Ridings: Local news is good for business

It’s no secret that recent years have been tough on small businesses and on newspapers. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress, the Community News & Small Business Support Act, would offer relief to both newspapers and local businesses. For too many newspapers help can’t come soon enough.

Crane: Our governor – and we’d like to keep him

I first met Brian Kemp as a young state senator from Athens. He also was an agribusinessman, developer, and homebuilder. After four years in the state senate, Kemp ran in 2006 for agriculture commissioner, finishing second in the GOP primary to Gary Black, who won the general election that fall.

Yarbrough: Open letter to public school teachers

I can’t believe I am writing a back-to-school letter to you in July. That’s because I can’t believe you are starting a new school year in July. Somehow, that doesn’t seem right.

Rich: The biscuits

In our family, no food is held in higher esteem than the biscuit. Cornbread runs a close second but there’s an art to making a biscuit that the easy-going, non-frills cornbread does not require.

Crane: Viva Lost Wages

My first trip to Sin City came in 1995, Christmas week. Newly divorced, I would see my toddler daughter on her third birthday that December 18th, prior to her departure on an annual pilgrimage to Virginia with her mother to visit her grandparents.

Letter to the Editor: Heat, transplants, gospel, and ice cream

Dear Editor, The temperature is heating up and my energy is going down. It probably would help if I was more organized. Did you know I can’t finish cleaning a room at home before I switch to doing something else? Shame on me. Shame, shame, shame.

Letter to the Editor: Making memories at The Plaza

Dear Editor, I took my grandsons, Magnus, 8, and Henrik, 4, to the spectacular, stupendous Seussical (at The Plaza this past weekend). I told them it would be just like a video, but with real, live people.

Letter to the Editor: Prefers perfect score

Dear Editor, Not a nine, but a 10! That is what I would give the Seussical production recently performed at the Plaza.

Rich: The Fox studio and dirty feet

A while back, Tink and I had a meeting to pitch a television show on the Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles. It wasn’t the first time I had been there. At least three times, before I knew Tink, I passed through the Fox guarded gates.

Crane: Controlled burns prevent forest fires

Last week took me to Washington, D.C., and an expert panel on public health issues, particularly inequities in healthcare across our system and nation. I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Rachel Levine there, a four-star admiral and U.S. Under Secretary for Health & Human Services.