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Columnists

BOB BROWN: When the Underdog Bites Has Rabies, and a Mean Owner

We have a strong human urge to identify with the “underdog.” There is nothing new about this tendency. The biblical story of David and Goliath, reported 3000 years ago,...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Is Phase Two Of Trump‘s Peace Plan In The Gaza Strip Doomed To Fail? – Part II

Unfortunately, Trump’s present ceasefire as of October 9 is analogous to the armistice signed between...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Is Phase Two Of Trump‘s Peace Plan In The Gaza Strip Doomed To Fail? – Part I

Phase one of Trump‘s twenty-point peace plan in the Gaza Strip, which began on October...

FRED FIRST: Approaching the Longest Night

Yes, you’re right—if you’ve even noticed—that this space has been neglected for some weeks now,...

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

Shirley Padgett Lester of Vinton went to her heavenly reward October 4. Below is the...

Is California A Window Into Our Future? I Hope Not

by Dick Baynton Governor Jerry Brown received news that California is #50 in a business magazine that ranks business climates of the states. The...

Made in the Shade

by Liza Field How’s your cooling system, this summer? “Down,” said a lot of hot people in early July, when extreme high temperatures kicked fierce...

Recipe of the Week: No Electricity needed – Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wrap

by Leigh Sackett What do you do when it is 100 + degrees and you have no electricity? Well you don’t find yourself in...

A High School Bluegrass Band: 1974-75

by Mary Jo Shannon Jim Parker, now living in Texas and a Patrick Henry classmate of my older son Harry, reads The Roanoke Star.com...

Memories of Mill Mountain Zoo

by John Robinson I can hear it now: the cheerfully wailing whistle, and the chug of the "Zoo Choo" as it circled the perimeter...

Arguing About Health Care

by Hayden Hollingsworth It’s truly amazing what politicians will argue about!  Not only was everyone caught by surprise with Chief Justice Roberts’ siding with...