Mark White

Another Nibroc celebration is in the books, and it was a good one as usual. While temperatures were warm this year, it wasn’t scorching hot. Overall, the weather cooperated to help make for a great festival again this year. Whether it was musical acts, good food, carnival rides or various sporting events, such as the volleyball and pickleball tournaments, this year’s festival truly had a little something for everyone. Kudos to the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, its Executive Director Bruce Carpenter, tourism, the downtown program, police, fire, public works, sanitation, the street department and numerous departments and people too numerous to name for a job well done. Most people don’t realize all...

If you could resurrect tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer and have him script a government meeting, then it would probably look and sound an awful lot like the London City Council meeting Monday night. The London City Council members introduced a measure wanting to remove Mayor Randall Weddle from office over a slew of accusations. Weddle fired back with accusations of his own. There was yelling and shouting from the audience. Believe I heard a few boos in there too. Lawyers have been hired. The only thing it needed to be an episode of the Jerry Springer Show was somebody being accused of impregnating someone else’s girlfriend or wife and a couple of...

So last Wednesday’s online story about the outcome of a child pornography possession trial certainly drew a lot of passionate comments on our Facebook page. At last count, there were more than 50 comments. For those that don’t know, a Whitley Circuit Court Jury acquitted a Corbin man on all 200-plus counts of possession of a matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. The images were found on his computer. (You can read the story in this week’s edition of the News Journal, by the way.) Defense attorney Cliff Wilson successfully argued to the jury that just because you have pictures of naked children on your computer doesn’t necessarily mean...

If you are Facebook friends with teachers, school employees, school volunteers, coaches, assistant coaches or school resource officers among other people, then chances are you have seen their posts about Senate Bill 181. I think it is fair to say that most are not a big fan of it. They have valid reasons to be upset. For those that don’t know, Senate Bill 181 went into effect on June 27 and sets new requirements for how school employees and volunteers communicate electronically with students. Teachers, school employees, volunteers, assistant coaches, school resource officers and a few others can no longer text students. They can’t be friends with them on social media...

Sometimes there is nothing like the retirement of a colleague to make you feel pretty darn old. Case in point, long time Lexington Herald Leader reporter Bill Estep retired at the end of June after working 40 years at the Herald Leader and 42 years in journalism overall. Bill was an institution. He manned the Herald Leader’s bureau in Somerset covering southern and eastern Kentucky for much of his career in addition to stints he had as the Frankfort Bureau chief for the paper and its special projects reporter. If there was a major event or a major happening in this portion of the state whether it was a natural disaster or...

When you were a little kid, Father’s Day shopping wasn’t very hard. You would make your dad a homemade card or something and your mom would go out and get him a new necktie or bottle of aftershave lotion or something along those lines. When you get to be an adult, you might get your dad something useful, such as a leaf blower. (Remember to pick out one that you like and might want to borrow or possibly have re-gifted to you a year or two later…LOL.) However, when your dad gets up into his senior years – if you are fortunate enough to still have him around – getting him...

A few years back, after the News Journal qualified to get a Kentucky Press Association summer intern, I was going through a stack of about 20 resumes and one of them will forever standout and not for good reasons. The college student listed only one reference, “mom.” There wasn’t even a name for the reference, just “mom” listed. I also remember that she had a vehicle, but did not possess a valid license, which was a little odd in and of itself. Suffice it to say that we did not even call her to interview for the position. We have had a few summer interns that have stood out over the years....

“War, uh, yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again,” Edwin Starr sang in the 1970 number one hit song “War, which was a renowned anti-Vietnam War anthem. One could say much the same thing about tornadoes, like the ones that ripped through Laurel County and five other counties on May 16-17. Statewide the tornadoes on that date killed 19 people, including 17 in Laurel County alone. The EF-4 tornado in Laurel County also damaged an estimated 1,500 homes and tore apart countless lives. As of May 30, 280 of those homes were classified as totally destroyed, 195 homes had major damage, 133 homes were classified with minor...

Of all the disasters that strike, I have never been able to make much sense out of tornadoes. When you have heavy rains, rivers flood all around them. A wildfire consumes pretty much everything in its path until it runs out of fuel or is extinguished. Tornadoes are a different beast entirely. I just don’t get the randomness. When the meteorological conditions get just right, a tornado will form in one spot but not in another spot a mile away. Sometimes a tornado will level one house but the house next door to it will only have a couple of roof shingles blown off at worst. Other times tornadoes will level pretty much...

Misconceptions. People have a lot of them, which is pretty evident based on some of the comments we get on social media to stories that we have posted. Let me offer a few examples. A couple of weeks ago we had a story about the old King’s Truck Stop property at Exit 29 in Southern Laurel County being annexed into the Corbin city limits. Devin McKeehan wrote on Facebook, “City of Corbin isn’t going to do anything with it. The city can’t even fix the streets and sidewalks downtown.” Lue Anne wrote, “Can’t wait for another gas station.” Danny Clark wrote, “I’ve watched the city of Corbin since the 70s. They will not do...