Trevor Sherman

One of the things that has impressed me the most in recent years when it comes to our local high school and middle school students has been the overall quality of the drama productions that different area schools have produced. I have had the opportunity to see several plays and musicals, and I always walk away amazed at how well these young folks handle themselves while performing on stage in front of large crowds. Whether it be a song-and-dance number, an emotional line delivery, or some sort of offstage duty dealing with lighting, sound, props and/or costumes… I would consider all of the above to be high-pressure situations, yet these...

If you’re looking for a fun and unique way to spend a Saturday evening, and you want to support a great cause in the process, then you should strongly consider attending this year’s Rotary International Dinner, which will be taking place on April 27 at the Corbin Arena. My first International Dinner experience was last year, and I can unequivocally say that it was one of the best “foodie” events that I have ever attended. If you’re not familiar with the concept, each year the Corbin and London Rotary Clubs partner to host the dinner. The location of the dinner alternates between the two towns each year, with last year’s being...

Last fall’s SOAR Summit at the Corbin Arena placed the spotlight firmly on Corbin and Whitley County as people from all over the region converged in this area to network, educate, promote and award individuals who are out there doing great things in their respective communities. Next month, another great opportunity to do those things will present itself when the 36th Annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference comes to town. I have been following along recently with announcements concerning this year’s conference, and I am very excited to see how the event will impact the tri-counties, specifically Corbin, when it takes place April 25-26. Hosted by the City of Corbin and the...

After Whitley County’s own Eugene Siler, Sr. landed in Washington D.C. as a newly minted congressman in the United States House of Representatives in January of 1955, it didn’t take long for him to begin making an impact. After only a month on the job, Siler made waves when he was one of only three congressmen to vote against a resolution set forth by President Dwight Eisenhower. “The United States House of Representative voted 409-to-3 Tuesday in favor of President Dwight Eisenhower’s ‘fight if necessary’ far east resolution, with one of the three dissenting votes being cast by Eugene Siler, representative from Kentucky’s Eighth District,” read a report in the January...

Sometimes you just bite off more than you can chew. Such is the case with me trying to follow along with all of the current activity taking place in Frankfort during this year’s legislative session. I wrote a column a couple of weeks ago where I explained that, while my background does not include a lot of coverage of the legislative processes in this state, I felt that it would be worthwhile to try and do a deep dive into what all is being discussed in the capital by our elected officials in the House and Senate. What I have discovered is that is a full-time job all on its own. I...

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview 82nd District Representative Nick Wilson to get his thoughts after completing his first full year in the Kentucky House of Representatives. During the course of that interview, I learned more about the process of how bills become laws. I also learned that you can actually track the progress of bills in the House and the Senate online. Not having been in the position to cover legislative matters much in the past, I was unaware that anyone willing to do so can hop on the Internet, pull up the Kentucky General Assembly website (www.legislature.ky.gov), and look at each bill that is currently making its...

After a failed bid for the governor’s office in 1951, Williamsburg’s own Eugene Siler, Sr. decided to make run for a congressional seat in 1954. It was a decision that would greatly affect not only the rest of his life, but the lives of generations of Whitley Countians. “Judge Eugene Siler, Williamsburg, announced this week that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for congressman in the Eighth District,” read a report in the May 27, 1954 edition of the Whitley Republican. “A Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge from 1946 to 1949, Siler was the unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1951. He is now in his second term...

It has been quite the week, and while I have spent much of it on the road, I wanted to weigh in here with just a few random observations… First, I won’t go into any great detail, as both of the other columns on the page this week discuss it as well, but I am happy to once again be a part of the first-place winner in General Excellence for large weekly newspapers in the state of Kentucky. The staff of the News Journal brought home the award from last week’s 2023 Kentucky Press Association annual convention, which was held in Bowling Green, and all of us here were obviously...

Later this week, some of us here at the News Journal will join colleagues from all over the state as the Kentucky Press Association presents its annual winter convention and awards banquet. We are hopeful to return home with at least a few first-place awards among us, but who determines which entries are winners and which aren’t? Each year, the KPA partners with a press association from another state. In exchange for judging all of our entries, KPA members will in turn judge theirs. For the 2023 contest, folks from Wisconsin got to spend some time looking over contest submissions made by Kentucky news-papers. That means that people in Kentucky,...

Next week, the All “A” Classic state championship basketball tournaments will be held in Corbin for the very first time. For those who are not familiar with the event, trust me when I say that it is very, very difficult to overstate what an amazing opportunity this is for literally every business in our local area. I talked a little bit about this in a column that I wrote last spring, when it was first announced that the All “A” would be coming to the Corbin Arena, but now that we know which teams are going to be involved it is much easier to truly understand the scope of what...