back to top

Columnists

A Life Well-Lived: Shirley Padgett Lester (1947-2025)

Shirley Padgett Lester of Vinton went to her heavenly reward October 4. Below is the powerful eulogy her daughter Kelly Kiser wrote and calmly delivered at the memorial service...

BOB BROWN: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden “Presidency”

Permit me to think out loud as an old-fashioned person who respects authority, history, and...

JOHNNY ROBINSON: The Gratitude Perch

On the old road up Mill Mountain, part of Roanoke’s fabulous greenway system, there’s a...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part II

Contrary to what President Trump believes, I think that Lakanwal was adequately vetted before September 2021,...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part I

I read an article in the New York Post written by Ryan King on November 27 entitled...

JOHNNY ROBINSON: Chemotherapy: What’s it All About, Anyway?

It really was not part of my ambition to get Diffuse Large B-Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, but I sure did. It's a kind of cancer...

SCOTT DREYER: 7-7: Irrelevant Proselytizing? Or Honest Truth?

Many folks have a renewed interest in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” where the people of England live under the all-seeing dictator “Big Brother.”...

SCOT BELLAVIA: Justice Will Never Satisfy

Full justice will never be realized in this world. Justice is the meting out of what is deserved for good or bad deeds. In...

MELINDA MYERS: Fall Lawn Care Tips

As summer transitions into fall, it is time to help lawns recover from summer stress. Let the weather and the condition of your lawn...

JOY SYLVESTER-JOHNSON: Breathe

Just one moment—that’s what I asked for. I wished for just one moment without the political cacophony, without the whining and complaining, without the guilt...

LUCKY GARVIN: 3 Wildlife Memories

While there are sorrows in the rehabbing of injured, orphaned, or diseased wildlife, there are two events which make the endeavor worth the while....