Before it could be awarded, the trophy for the winner of the Big Ten Conference Football Championship has been changed from the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy to just the Stagg Championship Trophy.

National Basketball Association players have rejected the latest contract offer from the league's owners, The Associated Press and SI.com are reporting.

And as the AP adds, "the decision likely jeopardizes the season," which has already been delayed.

It’s hard to believe, but the Watergate break-in was nearly 40 years ago, but somehow it has become the scandal that keeps on giving.

Last week the National Archives and the Nixon Presidential Library unsealed 26 files that include secret transcripts from former president Richard Nixon’s grand jury testimony. The documents are important because they represent the only time Nixon was legally required to talk honestly about the scandal that brought down his presidency.

Comments by a Tennessee State Representative are getting Rutherford County still more national attention for anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Over the weekend local and national Muslim groups called on Tennessee officials to rebuke Rockvale Republican Rick Womick for comments he made Friday.

At a gathering of conservatives in Gallatin, where the subject was Sharia law, Womick was captured on video saying he thinks Muslims should not be allowed to serve in the U.S. military.

Womick reiterated those comments Saturday in an interview with the Daily News Journal.

Middle Tennessee State continues to struggle on the gridiron but the Blue Raider's basketball season is off to a good start. 

(Story by student reporter Scott Henry)

It wasn't long ago that Libya's former Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril was praising NATO for its help in toppling Moammar Gadhafi. But in an interview with Bloomberg published today, Jibril casts suspicion on foreign powers.

Jibril questions Qatar's involvement in domestic politics and essentially blames "foreign powers" for the death of Gadhafi. Bloomberg reports:

A new liquor store ordinance in Memphis and one in the works for Jackson could serve as models for a state statute.

State Rep. Jimmy Eldridge, a Jackson Republican, is drafting a similar bill to present to the upcoming General Assembly.

The measures ban anyone under 21 from entering liquor stores without a parent, legal guardian or spouse.

Jackson liquor store owner Bob Lindsey tells The Commercial Appeal that store owners frequently see teenagers in their stores, pointing out to older friends what to buy for them.

Accounts vary on how much flack he caught, but they agree that some Penn State fans did not appreciate John Matko's one-man protest outside the school's football stadium Saturday before the game with Nebraska.

The 34-year-old Penn State alum held two signs with messages such as "put abused kids first. ... Don't be fooled, they all knew. ... Honor the abused kids by cancelling this game and the season NOW."

Chances are that at some point you've donned a small pink ribbon supporting awareness of breast health and efforts to fight breast cancer. Chances are you might not recognize one of the women who brought it to universal prominence. Evelyn Lauder died on Saturday. She was a vice president of the cosmetics corporation founded by Estee' Lauder, her powerful mother-in-law. The Estee Lauder Companies says Evelyn Lauder, who was 75, died at home in New York of non-genetic ovarian cancer.

This headline today on a story behind The Wall Street Journal's paywall ...

"U.S. Farmers Reclaim Land From Developers"

... sent us looking for other reports about what the Journal says is a national trend: "raw land destined for residential development has fallen so far in value that thousands of acres across the country are being used again for agriculture."

A few other pieces underscore the strength in farmland prices: