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Tennessee

May 2004Minimum number of Tennesseans who have ordered new license plates bearing the Confederate flag : 3,000
Source:

Tennessee Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (Brentwood)

Jan 2003Factor by which the number of Americans who have "tried to impersonate Elvis" exceeds the population of Tennessee: 3
Source:

Harris Interactive (Rochester, N.Y.)/U.S. Census Bureau

Apr 2001Number of fire stations in Columbia, Tennessee, cited for fire-code violations in January: 5
Source:

Columbia Fire Marshal's Office (Columbia, Tenn.)

Aug 1998Year in which the Tennessee legislature approved the Fifteenth Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote: 1997
Source:

Tennessee State Legislature (Nashville)/Legislative Service Bureau (Boston)

November 2, 2007The town of Orme, Tennessee, which has suffered from a prolonged drought, announced that it had run out of water.
Source:

AP

October 5, 2007Bo Ward, the proprietor of a barbershop near the Army’s Fort Campbell, committed suicide at a town meeting in Clarksville, Tennessee. Ward had requested that his home be rezoned as a commercial property to increase its value and to offset the losses he suffered when most of his regular patrons, among them General David Petraeus, were deployed to Iraq; the City Council refused. “Y’all have put me under,” said the barber before inserting a pistol into his mouth. “I’m out of here.”
Source:

San Jose Mercury News

September 25, 2007The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled women must return engagement rings should their wedding be canceled, even if the ring was received on Christmas Day.
Source:

Tennessean

January 25, 2007Six teenage girls were arrested on conspiracy charges after a list of 300 assassination targets, including Tom Cruise and the Energizer Bunny, was discovered in a trash can in a rural Tennessee high school. “I was very scared, my friends were scared,” said sophomore Lakyn Ledford, who stayed home after learning that student-athletes were also on the list.
Source:

AP via SFGate.com

November 17, 2006 Deep-fried American flags were removed from an art exhibit in Tennessee.
Source:

CNN.com

November 3, 2006 Tennessee G.O.P. officals claimed smart cards were missing from a Memphis polling place.
Source:

WMCTV

July 24, 2006A Tennessee elephant named Winkie was found not to have killed her handler on purpose.
Source:

AP via Forbes

July 5, 2006A megachurch called the World Overcomers congregation in Memphis, Tennessee, unveiled a 72-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty (with the Ten Commandments under one arm, a tear on her cheek, and “Jehovah” inscribed on her crown) holding a cross of gold.
Source:

New York Times

April 3, 2006Thunderstorms--along with at least 63 tornadoes--killed 27 people in Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois.
Source:

CNN.com

March 17, 2006A federal appeals court ruled that Tennessee may issue "Choose Life" license plates.
Source:

AP via First Amendment Center

December 6, 2005A Memphis, Tennessee, woman was arrested after she hired a hit man to kill four other men and take their cocaine; the hit man turned out to be an undercover police officer, and the cocaine turned out to be queso fresco cheese.
Source:

The Washington Post

December 1, 2005In Tennessee a man was arrested for firing a gun at traffic while wearing only a pair of socks.
Source:

AP

November 19, 2005Representative John Murtha (D., Pa.), called for the halt of U.S. troop deployments to Iraq. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), seeking to cut off debate over Murtha's statements, countered by proposing a measure that required that U.S. troops be brought home immediately. Jean Schmidt (R., Ohio) addressed Murtha, a decorated veteran and former Marine colonel who previously supported the invasion of Iraq, by quoting a Marine Corps reserve officer who told her that “cowards cut and run.” She was booed by Democrats. “You guys,” yelled Marty Meehan (D., Mass.), “are pathetic!” Harold Ford (D., Tenn.) ran across the House chamber's center aisle to the Republican side. “Say Murtha's name!” he shouted. Schmidt asked that her comments be struck from the record, and Hunter's resolution was rejected 403 to 3, with Murtha among those voting against it.
Source:

The Washington Post

September 14, 2005A broken light bulb at a school gym in Tennessee caused severe sunburns and swollen eyes in 18 people.
Source:

SunHerald.com

September 5, 2005In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the United States declared disasters in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Taken together, the 90,000-square-mile disaster area would be the twelfth largest state. Emergencies were declared in Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
Source:

U.S. Department of Defense

July 26, 2005A homeless man in Nashville, Tennessee, confessed to strangling two other homeless men. “I got addicted,” he explained, “to sucking the souls out of people.”
Source:

Local6.com

July 15, 2005A Tennessee man was charged with desecrating a venerated object and sent to jail after he burned an American flag.
Source:

AP

June 13, 2005Police in Tennessee arrested 144 people at a cockfight.
Source:

Wired News

April 25, 2005 Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee asked Christian conservatives to help him end filibusters.
Source:

New York Times

March 6, 2005 South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, addressing a Tennessee celebration honoring Abraham Lincoln, said that South Carolina did not “do Lincoln Day Dinners” because “it takes awhile to get over things.”
Source:

KnoxNews.com

February 3, 2005The Nashville police paid informants $120,000 to have sexual encounters with prostitutes.
Source:

New York Times

November 10, 2004 Tennessee took steps to eliminate its public health programs.
Source:

State of Tennessee

March 19, 2004A county in Tennessee was trying to rid itself of homosexuals.
Source:

Associated Press

December 30, 2003In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a man was in trouble for keeping 114 dead cats in his freezer.
Source:

The Tennessean

November 25, 2003A Ku Klux Klan member was accidentally shot in the head during an initiation ceremony in Tennessee, though the initiate, who was tied to a tree with a noose and shot with paint pellets, was unharmed.
Source:

Associated Press

September 24, 2002 Christians at New Life Ministries in Loudon, Tennessee, tried to resurrect a 15-year-old girl who died of untreated bone cancer.
May 29, 2000Dianne Odell, a polio victim in Tennessee, died at the age of 61, after 58 years in an iron lung.
Source:

AP

JULY 2008

HIGH NOON FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
Why the G.O.P. Must Die
A Forum with Kevin Baker, Scott McConnell, Kevin Phillips, and Thomas Schaller

THE MAGIC OLYMPICS
With Tricks Explained!
By Alex Stone

THE CASE OF THE SEVERED HAND
A story by Robert Coover

Also: J.G. Ballard: The Boy from Shanghai