LAFAYETTE, Tenn. — Daybreak revealed a battered landscape across the South on Wednesday, as crews searching communities hit by a violent line of tornadoes fought through downed power lines, crumpled mobile homes and snapped trees to find victims. At least 48 people were dead.The storms swept across Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas as Super Tuesday primaries were ending, ripping the roof from a shopping mall, blowing apart warehouses and crumpling a campus' dormitory buildings as students huddled inside.Seavia Dixon, whose Atkins, Ark. was shattered, stood Wednesday morning in her yard, holding muddy baby pictures of her son, who is now a 20-year-old soldier in Iraq. Only a concrete slab was left from the home.The family's brand new white pickup truck was upside-down, about 150 yards from where it was parked before the storm.

Catalytic converters targeted by North County thieves

The loss is just one in a recent rash in thefts of the costly anti-smog devices that police say are sold to scrap metal recyclers for cash.The rash of thefts began in early January, and since then, more than a dozen catalytic converters have been stolen from vehicles in North County, police said. All of the thefts target late-model Toyota trucks and sport utility vehicles, they said."They pick those because they sit higher off the ground," making it easier for thieves to crawl underneath and remove the converter, which is attached inside the exhaust pipe, Escondido police Lt. Bob Benton said.The converters are stolen for the small amounts of precious metals they contain, including platinum, rhodium and palladium, and can fetch up to $100 at scrap metal yards, authorities said.The thefts do not cause serious damage to the vehicles, but can cost victims up to $3,500 in repairs, said Jennifer Baray, assistant service manager at Toyota of Escondido.Like pilfered copper pipes and wiring, police began seeing catalytic converter thefts when the price of the metals increased, authorities said."There's always some hot valuable that's being stolen because of its scrap value," said Fiona Everett, crime analyst for the Carlsbad Police Department.Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, said there are no hard statistics on the frequency of the crime, which has grown into a nationwide problem."We started getting reports of these things early last year.

Ellen Grounds recognized with ‘Friend of the Children’ award

The Wabash County Retail Merchants Committee (RMC) outlined plans for its upcoming fundraiser basketball games during Tuesday morning's regular monthly meeting at Hogg Heaven in Mt. Carmel.The event will consist of two games - one between the "Guns" (law enforcement) and the "Hoses" (firefighters), and one between the "Books" (District 348 educators) and the "Band-Aids" (medical personnel).There will also be a third game this year, according to Event Coordinator Rod Rodriguez."We're going to call it a tournament this year because we're going to have a third game," said Rodriguez. "We're going to bracket Guns and Hoses - Books and Band-Aids, and whoever wins those ball games will play for City Champion and have bragging rights for a year."

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Panasonic looks to the future after another successful year cooling ...

Dr. Michael Loubser, Asthma and Child Care Specialist; Shaun Sullivan, General Manager, Al Futtaim Panatech; Maushum Basu, Group Product Manager, Al Futtaim Panatech; Masahisa Miyazaki, General Manager, Panasonic Marketing Middle East; Abby Thomas, Product Manager, Panasonic Marketing Middle East .

Peach Buzz

The entry titled "He may be just a cow, but Doraville mascot has whole herd of fans," and any of the comments about it.

Some cows are content to be part of the herd.