By JAMES ROMOSER, Winston-Salem Journal

At a young age, Tim Lasley began training to become a firefighter, and it's a calling he has followed his entire life.
Lasley, who is now the fire chief of the Vienna Fire Department in Pfafftown, N.C., enrolled in the state's junior-firefighter program at age 15 back in 1975.
"As soon as I was 16, I was driving a firetruck," Lasley said.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday in an interview that he regrets offending people in recent remarks in which he said that small-town Americans are "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion."