Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A private high school in Nashville has been closed after receiving some type of threat.

WSMV-TV reports (http://bit.ly/ZDw6xZ) all campus activities at Father Ryan High School were canceled Friday after police informed school officials of the threat.

Officials have said only that the threat was posted online in some form.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. State Department worker and former copy editor at the Knoxville News Sentinel is recovering in the U.S. after she was wounded in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

The News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/XKyWo7 ) that Kelly Hunt was one of a group on a goodwill mission to deliver textbooks to students at a school on April 6 when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into their convoy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI says suspicious letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker are related and are both postmarked out of Memphis, Tenn., dated April 8.

The FBI says the substance in both letters have preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a potentially fatal poison.

In an intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI says the letters both say: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both letters are signed, "I am KC and I approve this message.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An FBI spokesman says agents have locked down the headquarters of the truck stop business owned by the family of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

FBI spokesman Marshall Stone says the lockdown is part of an ongoing investigation but wouldn't say what agents were doing inside the Knoxville building Monday.

Pilot Flying J spokeswoman Lauren Christ says the company does not know why FBI officials closed the office, but officials are cooperating.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Officials with the Tennessee Department of Children's Service are unveiling a reorganization of the troubled child welfare agency.

Interim Commissioner Jim Henry has scheduled a news conference on Monday afternoon to announce changes that will address problems with child safety, health and programming.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — State lawmakers trying to wrap up the General Assembly this month are hoping to push through two key education proposals.

One measure would create a state panel to authorize charter schools for five Tennessee counties and the other seeks to clear the way for cities to begin forming municipal school systems.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A proposal that would dock the welfare payments of Tennessee parents whose children fail in school is dead.

After about a 40-minute debate on the Senate floor Thursday, Republican Sen. Sponsor Stacey Campfield decided to pull the bill so it can be studied over the summer.

Both Republicans and Democrats expressed concern about the legislation, which sought to cut Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits by 30 percent if a child fails to advance to the next grade.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A House committee has approved a measure linking welfare benefits to student performance a day after Gov. Haslam expressed serious reservations about the measure.

The House Health Committee Wednesday voted to advance the bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Vance Dennis of Savannah.

The measure would cut a family’s welfare benefits if a child fails to "maintain satisfactory academic progress."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris says that lawmakers will either have to approve Gov. Bill Haslam's approach to a school voucher program in Tennessee or face the measure being withdrawn entirely.

The Collierville Republican told reporters on Tuesday that he perceives a growing level of comfort with Haslam's more measured approach to the bill that would supply a limited number of parents of children in the state's worst schools with public money to pay for a private education.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A proposal to seal Tennessee's handgun carry permit records from public scrutiny is headed for a full Senate vote.

The measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and is headed for a vote by the full Senate. The companion bill was approved 84-10 in the House last month.

The bill blocking access to the entire database of handgun carry permit holders no longer includes loopholes for political or lobbying groups that was included in a previous version of the measure.