Adam Schefter - AFL

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[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.

She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.

The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.

She handed out the checks herself.

In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.

When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.

You've probably heard that part.

Here's the part you haven't:

The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.

Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.

She built her county an entire hospital.

She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.

In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.

Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.

In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.

And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.

She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.

She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.

Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The doctor who delivered Dolly Parton in a one-room Tennessee cabin in 1946 was paid with a sack of cornmeal. Her father farmed other people's land and could not read or write. Eighty years later, the reading program she built in his name has mailed more than 300 million books.

She wrote "I Will Always Love You" on the same afternoon she wrote "Jolene," as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner, and released it in 1974. Elvis wanted it. The night before the session, Colonel Tom Parker called and said Presley would only record it if they got half the publishing, meaning half of everything the song ever earned. She had been in Nashville ten years by then. She said no, and cried all night. Whitney Houston cut her version in 1992, held number one for fourteen weeks, and Forbes later put Parton's royalties from it near $10 million. She put some of that money into an office complex in Nashville and called the place the house that Whitney built.

Dollywood opened in Pigeon Forge in 1986 because she wanted paychecks in the county she came from. Around 4,000 people work there now. Three million visitors come every year. The University of Tennessee put its economic impact at $1.8 billion, and it is the largest employer in Sevier County. Since 2022 the company has paid tuition, fees, and books in full for every worker from their first day, seasonal hires included.

Wildfires tore through those mountains in November 2016, killing fourteen people and destroying more than 2,400 buildings. Her foundation was handing out money within 48 hours. Every family that lost a home got $1,000 a month for six months, regardless of income. The final check was $5,000. Total delivered: $8.9 million.

In April 2020 she sent $1 million to Vanderbilt for coronavirus research. When Moderna's vaccine results ran in the New England Journal of Medicine that November, her fund appeared in the footnotes.

Carl Dean, her husband of nearly sixty years, died in March 2025. The note she wrote to fans afterward ended with the same five words she wrote for Porter Wagoner back in 1974. She died in Nashville today. Her family asked that instead of flowers, people give to the Imagination Library, which still mails 3.4 million books a month to children who will never get to meet her.

[Yemisi Egbewole @yemisi]

I remember working for Senator Mark Warner when he asked his Black staffers to sit down with him and have a real conversation about policing because he genuinely wanted to hear our perspectives. (I appreciated that. More people should consider lived experience.)

Anyways, every single one of us told him “defund the police” was not the way to go. We said listen to the Black pastors and actual community leaders, not the blue-haired girls on Twitter.

He has no statements to backtrack on today. Run that record baby! We held the line!

[Adam Schefter - AFL @ScheftyAFL]

@Sundayx561 lol

[Adam Schefter - AFL @ScheftyAFL]

@jjmaples55 Kerr and Dray hate young players…

[Amy Siskind @Amy_Siskind]

Anyway, I have been keeping relatively quiet for too long on what has been festering on our side, because I am consumed with keeping up with the news for my Weekly List project, and I was hoping to keep the peace on our side. But what has happened now is some real stupid group think has metastasized and become normalized on our side.

How did AIPAC and Israel become enemy #1, and the litmus test of our party? Does Bibi suck? Yes. Know who else sucks? YOUR PRESIDENT! And like the U.S., there will be an election there, and with any luck, Bibi will be gone in a few months. Also, half of you on this bandwagon probably don't even know what AIPAC is, or how small their influence is. This is the hill we are dying on now to lose in midterms? So fucking stupid!

We almost lost Maine. We would have if he was our candidate. Maybe we have a shot now. We are going to punt Michigan too if we use this inane litmus test in a purple state.

So if you are on my page, be prepared for some pushback to the mainstreaming of this stupidity. I should have done it sooner. My bad. If you're not wanting to listen, feel free to unfollow now. Here's your hat, what's your hurry.

My goal is to WIN in November. Trump will do untold damage if we don't take at least the House, and hopefully the Senate. We need some damn common sense in our party, and fast! Platner is exhibit A of that! I plan to do my part.

[Adam Schefter - AFL @ScheftyAFL]

@grahamformaine This is just despicable. You found a way to make it about yourself…

[500 🏎 @Kameron_Hay]

Well all the quality centers were gone brother idk what you expected lol

[Adam Schefter - AFL @ScheftyAFL]

@jjmaples55 They had just won 73 games lol

[LakeShowYo @LakeShowYo]

17 YEARS AGO 🐍

Reporter: “Are you not happy?”
Kobe: "What's there to be happy about?"
Reporter: "You're up 2-0"
Kobe: "Job's not finished… Job finished?"

[The 4 Verts @T4Verts]

Free Agent Frenzy should be cool, especially in larger leagues. It adds a new dynamic to something that's basically played the same way for 15 years. I think the interesting part is how leagues actually run it. #Madden27

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

WTF timeline are we on. Someone called me the MAGA whisperer and I’ll gladly take the title. Left, right, D or R we all want the same things. We’re being divided on purpose by the Epstein Elite Oligarch class because as long as we’re at each other’s throats, they get fat and rich off of our misery. The second we figure out we agree on more than we disagree, they’re done. Love your neighbor. Be yourself. Radical honesty. No fucks given, no fucks taken. Everything else is just noise. (But still fuck Jake “Brick Tamland” Tapper on any time line)

[Drew Comments @sjs856]

Black People voting Dem got us:

1. The Civil Rights Act
2. 40% increase in high school grads
3. Twice as likely to have college degree
4. 6x greater wealth
5. 23% decrease in infant mortality
6. 11.5 year life expectancy increase
7. The Community Reinvestment Act

[J. Timothy's Taverne @jtimothys]

I had to do it. 💙

[Anne Holton @AnneHolton]

So excited @DSMcAuliffe has announced her campaign for Congress. Virginia families will be the winners!

[Dorothy McAuliffe @DSMcAuliffe]

Today I’m announcing my campaign for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District! 🇺🇸

As a mom of five, grandmother, former State Department official & First Lady of Virginia, I’ve spent my life fighting for children, families, and those without a voice.

https://t.co/ENjIrUjX3a

[David Dennis Jr. @DavidDTSS]

Phil shoulda never pulled Kobe from that game

[Adam Schefter - AFL @ScheftyAFL]

@elonmusk Can we figure out how to charge much faster? That’s my complaint about owning an ev when I travel

[Booker G. Washington @BookerGWash]

Notice that leftists are NOT blaming JD Vance this morning.

Why is that? Is it because he’s not a Black woman liberal VP?

[Ethan Lynne @ethanclynne]

☑️ Lawyer
☑️ First Lady of Virginia
☑️ Led the fight against childhood hunger throughout VA
☑️ Diplomat who advanced strategic partnerships around the world
☑️ The choice is clear, & it’s @DSMcAuliffe