Trent Knuckles

About a week and a half before his tragic, untimely death, I sat right next to Bill Hoover. We were both visiting a friend who has had some health struggles of late. He was there before I arrived. When I walked in, I wasn’t really sure he’d remember who I was. I felt that way every time I met him. I immediately offered to come back another time. I didn’t want to interrupt his meeting. He’s one of those people in our community I just felt like should be treated with a bit of reverence. I’m not originally from Corbin, but I’m keenly aware of his well-deserved status in our community. Anyway,...

For several years now, the Corbin Independent School System has managed The Corbin Center for Technology and Community Activities — which they renamed, for sake of simplicity, THE CORBIN CENTER. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s the building right below the arena next to Tri-County Cineplex. Recently, the school system notified the city of Corbin — the owner of the facility — that they would no longer being overseeing The Corbin Center after mid-August. In my opinion, The Corbin Center is a crown jewel in our town. There are very few facilities quite like it in this area. I’d wager that just about everyone that lives in the city of Corbin has...

The whole cryptocurrency thing … I just don’t get it. I consider myself a reasonably savvy guy when it comes to technology and its use in our culture. I pay attention to trends and listen to tech news regularly. But I have yet to get my mind around this stuff, no matter how much I read and hear about it. I especially do not understand the concept of investing in the various, highly volatile cryptocurrency exchanges as any sort of viable strategy to increase or maintain wealth. I call it “funny money.” Let me digress. Cryptocurrency, in case you aren’t aware, is essentially money (currency) that is NOT backed or endorsed by a...

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell claims he will introduce a bill that would make the purchase of tobacco products illegal for anyone younger than 21-years-of-age. I’ll give my thoughts on that. But first, a personal story. I started smoking cigarettes when I was 16-years-old. Initially, it was like a “oh, I only do this when I am playing cards” type thing. But as anyone who has had a nicotine addiction knows, it’s not long before it grabs hold of you and you are smoking much more often than you care to admit. By the time I’d gotten to college, I was smoking about half a pack a day. I did have enough self-control not...

I’m convinced there is a certain percentage of people who do things simply because other people would prefer they didn’t. Call it an oppositional-defiant streak. I remember a case, when I was on the city of Corbin’s Code Enforcement Board, where someone we had cited for property maintenance violations was so enraged that they threatened to paint a bunch of commodes pink and sit them on the edge of their property, by the roadway, as a form of protest. It’s a case of doing something just because you can, and because it will irritate others. It’s juvenile and silly, but common. Weekly I read stories about pit bull dogs attacking, maiming and killing...

When I was a kid, I loved jukeboxes. They were regular fixtures, particularly in pizza places. I remember going to Pizza Hut and begging my mom and dad to give me a little money for the jukebox so I could play a song I liked. “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band was always one of my favorites. They didn’t approve of that song, but I’d always pick it anyway. The modern day equivalent of the old jukebox, which is fairly popular in bars, restaurants and other establishments, is called TouchTunes. All the music on TouchTunes is digital, of course. The brilliant concept with it is the fact that you can download an...

Gotta brag just a little this week. For the third straight year, the News Journal was named best newspaper, among large weekly publications in Kentucky, at the Kentucky Press Association annual convention last month. This is a big deal to those in our profession. Our category is super-competitive. This is no small feat. Our staff works hard, week in and week out, to bring you the best newspaper we possibly can. Individually, News Journal staff members took home awards 22 awards in categories like news writing, photography, headline writing, opinion, layout and design, etc. It’s no small task putting out a newspaper. It takes people dedicated to their profession with a...

I know I’m probably in the minority when I say I prefer my coverage of local sports to be as free from bias as possible. Give it to me straight, no chaser. I like reading/hearing interviews with opposing players and coaches. I like honest analysis of in-game strategy rather than reverent fawning and incessant whining about refs. We are all for the hometown, let’s just stipulate to that. With that out of the way, I like my coverage pure. No fluff. Or at least, it should appear that way. You see, there is a fine art to being a “homer” journalist. It takes a delicate touch and the proper sensibility. You have to...

From time to time, I get complaints from readers about the content of the News Journal’s editorial page. A few surfaced regarding last week’s editorial cartoon commenting on the whole “build the wall” controversy. I just assume sometimes everyone understands that, on an OPINION page, the whole idea is you are going to see some opinions you agree with, and some you don’t. It’s no secret this newspaper, on our editorial page, shades to the conservative side of the political spectrum. We did, after all, start out as The Whitley Republican. So most of the cartoons I choose to run reflect that stance. However, I do like to mix it up from...

I get a lot of interesting email. Over two decades in media with the same email address the entire time gets you put on a lot of people’s distribution lists. This week, I got one about climate change (i.e. global warming) that piqued my interest. For those who don’t believe it is a real thing, or that people have anything to do with it, none of this is going to really matter much. Everyone else might find this worth reading. A study, conducted by a solar installation company, found that only about half of Kentuckians (52 percent) would be prepared to make any significant lifestyle changes whatsoever to help alleviate the issue. Broken...