Recently, I saw a post on Facebook asking, “What’s one thing you’ve done that you’ll never do again?” more

It was 1979, and I was the guest song leader for a church’s summer revival (although it was called “a gospel meeting” because “revival” sounded too much like a rival religious group). more

10 Years Ago — Carla Craddock slides safely for an RBI triple against the Lady Bulldogs. *Carroll County coordinated a health mock crash for high schoolers. *Jason Martin and Brittany Washburn announced their engagement. more

Last week, much to my chagrin, I was not only surprised by the story of Lem Motlow but also by the fact that I have never written about one of Tennessee’s most prolific sons, Jack Daniel. I’m not one to shy away from occasional libations, especially one of the brown spirit nature. So this week, it is a fine time to devote a little ink to the whiskey maker. more

I thought this writing business for me was over forever…and then Pam Collins died. more

10 Years Ago — The Huntington Cross Country Team Partnered with the Baptist Memorial Hospital to put on a 5k Rabbit Color run. more

We were a motley looking crew. Our foreman, Louis, was built like a fire hydrant dressed in overalls with an ever-present plug of home-grown chewing tobacco in his cheek. He was in charge of the tar wagon, mainly because he was the only one living who knew how to operate the ancient machine. more

This one comes courtesy from historian and author Bill Carey. more

Operation Tennessee Waltz was a sting operation set up by federal and state law enforcement agents, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The operation led to the arrest of seven Tennessee state lawmakers and two men identified as “bagmen” in the indictment on the morning of May 26, 2005, on bribery charges. more

My father grew up the son of a sharecropper working a farm with mules during the Great Depression. That experience greatly influenced how he raised me and my siblings. One thing we were taught was to always “turn out that light!” when leaving a room. It didn’t matter if we were just going to the bathroom and would be right back, we were still supposed to turn out the light. more

10 Years Ago — McKenzie United Neighbors hosted Second Harvest Mobile Pantry at First Baptist Church and served over 250 needy families. more

10 YEARS AGO — Mitchell Lunn broke his leg when stealing third in a game against Clarksburg. *Gleason Bulldog Chase Ezell got a two-run homer against Central. more

Politics is a dirty business and at times it resembles a soap opera. Naturally, there are scandals of various natures that present themselves at every level. I’m always interested in a good political scandal which is one reason I wrote about Ray Blanton last year. more

The year was 1979. My young wife and I decided we would recapture a memory from our dating years in the early 70’s and return to the bowling alley we’d frequented back then. more

$144 Million, that’s how much money could/will leave Tennessee public schools and flow into the pockets of private (for-profit) schools within the first year of the school voucher program, the money will “follow the student.” According to Governor Bill Lee’s proposal, the state will pay up to $7,000 annually per student that has the means and desire to attend a private school instead of the public school in their area. more

An often quoted phrase related to open government is one by Louis Brandeis, an attorney and associate justice on the Supreme Court whose work and writings spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. more

Under the expanded multi-million dollar program, students that already attend private schools could receive $7,000 of tax-payer dollars towards their tuition. That only makes sense to the parents of private schooled students. It will do nothing but hurt public schools. more

You can call it luck. Or blessed. Or God’s divine intervention. I’m not smart enough to understand half of the stuff that makes up life as we know it. Maybe I owe it all to the Domestic Egg Company. more

As baseball gears for another season. I just happened to come across an article saying Tennessee had a professional baseball team. My curiosity got the best of me, and I naturally clicked on the link expecting to be thoroughly disappointed. Well, I was wrong, what a shock. more

Recently, The Banner has received feedback that the point size of the text in the newspaper is too small and too hard to read. So, how’s this? I increased the point size and changed the typeface to one seemingly more readable, but that may be up for debate. Truthfully, it has been on my list of things to do this year, to update the look of the newspaper and upsize the text at least one point for those struggling to read it at its former size. more