Volume 148, Issue 12
‘Bapple is treated different’: University Liquors sells out, expects more in stock
Women’s golf wins SEC Championship Page 7
Page 2
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
@utkdailybeacon
What allowed Tennessee baseball to dominate Alabama after dreadful series start ALEX SARKIS Asst. Sports Editor
Trent Grindlinger (30) and Blaine Brown (1) celebrate near the dugout in a game against Alabama at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Friday, April 24, 2026. Courtney Faber / Contributor
UT student recounts attempted Trump assassination OLIVIA LEE Staff Writer
Days after a gunman opened fire at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a UT student who attended the dinner shares her firsthand perspective. Gail Fanning, senior political science and journalism major, is the University of Tennessee’s fifth recipient of the Carter Holland Memorial Scholarship, which sends one student each year to represent UT at the dinner, which is traditionally attended by the president and vice president. Fanning entered the banquet hall of the Washington Hilton at 7 p.m. as the dinner commenced Saturday, April 25. “It felt super real to me, like, ‘this is really happening, and I’m so happy I get to be here,’” Fanning said. “We are closer to the president than we are to the exit doors.” Attendees had not made it past appetizers when chaos erupted. “I hear this clattering, clanking,” Fanning said. “I look over, and I just see people rushing in, and they’re all yelling, ‘get down!’” Fanning said that though she didn’t hear gunshots, she realized something was happening based on the way the audience reacted, and her first instinct was to hide and call 911. “While I’m on the phone with them, I text my family’s group chat,” Fanning said. “I say, ‘Oh my God, I’m under a table.’” Fanning got in contact with her mother, who had traveled to Washington with her and was staying in a room floors above the banquet hall as the at-
tack happened, to figure out what was going on. “I’m in a ballroom with 2,000 people. I can’t see anything,” Fanning said. “I felt so scared.” The reality of what happened didn’t hit her until 1 a.m. as she watched the night’s events recounted on news stations across the country. Fanning said she felt “devastated” when she realized that the weekend she had looked forward to for months was over. “I had it scheduled out in my calendar since I found out in November,” Fanning said. “In the week leading up to it, I was so anxious about it.” When she landed in Washington earlier in the weekend for the dinner, Fanning said the nerves went away, and she was faced with pure excitement. “I texted in my family’s group chat coming from (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) that I was in my happy place, which was a WMATA Metro car,” Fanning said. The experience, Fanning said, is one she will not get back. “You can go to D.C. as many times as you want,” Fanning said. “You only get honored at the White House Correspondents Dinner once.” When asked if she would relive the weekend again if she knew how it would play out, Fanning gave an answer some might not expect. “I would absolutely do it all over again,” Fanning said. “I got to meet so many amazing people. … I wish I’d been able to meet more.” The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California, has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump.
The White House in Washington, D.C. Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. Ericksen Gomez-Villeda / The Daily Beacon
Momentum is a fickle aspect of sports. Tennessee baseball had none of it as it welcomed Alabama to Lindsey Nelson Stadium to start a day earlier than any usual SEC series. Not even 24 hours later, the Vols had claimed their first home league series win over a ranked opponent since last season’s conference-opening set against Florida, all before the calendar even flipped to Saturday. T e g a n K u h n s ’ near-flawless start in the middle game not only bailed Tennessee out of having to use a spent bullpen after a poorly pitched series opener, but it set the tone for a day of redemption that the Vols had been searching for, providing a boost to their own morale and the outlook of their postseason hopes as the regular season nears a conclusion. “I was just ready to kind of set the tone,” Kuhns said. “I think the guys needed it. They just needed a better start out of a starter, and I just did that for them.” Tennessee’s get-back came in the form of a doubleheader sweep, a pair of decisive victories over the No. 13 Crimson Tide that each featured some of the Vols’ cleanest play of an up-and-down campaign. Kuhns tossed an eight-inning complete-game shutout to avenge his fellow arms’ woes from a game before, while rubber match hurler Evan Blanco came up with a quality start of his own. The bats contributed plenty, too, posting double-digit runs in each contest. Tennessee made the plays it had to in the field, got the hits it needed at the plate and silenced the Alabama offense from the mound to assert nearly 18 innings of dominance. It came at the perfect time. “It’s really tough what we did today, and our guys know that,” head coach Josh Elander said. “And just so much respect for this league. It is to win one, but to win two in one
day, the credit all goes to the players because their response from how they played poorly yesterday to great today is a really good sign for our club moving forward.” Trent Grindlinger and Blaine Brown helped steer the positive direction of Tennessee’s vast offensive successes throughout the series. The Vols scored 29 total runs over the three games, their highest total all year. The pair each launched a pair of homers, but Grindlinger’s seven hits were just enough to best Brown’s six. For Grindlinger, the freshman finds his success by keeping things as simple as possible. It’s all about slowing the game down. “Just not trying to do too much,” Grindlinger said. “Just sticking to my approach, trying to shoot some low line drives around the yard.” The Huntington Beach, California, native doesn’t need any fancy or complicated method to find his solace in the batter’s box. “Breathing,” Grindlinger said. “I talk to all the older guys about it, like (Henry) Ford and (Reese) Chapman, all the time. Just breathing and having confidence as well.” As far as Brown is concerned, he registered his first series with at least six hits since Tennessee’s season-opening slate with Nicholls State back in February. The 6-foot5 lefty hadn’t posted consecutive multi-hit games since that sweep over the Colonels until his two-knock and three-hit showings in the doubleheader with Alabama. It was a long time coming. “I wouldn’t say it’s been the greatest,” Brown said. “But, for sure, it’s just keep going each day at a time and keep putting your head down and working. Pages will flip, and you just got to keep going, taking it one day at a time.” It’s no secret that the Vols have met their fair share of adversity. They’ve experienced inefficiencies in every area of their game this season, a reality that still slots them with a 10-11 record in SEC play. Even if this series win came under unusual circumstances, wrapping up before some other teams around the country could even begin their weekend matchups, Tennessee managed to answer the call. The Vols left little room for doubt. “We’ve been in these scenarios where your back’s against the wall and you got to figure out what you got,” Elander said. “You can play tight and tense and try hard, or you can just cut it loose and play baseball. I thought our guys did that today.”
Pittman targets expungement law gaps CAYMAN JACKSON Contributor Known for humorous social media skits, assistant professor of advertising Matthew Pittman doesn’t usually cover heavy topics. But his latest work is contributing to a research initiative that could help survivors of human trafficking rebuild their lives. Every year, approximately 27.6 million people worldwide are human-trafficked, many for forced labor or sex. While many states allow survivors to vacate, expunge or seal criminal records tied to their exploitation, there are limits on what can be sealed. In many cases, survivors are only allowed to expunge prostitution and drug charges, failing to account for other offenses they were forced to commit. This often prevents survivors from successfully rebuilding their lives. “If I would’ve seen someone that had a prostitution charge or a drug possession charge, and I owned a small business like a bakery, I’m not gonna hire her. She’s a criminal. But a lot of these women were put in a bad situation,” Pittman said. That’s why Pittman, alongside his sister, Margaret “Meg” Kelsey, formed a partnership between Regent
CCI Professor Matthew Pittman speaks during a lecture. Friday, April 17, 2026. Jaden Vitt / The Daily Beacon University School of Law’s Center for Global Justice and UT’s Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations. Pittman and Kelsey, a clinical professor and director of the center, have received a $25,000 grant by the Sociological Initiatives Foundation to conduct a two-year research study to gather data about human trafficking cases and how they are treated in the criminal justice system. The study will include two surveys — the first for survivors, asking about their experiences with the criminal justice system, including whether they were arrested, convicted, identified or supported during their interactions.
The second survey will be distributed to the general public to gauge their perception about human trafficking. By combining these survey results, they will move beyond anecdotes to provide lawmakers with the empirical data necessary to push legislative reform. While Kelsey’s expertise and experience allows her to handle the legal side, she reached out to Pittman to utilize his skills in survey science and data analytics to help turn personal stories into data, which they hope will help challenge narrow ideas about what human trafficking is. SEE ‘PITTMAN’ PAGE 2