Columns

Casino gambling, that divisive phrase that has been floating around since Steve Beshear announced his candidacy for governor, is dead.

The obituary appeared in statewide papers on Friday.

Not even a landslide Democratic governor could leverage the necessary support out of a Democrat-controlled House to get it to a floor vote.

I'm disappointed.

Katie Irwin was just another name on a list - a rather long list - of people willing to have their heads shaved to help kids fight cancer.

I didn't know Irwin before March 15th and still don't, really. But I feel close to her - a member of the hairless brother/sisterhood, if you will.

Irwin is the Campbellsville University junior who baby-sits Max and Heather Wise's children - Grayson, Jackson and Carter. The latter is the 10-month-old in the midst of a battery of cancer treatments for something called Stage IV neuroblastoma.

For years community newspapers have been riding the coattails of metropolitan dailies. The ride hasn't been all that great.

Nationally, newspaper readership has taken its share of hits and criticisms. But what we knew in the community journalism business was never allowed to make forecasting reports because the data from our sector was jaded by the dailies, where a different story was emerging.

March 20 is the first day of spring, and it's also National Agriculture Day.

And that means it's an appropriate time to salute our local farmers.

I could write volumes about tobacco quotas and foreign imports and the need to buy American, and how our farmers are struggling to keep the rest of us fat and prosperous.

But I'm not going to do that.

I've decided it's time another icon of American self-reliance and rural independence received some appreciation. And I don't think farmers will mind at all.

It's something near and dear to each and every one of them.