TO THE EDITOR: About two weeks ago, on the front page of the Southern Standard was an article from the Chamber of Commerce about the new billboards they had installed on the Interstate 24. This bothered me, but it did not hit me until this past weekend.While returning from a trip to Nashville, I saw…

By Ed Kimbrell / Columnist Vice President Cheney is to be commended for his artful manipulation of the press and the Senate Intelligence Committee. His latest action shows how passionately the Bush Administration hates unauthorized revelations called leaks and tries to label them as unpatriotic and dangerous to our national security. It’s nonsense pure and…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard While not on the Pacific shores of Hawaii, the “Party of the Summer” on the banks of Harvest Farms Lake promises to bring a Polynesian air to the Nursery Capital, and all for a good cause.Proceeds from the luau, to be held at the Inn…

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard PRYOR The Warren County Commission voted unanimously Monday to proceed with plans to begin using WastAway to dispose of the county’s solid waste.WastAway, a subsidiary of local firm Bouldin & Lawson, has developed a method of recycling solid waste into a material suitable for…

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard The off-duty security guard who accidentally dropped his loaded handgun near the playground at West Elementary School last month has been granted a judicial diversion by the court — a move prosecutors do not agree with.The defendant, Steve Sweet, was granted the six-month judicial diversion…

By Diana West / Columnist A new study tells American mothers the safest way to get the kids to school is to put them on the bus. Not so in Israel, where suicide bombers have made Israeli cities and towns limb-littered killing fields. After another Palestinian terrorist incinerated another Israeli bus, a Netanya mother said…

By George Plagenz / Columnist In John Tidyman’s popular book, “Cleveland Golfer’s Bible” (Gray & Company, 2002), the author has a chapter titled, “Why I Love Playing Golf with Women.”One of the reasons he gives is that women “rarely swear.” With men golfers, it’s different. Over the course of 18 holes, they may invoke the…

By Duane Sherrill / Columnist We often refer to the United States as a lady, endearingly saying the word “she” when talking about our great land.However, I beg to differ with conventional wisdom. The United States of America is all man because it’s scared of commitment. We start out all fired up and ready to…

By James Clark / Columnist By now, most of us know one of the great columnists of our time has died. Ann Landers left us at age 83 for that great typewriter in the sky.The news stunned the advice columnist readers of the world and even I was a bit moved by the news of…

Our Viewpoint Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is now unconstitutional. That’s what this country was told by a federal appeals court panel Wednesday when it rendered a ruling declaring it unconstitutional for school children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance with the words “under God” in it.Stated as concisely as possible, the court ruling is…