The Woman Behind the Curtain: Susan Richardson Williams

Long before Tennessee had its first female United States Senator, before it had its first female Speaker of the House, before the national arms race to recruit female candidates for public office, Susan Richardson Williams was shattering glass ceilings in Volunteer State politics. She has attended nine Republican National Conventions. She was the first woman …

Josh Heupel – Trick or Treat?

It’s Halloween weekend. Last night the University of Tennessee’s Fort Sanders neighborhood was undoubtedly buzzing with ghosts, vampires and Ted Lassos hustling from one house party to the next. For a long time, the product on the football field at the university has been much scarier than any Stephen King novel. The results so far …

Fore and Out: Return of Lane Kiffin

The word uniformly being used across media to describe last night’s football game is “bizarre.” Lane Kiffin made his triumphant return to Knoxville as a head coach, a decade after abandoning us in the pit of despair, and it did not disappoint. If you don’t think he will have that golf ball in a shadow …

“The Midnight Raid” – How Richard Krieg Exposed Lakeshore Hospital

Patients at Eastern State Mental Health Hospital await medication. (Credit KNS) On Jan. 26 1971 the biggest news across the country was the murder conviction of hippy cult leader Charles Manson and his gang of drug induced sycophants, but not in sleepy little Knoxville, Tennessee. “You bet your life there will be an investigation.” - …

The Right Hand Man: Bob Griffitts

Bob Griffitts first caught the political bug in the late 1950s. The Greenback, Tennessee native had an uncle who served as a Loudon County Commissioner and later as the Highway Superintendent. In those days, a local roads commissioner was an extremely powerful man, and Bob’s uncle began grooming him for a foray into politics, introducing …

The Fighter: Victor Ashe

“Why do you always carry $2 bills?” I ask Victor Ashe as he digs a tip out of his wallet for the waitress at his favorite local haunt. He stares back at me over the spectacles that sit upon his nose as he reads. “Well because they’re better than $1 bills,” he says whimsically, grinning …

The Top 10 Male Country Artists of All-Time

Anytime someone makes a top 10 list of any kind, let alone one ranking something as subjective as musical success, there is a lot of disagreement. This is not a list of the most commercially successful acts or the most talented songwriters. Those lists would look entirely different. This is a list of who made …

The Politico: Richard Bean

At nearly any Knox County political function over the last 60 years, one wouldn’t have to look far to find Richard L. Bean. I first met Bean in my days campaigning with then Mayor Tim Burchett. Bean, always found in his signature open-collar white dress shirt, is soft spoken, unassuming and very comfortable in his …

Operation Tennessee Waltz

"You're talking to a guy who makes deals." The unscrupulous state senator John Ford drawled to executives from E-cycle Management, an electronics equipment recycling company in pursuit of lucrative state contracts and legislation. Ford let the executives know at a Miami meeting in April of 2004 that if they wanted the influence and assistance of …

Ranking potential head coaching hires for the Vols

The old man down the street has a spring in his step. Your buddies are blowing up your phone 24/7. John in the office down the hall is typing and scrolling away a little more ferociously. Once again, it's coaching search time in Tennessee. Without an athletic director in place, any and all speculation is …