Tennessee

President Bush traveled here Wednesday seeking support for his healthcare proposals, taking a turn at the controls of a surgical robot at a Chattanooga hospital and praising Tennessee's effort to expand healthcare coverage to the uninsured. At an event at this city's convention center that was billed as a round table on his initiatives, Bush traded one-liners with a handful of workers who have had trouble getting health insurance and employers who have had difficulties providing it.

Toyota Motor Corp., eager to be seen as part of the U.S. auto industry these days, is expected to announce this morning that it will build its ninth North American assembly plant. And what could be more American than a plant near Elvis Presley's hometown of Tupelo, Miss? Toyota executives and Mississippi officials have declined to comment. But the Japanese automaker has set a U.S.

A mother said she hugged her 8-year-old daughter for the first time after a seven-year fight to get the child back from what was supposed to be temporary foster care. "I hug her very close and hard," Qin Luo He said after a court-ordered meeting in Memphis with daughter Anna Mae, now a second-grader. Qin Luo and husband Shaoqiang He were reunited with Anna Mae under orders from the Tennessee Supreme Court.

A jury was selected in Memphis for the corruption trial of former state Sen. John Ford, once one of the state's most powerful legislators, who is accused of taking cash to help a company get state business. The Memphis Democrat is one of five current or former lawmakers charged in a corruption investigation. Ford, 64, is accused of accepting $55,000 in bribes during a statewide FBI sting investigation code-named Tennessee Waltz.

Potential jurors were quizzed in Selmer about domestic violence issues, suggesting a possible defense strategy in the trial of a woman accused of murdering her preacher husband. Police have said that Mary Winkler admitted to killing her husband, Matthew, last year, and that the slaying had something to do with what was described as his constant criticism. He was a minister at the 4th Street Church of Christ. She was a substitute teacher.

A preacher's wife accused of murdering her husband told a psychologist that he often threatened her with a shotgun and forced her to have sex, the therapist testified Tuesday. Dr. Lynne Zager said Mary Winkler also told her that on the day of the fatal shooting, her husband tried to stop their 1-year-old daughter from crying by placing his hands over the baby's nose and mouth.

A preacher's wife testified at her murder trial Wednesday that her husband had abused her physically and sexually, but she said the shotgun fired accidentally as she pointed it at him in their parsonage bedroom. Mary Winkler said she heard a "boom" but did not pull the trigger, prompting prosecutor Walt Freeland to ask her later whether she understood how a trigger worked. "Yes, sir," Winkler replied. She said she remembered holding the gun but not getting it from the closet.

A drag-racing vehicle lost control during a parade and spun into a crowd of bystanders, killing four adults and injuring up to 15 people, authorities said. Investigators were trying to determine what caused the car to careen into the crowd at the nighttime Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer, about 80 miles east of Memphis. Scott Henley of Selmer said the car started burning off its tires, then began to fishtail and slammed into a light pole before spinning around into the audience.

One day after a drag-racing car plowed into a crowd at a charity event, witnesses questioned why the driver was allowed to speed down a multilane highway with no guardrails, lined on both sides by hundreds of spectators. Two more people died, raising the death toll to six. A Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman said the victims were in their teens and early 20s. The accident injured at least 18 others, including a 5-year-old boy, who were taken to hospitals in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Beginning today, everyone will be required to show identification before buying beer in Tennessee stores -- no matter how old the buyer appears. It will be the first state to make universal carding mandatory, says the National Alcohol Beverage Control Assn. However, the law does not apply to beer sales in bars and restaurants, and it does not cover wine and liquor. Supporters say it keeps grocery store and convenience store clerks from having to guess a customer's age. Democratic Gov.