Mark White

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...

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 2024, such as the completion of a mural dedicated to Nibroc, a Corbin JROTC cadet recognized for saving a man’s life, a proposed Williamsburg housing development for senior citizens, and the inaugural Honey Festival in Williamsburg. Here are a few of some of the other interesting headlines from 2024 that didn’t quite make the...

A little while back, a post on the Corbin Police Department’s Facebook page caught my attention. It was about Sgt. Jeff Hill, who had encountered a young boy, whose bicycle had broken down after its chain came off. Hill along with Cpl. Will Stewart quickly stepped in to fix the issue. Then Patrolman Justin Walker, Patrolman Jarrett Carr and Patrolman First Class Chris Brown made sure he was safely back on the road. Hill noticed that the boy’s bike was worn out and in rough shape. After a discussion with Chief Rusty Hedrick, the Corbin Police Department went the extra mile and surprised the young boy with a brand-new bicycle and...

One thing about doing journalism in a small town compared to some place bigger is that in a small community – like it or not – you are going to directly get feedback from time to time about what you write. For instance, take Thanksgiving Day. I had driven down to Williamsburg to cover the annual Turkey Trot 5k, and stopped off at a local convenience store on my way home to get something to drink. I am looking in one of the aisles when I hear one of the female clerks tell the other female clerk, “You can’t do anything without it being all over the News Journal!” or words...

A couple of years ago, my wonderful wife, Cecelia, decided that she wanted us to get each other “experiences” for Christmas. Since she is always complaining about being cold, I bought her a heater. It is one of those small, oscillating tower things. I told her the “experience” was warmth. She rolled her eyes, but each winter she keeps it plugged in blowing hot air at her while she is sitting on the loveseat in our living room watching television. (FYI-she got some other experiences too that year, like tickets to the musical “Cats.”) Last year, she wanted more “experiences.” You guessed it. I bought her a second little heater that she keeps...

The number of television broadcasters that I’ve met and worked with personally over 30 plus years in journalism, who I consider to be first-rate journalists, can be counted on two hands with maybe a finger or two leftover. WYMT General Manager Neil Middleton is near the top of that very short list. I first got to know Neil when I broke into journalism locally after college. At the time Neil had already been the Cumberland Valley bureau chief for WYMT for a few years. Neil was probably about 30 years old or so then and “the veteran” of the fairly young contingent of journalists that covered the local area and a guy...