Opinion: Gloria Johnson will find the fringe is no place to be in U.S. Senate campaign in Tennessee
A Knoxville state representative is hoping to parlay her notoriety as one of the so-called "Tennessee Three" to the United States Senate in 2024.
Stories by Clint Cooper
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Opinion: Signal Mountain’s Larry Taylor flew toward danger and finally receives long-deserved Medal of Honor for his action
To generations that man-on-the-street interviews show can't name the two countries that border the United States, don't know whether the U.S. has ever had a fe…
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Opinion: Letter grade for schools will never be the final word, unless we fear measuring sticks in general
As long as there are letter grades given in schools, there will be students saying the grades don't represent how hard I worked, how hard I'm trying, what I ha…
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Opinion: Third grade students promoted after summer reading camp will have to show improvement in fourth grade or risk being held back
And now, as famed radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story ... about Tennessee's third grade reading law.
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Opinion: Doomsayers were fairly accurate about Tennessee special legislative session
Well, they can't say they didn't warn us.
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Opinion: Wamp lands Pachyderm punch, muddying a county commissioner and the commissioner’s home turf
Our dictionary definition for "pachyderm" is "a very large mammal with thick skin, especially an elephant, rhinoceros, or hippopotamus."
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Opinion: Tennessee Senate, House playing political game of chicken in special session
Perhaps in January, they'll all be on the same page, all smiles again, all ready to pass conservative measures for the people of Tennessee.
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Opinion: Sundquist often understimated in six House terms and two as governor
Don Sundquist, the two-term Tennessee Republican governor and six-term United States House member who died Sunday, was often underestimated.
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Opinion: 20 years of studies on social and economic equity in Chattanooga, but some members of City Council want yet another one. Do we really need it?
A social and economic equity study? Why not, we haven't had one in two or three weeks.
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Opinion: TVA strategically forging its own path, not waving in the wind to critics’ desires
We'll admit to somewhat of an admiration for the Tennessee Valley Authority for forging its own path amid climate change hysteria, for zigging when critics thi…
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Opinion: Anti-Trump Tennessee voters probably didn’t find a clear alternative in GOP debate
Tennessee Republican voters who tuned in to Wednesday night's first GOP presidential debate probably had several things on their mind.
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Opinion: Former Chattanooga mayor’s Council Against Hate bizarrely linked to current activities of Southern Poverty Law Center
Millions of conservatives across the country abhor being called racists by Democrats and their media friends because of the actions of members of some far righ…
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Opinion: Video of Chattanoga police shooting does those seeking ‘justice’ no favors
The protesters at last week's Chattanooga City Council meeting wanted video — wanted to see precisely what happened in the encounter between 34-year-old Roger …
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Opinion: Tullahoma schools district gets a hard lesson on the First Amendment
With the proliferation of social media, we wouldn't suggest any student let loose words, phrases or images in their free time intended to embarrass school pers…
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Opinion: Northwest Georgia state senator’s ploy another in tiring line of desperate measures to save Trump
Call it an official suggestion, for that's all the request this week for an emergency session of the Georgia state legislature by state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Tr…
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Opinion: Hamilton County Schools construction plan offers a workable strategy to modernize school facilities across the district
A Hamilton County Schools facilities working group has submitted a sensible, three-year, first phase of recommendations that calls for the closing of six schoo…
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Opinion: An open 2024 presidential race? Oh, we can dream
National polls for several years have said a majority of voters don't want a rematch of the 2020 presidential election in 2024.
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Opinion: Chattanooga Police Department survey results need not be end of the story
Is an internal survey that shows Chattanooga police officers are dissatisfied with the department leadership something to worry about?
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Opinion: As with the coronavirus pandemic, the best way to protect children entering school — and adults — is vaccines
We seem to be slow learners about vaccines.
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Opinion: Chancery Court order a win for Tennessee teachers
A three-judge panel has dismissed a lawsuit by the Tennessee Education Association, which means teachers' paychecks and union dues now will be severed.
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Opinion: If Tennessee lawmakers cannot agree on temporary gun removal, then rally for a safe storage bill
If you believe what you read, you would conclude that the upcoming special session of the Tennessee legislature on public safety will be a dud, with little of …
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Opinion: As first Hamilton County students take advantage of Education Savings Account, Gardenhire realizes long-held desire
State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, has been in office for nearly 11 years, but he's been supportive of school voucher-type programs for much longer.
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Opinion: Enforcing existing laws might have averted some of last week’s trucking hazmat incidents
It's not your imagination.
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Opinion: Special prosecutor will help district attorney’s office 'swing for the fences' on opioids
The Hamilton County district attorney's office has a new resource in a battle against the opioid scourge — a chief opioid prosecutor.
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Opinion: Tennessee school shooting data should not preclude action on gun legislation
A new study on school shootings in Tennessee over the last 25 years shows that half of the 12 fatalities over the period occurred at The Covenant School in Nas…
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Opinion: Meddling by Tennessee lawmakers unnecessary for functioning police review board
Though public statements about what a new state law would do to the Chattanooga Police Advisory and Review Committee (PARC) have been a bit hyperbolic, it is a…
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Opinion: Heated rhetoric escalates ahead of Tennessee legislative session on public safety
It's about to get a lot hotter, and we're not talking about the temperature outside.
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Opinion: All Tennessee legislators should prioritze constituents’ voices ahead of August special session
In just over three weeks, a special called session of the Tennessee General Assembly will gavel to order to discuss what Gov. Bill Lee said would be strengthen…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOpinion: What’s in a name? Could ‘Silverdale’ be out of the jail business?
It happens frequently in the retail world.
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Opinion: Miss election signs yet? March 2024 ballot will pack a punch with presidential primaries and local showdowns
Hope you've enjoyed a 2023 free of election signage. Within six months, you'll likely see them popping up all over Hamilton County again. A year from today, th…
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Opinion: Hamilton County school board needs a workshop on student grading policies; it’s long overdue
We remember a few of those math tests where the concepts — be they fractions, coefficients or slopes — hadn't quite settled in place. A grade in the 50s would …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOpinion: Hamilton County Schools district TCAP scores beat statewide scores in four main subjects, but troubling racial gaps persist
The Hamilton County Schools district accentuated the positive in its comments about the TCAP data released last week by the Tennessee Department of Education, …
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Opinion: Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute’s relocation on the peninsula would be a disappointing choice
A proposal to rebuild Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute on a smaller footprint further around the Tennessee River bend from its current site on the state-o…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOpinion: Haze, eh? Smoky import not our favorite from Canada, but it’s not a bad short-term trade-off
If forecasts are correct, by the time you read this the smoke from wildfires in Canada will have dissipated from our area and the air quality in Chattanooga wi…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOpinion: Felon voting rights roulette upheld by Tennessee Supreme Court
We suppose it's no different from states setting their own policies on education, abortion, infrastructure and how economic activity takes place, but we have s…
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Opinion: Census Bureau data tool shows our vulnerable communities bear the brunt of extreme heat
The more socially vulnerable a community is, the less resistance its residents have to extreme heat exposure.
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Opinion: Revamp round two: I-75/I-24 project likely to be a bumpy ride, but we will survive
Let the grumbling begin.
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Opinion: Watch out for the other guy; Tennessee’s ‘best roads’ also among the most deadly
As Chattanooga gears up for phase two of work on the Interstate 24-Interstate 75 interchange, once called the state's worst intersection, a new study indicates…
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Opinion: While Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville holds up military promotions, Medal of Honor award comes through for Larry Taylor of Signal Mountain
We're glad no one put a final "hold" on the decision to award Signal Mountain's Larry Taylor the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam 55 years ago.
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Opinion: First half of year crime statistics in Chattanooga largely heading in the right direction
Three years ago this week, the residual crimes from the June protests in Chattanooga over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody were…
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Opinion: Exodus of inner city Black residents can’t all be laid at the feet of development
Fifty years ago, the thrust by Black Chattanooga activists was that the city put into practice the federal Fair Housing Act passed by Congress in 1968 and the …
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Opinion: Solid support for educational savings accounts, charter schools is the real news in Beacon Center’s poll
We find the headline of a Beacon Center of Tennessee poll released Thursday rather ho-hum because it tells us what we and most people in the state already know…
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Opinion: In Rheubin Taylor aftermath, county mayor says Atherton ‘got it wrong,’ but ruling ‘hasn’t deterred us’
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp said if he had it to do all over again, regarding his attempt to fire Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor, he would have …
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Opinion: State Office of Legislative Administration shouldn’t have carte blanche when it comes to Public Records Act
Tennessee's Office of Legislative Administration could use an abundance of sunshine.
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Opinion: Good news for Hamilton County Schools; the district holds its own in teacher pay, per pupil spending and physical facilities condition
Over the years, much has been written and spoken about the state of Hamilton County schools, much of it bemoaning how teachers have it better elsewhere, what p…
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Opinion: State TCAP scores show further recovery from pandemic, but more work yet to be done
Keep the pedal to the metal.
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Opinion: Growing Clarksville declares size matters, but Chattanooga declares ‘better is better’
Just over a decade ago, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield was frankly and good-naturedly hoping the Scenic City would sooner rather than later pass Knoxville i…
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Opinion: Tennessee lawmakers must look beyond ‘guns cause gun deaths’ for solutions to firearm-related violence
A report released Monday by the Sycamore Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, indicates that gun deaths are on the rise in Tennessee.
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Opinion: Legislators will need to look beyond Sycamore Institute’s report that delineates how guns cause gun deaths
A report released Monday by the Sycamore Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, indicates that gun deaths are on the rise in Tennessee.
