Albany Herald

Florida knows how to smooth out travel

I never expected to become enthralled with an interstate highway, but if there is a better roadway in the Eisenhower interstate system than I-10, I have yet to put the metal to the pedal on it.

Newt, it's all over except for the typing

All the indicators point to a decision by Georgian Newt Gingrich to give up his presidential campaign and return home and leave the Republican contest to Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Older Americans deserve our tribute

Watching the recent Peanut Proud Parade move around Blakely's old Courthouse Square got me to thinking about the things that are really important to small-town citizens, our fellow Georgians and, dare I say with trepidation, a vast majority of Americans.

Famed Clower beer joint soon to disappear

Not long ago, they closed the Garland Inn. If you are a man or woman of the South and don't know about the Garland Inn, maybe you never heard of Jerry Clower.

'The Card': I won't leave home without it

The Class of 1965 turns 65 this year -- a historic occasion despite it being only the 47th anniversary of our cap-and-gown ceremony.

Peanut research pays dividends for region

The federal and state governments pay for all sorts of enterprises designed to improve our daily lives, but few offer a better return on investment than agricultural research.

Alabama immigration law out of bounds

It appears that Alabama officials are slowly but surely realizing that the tough anti-illegal immigration law they passed in 2010 is out of bounds.

This year, I shall resolve to not ...

Mitch Clarke, Blakely native, good Methodist and esteemed editor of a daily newspaper in North Georgia, took a radical approach for his first column of 2012. Instead of listing resolutions and hopes and dreams for the new year, he wrote about things which he has no plans to do. I like that idea. So with apologies to Mitch, please swim with me in this sea of negativity:

It is never too late to right a wrong

Albany State University recently conferred honorary degrees on more than two dozen former students who were expelled from the college in 1961 for their participation in civil rights activities.

Compromise a lost political art

Legislators at the federal and state levels of government are taking verbal beatings around this country almost like never before. Much of the criticism is well deserved, even they will admit.

Gifts pouring in for Obama

We are in the midst of two seasons that are supposed to bring hope to the world. I have no doubt that one of them — the Christmas season — offers exactly that as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no greater season and no greater hope.

Always pray, search for a cure for cancer

A few days ago, my father would have been 102. He died almost 30 years ago of pancreatic cancer.

U.S. has to return to making products

Americans of a certain age well remember the halcyon and prosperous days of the 1940s through the ’70s and ’80s when most towns possessed at least one textile manufacturer and possibly a heavier industrial plant as well.

Lives filled with many blessings

It is that time of the year when we say “thanks” for our many blessings. Following are a few of mine.

Is it too late to start again?

I knew I was in the wrong business. Why didn’t I have the foresight to become a historian?

Job markets unfriendly to today's vets

To say that the jobs situation when I left the service was different from the employment scene facing veterans today is a gross understatement.

Like Perry, we all have our ‘senior’ moments

We are all human — even people who want to be president of the United States of America. That’s why Rick Perry, a candidate for the Republican nomination, stepped in “it” (his own words) during the recent GOP debate on the budget and other financial issues. And by “it” he wasn’t referring to ice cream, either. At least he had his boots on.

Republican field has GOP cringing

People with no plans anyway to vote for the eventual Republican nominee for President in 2012 are enjoying laughs galore watching the GOP circus tent unfold before our very eyes.

Protests are as American as it gets

America is a land conceived from protest. Surely we have not forgotten the fervor of those involved in the original Boston Tea Party, who tossed the Brits' tea into the harbor over high taxes and lack of legislative representation?

Voting transgressions still haunt South

Past transgressions in voting rights for blacks continue to haunt the American South — or at least haunt those people who fought against blacks having any voting rights.

Voting discrimination myth of Democrats

Past transgressions in voting rights for blacks continue to haunt the American South — or at least haunt those people who fought against blacks having any voting rights.

Commitments to retirees must be honored

The average reader may not have gotten the memo, and perhaps could care less anyway, but deer, dove, turkey and other wild animals aren’t the only species that are squarely in the sights of hunters this autumn. It is open season on retired government employees and their pensions — the fixed incomes that enable millions of Americans, who gave their working lives to public service, to make their contributions to the nation’s struggling economy.

Civil rights reaching milestone anniversary

This country has been in the grips of a 10-year remembrance of the attacks that rocked our nation on Sept. 11, 2001. We have undergone a heartfelt, gut-wrenching recollection of those events, all fully warranted.

Region should be ‘timber proud’

Perhaps “Timber Proud” would be an appropriate theme for an event to honor Southwest Georgia’s timber industry and the people who make it go — the growers, those who gather it and haul it to the mill and the paper makers who turn it into a fine commercial product sold across the world.

Jobs plan now responsibility of Congress

Okay, Congress, then do nothing. That is Congress’s option to President Obama’s jobs recommendations in his speech to the nation Thursday night.

The Cable 'News' networks really should just 'fess up

The more I watch the CNN and FOX news programs, the longer I wonder why both networks don't just go ahead and admit what they are.

Motoring through ’Bama no Sunday drive

When you are from where I’m from, it is perhaps hypocritical to be commenting on other states’ highway systems. But, that has never stopped me. But I did not set out to write about the roads in Mississippi or Georgia. My current lament is Alabama’s.

The day of budget reckoning coming

Georgia sportsmen will be able to creep closer to their targets while deer hunting over bait. That is one of the thousands of laws that went into effect in the 50 states on July 1, the date on which most of states, including Georgia, begin their new fiscal year.