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Columnists

A Life Well-Lived: Shirley Padgett Lester (1947-2025)

Shirley Padgett Lester of Vinton went to her heavenly reward October 4. Below is the powerful eulogy her daughter Kelly Kiser wrote and calmly delivered at the memorial service...

BOB BROWN: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden “Presidency”

Permit me to think out loud as an old-fashioned person who respects authority, history, and...

JOHNNY ROBINSON: The Gratitude Perch

On the old road up Mill Mountain, part of Roanoke’s fabulous greenway system, there’s a...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part II

Contrary to what President Trump believes, I think that Lakanwal was adequately vetted before September 2021,...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part I

I read an article in the New York Post written by Ryan King on November 27 entitled...

It’s Celestial, Revolutionary, And Simply Good

by Mike Keeler Camellia sinensis came down to humans from high above.  Originally found growing on the slopes of the Himalayas, it was brought...

“Time in A Tapestry: The Power of Looking Back”

by Fred First I don’t think I ever seriously considered not driving eight hours to my forty-fifth high school reunion in Alabama this month....

Kentucky Unsettles Own House With State Support of Creationism

by H. Bruce Rinker, Ph.D. Do you recall the iconic story of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Tennessee?  It was fictionalized on the...

Green Means Go: To Myrna With Love

by Robert Adcox   The other day, while joining my fellow townsfolk in that automotive conga line known as commuting, it occurred to me that...

A Letter To My Rock – [Lucky and Sabrina recently lost their nine-year old Dobie, Rock.]

by Lucky Garvin Dear Rock, First, the vet was there that day because we called her to set you free. Ultimately it was my decision...

Stop, Look, Listen

by Hayden Hollingsworth That’s what the bars on the railroad crossing signs used to say.  It was not an idle warning.  In the early...