People

I almost never became a journalist.  The first time I attended a Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association (KIPA) Conference was the summer before my second year at Eastern Kentucky University in 2017.  I had just been hired on as the opinion’s editor at The Eastern Progress, which is the student media outlet at EKU.  KIPA is essentially a Kentucky Press Association Conference for college students. They don’t have a fancy awards banquet at the end, but they do have sessions where you can learn about different areas or topics of interest in journalism.  I remember being completely and utterly overwhelmed after my first KIPA session.  The first session I remember attending was a man who kept...

Dear boys and girls of the Tri-County area, First let me say, Merry Christmas! Ho, Ho, Ho! It is my favorite time of the year.  I am excited to tell you about a surprise I have in store for your area.  Please let this serve as my official announcement that my elf, Newsy, will be reporting for duty at the News Journal on Dec. 1.  Newsy is a special elf and a vital team member here at NP Headquarters, a.k.a North Pole. He works as one of my lead reporters in the Department of the Lists. Yes, that is right. I am talking about those lists.  Each year Newsy helps me decide which areas make...

The Whitley County FFA Chapter traveled to Eastern Kentucky University for the Kentucky River Region Fall Field Day on Oct. 19. The chapter had individuals participating in tractor driving and land judging. Students competing in land judging looked at four sites on EKU’s farm. The land judging contest involves students judging the site based on its physical characteristics such as slope, erosion, depth, and drainage issues. Students then determine its best usage capabilities from these characteristics and what conservation recommendations they would make to that site to help benefit the land most.  Tractor driving consists of students properly operating and running a tractor through a driving course. Students were evaluated on...

  The Corbin Kiwanis Club celebrated its 100th anniversary during a meeting Oct. 20 at David’s Steakhouse. Club members pose with this cake celebrating the anniversary and a copy of a News Journal special section celebrating the club’s accomplishment.      

Have you ever been in the passenger seat of a car listening to music and watching out the window when all of a sudden you feel like you have experienced the exact same scenario before? Have you had that particular déjà vu experience? My most vivid memory of experiencing déjà vu while travelling happened three years ago. I knew for a fact that I hadn’t had the exact same experience before because I was on a different continent in a place I had never visited before. It was around this time three years ago; I was less than halfway through my study abroad semester at the University of St Andrews in...

Gary and Tammy Crusenberry, of Williamsburg, announce the engagement of their daughter, Marah Lee Crusenberry, to Ben Slusher, son of Michael and Diane Slusher, of Middlesboro. Marah is a 2015 graduate of Williamsburg High School. She received her bachelors at University of the Cumberlands in 2019, and she received her masters at Liberty University in 2021. She is an Epidemiologist at the Kentucky Department of Public Health.  Ben received his bachelors at Eastern Kentucky University in 2018 and received his masters at University of the Cumberlands in 2020. He is a high school science teacher at Middlesboro High School. The two will say I do on September 4, 2021 in London. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I am directionally challenged. My family jokes that my sister got all of the navigational genes in the family. So much so, that we joke that she is Sacagawea and I am Lewis and Clark.  My lack of navigational skills is the reason I hate driving.  I am always the person who recommends carpooling because I will get lost if I am left to my own devices. Because my devices are so terrible, my dad purchased me a GPS navigation system for my birthday last month.  While I often use it for navigating to interviews and local places (because I really am that bad at directions), my...

Summer break may be over for students and staff in Williamsburg, but University of the Cumberlands Cheerleaders were on hand at Pleasant View Elementary School Friday morning to help ‘cheer’ up the students. Cheerleaders created a ‘tunnel’ for students, staff and parents to walk through on their way into the building.  Head Coach for the University of the Cumberlands’s Cheer and Dance Program RJ Conroy said the visit to the school was just the first of several visits in the area.  “We, as an athletic department, really want to get the community involved as we are coming out of all the COVID stuff,” said Conroy. “We really want to try to engage...

As a teacher’s kid, the Fourth of July marked the beginning of the end of summer. It was at that point every summer, that my mom, who teaches English and language arts, would start uttering the infamous words, “I need to go to school to get my classroom ready.”  Any child who has grown up with a teacher in their household knows what that means.  It means summer is over, and you will be spending the next several weeks in that person’s classroom hanging posters, moving tables (multiple times because they decided that the first place they put it really was probably the best place for it to be), cleaning white boards,...