Q: What is more important, to have good health so that we can earn a good living or have a strong economic base so that we can have money to pay for good health care? This has been a big debate in our society recently. — H.W.
Dear Governor Beshear and Lieutenant Governor Coleman:
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But it's more than a bit ironic that in a $23-$24 billion budget, the way legislators have chosen to "save" money is to make it more difficult for taxpayers to see how they are spending all that money in the first place.
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The General Assembly is currently in session, and that means every resident of the Commonwealth needs to be paying attention to what is going on in Frankfort. House Bill 195 proposes a public notice solution that is inefficient at best, and a train wreck for transparency.
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Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling has lost the trust of the community and his legal reputation is stained. It is the consensus opinion of this newspaper’s editorial board that he should resign and vacate his elected office immediately.
"Hendricks for South Western Kentucky" doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "Hendricks for Hoptown," but it is evident that naming Hopkinsville's mayor the new executive director of the regional economic development council could benefit all three counties the organization serves.
No one could have foreseen the abrupt shuttering of the city's prized bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite International last week. However, we are fortunate to see the Christian County community rally with grace and gumption around those affected.
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Historically, newspaper editorial boards across the country have offered recommendations to their readership as to who they believe is best fit to represent and serve their communities. The Kentucky New Era has participated in this practice for some time.
Young talent matters and more communities are doing what it takes to attract and retain young professionals to work, live and play.
Last weekend, over 29,000 people swarmed downtown Hopkinsville for the fourth annual Summer Salute Festival. The food and music were great, but the festival made one thing very clear.
Hopkinsville Community College is shining bright like a diamond after a series of recent big announcements.
Last week, Hopkinsville Chief Administrative Officer Troy Body announced that the city is planning to form a mass foreclosure committee in order to shave down the stack of code enforcement liens on abandoned properties around town.
Church. It's a place for the brokenhearted and the redeemed; a place for the newest babes and the oldest saints; it's a place where people go to feel safe, a place they trust won't abuse its power or take advantage of them when they're weak. The story of churches doing the latter isn't new, …
Every time Christian County Public Schools releases its annual discipline report, eyebrows raise and conclusions are drawn. From the students to the administrators to the parents, everyone looks for someone to blame for the number of suspensions, but let's look a little closer to determine w…
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This week, the Kentucky New Era began publishing salary data in regard to public officials in Christian County, Hopkinsville, Oak Grove and in the public school system.
Last week, the New Era reported that former Hopkinsville High School band director Jordan Seth Peveler had been arrested on three felony charges -- one count of unlawful transaction with a minor (second degree), sodomy (third degree) and rape (third degree) -- and booked into Christian County Jail.
Is it possible to not realize your own happiness? Or, when looking back, do you see it only because of nostalgia, wrapped up in the lie of “the good old days”?
One of my favorite Facebook reposts is about how young people are just so fickle. "Back in my day," it may begin. "If something was broke, we'd fix it."
One of my favorite Facebook re-posts is about how young people are just so fickle. “Back in my day,” it may begin. “If something was broke, we’d fix it.”
It’s a cold Friday morning in November. I’m bundled up, belly full of turkey, waiting in the front of a line outside of a department store.
Elkton rep’s proposed open records overhaul not in the best interest of Kentuckians
In honor of Hopkinsville’s finest, our community showed strong support for a hometown hero this week. The event served a reminder that those who put their lives on the line for the well-being of others deserve our appreciation each and every day.
I’m sitting at my desk squeezing a stress ball that looks like a baseball. It’s early and no one has made it into the office yet.
Through our lives, we make our own choices, but our experiences shape how we react to the world. They shape us into who we will eventually become.
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With all of the crazy in the news today, some of it the news’ own doing and self-inflicted wounds, I wanted to use this opportunity to thank you for reading your community newspaper. Your support has never been more important.
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I have to write. It's how I express myself and what I’m feeling. Words and characters, strung together in deliberate order, are the means by which I decompress and bring myself to fully understand the world around me.
Star rating: 3/5
Friends and colleagues, in the proud tradition of newspapering, I do not wish to be accused of burying the lead of a big story.
It was a day in my newspaper career that will live in infamy.
Success breeds imitation. Imitation makes convention. Convention is the sire of tradition. Unfortunately, tradition spawns purists.
Nothing should surprise me anymore.
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A Hopkinsville High School student was arrested Aug. 23 after an altercation with the school resource officer.
If President Donald Trump has declared war on the free press of this great nation, don’t bother picking sides. Save your popcorn and put away the DVR.
Everybody knows somebody somewhere who doesn’t worry about worrying too much.
There’s no place like home.
Lately, the same crazy dream is keeping me up at night.
Nobody in this great big world is a bigger Elvis fan than Walker McCutcheon.
Forty-four years have passed in just the blink of an eye.
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Through his life’s work as a celebrated artist and sculptor, the late Steve Shields is going to live forever.
Don’t read this alone in the dark. That thing under your bed might get anxious. The monsters that come to life when the lights go out would know. The dead-eyed woman on the ceiling above you might get angry.
Jimmy Carter might not be my favorite president, but it’s near to impossible not to like somebody who saw a UFO and doesn’t lie about it.
It was one of the greatest moments of my life, even if it did kind of fizzle out and end with the hero — ME — playing second fiddle to an Army bugle call and Old Glory.
Give “Forrest Gump” some credit for teaching me to appreciate an important life lesson.
The words of Ralph Waldo Emerson always inspire me in times of loss and sympathy.
Everybody who’s gotten behind the wheel of a car is guilty of it.
If disappointment were a currency, the people who have believed in me along the way would be driving European sports cars on the way to their waterfront villas.
Not many people know it, but the FBI put me in my place a long time ago.
Former U.S. Attorney and liberal activist Preet Bharara caught my eye with a tweet last week: “What if Jeff Bezos bought Twitter with the change in his pocket and shut Trump’s account?”
The road to becoming president of Hopkinsville Community College has been long for Dr. Alissa Young, but it was a journey of inspiration, compassion and growth.
Every April, after spring has actually sprung, a cheerful little flower pops up all over town and reminds me of a cherished heritage that never fails to put a lump in my throat.
Opinion stories from our sister publications
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Speak not ill of the dead, I was taught in Sunday school. I respect that. But if I couldn’t eulogize Rush Limbaugh, who died Wednesday, without such pinpoint descriptions as bloviating, racist, misogynist, neo-fascist gasbag, I think good ol’ Rush would be disappointed in me, wherever he is.
If you’ve tried to get a COVID-19 vaccine appointment, you know how frustrating the process can be. People are spending hours obsessively refreshing websites, hoping an appointment will open up somewhere. They scan Facebook groups for tips and insider information. One writer compared it to S…
Kentucky’s craft beer industry has enjoyed tremendous success in recent years thanks to the hard work of brewers, distributors and retailers who have contributed to putting that perfectly poured frosty beverage in your glass. In a state better known for its bourbon, we’re glad to see homegro…
Dear Editor,
It may be summer before children under 16 can be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States. That’s a problem for reaching herd immunity quickly.
Last week was a busy week in the House of Representatives with a number of bills being presented in committee and having a vote on the House floor. In this week’s update I will focus on two bills on which I voted no, and one bill presented in committee.
With the distribution of vaccines underway, there is hope the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic may soon be over. However, there is a looming problem on which Kentucky’s small businesses, healthcare providers, and educators will face if action is not taken. A wave of unfair litigation. Frankfor…
Over the past ten years, historical horse racing, or HHR, has been the catalyst for Kentucky racetracks to invest millions of dollars and create thousands of jobs in communities across the commonwealth. Today, historical horse racing venues located in Franklin, Oak Grove, Lexington, Henderso…
The Kentucky Constitution authorizes the General Assembly to convene in odd numbered years for 30 days and requires the session to end no later than March 30. The standard calendar for odd numbered years is for the legislature to meet for four days during the first week in January and then r…
“Ican’t breathe,” is how parents feel when they experience family court injustice. I have seen and heard so many parents’ stories about the unfairness they have experienced fighting for shared parenting. Yet, they still end up with an undeserved outcome.
In a few months, we hope the worst of COVID-19 is behind us. When that happens, the economy will improve, and employers will start hiring again.
Supporting public education or school choice is not an either/or situation — both public and nonpublic schools can thrive if we give parents the opportunity to make choices about the resources their child needs.
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If you can’t be a king, goes an old nugget of political wisdom, be a kingmaker. Former President Donald Trump is taking that advice to heart, shifting his post-presidency to endorsements of some and condemnations of others.
Five years ago, after teasing a potential run for the White House for years, Donald Trump descended down a golden escalator, and from that moment on, the news cycle was predominantly his.
“[T]o restore the soul and to secure the future of America,” President Joe Biden said in his inaugural speech, “requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity. ... This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.”
If there are any silver linings to be found amid the big clouds of bad news, I try to find them, as hard as that might be in a time of terror.
During the tumultuous tussle between Congress and President Donald J. Trump in recent weeks over stimulus payments and defense spending, a once-little-known and irrelevant piece of legislation dating back to 1996 kept popping up as a potential deal-breaker.
On Jan. 7, the day after rioters entered the U.S. Capitol and put hundreds of politicians to flight in support of Donald Trump’s wild-eyed election fraud claims, Wisconsins’s State Assembly passed a resolution. The money line: “[P]olitical violence in any form has no place in the American sy…
Three more federal inmates are slated to be executed before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, though the first received a stay hours before she was slated to die on Jan. 12. Ten have already been put to death since the Trump administration announced in July 2019 that it would resume …
With the news that President Trump tried to cajole his way into winning the election by shamelessly begging Georgia’s Secretary of State Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” I recollected President Nixon’s trying to spy on the Democrats in the Watergate scandal during his campaign for re-el…
President Donald Trump is on his way out of the White House, but not much else seems as certain. If anything, 2020 will be remembered as a year that blurred the lines between fact and fantasy more than any other — and it could be a bipartisan trend.
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