This time last week we were wishing the Whitley County Colonels baseball team good luck as they set off for Lexington to compete in this year’s Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Championship Tournament. Now, a week later, we are once again sending them well wishes...

When I started my career as a professional journalist, I never really gave any thought to how long I would be doing this for a career, but here I am 30 years later and still going. On Friday, May 14, 1993, I had my first job interview with the London Sentinel Echo just a few...

Bill Crook, my best friend, passed away Monday. I have known Bill since we were kids, but over the years we became close friends. When I first started dating my wife Judy, we would go out with Bill and his wife, Sharon. That continued for many years after our marriage. Recently I...

Road Trip! For more than twenty years I have been signing off my columns with the encouraging words of “get up, get out and get going!” I’ve always tried to take my own advice, as my wife and I will occasionally hop in the car and motor someplace not too far away for lunch. And...

Over the last 20 years, Whitley County High School (WCHS) JROTC instructor Master Sergeant (MSG) Don Gross is a guy that I regularly bumped into when I was covering things after hours for work. There were Friday night football games where his cadets presented the colors during...

Standing in line at a bank recently, I noticed an older woman approaching the teller next door with checkbook register in hand. Her voice was very concerned as she asked for help understanding why her register did not match her bank statement. Had someone stolen her money? The...

My guess is that most of us living today will never witness a settlement to battle between Corbin and London on the attempts by the City of London to annex property along I-75 adjacent to Exit 29. As you are aware, last week the Court of Appeals ruled that a Laurel judge was in...

It’s a debate that has been waged for years in Corbin… “Why do we have to close Main Street when events are being held downtown?”

I have just returned, along with my wife and sister-in-law, from a trip to Ireland. Nice trip. Beautiful country. Lots of pubs. Many old castles. Huge tombstones. Sheep everywhere, also cattle. Crowded with tourists. Glad to be back home. That about sums up our vacation to a...

If you have traveled through downtown Corbin in recent days, you have likely noticed the ongoing construction that is taking place at the corner of Main and Monroe streets, at the site of the new Hometown Bank Farmer’s Market Pavilion. It is great to finally see an actual...

Election Day is coming on Tuesday, May 16, but if you want to avoid lines at the polls remember you can vote early Thursday through Saturday at the old courthouse in Williamsburg and in the old district courtroom in Corbin, which is located in the old city hall. One of the few...

I was excited to see an e-mail arrive in my inbox earlier this week from America’s Newspapers, an advocacy group that is dedicated to, as they put it, “providing research, education and practical information aimed at optimizing newspapers’ business operations, deepening their...

Whitley County lost a great man this week with the passing of Keith Decker Monday. In addition to being a senior pastor at Black Oak Baptist Church, Keith was the founder and president of Cedaridge Ministries, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Cedaridge traces its...

I thought of one of Yogi Berra’s funny sayings when I went to the Root Beer Stand in Corbin the other night. Yogi, referring to a restaurant, said, “Nobody goes there any more. It is always too crowded.” The Root Beer Stand is always crowded, and there are several reasons for it....

I have found myself doing a fair amount of research in recent days after attending last week’s Corbin Rotary Club meeting at David’s Steakhouse. The special guest speakers were Debbie Moses, and Timm and Theresa Martin, who were there to speak about the ongoing efforts to...

Wow! Organizers couldn’t have asked for much better day than they had Saturday for the Third Annual Colonel Fest celebration on Main Street in downtown Corbin. I was downtown from about an hour prior to the festival’s start Saturday morning  until it ended about 6 p.m. Saturday...

Who hasn’t heard about all of the college athletes that are jumping from one school to another just because the rules now say they can? Before, an athlete would have to sit out a year after transferring to another school. Over the years even high schools have been impacted by...

The border war continues between London and Corbin. Maybe war is a little too strong of a word but both towns are moving their boundaries that will collide near “Malfunction Junction.” Malfunction is such an appropriate word to use with borders of London and Corbin about to meet...

Every now and then, a two-or-three-day period comes along where there is so much going on it is just about impossible to keep track of it all. This coming weekend is definitely one of those occasions, so I thought that I would try to condense most of it into a column in order to...

A young man recently went with friends on a weekend ski trip. By the time he finished on the slopes, the old football injury to his knee was acting up. He complained to his friend that he was in so much pain he might not be able to power through work the next day. The friend...