The Knoxville Focus

~ from the Halls Republican Club The Halls Republican Club will meet Tuesday, Sept 08, 2026, at the Boys and Girls Club, 1819 Dry Gap Pike, 37918, just off East Emory Rd. As usual, there will be a Meet-and-Greet at 6:05 p.m. with snacks and fellowship, followed by the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thanks for supporting Knox County and our Country. Invite your friends & neighbors and encourage them to participate in their government. We always need people to help set out chairs, etc.

On Monday, September 14, fourteen Texas Roadhouse locations across Tennessee will host a fundraiser to benefit Wreaths Across America. The restaurant will donate ten percent of all sales throughout the day. All funds raised will go toward wreaths being placed on the graves in local veterans’ cemeteries in Chattanooga, Johnson City and Knoxville.

By Dr. Jim Ferguson We lost a great lady last week. Dolly Parton belonged to the world, but we East Tennesseans considered her our own. Her Smoky Mountains were mine as well. And like her mountains, her music and life are for the ages. I had begun a different essay, but how could I not pay homage to Dolly? The Psalmist sang, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty if our strength endures (Psalm 90:10). Dolly Parton lived long and large, touching the hearts of so many.

~ from UTAD The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will welcome fans to campus Saturday, Sept. 5, as the Volunteers take on Furman University in their first home game of the 2026 season. This is the third meeting between the Vols and the Paladins.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will halt all lane closure activity on interstates and state routes for the Labor Day holiday travel period. Construction crews will stop all lane-closure activities at noon on Friday, September 4, and resume at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 8. This will provide maximum roadway capacity for motorists traveling during the Labor Day holiday.

By Jedidiah McKeehan According to a 2018 study, it is estimated that forty percent of births in the United States occur outside of marriage. That is an increase from twenty-eight percent in 1990. It seems that there is much less of a stigma surrounding having children while not being married.

By Tom Mattingly Moments of transition are always interesting, sometimes sad, many times poignant, often intriguing. There is a wide range of emotions as you watch one career pass in review and watch another one begin. The day in question was June 4, 2003, in the Neyland-Thompson Center. You might call it the changing of the guard.

By Mark Nagi As you well know, the 2026 college football season is almost here. Technically, it has already arrived with “Week Zero” contests played last weekend, but the real deal starts on Saturday. For the Tennessee Volunteers, only 12 games are guaranteed. Nine SEC contests and three out-of-conference games. I know how busy everyone is, so I’ve taken the liberty of predicting each game, for entertainment purposes only. Note: Some of these are tongue-in-cheek.

By Joe Rector joerector@comcast.net We all woke up this morning hoping that the news wasn’t true, that we’d just had a bad dream. However, with the sunlight came the realization that Dolly Parton is gone. Just like it was hard to believe that she was 80, the fact that the world has lost a shining star became a reality. For those of us here in East Tennessee, the news that our favorite person is gone stings almost too much to bear.

By Justin Pratt,  Clear Springs Baptist Church Senior Pastor You have seen it a thousand times. So, have I. A headline appears on your screen: “You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!” or “This Changes Everything!” Curiosity gets the best of you, so you click, only to discover that the content rarely lives up to the headline. We call it clickbait. The term grew out of the internet age, combining “click” with “bait.” Much like bait on a fishing hook, the headline is designed to lure you in.