Viewpoint

In the late 1890s, Joseph Pulitzer and Williams Randolph Hearst, two newspaper giants, battled for supremacy of the newspaper market in New York City. Hearst practically manufactured the war against Spain in Cuba, up to the sinking of the USS Maine...

This week, March 11-15, was National Sunshine Week. What does that mean, you ask? While most of us are ready for some spring “sunshine” in the wake of our recent wintry onslaughts amidst rainy and foggy days, this is a different type of “sunshine.” Journalists throughout the United States are busy writing/publishing warm editorials in tribute to the observance. ...

The 47-year tradition of the Monett Chamber of Commerce’s awards program has lived longer than any of the occasional honors from Monett’s previous decades. The list of winners has helped document service on many levels, saluting more than 100 individuals and organizations that defined the community...

The decision by the Monett school district to launch a new alternative school at the high school and introduce supporting programs is interesting, innovative and promising for the future. The spike in Monett students leaving the high school for either home school or dropping out in the last years of modular scheduling paints a stark contrast to the success stories of the highly motivated students who thrived in the more loosely structured setting. ...

Let’s be blunt: there may be a public health crisis going on in rural Verona right now. No one knows what dioxane poisoning looks like. The EPA does not acknowledge such a thing exists. Yet, indications are there may be widespread contamination of public drinking water wells downstream from the Superfund pollution site on Spring River...

Listening to the presentation on the Monett school district facilities planning this week, figuring out what to do next now looks much more difficult than it first appeared. One would like to think one big construction project will take care of business, but that doesn’t seem likely in this case. ...

Dear Editor: I am in mourning. My friends are, also. A very good friend is dying, and I am so sad. Our library in Purdy is closing on March 1. Our library has been faithful and helpful throughout my life in Purdy. It offered story time for our children, computer use, newspapers and magazines to enrich our minds, and of course, reading pleasures for all...

After another week of conversations about 911 and central dispatching in Monett, a consensus is closer. There is general agreement that we want 911 service to continue locally. A sales tax in Lawrence County will pay for it. Dipping into a general fund with no new source of revenue would put a heavy strain on small towns, and most couldn’t afford it. Verona Mayor Joseph Heck reflected the sentiment when he said simply, “I want something that works.”...

This week, the Monett area saw the face of winter. It wasn’t pretty. But cold didn’t spawn screams about the White Death descending from the sky. By today, with a total reversal of the weather pattern, residents may have a had time remembering we’re still in the middle of the winter season...

Life experiences in different parts of Missouri have ways of resonating even to the far corners. With that in mind, I attended a performance of the Black Repertory Theater’s production of “Canfield Drive” last weekend in St. Louis. This world premier play, developed over the last four years, offers a response to the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson...

We’ve become so used to government gridlock and confrontation as the norm that it hardly seems possible we could see anything but that. Yet, the Lawrence County budget hearing on Thursday turned the tables on expectations, leaving room for optimism about the future...