Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Higher education officials are recommending tuition increases at Tennessee's community colleges and universities.

Tennessee Higher Education Commission director Richard Rhoda told Gov. Bill Haslam yesterday that a hike of as much as 3 percent was being recommended for community colleges and up to 6 percent for universities.

The commission is scheduled to vote on the increases at its meeting later this week.

The commission was among the last of several state departments that presented budgets to the governor.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A coalition of Nashville poll watchers wants an audit of problems they documented with Election Day voting.

Mary Mancini is the director of Tennessee Citizen Action, which organized the poll watching effort. She says that the coalition command center fielded over 600 calls on Election Day.

Problems included too few poll workers, workers who gave voters inaccurate information and polling places that ran out of provisional ballots and change-of-address forms.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis police say that an officer who was critically wounded by a fellow officer during the search of a home was shot by a shotgun.

Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said Friday that 32-year-old officer Willie Bryant was in critical but stable condition at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. Rudolph said Bryant is being treated in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Police said Bryant and other officers were executing a drug-related search warrant at a north Memphis home Thursday when they were confronted by a dog.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Democratic leaders say they plan to talk with Gov. Bill Haslam about expanding pre-kindergarten classes after the state's education commissioner said he doesn't plan to request funding for an expansion.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

Commissioner Kevin Huffman spoke earlier this week during the governor's budget hearings. Haslam has asked state departments to develop plans for a 5 percent cut in spending as a fallback.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais (day-ZHAR'-lay) has won re-election, overcoming revelations that he had an affair with a patient and urged her to get an abortion.

DesJarlais, a Jasper physician before going to Congress, beat Democratic challenger Eric Stewart on Tuesday. With 76 percent of precincts reporting, DesJarlais had 57 percent of the vote compared with Stewart's 43 percent.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's state budget hearings continue in Nashville with presentations by officials for transportation, children's services and other departments.

As the hearings opened Tuesday, Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said he wasn't asking for funds to expand pre-kindergarten classes. However, Huffman said expanding enrollment in schools and inflation will require an additional $2 million in routine cost increases.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney has captured West Virginia and its five electoral votes.

President Barack Obama is unpopular in the state, and West Virginia GOP officials have been hoping that would lead to victories for other Republicans on the ballot.

Romney earlier won in Kentucky, giving him 13 electoral votes overall, while Obama was the winner of Vermont's three electoral votes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The polls are starting to close in the eastern United States, and President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each have an early victory.

As expected, Obama was the winner in Vermont, with three electoral votes, while Romney captured Kentucky's eight electoral votes.

Vermont voters also re-elected Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Still to come are the returns from the handful of states, including Ohio, Florida and Virginia, where Obama and Romney have concentrated their efforts in recent weeks.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais has reached the finish line of his re-election bid before potentially damaging trial transcripts from his 2001 divorce were made public.

The congressman's attorney blocked the release until a transcript was complete, and Democratic Party officials said the court reporter couldn't finish the work in time for voters to evaluate the records before the polls would close Tuesday evening.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Poll watchers in Memphis and Nashville were reporting many voting problems on Tuesday, but few had to do with the state's new voter photo ID law.

Instead, volunteers in Nashville said the problems were too few voting machines, too few workers, no change of address forms, no provisional ballots and people being sent away without being told they could vote provisionally.

In Memphis, many people were reporting problems voting because their polling places had changed due to redistricting.