Tagged: president obama

WASHINGTON (AP/WMOT) — Senate Democrats are expected to introduce a bill this week that will keep interest rates from rising for millions of students with federal loans. Republicans are balking at a tax boost Democrats want to use to pay for it.

Senator Harry Reid unveiled the nearly $6 billion proposal yesterday after it was endorsed by both President Barack Obama and GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney.

Republicans favor keeping the current 3.4 percent interest rates for subsidized loans from doubling in July, but don’t want to pay for the bill by making some companies pay more Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

WASHINGTON (AP/WMOT) — The White House says former Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

President Barack Obama says Summitt is an "inspiration" as the coach who has won more games than anyone else in NCAA college basketball history and for her willingness to "speak so openly and courageously about her battle with Alzheimer's."

Summitt said in August that she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia.  On Wednesday Summitt stepped down from the team’s head coach and was named “Coach Emeritus.” During a press conference yesterday, Summitt praised UT fans, fellow staff members, and the women she coached.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 46 institutions of higher learning governed by the Tennessee Board of Regents have nothing to fear from President Barack Obama’s latest education initiative, according to TBR Chancellor John Morgan. 

The Associated Press says in a story released Monday that the Obama administration is concerned about rising student debt, which now averages over $25,000. The president is also reportedly concerned by the apparent disconnect between what students learn at the nation's universities and the skills employers say they're looking for.

Tennessee giving Republicans double digit leads over President Obama...just one of the results from the latest Middle Tennessee State University poll.

The twice yearly survey was conducted earlier this month with 640 Tennesseans interviewed by phone.

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, three Republican contenders would likely defeat President Obama in Tennessee.  

The survey shows Rommey, Perry and Cain all polling better than the president, with Romney getting the most nods from Tennesseans.

(AP) A Tennessee jury has convicted a Georgia man on federal firearms charge. Authorities say he was participating in a plot to take over teh Monroe County courthouse.

This morning in Knoxville, a jury convicted Darren Wesley Huff  of carrying a firearm with the intent to use it in a civil disorder this morning. They found him not guilty of using a firearm in relation to a second, more serious felony.

Huff was arrested in 2010 after telling officers he brought his firearms from Dallas, Ga., into Tennessee to support efforts to arrest Monroe County officials who refused to indict President Obama.

Huff, who once belonged to the 'birther' movement that disputes Obama's U.S. citizenship, told jurors he never said he planned to take over the courthouse.