It's time for West Fork's Water and Wastewater Utility Commission Chair Virgil Blackmon to step down. Under his leadership the commission has moved from being cited and fined for violation of the Freedom of Information laws to actually being unable to state with any certainty how many members are…
We used to be suspicious of online articles. Who knows where they've been? Print media was the bulwark of journalistic legitimacy, we opined. Then we suspended our print edition and became a digital only publication. Now, we're suggesting that online articles really aren't as suspect as we thought. Funny how…
[This editorial first appeared in the September 2, 2010 edition of the Observer. We are recycling it in light of the Resolution to compensate council members presented at the April Council Meeting. We thought compensating council members was a good idea then and we still do.] There are volunteers and…
Centuries ago, a person’s identity was tied to the land on which they lived. The undifferentiated peasants of the medieval fiefdom system were known by their place, their location in the realm. Things haven’t changed much in 500 years. We still link our identity to geography. But now that link,…
Many area residents are excited about the prospect of a large grocery chain complete with gas, fresh produce and what many welcome most, a pharmancy, coming to West Fork. …
Regarding the case presently before the Supreme Court adjudicating the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010, otherwise known as "Obamacare", the crux is whether the federal government can require individual citizens to purchase medical insurance, i.e., the so-called "individual mandate."…
Reality has overcome optimism… again. Our two year effort to bring quality local journalism back to the small town communities of south Washington County has ended. We were struggling in a business climate where size matters and the economics of scale rules. “Too small to succeed” is no less true…
