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Columns

  • A horse is a horse, of course

    They say those big nostrils can sense the fear in you. Given my fluttery disposition and general wariness of any animal that I have to look up to, I've always kept my distance from horses.

    But take a drive around Taylor County and you are sure to see several breeds and colors of horses living here. Local horse enthusiasts take great pride in their horses' training, bloodlines that go back several decades or more and even the distinctive coloring that sets each one apart.   

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  • Be careful raising minimum wage

    Everybody wants to make more money, and people making minimum wage are certainly at the top of that list.

    Some Democrats in the Kentucky legislature are also looking to help those in the Bluegrass state making minimum wage receive a pay raise, and they hope to see it climb from the current rate of $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour over a three-year period.

    It's easy to say that the minimum wage should go up (it hasn't increased since 2009), but it's another thing to look at what it will do to those who make more than minimum wage.

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  • Starting over for 2014

     

    A new year is a chance to start over.

    We can start that diet again, begin watching our checkbooks a bit more closely, spend more time with family and friends and set ourselves on what we believe is our right path.

    The first day of the year marks a moment where we can become the people we think we want to be.

    I'm not really one to make resolutions as Jan. 1 rolls around. But this year, I'll make some personal ones and some for our community. And I'll also tell you what I hope happens this year.

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  • A controversy that's hard to duck

    News Enterprise

    Landmark News Service

    When "Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson expressed his views on a variety of topics that included statements regarding homosexuality, executives of the A&E network acted surprised. It was as if they had no idea that Robertson felt the way he did.

    A&E would like us to believe that Robertson's views were not representative of the network nor the "Duck Dynasty" show.

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  • Christmas memories

     

    'Twas the night before Christmas and my grandmother's house was quiet.

    I was tucked safely into the "little" bed I always slept on and my parents and grandparents had settled in for the evening. But I was wide-awake. After all, Santa was on his way.

    I guess Santa must have used his magical powers to make me sleep, because I don't remember seeing him that night.

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  • Let them be little

     

    This time last year, I was freaking out. An aunt for the first time with very little experience with children, I was determined to make sure my niece, Taylor, would have a wonderful Christmas - but I had no idea what to get her.

    After scouring store shelves and reading dozens of online reviews, I finally settled on a handmade Chenille robe, a Say Please tea set that was sold out nearly everywhere and a turtle nap mat with "Taylor" monogrammed at the top. But at 8 months old, she was too young to read or even open her presents.

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  • Obamacare's strain on Medicaid

     

    Mitch McConnell

    U.S. Senator

    Obamacare has proven to be a disaster for Kentucky. It has caused 280,000 residents to lose health insurance plans they already have. And Obamacare is taking away the ability for many to visit the doctors and hospitals they like. Now to that list of problems, add one more: Obamacare's Medicaid expansion. It very likely will cost the taxpayers of Kentucky dearly in the years to come and degrade access to care for many in the commonwealth.

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  • Libraries are a gift to us all

     

    Terry Mills

    State Representative

    Of all the gifts that Benjamin Franklin gave us, one of the most far-reaching has to be establishing the forerunner of our country's public libraries.

    They have been a mainstay in Kentucky almost from the beginning, when the first opened in 1795 at what is now Transylvania University in Lexington. Some historians believe it was also the first outside the 13 original colonies.

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  • The threat of eminent domain

     

    On a frigid afternoon this past Tuesday, Dec. 10, some 65 people representing different expressions of faith gathered on the Boone Farm in Nelson County, affirming their belief that God is not pleased with what hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is doing to his creation.

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  • No shame in tears

    This particular emergency room is all too familiar to me. I know the room numbers and their location almost by memory now, having been called upon to pray here more times than I care to recall.

    But every situation is a bit different; this one caught me by the throat.

    I had known Colin since he was a pup, baptized him, watched him grow to young adulthood, and prayed over him when he left home on the way to fulfilling his dream of a military career.

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