Mark White

Retired district judge and U.S. Army Colonel Ronald Blaine Stewart was both an officer and a gentleman. He had this classy quality about him, but was also down to earth at the same time. Judge Stewart passed away Saturday at the age of 87. He was born and raised in Williamsburg, and served in the U.S. Army for 30 years before retiring as a military judge. Then he served three terms as a district court judge for Whitley and McCreary counties. When Judge Stewart was still on the bench, I would have the need to contact him from time to time about things, and he always took my calls or returned them if...

Change. Sure, many words can, have and will be used to describe the COVID-19 pandemic, such as awful, terrible, horrible, deadly, etc., but in terms of its impact on society, change may be the one word that sums it up best. In-person meetings changed to Zoom meetings, and many will probably stay that way. In-person classes at school turned into Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) or remote learning. Snow days are probably something that will be gone forever for students. With restaurant closures for in-person dining over the last year, the term “carry out” took on a whole new dimension. Waiting rooms and nine-month old magazines were a thing of the past if you went...

They say there are two things that you never want to see being made. Hot dogs are one and laws are the other. I can’t speak for the hot dog part of this analogy. After watching the Kentucky Senate and Kentucky House of Representatives debate many things before they finally got around to Senate Bill 274, I most wholeheartedly agree that you don’t want to see laws being made. No offense to any of our members of the Kentucky General Assembly, but one really has to seriously wonder how you men and women ever get much of anything accomplished up there in Frankfort. Fortunately, the Kentucky General Assembly did manage to get...

Last Friday night, I went to The Arena box office to pick-up my photographer’s pass for the Winger concert. What the lady at the box office came back with was a bit unique to say the least. I received a 3”x5” index card with “Photo Pass Winger” written on it with a blue Sharpie. There was a hole punched in the middle and a lanyard attached to it that I could wear around my neck. The employee apologized for the simplicity of the photo pass, but they had been busy with more pressing issues throughout the day and didn’t have time to do something fancier. I loved it! Seriously. It was 10 times...

Attention members of the Kentucky House of Representatives, let me tell you a little bit about the area around Exit 29 in southern Laurel County that is the subject of Senate Bill 274, or as us locals refer to it, north Corbin. First off, let introduce myself. I am Mark White, the managing editor of the News Journal, which is the only newspaper still located in Corbin. I have been covering news in this area for close to 30 years. While I haven’t officially lived in the Corbin city limits since I was three, I have lived around Corbin and in the greater Corbin area almost all my life. I consider...

While I have definitely gotten a lot more jaded and cynical after decades of writing about crime and destruction, I still like to believe that there are a lot more good people than there are bad people in the world. Disasters and emergencies, like our recent ice and snow storms, tend to show you a lot about what people are really like, and I think that goes a long way towards proving my theory about there being more good people out there than bad. During our multiple recent storms in addition to battling fires and helping cut trapped people out of vehicles, our local firefighters have also been busy helping remove...

The time has come for the Kentucky General Assembly to let the people decide the fate of slot machines and “historical wagering” in the commonwealth as the state’s founding fathers intended. As many of you know, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled late last year that most “historical wagering” machines used at race tracks in the state didn’t meet the state’s parimutuel wagering guidelines and are therefore illegal. The “historical wagering” machines are for all intents and purposes slot machines, which Kentucky law hasn’t allowed. Those in favor of these machines know they are slot machines. Those opposed to these machines know they are slot machines. The reason this measure is of interest...

During my college days at Eastern Kentucky University, I remember an interesting project that our staff at The Eastern Progress did one Saturday afternoon for a lifestyle page feature. Several of the staff members and a few significant others, set out on a quest to determine which restaurant had the best wings in Richmond. We went to four or five restaurants/bars in the Richmond area, which were known for having good wings. A Mexican restaurant named Pacos, Banana’s Tavern, and Madison Garden were among the places that I remember going. I think there were at least a couple of more. We would eat wings at each restaurant, then fill out a survey...

Most school children in Kentucky are learning via virtual instruction this school year. Teachers and educators are doing their best, but virtual instruction isn’t the same as in-person instruction where the teacher can just walk over to a student’s desk and help them with a problem. The sad reality is that by the time the school year ends in May or June, most students are probably going to be behind academically from where they should be, and they will have a lot of catching up to do this fall. Our teachers will have their hands full this fall trying to catch them up, which will be an uphill battle for most...

One of my fondest memories of former Williamsburg Mayor Bill Nighbert was the time we sat out around the pool at the old Williamsburg Motel for about five hours smoking cigars and waiting on a Williamsburg Police Department sting operation to go down. Two drug dealers from Indiana, I think it was, were coming down to buy a significant quantity of marijuana from what they thought was a local supplier, but it turned out to be a police confidential informant and an undercover police officer. Police officers were in the motel room next door to the room where the bust was going down, another was sitting hidden in Bill’s SUV with...