Mark White

The Christmas spirit seems to be plentiful this year in Williamsburg. Let’s look at a few examples. Williamsburg Main Street Manager Nannie Hays informed me after the parade Saturday night that judges were going back to look at homes and businesses again in an attempt to break a tie in some of the categories for the annual “Williamsburg Feels Like Home Christmas Decorating Contest.” Wow. In the 14 year history of the decorating contest, this is the first time I have ever heard of that happening. I thought Saturday’s “2018 Feels Like Home Christmas in a Small Town” Parade went great. It was a little colder than I would have liked, but...

The Whitley County Fair returned last week after a one-year absence with a new fair board and some new events. Considering that this was pretty much a rebuilding year for the fair, I thought it went really well. Friday night’s mud bog probably drew hundreds of people for some clean, yet muddy fun. For those that don’t know, a mud bog is where a four-wheeler or some other four-wheel drive vehicle drives through a mud filled pit with the fastest driver winning. In the case of some mud bogs, this actually turns into who can make it the furthest without getting stuck in the pit and having to be pulled out, which from...

Suicide. The recent deaths of famous chef Anthony Bourdain and famed fashion designer Kate Spade certainly has people talking about issue. Netflix recently came out with season two of its hit series “13 Reasons Why,” which revolves around the death of a teenage girl, her reasons for killing her self, and the aftermath on those around her. It doesn’t just happen in Hollywood, on television or in the movies. Suicide is a very real problem whether it is teenagers, celebrities, veterans or every day people. Many of us have been affected by the suicide of someone we know. Several years ago, I bumped into a friend of mine, who I hadn’t talked with in...

Last week marked an interesting milestone for me professionally speaking. I have now been working as a professional journalist for 25 consecutive years. It has been a wild and crazy ride. To say the least, it has not been an ordinary life. I have met and interviewed every Kentucky governor since Brereton Jones. There have also been United States senators, congressmen and a few celebrities too, such as Academy Award winning actress Julianne Moore. My favorite interview that I ever did was probably with then Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Stephens, which took place a few years after he wrote the famous decision declaring Kentucky’s funding system for public education as...

After a historical marker dedication, an ice cream social, a tour of historic homes, a parade and concerts among other events, Williamsburg’s month long bicentennial celebration is over. Whitley County was founded in January 1818, and Williamsburg was selected as the county seat in April 1818, which is what prompted the recent month-long bicentennial celebration. Organizers took this celebration of the town’s history seriously, and put together a series of great events that culminated last week. A pioneer historical encampment and an American Revolutionary War encampment were set up Thursday evening, and offered tours for school children throughout the day Friday and to the public on Saturday to teach them a little...

Dear Gov. Matt Bevin, let me tell you a little something about my dad, who is a retired teacher. You’d like him if you knew him. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. My dad, Mike White, was definitely the breadwinner in our household. He was a high school social studies teacher, which is a job he did faithfully for 28 years. He was one of those teachers, who always got there early, and he often stayed late. He tried to make learning interesting by incorporating things like movies and documentaries that were relevant to the topics being covered in class, such as the movie “Glory” about the first African American regiment...

Back when I was in high school in the 1980s, lots of students had rifles and shotguns in their trucks. I’m sure there were a few pistols in glove boxes too. Several of the guys and maybe a few of the girls at Lynn Camp carried pocket knives. One day I remember my biology teacher asking the class if anyone had a pocket knife. She wasn’t searching for weapons. She just needed to cut something. Strange thing was that despite the presence of weapons relatively close by, we never had a shooting or stabbing at school. Even the biggest redneck outlaw in school wouldn’t have done that. We knew there were some...

You just can’t fit all the news from a year into a top 10 list, like the one running on our front page in this week’s edition of the News Journal. Sure, we get the big news events in there, but that doesn’t mean there still weren’t quite a few other interesting and memorable news stories in 2017, such as a naked streaker outside a local school or “Trophy Gate” as I affectionately dubbed it about some old trophies getting tossed in a dumpster at a different local school. Here are a few of some of the other interesting headlines from 2017 that didn’t quite make the top 10 list this...

VFW Post 3167 wants to be annexed into the Williamsburg city limits. The Williamsburg City Council is likely to vote on the matter in early 2018, but before they sign off on that request they need to ask some tough questions and insist on satisfactory answers. Unless you live under a rock, nearly everyone in small town America knows that certain veterans’ organizations have historically sold alcohol at their facilities. (Yeah, I know it’s a real shock…LOL). For all intents and purposes these are illegal bars. In the case of VFW Post 3167, they have historically had a really nice bar area that would be the envy of many restaurants. We have...

When I became a professional journalist nearly 25 years ago, there were a lot of things that I expected to cover. Some of it was somewhat exciting, such as car wrecks and fires. Other things not so much so, such as beauty pageants and government meetings. Over the years, I have learned to expect the unexpected as Whitley County just seems to be a magnet for the weird and oddball. There are just some things that you can’t imagine that you would ever be covering in a small town and Monday night happened to be one of those. I spent two hours covering a presentation that Kentucky State Police were giving to...