by design | Jun 6, 2022 | Columnist, Duncan
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com On my first day as judge in 1982, Gary Tulloch, then the Chief Probation Counselor for East Tennessee, told me that 98% of the defendants in felony cases came from broken homes. He would have been much more accurate...
by design | Jun 6, 2022 | Black, Columnist
By Dr. Harold A. Black blackh@knoxfocus.com haroldblackphd.com I can’t really explain why the Uvalde shootings have affected me more than other shootings including Buffalo. Maybe its because every year I deer hunt near Eagle Pass, TX (the epicenter of the illegal...
by design | Jun 5, 2022 | Columnist, Hunley, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Steve Hunley Knoxville has more subsidized housing than any other city of its size in the entire country. Yet the City of Knoxville continues to spend and talk about “affordable” housing when it means subsidized housing. City Councilwoman Amelia Parker recently...
by design | Jun 5, 2022 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Much as it will surprise many readers, there was a time – – – a very long time indeed – – – when Tennessee was almost entirely a one-party state. Elections were decided inside the Democratic primaries. The...
by design | May 31, 2022 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly The story came out of left field in late 2010 and early 2011. A man claimed to have poisoned two 130-year-old live oaks at “Toomer’s Corner” near the campus of Auburn University, to the point of coming clean on the “Paul Finebaum Show.” It was...
by design | May 31, 2022 | Columnist, Ferguson
For tho’ from out our Time and Place, The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face, When I have crost the bar. —Alfred Lord Tennyson By Dr. Jim Ferguson You may find it strange, but I begin this Memorial Day essay reflecting on poetry, especially...
