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Columnists

FRED FIRST: Go West At Last, Old Man

Decades of frugality have come abruptly to an end. I have made the choice to spend on myself some of what remains of that squandered but shrinking nest egg....

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Bring Back The War Department

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a prescient and heartfelt speech in Chautauqua, New York, on...

FRED FIRST: Changing of the Guard

The theme for the Lenoir Words Writers Group this month is AUTUMN. And since I...

BOB BROWN: The Truth About Lying

Everyone lies! That’s the truth. Most people are relatively honest most of the time. The average...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Hurricane Erin Is Our Future – Part II

Unfortunately, the U.S. is not the only country experiencing climate change. It is a global...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Trump’s Deal For Ukraine’s Rare Earth Minerals Is A Big Gamble

I read a prescient and insightful column in the New York Times by Gracelin Baskaran on March 4. It was entitled, “How Trump Can Turn The Ukraine Mineral...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Ukraine’s Future Is Dismal

To say that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance had much personal animosity toward President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on his state...

BOB BROWN: The Miracle of Life Even with Our Vulnerabilities

John Milton (1608-1674), considered the greatest poet of his time, composed his most famous work, Paradise Lost (1667), one of the greatest works of...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: What is Trump‘s Grand Strategy In Ending The Russo-Ukrainian War?

I fully understand President Trump‘s anger on February 19 in demanding economic concessions from Ukraine for the $350 billion, which Biden gave Kyiv since...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Renaming The Gulf Of Mexico Is A Mistake

Hurricane Helene last September 24 quickly developed from a tropical storm into a Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico within two days....

DAWN CUSTALOW: A Roanoke mountain and a winter wonderland

A Virginia version of “Almost Heaven” is where my family calls home - Mason’s Knob Mountain in the Blue Ridge of Roanoke. Not just...