Some time back in 2000 when Karl Rove was creating whisper campaigns about him fathering the Bangladeshi orphan he adopted, McCain must have pledged that he would climb inside his own private Trojan horse and sabotage Rove’s machine. He cozied ...

If ACORN drops voter registration forms on the courthouse lawn, will fraudulent votes sprout? Nutty names like Mickey Mouse never make the rolls, but what about less obvious forgeries? Fake names show up on forms mostly because some schmoe getting ...

Have you heard about the last-minute addition to the Knox County ballot? The Volunteer-shaded petitions got enough signatures to become referenda. When you show up to vote for president, radical changes to the structure of county government will greet you ...

In July, former Sen. Phil Gramm said our country was in a “mental recession.” He was more correct than anyone realized. The remark got him booted from Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, but subsequent events kept Gramm in the news. ...

Last week’s gas-price spike was a glimpse at the future. After Katrina, gas sold at $3.50 per gallon until the supply chain was restored. The price settled back toward $2.50, but earlier this year Katrina’s prediction came true. How long ...

When Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he set off a revolution in American sports. In the decades since, black players, players from Latin America, and players from Japan have achieved star status. “World Series” ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall: Incoming County Law Director Bill Lockett announced Sunday on Tennessee This Week that his interpretation of the Sunshine Law and the Fansler injunction will be different from that of outgoing John Owings. This is good ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall: One Unitarian parent trying to explain the inexplicable to her child described the shooter’s desperation in the face of unemployment and termination of his food stamps. “He should have just come to our church, we ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall: Another election is upon us, and in Knox County, the first true County Commission since 2002 will be assembled, kicking off the term-limits era voters thought they started in 1996. In Blount County, a circuit-court ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall: Since the people behind the orange-and-white petition drive can’t decide what to call themselves, I am going to defer to Knox County Law Director John Owings, who malapropriately called them “Knox One Petition” at the ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall: A meeting at the Burlington Library on June 12 should have been dull enough to drive spiders from the room. An advisory committee was deciding how to decide to change something, but the room was ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall: Confusion has ruled since a citizen group unleashed nine proposed charter amendments, but last week a little clarity blew in. The charter-reform movement that arose from the Knox County-One Question survey submitted formal petitions to ...

Sideways Glance by Rikki Hall At a recent meeting in Fountain City, Mayor Bill Haslam (as noted by the Shopper News’ Jake Mabe) told the crowd one of the lessons of being mayor has been “forget all that Republican and ...

Sideways Glance: Rep. Jimmy Duncan thinks environmentalists are driving up gas prices. Most major environmental laws were passed 30 and 40 years ago. Since then, erosions have outpaced advances in water law and extinction prevention. Adequate funding for compliance has ...

Sideways Glance: Sen. Lamar Alexander has a chance to be a hero remembered for generations. In the U.S. Senate, there are a number of bills that would regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but they keep falling ...