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Associated Press NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Republican Party "welcomed" Michelle Obama's visit for a fundraiser Thursday with an online video that takes the Democratic presidential front-runner's wife to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic. Obama was campaigning in Wisconsin last February for her husband, Barack Obama, when she said: "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country." The four-minute video posted on YouTube is built around the remark, replaying it six times and interspersing it with commentary by Tennesseans, identified mostly by their first names, on why they are proud of America....

The Tennessee Republican Party "welcomed" Michelle Obama's visit for a fundraiser Thursday night with an online video that takes the Democratic presidential front-runner's wife to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic. Michelle Obama was campaigning in Wisconsin last February for her husband, Barack Obama, when she said: "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country." The four-minute video posted on YouTube is built around the remark, replaying it six times and interspersing it with commentary by Tennesseans, identified mostly by their first names, on why they are proud of America. Michelle Obama...

Wearing a button-sized hidden camera in his shirt and a recorder taped to his waist, political consultant Joe Cooper passed $100 bills to then-city councilman Edmund Ford Sr. in 2006 while seeking approval for a development project. On the tapes presented Wednesday to a federal court jury, Cooper refers to Ford as "the Godfather" and "the master" and encourages him to "work your magic and just make sure it happens." Testifying as the government's key witness in Ford's extortion and bribery trial, Cooper explained how he regularly got such issues approved by the council for well-heeled developers who employed him....

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A Nashville, Tennessee, 911 operator has been fired after he was recorded saying that he didn't "give a s---" about what happened to a woman who had just called to report her ex-boyfriend was threatening her. Emergency Communications Center spokeswoman Amanda Sluss said Wednesday that Frank Roth was in training during the February incident and was fired a month later. Roth made the comments after promising police would arrive soon for a woman who called saying her ex-boyfriend held her at knifepoint and later was threatening her. After hanging up with her but while still being...

The FBI called it Operation Main Street Sweeper, a relatively short undercover investigation that yielded several indictments, three guilty pleas to date and one memorable quote. After allegedly accepting a $1,900 bribe in 2006 to line up votes to repeal a billboard moratorium, then-City Councilman Edmund Ford Sr. pocketed the money and confidently declared on a secretly recorded videotape: "I'll drum up seven or make somebody walk out." The strength of the government's case against Ford will be tested this week in a trial before U.S. Dist. Court Judge Samuel Mays Jr. Jury selection from a pool of 105 citizens...

NASHVILLE — The prospect of lucrative buyout packages is leading some state employees to put their retirement plans on hold. The Associated Press has found that Gov. Phil Bredesen’s plan to try to entice about 2,000 state employees to volunteer for buyout packages has caused some workers who had notified the state of their imminent retirement to reconsider. Bredesen, a Democrat, last week announced the plan to eliminate about 5 percent of the state work force as part of his efforts to balance the budget amid the state’s deteriorating revenue picture. The governor was scheduled to lay out details about...

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. - , an influential gospel singer and songwriter, died early Sunday when her tour bus ran off the highway and struck an embankment. She was 74. Seven other people on the bus were injured in the wreck about two miles east of Mount Vernon on Interstate 44, the Missouri Highway Patrol said. They were hospitalized in Springfield with moderate to severe injuries, according to the patrol. It was unclear whether the crash was related to the severe storms and tornadoes that hit the region on Saturday. Storms also swept through the area later in the night, according...

A video posted on YouTube.com is causing a lot of concern among Memphis City School parents. Now were trying to find solutions. The clip labeled, "Mitchell High School Memphis ... Rape Dat Ho," was posted last month. It was flagged as offensive then taken down, but not before News Channel 3 recorded the clip on tape. The images are disturbing. They are graphic and hard to watch. It shows young men and women engaging in what one parent described as "sex with clothes on." We knew the video would get a strong reaction. We aired the video Monday to expose...

Tornado blows vehicles off highway in N. Carolina, kills 1 By JAY REEVES – 3 hours ago A damaged vehicle sits in the Mississippi Department of Transportation parking lot surrounded by twisted metal after a line of sever weather moved through the area Thursday, May 8, 2008, in Tupelo Miss. A number of northeast Mississippi counties and portions of northwest Alabama were under tornado watches or warnings until midafternoon Thursday. (AP Photo/Ryan Moore) Mississippi Department of Transportation road crews work to clear downed trees and power lines from streets in Tupelo Miss. after a line of sever weather moved through...

Eddy Arnold, whose long career in country included 27 number 1 hits in a recording career spanning 6 decades and membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame, died this morning at 89 in Tennessee. Arnold, known as The Tennessee Plowboy, was part of the breed of country singers who saw the genre swing a bit from more rural and folk sounds to pop-influenced music. Arnold was born in Henderson, Tenn. May 15, 1918 to a farming family. He was interested in music at an early age with a cousin lending him a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar. Growing up, he...

“Diplomacy without force is like music without instruments.” http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20080508/48227ac0_3ca6_155262008050828422566 Biographer: Country superstar Eddy Arnold dies at 89 Thursday, May 8, 2008 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday. Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography "Eddy Arnold: I'll Hold You in My Heart." His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday. Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography "Eddy Arnold: I'll Hold You in My Heart." His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip. Arnold's vocals on songs like the 1965 "Make the World Go Away,"...

. . .See no evil -- House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has found the perfect solution to the legislature’s sleazy ethics. He’s covering his eyes.On the day former Sen. John Ford entered federal prison for taking bribes in the “Tennessee Waltz” scandal, House Democrats killed a bill to revoke state health insurance benefits for lawmakers convicted of felonies involving their office.Sen. Charles Curtiss, the bill’s sponsor, said, “In my mind, we ought to be held to a higher standard.” But apparently not in Naifeh’s mind.Later, the mighty speaker dismissed the possibility that killing the bill hurts Democrats’ public image. He didn’t...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Concerns that realistic-looking toy weapons are confusing police and threatening safety have led 15 states to try going beyond gun control and cracking down on fake firearms.

Memphis, TN - Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union say Daphne Beasley, the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School in South Memphis, went way beyond her role as educator. The ACLU says in September 2007, Beasley asked her staff to give her the names of students who were couples, heterosexual and homosexual, because she wanted to keep an eye on them to cut down on public displays of affection. She's accused of publicly posting the names of those students, including two boys, Andrew and Nicholas, who had just started dating. The ACLU says that in doing...

The Supreme Court's approval of the country's strictest election standards doesn't mean every state should adopt them - The U.S. Supreme Court stamped its approval this week on Indiana's decision to require voters to show photo identification at the polls. Should Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas get in line? Not necessarily. State lawmakers should always be concerned about the integrity of the ballot, decide what can reasonably and fairly be expected of voters and legislate accordingly. But there is no federal mandate to adopt the photo ID, a solution that still seems to be in search of a problem. In his...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker today accused Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of playing politics by refusing to allow the confirmation of two nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors. Alexander, a Maryville Republican, chided Reid during a speech on the Senate floor for what he called "partisan, playpen politics." Alexander also released a letter from Reid in which he said could not support the nominees - Susan Richardson Williams of Knoxville and Bishop William H. Graves of Memphis - because of "the inadequacy of bipartisan representation" on the board. Reid noted that the...

Today, I stood outside our county courthouse, in Bradley County, Tennessee, from 9-3 PM holding a sign which read.. ILLEGAL ALIENS GO HOME As I did last year, I acknowledged the comments of the Americans with thanks, and tried to ignore the illegal alien enablers. The hundreds of American passers-by honked, waved and gave me "thumbs up". The encouraging words and thanks are worth the hours of standing in the sun, and getting odd looks, in a town that does not protest. One of the best comments came from a well educated, sharp looking American, who told me that he...

The first defendants from the April 16 immigration raid at the local Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plant appeared before Federal Magistrate Susan Kerr Lee on Tuesday. She ordered that all five of the men, who are citizens of Guatemala, continued to be detained. They are all represented by the federal defender's office. One man faces up to 10 years in federal prison, while those with only illegal re-entry charges face up to two years. Roberto Gabriel-Ramirez, 40, said he has a third-grade education. He is charged with illegal re-entry into the country and use of a fraudulent Social Security card....

Michael Hooks Jr. has been ordered to report to a federal prison facility in Mississippi in two weeks to serve his 30-day sentence for fraud. Hooks, 33, pleaded guilty in January to accepting $1,500 in fees for consulting work at Juvenile Court in 2001 for work he did not do. The small-scale scam led to a wide-reaching public corruption investigation dubbed the Tennessee Waltz that resulted in convictions of nearly a dozen elected officials going to prison. Among them was his father, Michael Hooks Sr., a former Shelby County commissioner who is serving a 26-month federal prison sentence in Alabama...

Immigrants must prove they're here legally and have the right to work in the United States before they receive low-cost homes through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis, the nonprofit organization has decided. The organization's board of directors voted to adopt the rules this month, executive director Dwayne Spencer said Tuesday. The decision wasn't based on concern about community reaction, he said. "I think after simply delving into the subject matter ourselves, we realized it was the most responsible thing to do," he said. The action ends uncertainty over Habitat's approach to the area's growing Hispanic population. Spencer said Habitat...

NORFOLKA Guatemalan national made it easy for illegal immigrants on the Eastern Shore to drive, according to the FBI. The FBI arrested Felipe Jesus Mazariegos-Perez at his home Tuesday on federal charges of buying hundreds of Tennessee and Mississippi license plates and car titles and selling them to immigrants who cannot prove their residency, as Virginia requires.The FBI raided Mazariegos-Perez's home in Nelsonia, Accomack County, on Tuesday morning, looking for the out-of-state plates and titles. He was arrested and taken into U.S. District Court that afternoon, where a magistrate ordered him jailed pending a bond hearing Thursday.Mazariegos-Perez, speaking through an...

Former state senator John Ford was assigned to maintenance duty today at the federal prison in Louisiana where he is serving a 5-year prison sentence for bribery. “He will be temporarily assigned to assist the dorm orderlies with sanitation in the dorms,” said Karen Million, spokesman for the Federal Prison Camp at Pollock, La. “After we have a chance to assess his skills, we may assign him to a different job assignment.” Ford, 65, who reported to the camp Monday afternoon, was convicted last year of taking $55,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents in the Tennessee Waltz investigation into...

Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier today issued a ruling barring Knoxville attorney Herbert S. Moncier from practicing law in any federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee. Collier also reprimanded Moncier for remarks made about "opposing counsel." Moncier's courtroom opponent, in the case before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer that landed him in front of Collier, is Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith, but it was not immediately clear if it was Smith to whom Collier was referring. Collier issued an 80-page ruling setting out his reasoning. The order states that Moncier will be under "active suspension" for five...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- There was a deadly gunfight at a liquor store in Inglewood Saturday night. An armed robbery suspect was gunned down, after trying to rob the place. But it wasn't a police officer who took action.None of the clerks in Sinkers Wine and Spirits had a gun to protect themselves, but they said they're thankful one of their customers did.Sinkers Wine and Spirits lost some of their merchandise on Saturday night, but Clifford Baxter is hardly upset. He's just happy to have survived the gunfight that took place in his store over the weekend when two armed men...

5 1/2-year sentence is result of bribes taken in Tennessee Waltz sting - MEMPHIS - The Rolex watches, fancy suits and plush hotels are all things of the past for former state Sen. John Ford.Ford, 65, reported Monday to a federal prison camp in Louisiana to begin a 5 1/2-year sentence for taking $55,000 in bribes during the FBI's statewide corruption sting called Tennessee Waltz.Once one of the state's most powerful lawmakers, Ford was known as a flashy dresser with a taste for fine dining and expensive hotels.At the prison camp, he will have half of a double bunk in...

Proposed Amendment Would Allow Tennessee to Ban Partial-Birth Abortion House rules must be suspended by 2/3 of members for the majority to get a fair vote. About a week ago I sent you an urgent message asking you to contact members of the Tennessee House to urge their support for SJR 127. It is the proposed constitutional amendment that will allow Tennessee to pass a Constitutionally sound ban on partial-birth abortion. I just wanted to give you a friendly reminder that there is still time to act. And, in fact, your action now may be more important than before. (I'll...

The first defendants from the April 16 immigration raid at the local Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plant will be in Federal Court in Chattanooga on Tuesday. They are due to appear at 2 p.m. before Magistrate Susan Kerr Lee for hearings on whether they should continue to be detained. They include: -Jose Luis Ramirez-Vasquez Authorities say he is an alien who was previously deported and came back into the U.S. at Lukenville, Ariz. -Alfred Gabriel-Torres (also known as Jaime Hernandez) He is charged with using an invalid Social Security card for citizenship purposes -Roberto Gabriel-Ramirez Officials said he was deported...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The father of TV comic Cheri Oteri was stabbed to death and a country songwriter has been arrested, police said Monday. Richard William Fagan, 61, had been charged with criminal homicide in the Saturday night death of 69-year-old Gaetano Thomas Oteri, police said. Authorities said the victim's daughter, who was on the cast of "Saturday Night Live," had been told of her father's death. Police say Fagan and the victim were roommates. Police said Fagan had been arrested Saturday night on a charge of driving under the influence, and shortly after he posted bail on Sunday a...

Former state senator John Ford entered the federal prison camp at Pollock, La., at 1:40 p.m. today. Ford, who was convicted last year of accepting $55,000 in bribes as a state legislator, is serving a 5-year at the prison, which is about 400 miles from Memphis. Prison spokesman Karen Million said Ford, prisoner No. 20286-076, will receive an orientation and a medical screening today and will be given a work assignment on Tuesday. Ford was convicted as part of an FBI undercover sting dubbed Operation Tennessee Waltz. He is the 10th defendant to be sent to prison. Two others received...

MEMPHIS, TN - Former State Senator John Ford is scheduled to report to federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana on Monday, April 28, 2008. Ford was convicted in April 2007 on bribery charges; he took more than $55,000 to influence votes in the Tennessee legislature. Ford was indicted during an FBI undercover operation, "Operation Tennessee Waltz," which worked to expose public corruption. The United States Penitentiary in Pollock is a high-security facility in central Louisiana, which houses male offender. A satellite prison camp located next to the main facility houses minimum security offenders. The prison is surrounded by the Kisatchie National...

Its political ranks have thinned, but is there a new crop ahead? In videotaped evidence played at his Tennessee Waltz corruption trial, former state senator John Ford once bragged that he was "the man who makes the deals." For many years, he was also the public face of the Ford family to many Mid-Southerners, a larger-than-life character who had the political skills to back up his overbearing personality. With John Ford scheduled to report to prison Monday, he'll be leaving behind a family facing uncertain political prospects. Harold Ford Sr. and Harold Ford Jr., who represented Tennessee's Ninth Congressional District...

Aura Izarra, a Guatemala native with two small children who is pregnant with a third, may face deportation after her arrest at the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant here last week. “This whole week has been horrible,” Mrs. Izarra, who was among 36 detainees released with an ankle-bracelet monitor, said tonight in Spanish. “I keep thinking of what’s going to happen to my children and my husband who depend on my care.” Mrs. Izarra was among about 200 people who attended a community forum tonight at the St. Andrew’s Center to find out more about rights and legal options after...

SWEETWATER, Tenn. — A routine traffic stop on Interstate 75 late Wednesday netted the Monroe County Sheriff’s department a vanload of suspected illegal aliens, authorities said. Monroe County drug interdiction officer B.J. Johnson said in a police report that he stopped a large Ford window van near mile marker 60 on suspicion of driving under the influence. In a news release, Monroe County Detective Jennifer Bledsoe said neither the driver nor passenger of the van possessed a legal driver’s license. Then Officer Johnson discovered 15 Hispanic people riding in the back of the van, none with valid identification cards, she...

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-OH, blamed labor unions and partisan politics for a U.S. House vote this week rejecting an amendment that could have kept the Delta Queen riverboat from having to phase out its overnight cruise packages. The historic riverboat has been operating with a special Congressional exemption from the federal Safety at Sea Act since 1968, an exemption that has been renewed eight times. The safety act bans the use of wooden vessels for overnight cruises. Backers of the exemption claim the Delta Queen deserves special treatment because of its historical significance and recently upgraded fire-safety systems. With...

(CNSNews.com) - Posters reading, "Be Cool... Don't Let Guns Rule" are going up in all public schools in Hamilton County, Tenn., which includes the Chattanooga metropolitan area. "The initiative will aid in keeping guns out of schools, thus allowing students and teachers to focus on learning," the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a news release. The ATF says as students walk their school hallways, they will see the posters, which promise anonymity to those who call Crime Stoppers to report what they see or hear. "The time period between preventing an act of violence and...

Volkswagen AG said Wednesday it has narrowed its list of states competing for a potential U.S. production facility to Alabama, Michigan and Tennessee. The German automaker said it was still evaluating whether to build a new plant in the United States and would make a final decision this summer. "We reviewed many excellent sites and the process to narrow down the locations was not an easy one. We look forward to continuing to work with the states of Alabama, Michigan and Tennessee as the evaluation moves forward," said Stefan Jacoby, Volkswagen Group of America's president and chief executive.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s defeat in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the Democrats have a huge problem. On the one hand, they have a front-runner who hasn’t won a single one of the major primary states other than his own, who’s a neophyte on the national scene, and who has enormous difficulties attracting the white, non–college educated voters he needs to win. On the other, there’s Hillary Clinton — a candidate who has greatly diminished her stature on the campaign trail, who faces huge liabilities of her own (in part because of her gender and in part because of Clinton...

APRIL 23--The parents of a 21-year-old soldier killed in Iraq are suing an online retailer for including their son's name on antiwar t-shirts that list the names of thousands of military personnel killed in the war. In a $10 million federal lawsuit, Michael and Robin Read allege that the manufacturer of the shirts is using their son Brandon's name in a commercial venture without their permission. The Reads's complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Greeneville, Tennessee; it names Dan Frazier and his firm Lifeweaver, LLC as defendants. While the lawsuit...

If you notice students sporting empty holsters on the University of Tennessee campus today, it's likely the sign of a protest, not a lost handgun. The students wearing the empty holsters are protesting state laws and campus policies that prohibit concealed handgun carry license holders from carrying on campus, said Nathan Robinson, a UT senior. The protest is a peaceful, nationwide protest by a nonpartisan organization called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, he said. By Robinson's description, it'll be a quiet affair. Students won't be carrying signs or banners, nor will they attempt to "disturb the peace." "It's a...

An early-morning shooting at a Columbia apartment complex Saturday heightened fears of continued violence as law enforcement showed its presence in Maury County this weekend. Columbia police said a man was wounded at Parkview Manor Apartments early Saturday morning, but additional details were not available. Maury County citizens are on edge in the wake of a double homicide and the burial of the victims Friday. Balloons popping at a birthday party prompted scanner traffic of shots being fired Saturday afternoon, and one man hurt his hand when he ran away from what he thought were gunshots at Zaxby’s Restaurant later...

One the eve of the first anniversary of Davidson County’s 287(g) immigration enforcement program, state and local officials are making an effort to bring an immigration judge to the county. The Sheriff’s Office announced at a press conference yesterday it would process 3,000 illegal immigrants by April through the program that allows local law enforcement to check immigration status and begin the process of deportation. However, the process is lengthy and many immigrants pinpointed for removal have to be processed through a judge in Memphis or Oakdale, La., which could take up to six weeks for a bond hearing, according...

The arrests of 100 foreign workers at a Chattanooga poultry plant came swiftly Wednesday morning, but it could be months before they are sent home. “Time in the detention facility can be anything from weeks to months,” said Robert Divine, Chattanooga-based chairman of the immigration group for the Baker Donelson law firm. “It depends on the availability of a judge, and the need to get the person where there is a judge, Atlanta or Memphis.” Most foreigners arrested this week in Chattanooga will have to appear before a U.S. Immigration Court judge. The deportation process also can drag because U.S....

Anxious phone calls poured in early Wednesday morning. Friends and relatives of the morning-shift workers at Pilgrim’s Pride chicken plants called Esteban and Netchie Lopez, co-owners of the Latin American Consulting Co., even before the immigration sweep started at 8:15 a.m. “There are many families that already knew that at any moment there would be raids,” Mr. Lopez said in Spanish. Tension and fear burned through Chattanooga’s immigrant community Wednesday after federal agents arrested more than 100 people at the downtown Pilgrim’s Pride plants. One second-shift worker at the company, worried that his aunt was caught in the raid, called...

While Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton was preparing to call for a 17 percent hike in city property taxes, he had a little tax problem of his own: unpaid city and county property taxes. This morning, Herenton paid $5,768 in Shelby County property taxes on his home at 5281 Horn Lake. They were due Feb . 29. The amount paid this morning included $168.02 in interest and penalties. City taxes on a property owned by Herenton Investment Co. at 270 Dubois, located in the Banneker Estates subdivision that Herenton is developing and where he lives, were paid yesterday. As of Wednesday,...

The District has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation, according to a report that says jails nationwide are bursting at the seams even though crime is nearly as low as it has been in 30 years. The report by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based group that focuses on what it considers an over-reliance on incarceration... In the District, 3,214 inmates are under city control at the D.C. jail and contract facilities. That is 553 people per 100,000 residents. Only Philadelphia and two Tennessee counties, Davidson and Shelby, lock up residents at a higher rate. The numbers do not...

After a tough day of testing on Wednesday, some Hamilton County Schools students got off their buses to find an even more stressful situation at home: Their parents were nowhere to be found. Tennessee and local officials still are assessing the needs of the children, who they say are among those most profoundly affected by Wednesday’s sweeping federal immigration raid at Chattanooga’s Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plants. “There are a lot of families really hurting,” said Mike Feely, executive director of the St. Andrew’s Center, a resource for the city’s multi-cultural communities. “If you have that many moms and dads arrested,...

The parents of a young couple brutally murdered after a January 2007 carjacking expressed relief this afternoon, while the attorney for Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd said he would appeal the verdict of a federal jury that found Boyd guilty of being an accessory to the carjacking. "One down. Four to go," said Gary Christian, father of Channon Christian, referring to the four suspects who face trials in state court for the killings of Channon, then 21, and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Christopher Newsom. "We do this for Channon," said Channon's mother, Deena. "We've been through the worst. We and the Newsoms...

An illegal immigrant investigation involving smuggling is underway in Atlanta and it involves at least one business in Cleveland. The federal government has indicted seven people and more could be coming. The government indicted the people who supplied what it calls an illegal labor pool and smuggled these workers through several states. Next, it may target the companies that employed them. And one business is in Cleveland. The government charges four people in the Atlanta area moved illegal workers across the eastern United States for a fee. The indictment says Hong Mei Li, also known as "Jenny Li" arranged last...

Workers from the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in downtown Chattanooga are being interviewed at a local warehouse to determine if they will be face charges, officials said. Immigration agents interviewed the employees today as part of a yearlong, multi-state investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said. The agents detained about 100 workers at two Chattanooga plants, Suana Betancourt, Pilgrim’s Pride chaplain, said. “Another chaplain of the plant called me this morning to tell me about what was happening,” she said, “We went there right away to try to calm everyone down because they were afraid immigration was...