Sandra Clark

Trevor Bayne, the youngest person ever to win Nascar's Daytona 500, will speak to Lunch with a Leader, a program for West Young Professionals sponsored by the Farragut West Knox Chamber from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, August 26, 2026. The event is hosted by Southeast Bank at 12700 Kingston Pike in Farragut. Register by calling the Chamber at 865-675-7057.

The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center invites the community to celebrate America's 250th anniversary with the Independence 250 Concert on the

Tying college football to the big USA birthday may take more than my Boy Scout knots – but I'll try.

The new Reeves Institute for Professional Leadership has been dedicated at the University of Tennessee Winston College of Law. It honors the late Judge Pamela L. Reeves, the first woman to serve as judge and then chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Actually, I know only two – Lesli Bales-Sherrod and her husband, Jimmy Sherrod. We don't give them equal billing because Jimmy has a day job. He's the pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Knoxville.

Today (7/9/26) at 5 p.m. the Knox County Board of Education will meet in regular session to adopt a revised 2027 fiscal year budget. The meeting is at 500 W. Summit Hill Dr., the Summer Place Boardroom in the old TVA tower.

Transforming Western – a massive project northwest of downtown Knoxville – is rolling along, propelled, I think, by skilled professionals at KCDC, dogged enthusiasm from Mayor Indya Kincannon and a mix of public/private funding through a program at the U.S. Treasury Department that Elon Musk missed with his chainsaw.

Kyle Hixson, right, is sworn in as a Tennessee Supreme Court Justice by Gov. Bill Lee at the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville on July 7, 2026. With them is Judge Hixson's wife, Rachel. (Photo posted by Heather Waliga)

Grow Oak Ridge is sponsoring a “farm to table” dinner from 6-9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at Fire & Salt, 792 Briarcliff Ave., Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Tickets are $150 for dinner, wine & spirits pairings throughout the evening and a 20% gratuity. ($110 without alcohol). Seating is at a long table with multiple courses. Learn more and

Landon Nickerson made friends easily and loved to play outdoors in his Blount County neighborhood. In late 2025, he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, diffuse midline glioma. He passed away on May 26, 2026, just 13 days after his twelfth birthday.