Times Commentary - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Times Opinion: Americans won’t let COVID be erased from our memories

Sculptor Amanda Matthews arrived at the Kentucky COVID Memorial earlier this month ready to repair her work.

By Sarah E. Wagner and Martha Greenwald / Los Angeles Times (TNS) August 17, 2026

Jon Cherry/Getty Images/TNS / A woman who has just received her Moderna COVID-19 vaccine sits in the post-injection observation area in Bates Memorial Baptist Church Feb. 12, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Times Opinion: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy

Given America's political environment, you would be forgiven for thinking the country has slipped into a dark age of energy recidivism; burning oil, gas…

By Mark Gongloff August 15, 2026

A wind turbine owned and operated by Dominion Energy is photographed 27 miles off of Virginia Beach in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, July 17, 2023. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS)

Opinion: Keep Nashville’s hands off Chattanooga’s airport, mayor says

There's a simple rule to good government: the people closest to a community know how to run it best. When local taxpayers build and…

By Tim Kelly August 14, 2026

Staff photo by Larry Sullivan II / Shannon Burger, right, speaks during the Chattanooga Airport Board meeting on July 16, 2026.

Times Opinion: The racism in America’s rearview mirror is closer than it appears

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — There is nothing wrong with this country that cannot be cured by what's right with it. This state's most famous…

By LZ Granderson August 14, 2026

Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images/TNS / Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks at a celebration of the life of the late Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on June 25, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Frank, who served in the House from 1981-2013, was the first member of Congress to come out as gay in 1987 and was chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011, sponsoring the 2010 Dodd–Frank Act, the primary legislative response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Frank died May 19 at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86.

Times Opinion: Hegseth is purging people of color. Trump’s war is killing them

Need another metric to show that, for President Donald Trump, "Make America Great Again" means regressing to a 1950s-style white patriarchy? Here's one for…

By Jackie Calmes August 14, 2026

Photo by Aaron Schwartz via AFP/Getty Images/TNS / U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listen to questions from the press during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland, on July 31, 2026.

Times Opinion: Applause for Gen Z and their love of the moviegoing experience

We've seen stories in the recent past about how going to the movies was becoming a thing again — see "Barbenheimer" in 2023 —…

By The Editorial Board / Chicago Tribune (TNS) August 13, 2026

Photo by James C. Svehla via Chicago Tribune/TNS / Maheen Ahif, Nurain Badruboin and Aahil Pyarali, from Glenview, check in at the box office at 2:23 a.m. to watch "The Odyssey" in IMAX 70 mm at Cinemark Seven Bridges and IMAX theater on July 23, 2026, in Woodridge.

Times Opinion: America’s surveillance problem is much bigger than Flock

"You are being watched" was the tagline that opened every episode of the television series "Person of Interest," which ran from 2011 to 2016…

By Stephen L. Carter August 13, 2026

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/TNS / An American flag flies behind a Flock Safety camera mounted to a light pole on Aug. 3, 2026, in Burbank, Calif.

Times Opinion: How Americans can defend their right to vote

The numbers are alarming. More than half a million mail ballots cast in the 2024 elections were rejected and never counted. Not because they…

By Pam Fessler August 12, 2026

Photo by Michael Ciaglo via Getty Images/TNS / Voters walk into a polling place at the Central Library to cast their ballots in Colorado's primary election on June 30, 2026 in Denver, Colorado.

Times Opinion: Trump’s vaccine order puts parents in a bind

President Donald Trump's proposed sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, whether ever actually implemented or not, are yet another affront to public health…

By Lisa Jarvis August 12, 2026

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/TNS / U.S. President Donald Trump, accompanied by (from left to right) National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, Jayme Leagh Franklin with the The Conservateur and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holds up a sign that reads "Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations" before signing an executive order calling for childhood vaccine shots to be spaced out into separate visits during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 10, 2026, in Washington, D.C. During his second term, Trump has urged Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate further research on vaccines.

Community Voice: We need to tell the Ed Johnson story the right way

Recently, we were alerted to two developments involving the Ed Johnson story: the Aug. 9 premiere at Songbirds of "The Last Sunday," a film…

By Eric Atkins August 11, 2026

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