Mark White

There are certain moments in your life that will forever be seared into your memory. Several years ago, I was in the office one morning when Trent Knuckles came in the door and informed us that a friend of mine had killed himself. I was in shock. I was floored. “I just spoke to him 24 hours ago!” I exclaimed. At the time, I didn’t have a clue anything was wrong. The friend and I had bumped into each other the prior day. We were both over at the courthouse waiting to speak to the same official. We hadn’t seen each other in a while. We chit chatted for probably half an hour as we...

This doesn’t have to keep happening! If you are having a baby or if you have a newborn infant at home that you just can’t take care of, then please know you have options, which would allow you to legally and anonymously surrender the newborn with no questions asked. One of these options is as close as the Corbin Fire Department. I bring this up following a recent incident in Fayette County where Lexington Police arrested a University of Kentucky student-athlete for concealing the birth of her infant child. Officers found the child dead in a trash bag inside the closet of her home. The mother allegedly admitted to officers that she...

Old Fashioned Trading Days is almost upon us so get ready to eat a ribeye steak sandwich from the Whitley County Cattlemen’s Association, check out some local craft vendors and enjoy three days of gospel, bluegrass, country or rock music in downtown Williamsburg. The 42nd Annual Williamsburg Old Fashioned Trading Days festival will take place Thursday – Saturday. The festival has grown significantly since it first started. Former WEZJ radio station co-owner Theresa Estes first founded the festival along with members of the Downtown Merchants Association in part to bring more people to downtown to shop. The festival initially got its name in part because of the old time, long dresses that the...

There is a recent Facebook meme that I love. An employee goes to Human Resources (HR) and asks if a new policy applies to him. The head of HR responds that given this employee is the reason for the policy and a few others, the answer to that question is most definitely yes. I can’t help thinking about this meme in regard to the 100 plus social media comments on a News Journal story last Wednesday about the Corbin City Commission’s plan to require a permit for people holding yard sales inside the city limits. I can’t help wondering if any of the commenters are the reason for the proposal. One part...

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...