Spice up your garden

By Sierra Burke, Local Columnist Herbs are a pleasure in both the garden and the kitchen. It seems as though more people are utilizing fresh herbs while they cook in order to reduce salt and add more complex flavors.

You’ll always find your way back home…sometimes

By Madison Linton Lead News Reporter Last weekend, I visited my parents. Going back to my small, yet somehow overly populated college town of Statesboro isn’t that bad when I don’t bring work or serious tasks with me, and this time, I had few distractions from spending time with my loved ones.

2026 Legislative Newsletter – Week 13

By Alan Powell -- State Rep.  The Georgia General Assembly reconvened on Tuesday, March 31 for the 12th and final week of the 2026 legislative session, working Tuesday and Thursday late into the evenings, to push legislation toward the finish line.

2026 Legislative Newsletter – Week 11

By Alan Powell, State Rep.  My House colleagues and I returned to the Gold Dome on Monday, March 23, and it was another action-packed work week. We continued working diligently to advance bills and resolutions before the legislative session comes to an end.

Mountain Mint

By Lorin Sinn-Clark, local columnist “I don’t know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.”                                                                                                                             -  Roland A.

So begins the beginning of the end

A few days from now, my little sister will be able to say she's one month away from being a college graduate. Even better, she'll join my dad and me as a graduate of the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.   As her big sister, I still can't believe it.

Surely, there’s a ‘pony’ in the pile of smelly rhetoric

My 18-year trek through school started as a 3-year-old in Jack & Jill Kindergarten. And all the way through, including college, none of my teachers ever hinted that I was the smartest kid in the class.  Not much has changed since.

Project suggestions for a T-SPLOST

By Tray Hicks, Local columnist During the last election, there was a great deal of discussion about traffic in Hartwell.

Twenty-five years later, we remember her warm smile

By Phil Hudgins, CNI She was beautiful. She had a round face, big blue eyes and a warm, easy smile.Her name was Bonelle Stevens. She had moved into a little house on the other side of the railroad tracks, across from the Baptist church. He was tall, raw-boned and clean-cut.

Lessons to be learned from a gone-wrong prank

Have you paid attention to the recent news in Gainesville? If you haven’t, you should. When I saw the Hughes family photo, I thought about the dozens of times that I have posed for similar photos.  You have, too.  And you probably agree that nothing, absolutely nothing, is more precious than family.