Mark White

If you ever get the chance to employ one of your former teachers, then I highly recommend giving it a try. Several years back, Lillian Babb, who was my high school journalism teacher for two years, my sophomore English teacher and my senior German teacher, did some freelance writing for us here at the News Journal. She would print out her stories and bring them in for me to proofread. I would sit at my desk smiling as I would mark up her stories as she watched. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?” she jokingly asked me one day. “Yes I am!” I replied back to the laughter of both of us. (My only regret...

It appears a lot of folks have caught on to something that local residents have known for a long time, which is that Cumberland Falls is a great place to visit. Cumberland Falls State Resort Park recently won a Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award for 2024. It’s a pretty big deal. “This prestigious honor places the park among the top 10 percent of attractions worldwide, thanks to your fantastic reviews and support. Come experience the breathtaking beauty of the ‘Niagara of the South’ and discover why we’re a must-visit destination,” Kentucky State Parks wrote in a release. According to Tripadvisor’s website, the Traveler’s Choice award recognizes businesses that earn consistently great reviews. The...

Although I have seen slightly larger crowds in the Corbin Arena parking lot for Independence Day festivities, I still thought there was a good turnout for the event and a nice fireworks show last week. The event featured a lot of things aimed at children, including bounce houses and an inflatable slide with water running down it. There were also a nice variety of food trucks on hand. My only suggestion for next year would be to be to bring back the foam party that they had a few years ago. The foam dance floor was pretty well packed anytime that I saw it with no line to speak of and...

I’ve always told my dad that if you have to have a birthday on a holiday, then he has a really good one on the Fourth of July, which is a day to celebrate our country’s independence. Most people have the day off. You have picnics and family gatherings. The day usually concludes with bright colorful fireworks displays in the night skies. For most folks, it isn’t hard to have a good time on Independence Day. However, most folks doesn’t mean everyone. This is especially true for many of our veterans, who have served in our armed forces to keep our country’s independence. Many veterans – particularly ones who have served in combat zones...

The next 12 months and the following few years should be an exciting time in Corbin as the city sees one of the biggest expansions ever of its city limits, and significant development along the Exit 29 corridor, which may finally help it reach its full potential. The Corbin City Commission officially took the first step last week to annex the right-of-way along the Exit 29 corridor from the KY-770 bridge to “malfunction junction,” which is technically known as the junction of US25E and US25W. The ordinance also annexes the right-of-way along I-75 from the Whitley County line up to Exit 29. This ordinance will annex a total of 143.426 acres...

This fall, my wonderful wife, Cecelia, and I will celebrate our 20-year wedding anniversary, but Tuesday marked another special date in our relationship. It marked the 20th anniversary of me popping the question and asking her to marry me. We had been dating for about seven months at the time. Cecelia knew that a few weeks earlier I had been out looking at engagement rings, but somehow it never dawned on her that I was planning to pop the question. (Go figure.) I asked her to marry me on the same day that I bought the ring. I left work early on a Friday to drive up to this jewelry store in...

Sometimes the things that people get riled up over on social media can be quite interesting. For instance, take a recent story about Corbin officials urging people to cut their grass before the code enforcement officer had to cite them for it being too high. It was a story that we didn’t have room for in our printed newspaper that week, so we put it up on our website and social media as web only content. (Having more stories than you can fit into the newspaper can be a nice problem to have sometimes…LOL.) As of Monday morning, there had been over 250 Facebook comments on that story that covered a broad...

Congratulations to new Corbin Tourism Director Nancy Conley, who was hired during a Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission special meeting last Wednesday. About 15 years ago, Conley started at the bottom working as the receptionist for Berea tourism, and has worked her way up there to managing a department with 11 people. She has big shoes to fill replacing Maggy Monhollen, who left Corbin Tourism in March to become general manager at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, but I suspect she will be up to the challenge. Conley’s first day will be June 10, and officials are planning to organize a reception to introduce her to the community at a later date. We...

Since my wife, Cecelia, and I got married nearly 20 years ago, we have traveled to a lot of places and seen a lot of natural and man-made beauty from the sea stacks off the coast of Oregon and the Caribbean at sunrise, to the Outer Banks along the Atlantic Ocean and some truly picturesque little harbor towns and lighthouses along the coast of Maine, plus a lot of places in between. These are some of the most beautiful places in the country, but so is southeastern Kentucky in the fall. When the leaves change colors, you won’t find too many prettier places in the world than right here at...

Wow! Saturday’s 150th running of the Kentucky Derby had one of the best finishes of any derby that I can recall watching. Mystic Dan (18-1 odds) beat out Sierra Leone (9/2 odds), to win the Kentucky Derby by a nose with third place finisher Forever Young (7-1 odds) sandwiched in between them in a photo finish. In live time, pretty much no one could tell which of the three horses had won the derby. It took a few minutes for track officials to declare Mystic Dan the winner over Sierra Leone by a nose with Sierra Leone beating out Forever Young for second by a nose. I found myself wondering for the...