Mark White

Simply put, the era of COVID-19 is not a good time to be in the newspaper industry. (Although for that matter, it also isn’t a good time to be in radio, the restaurant industry or pretty much any business or profession that isn’t selling Clorox or Lysol products…lol.) Numerous newspapers around the country and in Kentucky have closed during these unprecedented times. Locally, COVID-19 economics are hitting newspapers hard, too. Case in point are two area newspapers where I previously worked at early on in my career. The papers have been forced to merge their operations into one building and significantly cut back on their number of publication days in recent months. Even...

With the possible exception of those, who own stock in Clorox or Lysol, I think that we can all pretty much agree on one thing. COVID-19 stinks. First there were the business shutdowns, then the layoffs. Now we have the cancelation of events, such as NIBROC, Old Fashioned Trading Days, and fireworks celebrations and other festivities in Corbin, Williamsburg and Jellico. One bit of good news is that those, who are still wanting to celebrate Independence Day this weekend, still have multiple local options, even if some of these events aren’t as close to home. For those interested in celebrating the true meaning of Independence Day, which was the founding of the country...

A few weeks ago, I read a post that a friend of mine from college posted on his Facebook page about having “the talk” with his 10-year-old son. No, it wasn’t “that” talk…lol. This friend is black, and the talk he had with his son was what he should do if he encounters a police officer. Among other things, the talk involved discussion that some police officers will see him as a threat just because of the color of his skin. His son asked him how he could tell the difference between the good cops and the bad ones if he saw a police officer, and my friend’s response in part...

From graduations and church services to government meetings and eating out at restaurants, COVID-19 has certainly changed the way we do things, and next Tuesday’s primary election in Kentucky is no exception. Because of the coronavirus, the election is taking place in a quite a different format some of which is an improvement, quite frankly, over what we are used to. During a typical Kentucky election, you are only supposed to go vote early via absentee ballot at the clerk’s office if you are going to be out of state on Election Day, such as working elsewhere, or will be unable to go to the polls that day because of surgery...

Wearing masks. It has become a hot button topic recently with several people proclaiming that they have a right not to wear a mask and that they simply aren’t going to do it. Here are the reasons why I try to wear a mask when I go out in public settings, particularly large or crowded public settings. First, I would rather not get this virus, which can be particularly deadly and problematic for the elderly or those with underlying health conditions. While I am definitely not in the category of “elderly” quite yet, I am 49 and hope to get there one day. (Hey, getting older beats the alternative…LOL.) I also have minor...

To our recent high school and college graduates, sorry your senior years got cut short, and some of you missed out on prom and a traditional graduation ceremony. It stinks. It really does. As you have probably already figured out though, life isn’t fair. Bad things happen outside of your control. You just have to learn to deal with it, and move on. The bad news is that I can’t help you with any of that. The good news is that I can offer you some real world advise for the next chapters of your lives, which for many of you will include landing that first job or internship that will...

My fellow Whitley County residents, I am quite proud of the way you have handled things so far during COVID-19 on so many levels. For starters, let’s talk about our local churches. I have to applaud our local churches and religious leaders. Even though early on most didn’t like the idea of churches closing to in-person services due to the coronavirus, pastors did it anyway because these shepherds wanted to protect their flocks. Then our churches started getting creative. Many turned to social media to reach their congregations and others, who don’t ordinarily attend church. Several embraced the concept of drive-in church where people pulled into the church parking lot and listened to the...

What does it mean when a jail sentence is conditionally discharged or that somebody received a pretrial diversion? We occasionally get questions about what certain court terms in stories mean. I had a lady call me a few weeks ago asking about court terminology. She suggested that we consider running a glossary type listing about some of these terms on our public records page. I can’t really come up with a good way of doing a glossary on our public records page each week because of the amount of space that would take up so instead I decided to write this column about the subject in hopes of giving readers a...

In the era of COVID-19, some of our government agencies are getting creative when it comes to members maintaining social distancing while still meeting. One of the more creative approaches I have seen was the Whitley County Water District earlier this month, when the three board members met in the parking lot so that they could maintain social distancing of at least six feet. Most agencies though are going high tech in order to keep meeting so they can perform their public duties. Here are a few examples. The Corbin City Commission and the Whitley County Fiscal Court met last week utilizing Facebook Live streams to pipe the meetings to their constituents...

In case the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t real enough for everyone, it really hit home for residents of Whitley and Knox counties Monday, as each county had its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Sadly, we all know that these probably won’t be the last cases of the coronavirus that we will see locally, and the stark reality is that it is probably only a matter of time before we have our first local death from COVID-19. Chances are that it will be an elderly person, someone with a compromised immune system, or perhaps someone with both. There is a good chance it will be someone we know, maybe a friend, or a...