Do you think you can stump me with a question?

If so, this is your chance to stump me by asking me a question and sending it to me through email,, and making sure it has this subject line: Stump Scott.

Keep in mind that I intend to publish your question, name and hometown before providing my answer.

I’d also like for those sending me a question to include a phone number not for publication, so I can double check information and verify you are who you say you are and live where you say you live.

My challenge is to take a good question each week from a reader and answer it as best I can, regardless if that’s straight information or perhaps a bit of crazy observations like the ones I offer on my Rutherford Rants videos.

I could respond to a question about what’s going to be built on that open field with a bulldozer on top of it. Will it be yet another Walmart to join the three open now and the three others being built in Rutherford County? Will it be a megachurch with five times the expected attendance at World Outreach Church? Will it be the opening of a second nudest camp to compete with Rock Haven off Bradyville Pike?

Perhaps I’ll respond to a question about why taxes are going up? Often times this has something to do with building and operating schools in this fast-growing county.

Or maybe you’ll ask me why the government is borrowing money? Again, I may tell you how something like 85 percent of the county’s debt is paying for school construction.

Maybe I’ll respond to why so many Rutherford County commissioners read a conflict of interest statement because they or their spouses work for the government or public school system and then vote on the annual budget that pays for their salaries.

Maybe you’ll ask me for shortcuts to avoid the Bridge Over Broad project. From what I’ve heard from Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland, a driver is more than likely to come across a road project going on in this fast-growing city.

Perhaps you could ask me why it’s taking so long for the city to pursue improvement of Middle Tennessee Boulevard between East Main Street and Greenland Drive. Given federal grant money is paying for most of this project, should the answer surprise anyone about why it takes so long?

You could ask me why the cost of a college education at Middle Tennessee State University keeps going up. Higher education costs have risen even faster than health-care costs. So what does one get for that more expensive college education beyond a degree?

Perhaps you’ll ask me when Murfreesboro is going to get around to constructing a major park on its west side. Ten years ago would have been good, but, hopefully, it will be built within the next 10 years if not sooner.

Another question could be why Murfreesboro continues to have so many panhandlers. Do these panhandlers make more money than what folks are making at Amazon or Nissan? If that’s the case, maybe our Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce leaders should be recruiting more panhandling jobs.

Maybe you’ll ask me if Tennessee should legalize pot. Of course, this assumes I could read a question typed with plenty of typos between puffs from a joint.

Maybe you could ask me how Rutherford County went from being dominated by the Democratic Party at the start of 2000 to becoming a Republican-dominated county today. That’s right, we have more elephants than donkeys.

Or maybe you can stump me with a question I can’t answer, like explaining the Big Bang Theory, in which case I’ll probably end up talking about my favorite episodes from the TV show.

If you truly stump me with a question I can’t answer, I may even recognize you and your puzzling question, and challenge readers to see if they can email me with the answer.

There’s all kinds of questions folks have. I’ll give you folks a full week to get your questions to me, and my Stump Scott column will start July 20.

So I say bring them. Let me hear what you’d like to stump me on. So send those questions to with the subject line Stump Scott.


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