Congratulations to Forcht Broadcasting Radio and Digital President and CEO Neil Middleton, who was awarded the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Award for Outstanding Service during the Kentucky Sweet 16® boys basketball tournament last Thursday.
Middleton was honored for his four-decade career in Eastern Kentucky sports media. Starting his television career at WYMT in 1987, Middleton’s recognition comes for his contributions and media coverage to schools, coaches, players and fans throughout his storied career.
Middleton was the long-time director of the WYMT Mountain Basketball Classic and served as a board member for several organizations in Kentucky’s Appalachian region, including: the Center for Rural Development, One East Kentucky, Alice Lloyd College, Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, East Kentucky Leadership Foundation, the Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky and the Kentucky Associated Press.
As someone, who has known Middleton for over 30 years, I can say that he is well-deserving of this award.
Now to touch on a few other topics before I conclude this column.
• I got a press release the other day from a group called Trace One that had some data on farming and female farmers in particular that I found quite interesting. It noted that women now make up over one-third of all United States farmers.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, there are currently 1.2 million female farmers in the U.S., making up 36.3 percent of all producers. These women manage 407 million acres of land and contribute $222 billion in agricultural sales.
So how does Whitley County compare? Trace One noted that 54.2 percent of Whitley County farms are female-operated, meaning that at least one producer is a woman. Meanwhile, 33.6 percent of all Whitley County producers are women. There are a total of 270 female producers in Whitley County and 258 female-operated farms out of 476 in the county.
In other words, farming definitely isn’t just a man’s world.
To see the full Trace One report got to https://www.traceone.com/resources/plm-compliance-blog/states-leading-the-rise-of-female-farmers.
• More reason to stay off the sidewalks folks…LOL.
The Kentucky General Assembly has passed House Bill 15, which has been signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear. The bill lowers the age from 16 to 15 years old for people to earn their driver’s permit. State law still requires you to be 16 in order to obtain an intermediate license.
I find this bill interesting as I have known of several teenagers, who didn’t rush to get their driver’s license. Some didn’t even get them until they were in college for that matter.
I just don’t get that. I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license.
Back when I was in high school, they only gave the written part of the driver’s license exam on Mondays, which is what you took to get your driver’s permit. I turned 16 years old on a Sunday and my mom drove me to the courthouse in Barbourville the next day to take my exam.
My parents made me wait a few months before letting me go try for my driver’s license. I think I got it in May of that year.
Then it was cruising the Trademart Shopping Center all evening on Fridays and Saturdays all summer with the windows down and the radio blasting, which was the thing to do back in those days.
It was a great summer.
