Mark White

When it comes to former 82nd Rep. Charlie Siler, ex-News Journal Publisher Trent Knuckles may have summed it up best one time. Trent had gone to a Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport Board meeting and Charlie was on the board. I don’t remember what was happening that prompted Trent to go to the meeting, which we usually don’t cover. At one point during the meeting, Charlie spoke up on whatever topic it was. Everyone at the meeting intently listened to everything Charlie had to say. When telling the story, Trent paraphrased the old E.F. Hutton commercial and said simply, “When Charlie Siler talks, people listen.” For those that didn’t know him, Charlie Siler was a...

Stranger danger. It’s what us adults tend to warn kids about. Beware of the stranger in the park, who offers you candy or wants you to help them look for their lost puppy. Beware of the weirdo driving the van with no windows. He might pull up along beside you while you are on the sidewalk and kidnap you. Yes, these are all legitimate dangers that children need to be educated about. However, the odds of a child being molested by a stranger is actually pretty slim. Someone known and trusted by the child or the child’s family members, perpetrates 91 percent of child sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and...

Elvis. Prince. Madonna. Beyonce. You need only say one name and everyone knows who you are talking about. Much the same can be said, if one simply utters the name “Maggy” in Corbin. Pretty much anyone, who is familiar with Corbin over the past decade, will know exactly who you are talking about and that is Corbin Tourism Commission Executive Director and Corbin Downtown Manager Maggy Monhollen. In her 10 years as tourism director, Maggy has done an amazing job whether it be creating new events, like Colonelfest, seeking out grant money for projects or overseeing efforts to build the new farmer’s market pavilion in Corbin among other things. She is one of the...

Laws. Why do we even bother to have them? Let’s take stealing for instance. Unless you have some type of mental defect, then you know that stealing from someone is wrong. The vast majority of folks in the world are pretty good people, and don’t steal from others. This isn’t to say that no one steals. We put laws in place, in part, so there are safeguards to discourage people from doing the wrong thing, such as stealing. Sometimes, we need laws to punish them when they do the wrong thing. Think of our laws like guardrails, which are meant to keep society from careening off the proverbial cliff. Is this example a...

One can make a very valid argument that the Corbin Arena has turned into THE place to see a concert in not only in southeastern Kentucky, but also all across the Appalachian region. The Corbin Arena was recently named the 2024 Best Large Music Venue (501 seats or greater) during the Appalachian Arts Entertainment Award’s ceremony. This isn’t a statewide award but rather one for the Appalachian region, which includes: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee Virginia and West Virginia. If that isn’t enough, this is the second time in three years that the Corbin Arena has won the award. Kudos to Corbin Arena General...

My wonderful wife, Cecelia, got me a really great birthday present back in January that I got to enjoy Saturday afternoon. It was tickets to the University of Kentucky vs. the University of Tennessee basketball game in Knoxville. The mid-level seats were pretty good and had a nice view of the court. (The exception being the two Tennessee fans seated right in front of me, who kept standing up during much of the game…LOL.) It was a great game with UK ahead for much of it. At times they were up by a pretty comfortable margin. Before the game ever started, I told Cecelia that I thought this one was probably...

On the front page of our newspaper, you see stories about various BIG things happening in the community each week. On our inside pages you will see stories about some of the bigger things that also happened during the week. Many times there is also a lot of smaller stuff we hear about that we might not have time to turn into a full blown news story. Often times there is also the issue of not having room to fit all of the stories that we have in the newspaper. For such a small area, we have a surprising amount of things happening. I thought I would use my column this week...

Intoxicated drivers seldom get jail time, at least not in first-offense driving while under the influence cases. This is a fact that I suspect will surprise, and probably infuriate, a lot of people, but it’s true at least here locally. First-offense driving while under the influence is a misdemeanor offense. The maximum sentence that you can get for it is 30 days in jail, but most people usually don’t get anywhere near that. I write this in response to a comment made on one of our social media pages Friday in regards to an article about the conviction of Williamsburg attorney James Wren II on charges of driving while under the influence...

The Corbin City Commission certainly picked someone, who knows the city well as its next city manager Friday. The commission interviewed four finalists for about one hour each on two different dates before meeting Friday for about 80 minutes and selecting former mayor Scott Williamson as the person to replace Marlon Sams, who is retiring effective April 1. Scott was previously elected three consecutive times as mayor serving from 1993 until he resigned in August 2004 to take the position as Executive Director for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Over the years, he has also served in a number of other positions in Frankfort, including jobs with the Kentucky Transportation...

Last summer the News Journal had a delightful young woman, Leeann Fragosa, who interned for us. While she isn’t a journalism major, Leeann is still a good writer. She is funny and one of those people, who just kind of lifts the mood of the room when she is in it. She is personable and smart. Leeann is an education major and plans to become an elementary school teacher, which in many ways is a good thing. Society needs smart, bright young people going into education and teaching the next generations. From a personal standpoint though, a part of me always winces when I hear that an intelligent, bright young person, who...