Regardless of any corporate spin, local service means local service, whether it is in private-sector business, law enforcement, health care, education or anything else. To spin it otherwise, is just the obscuring or embellishing of the truth of a disconnected situation with misleading or irrelevant information.

Today, the Chicago Cubs paid tribute to franchise legend Ryne Sandberg, just days after the Hall of Fame infielder died following a battle with cancer.

Many conservatives (and certainly many Republicans, not all of whom are conservatives) have lost trust in the accuracy of news reporting – and with good reason. 

I have said and written for years that former Pittsburgh Pirates superstar (and later former Cincinnati Reds outfielder) Dave Parker (and his former teammate Al Oliver) belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame. After way too many years of waiting for the call, Parker passed away today on June 28 at the age of 74. His special induction ceremony was just weeks away.

When someone like Morning Doofus or Fake Trapper insists that 2024 Joe Biden was the sharpest Joe Biden they've ever witnessed, they know full well they are lying to their audience. Still, they are gambling that their audience (those few believers) is willfully ignorant and easily led astray all the way to the ballot box. I suspect they often laugh about the extensive gullibility of their own audience. 

This evening, as I am apt to do on Memorial Day, I took a ride not far from home to the Tranquility Community Church and Cemetery in Adams County, where my father has been resting since May 1989, and where I ultimately will rest nearby. The cemetery couldn't have looked better.

After 46 years consecutive years in the printing business – most of it in something some folks call journalism – Journalism finally paid off.

Did you ever notice that a cold Shores Light Lager really tastes better after a $30 million lawsuit against you has been rejected in federal court? After being falsely accused of that which I did not do, it's good to see justice prevail. Vexatious, indeed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson walks into a bar with two green members of Congress. The bartender takes their order and asks, "Really? Both parties have to have a green nut in the House of Representatives?"

"The vast majority of elected officials really have no idea," McGovern said. "They pass rules and regulations that sound good and are meant to serve a good purpose, but they rarely take into account the consequences of the regulations they pass or how they’ll impact how companies act."

This week, I was congratulated on my "recent retirement." Only one problem: I have not retired and have no plans to do so. But after 45 consecutive years in the print industry – and in damned near every capacity at one time or another – the thought has crossed my mind, as former West Union newspaperman Herb Lax used to say.

Congratulations, Dr. Roades, the SSCC Board of Trustees and the college's students, faculty, staff and community supporters. Your work has had a very positive impact on the southern Ohio counties you have served for the last 50 years. 

Barack Obama famously said, "Never underestimate Joe Biden's ability to screw things up." Truer words were never spoken. Good riddance to four years of incompetence.

As we approach Christmas 2024, let us pause and remember a rather eventful Christmas 20 years ago this month. The Ohio Valley was hit with a massive snowstorm – and an ice storm for a few "lucky" counties – that occurred Dec. 23-24, 2004.