Council pay raises

Where's the transparency?

Memorial Day

Many of us pay scant attention to international news.

We hear you

A few years ago, we made a decision to stop the Sunday comics and cease publishing an evening TV guide.

Impressive improvement

It is gratifying to see the 2012 graduation rate in Newton County schools grow so rapidly from the low point it dropped to just three short years ago.

Defective government

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."

New superintendent

Graduates

County budget

The Newton County Board of Commissioners has a tough task in front of them as usual, deciding how to make expenses meet revenues, but we'll say what we've said for each of the past few years - this is still not the time to raise taxes.

Some thoughts

Last week, two young lives were snuffed out on Interstate 20. A 19-year-old and a 7-month-old baby will never know what it's like to grow old.

New superintendent

On Tuesday night, the Newton County Board of Education will choose Dr. Gary Mathews' successor as superintendent of the Newton County School System.

Mother’s Day

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."

Making the grade

In Wednesday's paper, we ran a story explaining what the new state school assessment model means to students and other citizens of Newton County.

Good moves

The Covington City Council has made two practical decisions that could contribute to economic growth in the future.

The morning-after pill

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, 1.3 million babies a year are aborted in the U.S. That is a staggering number.

Social Circle

If you were driving through the main street in Social Circle and blinked twice, you might miss the physical heart of the city.

Doubletalker with a heart of gold

 Durwood Fincher is one of the few people who actually loves telemarketing calls. One of his friends asked if his telephone number was on the "do not call" list.

Good neighbors

 One of my favorite British comedies is "Good Neighbors." The basic story line concerns a couple where the husband had resigned his job so they could live the "simple" life in a suburban area. He had no experience with livestock, gardening, etc., so you can imagine the situations. Their next door

Keeping the arts alive

 We think that a dedication to the arts is a dynamic plus for a community like ours; supporting programs that support the arts is essential to keeping our culture alive and vibrant for future generations of the families of Newton County.

Survival of the fittest

 When we are invited to speak at different community forums, one of the questions always asked is "will our paper survive?"

Right to privacy

If you were around during the Vietnam era you will remember the daily depiction of flag-draped coffins returning from that country to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. It became a regular occurrence to see anti-war activists prey on these images, which should have been those of honor, and vilified these brave soldiers who had given their lives serving their country.

Excellent leadership

Throughout Black History Month we have been proud to feature African-American leaders of our community, who by their actions and perseverance, have made our community a great place to live. Friday we were honored to print the story and philosophy of Ezell Brown, our newly elected sheriff.

Our Thoughts... Paradoxical speech

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is ...

Our Thoughts... People first

Newton County employees breathed a sigh of relief as the Newton County Board of Commissioners voted not to cut manpower or hours at a special called meeting Wednesday.

Our Thoughts... Scam

In Sunday's paper there was a story about a Midwest company sending letters into our area, telling folks that they can get certified deeds to their property for only $59.60.

Our Thoughts... Proud of our judges

We are fortunate here in Newton County to have talented, caring and family-oriented people as our legal caretakers.

Our Thoughts... Gift of trees

"It is well that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your lifetime the nation's need of trees will become serious. We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we ...

Our Thoughts... Seconded motion

Dear Governor Perdue,  State Sen. John Douglas sent you a nomination for Judge Samuel D. Ozburn to fill the soon-to-be-vacant Georgia Supreme Court Justice seat.  Judge Ozburn was appointed as Judge of the Alcovy Judicial Circuit by Governor Zell Miller in 1995. Since that time the good citizens of our judicial circuit have reelected him four times, and he has yet to face opposition.  Judge Ozburn ...

Victims of the free market

Shirley Almer, an elderly Minnesota woman, had managed to live through lung cancer and a brain tumor before she died on Dec. 21. Cause of death: salmonella poisoning linked to food products from a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Ga.

One down, 47 to go

I was a sophomore at what was then tiny Georgia Southern College down in Statesboro when a band known as The Who released a record, which still rocks today as the theme song for the popular "CSI" television series.

Our Thoughts... Look in the mirror

Recently appointed United States Attorney General Eric Holder said in his acceptance speech: "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."