Tommy Tomlinson

6 days ago | wfae.org | Tommy Tomlinson

One of NASCAR’s all-time characters is on the track right now, winning races and infuriating other drivers. But the country at large doesn’t know him. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, wonders if it’s too late for NASCAR to get any cultural traction. If you fed the movie “Talladega Nights” into an AI program and asked it to spit out a real-life NASCAR driver, you’d end up with Ross Chastain.

1 week ago | wfae.org | Tommy Tomlinson

Today we’re replaying my 2018 conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr.I thought it was a good time to bring this one back because there’s a new documentary on his dad, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. Dale Jr. is an executive producer on the film, along with others including Ron Howard. Dale and Dale Jr. had a famously complicated relationship, all the way until the moment Dale Earnhardt died in a crash at the Daytona 500 in 2001.

1 week ago | wfae.org | Tommy Tomlinson

Charlotte city government had been humming along quietly for a while, avoiding any major controversy. But WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says that when things changed, they changed in a hurry. Up until recently, the Charlotte City Council was the perfect government body, meaning that you rarely had to pay them any attention.

2 weeks ago | wfae.org | Tommy Tomlinson

The city of Charlotte has come to a settlement with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings over statements from a City Council member. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says it sets a troubling precedent. Before we get to whether Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings deserves to be paid for his hurt feelings — he doesn’t — let’s stipulate something, as they say in court: Tariq Bokhari was a jerk.

3 weeks ago | wfae.org | Tommy Tomlinson

On the very first page of Carl Hiaasen’s new novel, “Fever Beach,” is a sentence that could only be written by Carl Hiaasen: “The hitchhiker placed his backpack on the floorboard and pivoted warily toward the back seat, where he saw an assault rifle, a can of bear spray, a sex doll made to look like the lower torso of a woman, and a pile of clear Ziploc bags.” For nearly 40 years, Hiaasen has spun wild tales of bumbling villains and flawed heroes clashing in the cities and swamps of his...