Opinion
May 13, 2026 by
Dear Editor,
Please know where your children are in their free time and supervise them. Yesterday, two young boys jumped my chain linked fence, ran across my back yard, jumped my fence again into the adjacent neighbor's playground for their small children, jumped that fence, stealing a ball, and I stopped one in my driveway as he was running away. Oddly, Tyler, 10 to be 11 in July, didn't know his home phone number or address. Trespassing on private property is a felony, theft of personal property is also against the law. If either of these children had fallen, broken bones, on my property I'd be liable. If they had knocked me over while I was working in my own back yard, sustaining major medical issues, you as parents would face huge lawsuits.
Read More
May 13, 2026 by
Dear Editor,
The last eight years in Farragut have been very different from the other forty-six years of our town’s history. When Eddy Ford and Ralph McGill were our Mayors the average person could understand what the town was doing. The last eight years under Mayor Ron Williams and former Vice mayor Louise Povlin have not been that way.
Tennessee law clearly states that agenda items for town meetings must be able to be understood by the average citizen. That has gone away in the past eight years. Not only are agenda items often unintelligible to the average person, but they are also frequently bundled into omnibus legislation.
Omnibus legislation is a single, larger piece of legislation that bundles numerous smaller, distinct votes, into one package, thus requiring only one vote by the Mayor and Aldermen. This directly disenfranchises the citizens of Farragut. This is why the United Stated Congress has historic low approval ratings.
Read More
May 13, 2026 by
Dear Editor,
Redistricting is normally done at the end of each 10-year U.S. census cycle. The current unusual mid-cycle redistricting, and gerrymandering – a centuries old practice, was initiated in Texas by President Trump to gain an advantage in the mid-terms to improve the odds that Republicans would hold the House, something he fears could be lost. Of course, Democrats responded in California, and on it went. Then the Supreme Court decided to terminate racial preferences in creating districts, after local primaries had already been held in Tennessee. Immediately Tennessee, with eight districts currently held by Republicans and one by Democrats, decided to gerrymander to create new districts mid-cycle, mid-election, giving them the edge in picking up the last seat by splitting up Memphis, an approach that was successful in Nashville. If this is successful, all nine representatives from Tennessee would be Republican, in spite of a nominal 60-40% split of votes in a typical election and thus, no districts will be represented by Democrats. Moreover, what’s wrong with doing this now?
Read More
May 13, 2026 by
• All Letters to the Editor from any citizen must have a minimum four-week period between publication
• Not to exceed 400 words (effective February 4, 2026)
• Must not have inaccurate information, such as wrong statistics, from which to form an opinion
• We reserve the right to reject publication based on factors to include, but not be limited to, threats, name-calling and foul language
• Letters to the Editor need to have Name, Verifiable Address, Telephone number included and all letters will be verified
• Deadline for Letters to the Editor is Monday at 10 a.m. for that Wednesday’s edition
