John Tanner News

By: Beth Phillips & Holly Deasy bphillips@wbbjtv.com ; hdeasy@wbbjtv.com 8:30 p.m. A group of West Tennessee leaders spent their Thanksgiving morning putting together meals for senior citizens in Gibson County.

Everyone is watching and waiting for the "canary in the coal mine," that Democrat whose retirement will tell us how nervous incumbents really are about their chances in 2010.

Rep. Dennis Moore becomes the first Democrat Congressman to retire , rather than face the voters in 2010: Rep.

The poor economy is driving hundreds of thousands to file claims with the Social Security Administration, straining resources and threatening progress in reducing the claims backlog, the SSA commissioner told Congress on Thursday.

A day after the Senate passed its version of a military and construction bill that included $83 million for Fort Campbell, U.S. Rep.

The backlog in Memphis to get a hearing for Social Security disability benefits increased by three months last year, to 538 days, and is worsening, a lawyer who practices in Memphis told a House Ways and Means subcommittee Thursday.

The secretive, elite Christian fellowship known as "The Family" will no longer be able to avoid paying property taxes on the posh brick townhouse it owns on Washington's C Street.

OXFORD City Council leaders bowed to public pressure last night and pledged to save four public toilets earmarked for closure.

While Congress has debated health-care reform for the nation, it's also been focused on a health-related concern even closer to home: swine flu .

The National Republican congressional campaign committee wants to make sure you know that some of our state's Dems voted with their party on a procedural vote on health care: Unlike 15 other Democrats who sincerely oppose Obamacare, Tennessee Reps.

Memphis police have identified the man who died in an accident that followed an attempted traffic stop early Tuesday.

As the 2010 campaign cycle begins in earnest, the central question in the House of Representatives is how many seats will Republicans win ? Few political observers or elected officials doubt that an energized GOP has a headwind at its back.

The health-care bill the House planned to vote on this weekend had been hailed as a historic milestone in the decades-long effort to increase the number of Americans with insurance while slowing the growth in health-care spending.

Rep. Jim Cooper on Saturday harshly criticized a landmark health care reform bill and said he didn't expect it to become law.

Over the next few hours : * Beware of the blue screen: Pelosi has exuded confidence that she will have the requisite 218-plus votes for passage, but sometimes land mines appear out of nowhere that put the bill in grave danger.

Two of the four middle Tennessee House Democrats who are part of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition will oppose a health care reform bill the House may bring to a vote on Saturday.

As the gubernatorial election results from Virginia rolled in Tuesday night, I swear I sensed Murfreesboro shiver.

Murray Hudson of Antiquarian Books, Maps, Prints and Globes of Halls traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to meet with U.S. Congressman John Tanner and Sens.

From Alexander Bolton : "If it was up to me, I would figure out how to handle the war and fix the economy," said Rep.

State Rep. Judy Barker said that TDOT's "letting" process represents a big step forward for construction of Interstate 69 in Northwest Tennessee.