Paige Huntoon

First of all, people are not shy about taking their clothes off.

When Marcel Neergaard decided to start a petition calling for StudentsFirst—a national political action committee pursuing “transformative” school reforms—to revoke the “reformer of the year” honor it had awarded to Tennessee state Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) in April, he ...

It’s no secret that there are many places downtown that get less-than-amazing Internet service—while some buildings have perfectly fine Internet connections, others suffer from substandard speeds or don’t get broadband service at all. How can this be in the 21st ...

Last Thursday, the Metropolitan Planning Committee approved an ordinance that would allow the city to designate overlay zone districts. What are those? Paige Huntoon explains.

Aimée Classen seems most animated when talking about her work—both as an associate professor of ecosystems ecology at the University of Tennessee and as an associate editor-in-chief of the academic journal Ecological Monographs—and about the opportunities East Tennessee offers for ...

When the Tennessee Clean Water Network released its annual water-enforcement report last week, something looked odd. They collected data on the number of enforcement actions taken against groups or companies that had violated the terms of their discharge permits into ...

Tthe way Rench puts it, bluegrass, with its drummerless bands, and hip-hop, with its heavy bass beats, seem perfect for each other. Luckily, he was able to find like-minded musicians in New York’s small bluegrass community, and assembled a group ...

Ashlyn Kittrell didn’t grow up paging through Vogue or Vanity Fair. The Oak Ridge native, 20, and Maryville College sophomore came to fashion a lot like other millennial women: through the mall.

Artspace, a non-profit company that specializes in refurbishing old buildings into artists’ studios, is coming to Knoxville to see the lay of the land.

Last week Gov. Bill Haslam announced that he would not accept federal money to expand Medicaid, but he added a big qualifier. He’ll take those federal funds, all right, but only if he can work out a deal with the ...

Ashley Klappholz and Ellie Kittrell have a vision: to create a cutting-edge children’s science museum for Knoxville, which they feel is a big gap in the city’s attractions. They have formed a board and have attracted funding for feasibility studies. ...

Diane Richards, 65, wasn’t always a dog-training guru, though you’d never be able to tell by looking at her.

It’s actually going to happen: State Sen. Stacey Campfield will indeed debate comedian J. LaLonde (a former morning disc jockey at WNFZ before he moved to Brooklyn in 2011) on Sat., March 30, at 8:30 p.m. at the Square Room.

Earlier this month, Knoxville Area Transit released a set of proposed changes to its bus routes. If the proposals are approved by the Knoxville Transportation Authority later this month, many riders may find their typical routes served more frequently by ...

Jinka McLaurin, 59, looks right at home in her Bearden yarn shop Loopville. The walls are covered in looped and twisted rings of yarn in every color and shade of the rainbow, and McLaurin is wearing a lime green sweater. ...

On Monday, the Tennessee state Senate voted to expand gun rights by approving SB 142—the so-called “guns-in-cars” bill—by a vote of 28 to 5. House Speaker Beth Harwell has said the House version of the bill will probably be passed ...

The members of the local band Ergo We Play went back to school last week bearing the title Best Teen Band after winning the National Association of Music Merchants’ SchoolJam USA battle of the bands.

After the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, state Sen. Frank Niceley announced his plan to file legislation requiring either an armed resource officer or an armed staff/faculty member at every school. But just last week, state Sen. ...

Most cities have myths and tall tales that circulate and become accepted as fact—and Knoxville certainly has its own set of “truths” that people repeat and share among each other. But how factual are they? We investigate four of Knoxville’s ...

Karen Tindal recently changed jobs to become the executive director of Girls on the Run of Greater Knoxville, a chapter of the national nonprofit, which started in Charlotte, N.C., in the 1990s. The program’s mission is to show girls that ...

Jim Conant and Brian Carniello are board members of the Buddhist center, and are sitting quietly against the wall in chairs on the opposite end of the room from the altar. Essentially, that’s what Buddhism is about: finding a peaceful ...

What does Knoxville really need? Everybody’s got an opinion, as we’ve discovered each week in our What Knoxville Needs column. While some of the ideas are a bit silly (a menacing face for the Sunsphere?), others are actually quite reasonable—in ...

Pastor Jill Sizemore isn’t very tall, but she’s every bit the commanding figure an ex-lieutenant colonel should be.

Rafiq Mahdi is a striking figure. He’s tall and wears a traditional Muslim tunic that is bright white—without a speck of dirt in sight—and a white hat. But really, he’s just an everyday dad who happens to be Muslim.

For the Rev. Dr. John Butler, faith is larger than one person. It encompasses the entire community.

First Night Knoxville had taken over Market Square every New Year’s Eve since 2007, but for the first time since its inauguration, it’s not happening.

Brian Stevens is a young and exuberant would-be politician. And he’ll need every bit of that energy because he’s already begun a two-year campaign against one of the most competitive and controversial politicians in the state (and arguably in the ...

The mysterious saga of the Valarium looks like it will have a new chapter soon, when local tiki entrepreneur Daniel Leal reopens the warehouse venue as Blackstock Auditorium.

We visit Knox County's Republican and Democratic election-night parties to report from the front lines of victory and defeat.

At Mooreland Heights Elementary, Holly Briggs teaches art to kindergarteners, all the way up to fifth-graders in an arts-integrated setting—art, music, and drama are incorporated into what the kids learn in math, science, social studies, and language arts.

The Knoxville ghost-hunting scene is crowded with would-be supernatural sleuths, many inspired by the cable-TV hijinks of 'Ghost Hunters.' But why do they do it? For our special Halloween number, we go on the hunt with a local team of ...

If you’re not up for first-hand ghost hunting but still want to learn more about Knoxville’s supposed spectral history, then Laura Still is the guide for you.

After playing for the University of Tennessee from 1978-1981 (where he majored in sociology and minored in business administration), Hancock played five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs (who picked him in the first round of the 1982 draft) before ...

A couple of local artists are tired of walking through the Armstrong/Strong Alley between Market Square and the 400 block of Gay Street.

Maybe you noticed some art displayed in one of the parking lots under Interstate 40 at Magnolia Avenue and Central Street during the first University of Tennessee home football game on Sept. 8. That was the new art show Second ...

Since Laura Still moved to Knoxville at age 20, she’s been busy. She’s worked as a dental hygienist (and still temps on occasion), a retail store employee, a volunteer Sunday school teacher, a stage manager for Shakespeare on the Square, ...

It’s not easy being a Democratic candidate in East Tennessee for state or national offices. This region of the state was red before red was... well, maybe cool’s not the right word. Democrats have had a difficult time here challenging ...

After the state of Tennessee received a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind, it devised its own schools-assessment program. With its initial wave of ratings out, things look better for some of Knoxville’s problem schools, but how does ...

Natosha Carson once found solace in the chapel of the famous Minister’s Tree House that peeks above the trees of Crossville. She went there one day when she felt like her life was falling apart because of an abusive relationship. ...

This week, the University of Tennessee’s student-run radio station, WUTK 90.3 FM, is being featured on the website of mtvU, MTV’s college-focused offshoot cable network.

Almost two years ago, Sara Baker became the director of women’s advocacy and written communications at the YWCA of Knoxville. That new position includes working on projects like helping craft legislation and partnering with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to ...

In the middle of the road, sitting on a painted canvas, was Alejandro Guizar, 19. He chanted along with everyone else, even as police handcuffed him and three others before taking them to the Knox County jail.

The radio station formerly known as Jack FM is now 95.7 Power FM.

The new policy announced by the Obama Administration in June allows undocumented young adults (ages 15-30) who came to the United States as children to apply to remain in the country for two years without further deportment action being taken ...

Susanna Sutherland’s smile is as bright as her polished wooden desk is shiny. She says she’s shy, but the city’s sustainability program manager has a strong presence that easily fills her office.

As part of Metro Pulse’s ongoing discussions with local religious leaders, “Questions of Faith,” we present Knoxville’s newest rabbi: Matt Michaels at Temple Beth-El.

The pilot program created by a bill sponsored by state Sen. Becky Duncan Massey will provide two years of funding for 10 people to be treated for mental illness as outpatients each year through the Helen Ross McNabb Center.

Early voting may have already gotten underway last Friday, but there’s still a ways to go before the Aug. 2 primary election. And as we reported last week, this year’s election has a twist: redistricting.

Future Islands is something like a postpunk band that plays keyboards instead of guitars, bassist William Cashion says. Someone once described them as “Joe Cocker singing for New Order. It’s kind of an easy description,” he says.

A 2010 report from the Brookings Institution found that 85 percent of commuters here drive alone to work every day. Enter Smart Trips: an organization aiming to change this statistic. But can they really change ingrained habits with gift cards? ...