Don Estep

You probably noticed that our News Journal name on the front page is in pink this week and we have a full page ad on A-15 about breast cancer. This is “Breast Cancer Awareness Awareness Month.” The lowest point in my life came when the doctor in Lexington told me and my wife that she had breast cancer. The tone of his voice and the look on his face was like we had been hit by a ton of bricks. He made it a point to tell us that it was very serious. After surgery, chemotherapy and 35 radiation treatments she is a 20-year survivor of breast cancer. My wife is tough....

Next week, Oct. 2-8 is designated, “National Newspaper Week.” I know, every cause has a week and they all are special. Ours is special because we want to add emphasis to our effectiveness when some may think newspapers are relics of the past. No my friend, newspapers aren’t dead. Some have closed their doors and others have taken on different forms, but the need for community newspapers like ours is still here. In March, the National Newspapers Association and NNA Foundation commissioned a survey of readers from across the country, conducted by the highly regarded Susquehanna Polling and Research team.   The study found local newspapers as the most trusted source when...

Great feedback from our sample mailing last week. Many of you took up our special offer and subscribed. During the Covid period our number of subscribers, like many other newspapers, hit a decline. Thankfully those numbers are starting to rise again. Studies show us that for a community to be its best, it is essential to have a local newspaper. Our readership has stayed strong because  we have a news staff that works hard to cover local happenings and provide you with the best possible news coverage. Thank you for subscribing to our newspaper. Now an afterthought about my trip to Italy. We traveled from one end of the country to the...

Some of you may ask why you are getting a free News Journal? It is because we want you to join the thousands of others who read our local newspaper every week as subscribers. In this edition are subscription ads for a one time special offer of $38 for a full year subscription for local subscribers. Please take advantage of this offer and you’ll stay informed about local news in the state’s number one large weekly newspaper. Now moving on, Covid curtailed my travels for two years and this year my wife and I have tried to make up for lost time. First, we went to Alaska and this week we...

My background in the newspaper field for many years had been centered on advertising sales and management until I took the job as publisher of this newspaper in 1987. That is when I first started writing. To run a successful local newspaper Al Smith, whom I worked for in London at the Sentinel-Echo for seven years, advised me that a publisher must connect with the newspaper’s subscribers and the best way to do that was through a weekly column. I remember my first attemp at writing. My sister, Bena Mae Seivers, a fantastic writer who became our most popular columnist at the News Journal, said,”Don, it is just like talking on...

I was younger than most of the people who worked in the downtown area of Corbin when I started my job as an announcer and sportscaster at radio station WCTT 61 years ago. Now I am older than most who work in this area as I approach my 83rd birthday this Friday. My wife and I both have birthdays this week. We have been married 58 years and we celebrate each year with a night out at a local restaurant. If asked which I would prefer, how it was then as to how it is now in the downtown area, I would answer how it was then. There were a...

Seventy years! There are several of us that were here to attend the first Nibroc Festival 70 years ago. Personally, I have attended 65 of the 69. Those of us that were here for the first festival remember it well. The carnival was on the lot at the corner of Main and 7th Street where the building with the “Welcome to Corbin” sign is located. The Nibroc Festival has gone through several phases. The first phase was mostly a hometown affair with local businesses and local citizens taking part. That lasted until businesses started leaving the downtown area with moves to the new Trademart Shopping Center. I liked this phase of the...

WOW! We have been truly overwhelmed with the response today to our EKY Disaster Relief Donation Drive! That is the opening sentence from the post by the Corbin Arena on Facebook. The same outstanding response can be applied to numerous people and towns, not from just Kentucky, but from across the nation. I read a post where a group from Georgia were making their way to eastern Kentucky with supplies. As bad as the flood in eastern Kentucky has been, and it was bad beyond description, the response of the people has been equally good. Everything that is being done is out of the goodness of the hearts of people. You can...

Hopefully, the recently formed Corbin Historic Preservation Board will be successful in its attempt to establish a historical district. Unfortunately, the “sins” of the past have left them little to work with. Unlike Williamsburg, which has done a good job of establishing historical registrations through its Historical Preservation Commission, Corbin has little left, for whatever reasons, of places that would today be considered monuments of the past. I called them “sins” of the past, but at the time some of the great buildings I recall that are now gone probably had good reasons for change. It could have been the cost of updating was too much, or new businesses needed expansion...

July is our hottest month in Kentucky. Although it is going to be hot for the next several days, it is nothing unusual and it is not due to climate change. Climate change is having its effect all over the world with record setting heat levels, but our summer heat is one thing and climate change is another. Climate change may be responsible for the heat and fires, plus many other devastating effects, but when it is the month of July it is always hot. We learned a long time ago that air conditioning is necessary to deal with the heat. The Europeans  aren’t equipped for the heat that is taking...