Mark White

Kudos to the folks over at Cumberland Valley Electric Cooperative, the Whitley County Road Department, local fire departments and many others, who responded to the aftermath of last Saturday night’s storms. Power went out at my house in northern Whitley County about 2:08 a.m. Sunday. (I woke up when my CPAP machine for sleep apnea went off because of the power outage and looked over at my Fitbit in case anyone is wondering how I know what time it happened.) The wind was pretty wicked and I could hear tree limbs hitting the house multiple times. When my wonderful wife, Cecelia, and I went out to grab some breakfast, we were greeted...

While me and my wonderful wife, Cecelia, were watching The Price is Right Live at The Corbin Arena a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but think of my grandmother on my dad’s side. Back when I was a kid, Grannie hardly ever missed an episode of The Price is Right with Bob Barker. She watched it religiously every day on CBS at 11 a.m. if I recall the time that it aired correctly. (Truthfully, I am not sure whether it was the show she liked so well, or if my elderly grandmother just had a thing for Bob Barker. I figure that either one was a realistic possibility…LOL.) When I was...

I can still remember part of my freshman orientation at what was then Cumberland College when I started there in the fall of 1989. Back then orientation only lasted about two hours with a few administrators making short speeches. I remember a short skit or two that were presented by the student government association, which featured student government vice-president David Paul Estes, who is now owner of Whitley Broadcasting. An administrator then called our names and someone led small groups of us to meet with our freshman faculty advisors for the first time. Out of the three people in my group, I let the two young women go in front of me. Then it...

Imagine for a moment putting a bunch of teenagers in charge of guarding keys to liquor cabinets. Chances are one of three things is going to happen. You’re going to have several good ones, who are going to do what they are supposed to do and everything will be fine. There are going to be a few, who will genuinely misplace the key to the liquor cabinet. This will cause some chaos, some big searches and lots of drama trying to find keys that shouldn’t have been lost. Sometimes things will turn out alright despite the misplaced keys. Other times, those misplaced keys are going to end up in the wrong hands...

A little bit of Whitley County history happened Thursday and most people probably didn’t realize it. Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Heather Lindsay (Rowe) graduated from the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training law enforcement basic training academy, i.e., the police academy in Richmond. As her husband and fellow Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy David Rowe noted in a Facebook post, this makes Heather the first female road deputy in the history of the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department. I’ve had the privilege to get to know Heather, who spent a few years working security over at the Whitley County Judicial Center before deciding she wanted to become a road deputy. Among other duties she...

Trevor Sherman has come a long way since he first started working at the News Journal in 2011 as an advertising sales representative and delivery route driver. Over the last month, he has been named publisher of the News Journal and Journalist of the Year in the weekly division of the Kentucky Press Association’s 2024 Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers Contest. I couldn’t be prouder of him. I can’t think of anybody more deserving of the honor, and hardly anyone, who would have just assumed avoided the spotlight if at all possible. This is one of the things you have to love about Trevor. Truth be told, he would have preferred not even having...

J.E. Jones was all about doing what was best for children. This is the thing that I will probably remember most about the man, who was the longest serving board member in the history of the Whitley County Board of Education. First elected in 1985, J.E. was the third longest serving school board member in the state and he was slated to be recognized next month by the Kentucky School Board Association for his 40 years of service. Over the course of several decades covering Whitley County Board of Education meetings, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to know J.E. We often spoke about golf, which is a sport we both played...

Thursday will mark the one-month anniversary of the shooting death of 63-year-old Douglas Harless of Lily, who was killed in his home by a London Police officer as the agency was attempting to serve a search warrant in regards to a stolen weed eater. The shooting happened at 511 Vanzant Road shortly before midnight, according to Kentucky State Police. The search warrant was for 489 Vanzant Road, according to Laurel County 911 audio. The KSP Critical Incident Response Team is leading the investigation into the officer-involved shooting, which is standard procedure. There has been quite a lot of community outrage over the shooting, and there are a lot of people demanding answers...

Note: Please read this column through to the end before you start complaining... Police cruisers aren’t cheap and have to be replaced every few years. By the time you factor in lights, sirens, radios and other related equipment, you are looking at tens of thousands of dollars for each vehicle. Plus, there is the cost to fill them up with fuel. Maybe we should do away with most police cruisers, and just let officers walk their beats most of the time instead. I mean, in a small city it is potentially doable. Police officer bulletproof vests or body armor, which also has to be replaced periodically, isn’t cheap either. In order...

During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, there was a bombing in Centennial Olympic Park. Security guard Richard Jewell discovered a backpack with pipe bombs inside and helped evacuate the area. Initially, Jewell was hailed as a hero, but soon after, it was leaked that the law enforcement was treating Jewell as a suspect, although Jewell was never officially charged. A popular theory was that Jewell might have secretly planted the device so he could find it and be seen as a hero. A lot of people thought that they JUST KNEW that he did it. One news anchor said speculation was that the FBI was close to making a case. After about...