The Kingsport Times-News on ending cockfighting in Tennessee:
Every year for more than a decade, state Sen. Jon Lundberg of Bristol has pleaded to no avail with fellow lawmakers to lift Tennessee out of the dark ages by making the disgusting, barbarous practice of cockfighting a felony, as it once was.
But Lundberg is not one to give up the fight. This year, he’s taking a new approach by having the bill heard in the House Judiciary Committee on which he once served, giving it “new eyes and with different perceptions looking at it.”
It is to the great embarrassment of Tennessee that several decades ago, the General Assembly reduced cockfighting from a felony to a misdemeanor, giving the state one of the weakest cockfighting laws in the nation and increasing the practice where sharp blades are attached to the feet of fighting roosters as spectators bet on which will slash the other to death.
Recent editorials from Tennessee newspapers: Feb. 9 The Johnson City Press on lowering unnecessary driving risks: Pet owners sometimes place their furry friends (and themselves) at unneeded risk. One such example of this is seen regularly on area streets. State law forbids a driver (and passenger) from holding an infant or a child in their laps while the vehicle is moving. Doing so poses a great safety risk to both the child and the driver..
The Herald-Citizen on the importance of the peaceful transfer of power:
Although some predicted Jan. 20’s inauguration and transfer of presidential power from President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden would be anything but peaceful, we’re grateful that the tradition that’s lasted more than 200 years continued once again.
Many people were feeling on Jan. 20 what those on the opposite side of the political aisle were feeling four years ago. That the world was ending. That we wouldn’t survive it.
But here we are, and we believe we will still be here in four more years under the policies of a new president.
The Kingsport Times-News and The Johnson City Press on a historical document returning to the state:
The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition of 1897 was a huge event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the state’s entry into the union and featuring more than 100 buildings spread over 200 acres in Nashville, including an exact replica of the Greek Parthenon which still stands.
Counties contributed in various ways to the event, and Washington County - the state’s first - appropriately lent history to display on this historic occasion. Its documents included the first minutes of the Washington County Court in the handwriting of John Sevier, its first clerk, and Deed Book A, an 1830s copy of the county’s original deed book created between 1717 and 1782.
KINGSPORT â Bill and Judy Tindall of Hawkins County and others who got placebos in the Pfizer-BioNTech trial for a COVID-19 vaccine are getting the real vaccine as early as next week.
Tindall, a retired Eastman Chemical Co. chemist living near Surgoinsville, and his wife have appointments Monday afternoon to receive the Pfizer vaccine from the same batch used in the trial conducted through Holston Medical Group (HMG) in Kingsport and Bristol.
Ned Moore Life is a bunch of calculated risks, said Ned Moore, 80 and a self-described overweight diabetic in the local COVID-19 vaccine trial who believes he got the placebo. At my age, it s more of a risk not to take it that to take it.