Although media reports generally have characterized the Bill Haslam inaugural festivities as low-key and frugal (click here and here for those stories), the night definitely provided ample opportunity for fun.
Haslam had toured the state during the prior week meeting citizens in events that were completely free of charge. In Nashville on inauguration night, a series [...]

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I had only been to one inauguration before this weekend: Bill Clinton’s. It wasn’t that much fun. We tromped around in the cold rain only to end up packed into a warehouse-like space where the closest we got to food or drink was hearing a rumor that there was some.
Then the Clintons came in, [...]

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• “He said all the right things.”
• “He seems like a good guy. And he’s from UT!”
• “He doesn’t seem like a loose cannon!”
Those were some of the comments heard in the crowd of nearly 300 business people gathered at the Knoxville Convention Center Monday to welcome the new University of Tennessee president, Joe DiPietro.
The [...]

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I took a reporter to Regas a while back and was flabbergasted when he said he’d never been there before. I don’t think I could have had a reporting or a business career if it had not been for Regas Restaurant. I’m only exaggerating a little.
In the 1980s, when I was a reporter for the [...]

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The old saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” could not apply more aptly to anyone than it does to Evelyn Hazen. Born into a wealthy Knoxville family in 1899, Hazen was the first woman to file suit against a former lover for breach of promise to marry. And she won the suit [...]

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I wondered if I were the only one thinking it.
Then I heard the woman beside me almost whisper it under her breath as she watched Bill Haslam on the TV monitor delivering his acceptance speech Tuesday night.
“Do we need to start getting used to saying, ‘Haslam for President?’” she asked.
A veteran political reporter I knew [...]

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Ten thousand guests. Eleven hundred pounds of barbecued pork. Two thousand pounds of fried chicken.
Bluegrass music. Patriotic music. Old rock-and-roll. New rock-and-roll. And the Pride of the Southland Marching Band.
Face painting. Balloon animals. A magician. Popcorn and ice cream.
And more politicians than you can shake the proverbial stick at!
If there were anything missing from the Duncan [...]

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You know I really like Con Hunley if I’m willing to go to the Tennessee Valley Fair to see him! I haven’t been to the fair since, well, the last time Con Hunley played there!
I can’t for the life of me figure out why he’s not on WIVK every time I turn on the radio. [...]

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In the morning last Saturday, I witnessed scores of volunteers of all races come together in a huge event to help the less fortunate — also of all races.
In the afternoon, I stood on Market Square and watched hate mongers shout “White Power!” while surrounded by police and counter-protesters.
The contrast could not have been more [...]

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I don’t know why I was worried, but I was. I guess it’s because I’ve seen the electorate do so many wrong-headed things (as they did in at least one case in Knox County last night — but that’s not my story here).
A group of us braved literally blinding rain storms and — after stops at several [...]

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