familiar, said the director of a new production of the William Shakespeare tragic comedy opening Sunday at the Jewish Cultural Center.

With the mild winter Chattanooga has experienced up to now, boaters may be champing at the bit to get out on Chickamauga Lake.

"Being a professional is doing all the things you love to do on the days when you don't feel like doing them."

THINGS I WISH MY KIDS WOULD ASK ME

I've been doing a good bit of defriending lately.

The next Diane Marek Visiting Artist Series presents "Okay Mountain" in Cress Gallery at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Below is a list of area art exhibitions and events for the week of Feb. 5-11. Anyone with information to be included may contact Ann Nichols at Chattanooga Times Free Press, 400 E. 11th St., Chattanooga, TN 37403 or email annsnichols@aol.com.

Opening Feb. 13 in the Jewish Cultural Center Gallery is "A Sense of Place." The exhibit highlights the work of four artists who have focused on specific locations or spaces that intrigue them.

Historic Civil War events occurring in North Georgia will be highlighted in this weekend's Chickamauga Civil War Show coming to the Northwest Georgia Trade & Convention Center in Dalton.

Drivers who climb into the cabs of monster trucks for the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Thunder Nationals may seem like daredevils, but safety is a priority, said Morgan Kane, who drives Stone Crusher.

Perched along Taft Highway on Signal Mountain, there's a little place -- not quite a shack, more of a cabin.

Birth control pills, in the main, are effective and safe. The experience of millions of women has proved that to be the case.

There is little we would like more than for peace and stability to reign in Afghanistan and for the U.S. military to be able to end combat operations there immediately. But that has to be guided not by wishful thinking but by conditions on the ground.

If common sense and a reasonable reading of the First Amendment to the Constitution prevailed, there would be little need for federal legislation explicitly spelling out protections for religious liberty and expression in the public square.

California virtually destroyed its once-large auto industry over the past couple of decades by imposing costly environmental regulations and too-high taxes. A little over 20 years ago, California had eight automobile-manufacturing facilities.

D'Mondta Smith doesn't appear to have much in the way of shortcomings when he's on a basketball court. Pressed into noting one, his Hixson High School coach, Alex Disbrow, said, "I've had to talk him into shooting more."

Less than 24 hours after adding a class of new players to his program on national signing day, Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley put the final touch on the coaching staff he’ll take into his important third season with the Volunteers.

Long before Under Armour started proclaiming that "We Must Protect This House," sports teams at all levels put an emphasis on protecting their home surfaces. Some teams have just been able to do it better than others.

Georgia's second wrestling postseason begins today, and the challenges facing the area's best possibilities for team championships are eerily similar.

Marion County's Brooke Baxter has two seasons of high school softball eligibility left, but she's already sure where she wants to play in college. The Lady Warriors outfielder has accepted a scholarship offer to continue her career at East Tennessee State University.

Teni Butler admitted that she was “terrified” being thrust into the starting soccer lineup from day one as an eighth-grader at Baylor. Five years later, she should enter her next school with more confidence.

Wes Moore, in his first season coaching girls' basketball at District 7-AA member Notre Dame, formerly coached boys' basketball at Signal Mountain and makes his first return to his old gymnasium tonight.

Western Carolina made history when Ronnie Carr hit the NCAA's first official 3-point basket in 1980.

Markeshia Grant scored 27 points as South Carolina beat eighth-ranked Tennessee 64-60 Thursday night for the Gamecocks' first win over the Lady Volunteers since 1980.

Area college baseball teams trying to get their seasons started have been hindered by a lot of rain lately, and the forecast for Saturday has led to adjustments in their opening dates.

An abandoned diagnostic building last used 15 years ago is set to be demolished and rebuilt by June 2013, according to Scott Rowe, CEO of HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Chattanooga.

The district attorney handling the probe into a Bradley County Sessions Court judge said Thursday the FBI has asked for information in the case.

Tennessee issued 12,571 photo IDs for voters between July 1 and Jan. 30, the state Safety Department announced Thursday.

Fredrick Brown is awaiting a jury's decision to see if his legal appeal, which got him in front of a jury to face the first of two first-degree murder charges, will give him a chance to leave prison early.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the renowned breast-cancer charity, faced an escalating backlash Thursday over its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Some of Komen’s local affiliates are openly upset, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in protest.

While the Scenic City enjoys temperatures in the balmy 60s, the thermometer in Russia recently has plunged to record levels of frigidity.

Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force Commander Larry C. Black is among the three candidates who have announced they will run for Catoosa County sheriff.

Chattanooga officials are talking with a company that’s weighing a 50-employee operation in the Alton Park area.

The defense attorney for Jamaul Herman jabbed at points in the murder investigation against her client Thursday, trying to create uncertainty in jurors' minds.

Chattanooga leads the state's four largest metro areas and ranks in the top 25 percent of the nation's cities in terms of racial equity, a new report card shows.