Barker: New guide steers conversation your way
About a decade ago, when I was in my first year as a reporter for the News Sentinel, City Editor Eric Vreeland asked me what I saw as my newspaper career's ultimate destination.
View ArticleBarker: Parole board decision offers hope against evil
Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the 1982 murder of Rodney Long, a teammate of mine on the football squad at Austin Peay State University. It was the day before his killer's parole hearing, and I...
View ArticleBarker: New feature serves up satire
Next to this column you'll find the print debut of a feature by local humorist Scott McNutt. Snark Bites isn't your ordinary political commentary. It's satire based on local news and policy makers, a...
View ArticleBarker: A new voice, an apology and a clarification
Ah, politics.It's one of the great subjects for newspapers, along with crime, punishment and sports. Oh, and cartoons.
View ArticleScott Barker: Project swap: A business park for a school
Knox County commissioners just don't seem to know what to do with East Knox County.
View ArticleScott Barker: Seems like everyone's running for mayor
There's still time.You - yes, you with the hair still mussed from the pillow and drinking your second cup of coffee - can be Knoxville's next mayor.
View ArticleScott Barker: It might be too late for Midway business park alternative
Mike Edwards, the president and CEO of the Knoxville Chamber, was characteristically blunt last week when he labeled an idea to designate land purchased for the Midway Business Park as protected...
View ArticleScott Barker: Ash spill must lead to cultural change at TVA
The very last trainload of outbound coal ash sludge left the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant last month, headed for a landfill in Alabama.
View ArticleScott Barker: Socks optional for political talk
Former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe settled into an armchair in a back corner of the Starbucks on Cumberland Avenue on Tuesday, just a couple of hours after the season's first decent snowfall ended.
View ArticleScott Barker: How the congressman stole Christmas
"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is one of America's favorite holiday stories. It's a tale of transformation, the story of a bitter old curmudgeon who's finally had enough of Christmas and decides to...
View ArticleScott Barker: Apology for missed deadline
The term "deadline" didn't originate with newspapers — originally, it was a Civil War-era word for a line in a prison camp that a prisoner could not cross without being shot.
View ArticleScott Barker: New community guest columnists make debut
In Marcel Proust's novel "Remembrance of Things Past," the narrator dips a madeleine into a cup of tea and takes a bite, releasing the flood of memories that would make up the remainder of the...
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