Opinion

Calling all prayer warriors to the former Saveway parking lot on Nov. 9 at 1 p.m.
THRIVE is a youth group led by 17-year-old Logan Armstrong from Richmond, who have been called to Owen County to pray for God’s deliverance from the disease of addiction for our community and especially our youth.
 If you are a prayer warrior and believe that God can still work miracles, we invite you to stand with us on the promises of Matthew 7:7; 18:20 and join us on our knees to pray for Owen County.

I love my dog.
She was a gift for my oldest daughter Elizabeth and the honor of naming the new puppy was left up to her.
Being an 8-year-old little girl, Elizabeth chose “Cupcake.”
Not since my friend Billy Johnson named his three-legged Irish setter “Speedy Gonzales” has an animal had a less appropriate name.
When I got her from an animal shelter nearly nine years ago, she was excitable, sweet, fun, smart and mostly obedient.

I would like to nominate my mother Bonnie Woodyard for the 2013 Mother of the Year award.
Mom was born and raised in Owen County. She attended Lusby Mill School during her elementary years. She graduated from Owen County High School in 1960 at the age of 16. Mom married my father in 1961. They have been happily married for 52 years. Mom drove a school bus for the Owen County School System for almost 40 years. She also worked alongside my father to operate a dairy and tobacco farm. She has been a Sunday school teacher for as long as I can remember.

In this week’s News-Herald, you can read a story outlining some of the new laws that will soon go into effect in Kentucky on June 25.
From my days covering the General Assembly, I learned that some laws are simply passed to appease a certain group or to make a political statement.
This year, the General Assembly enacted several new laws that will truly help the people of the commonwealth.
Here are some of my thoughts on some of the new laws:

After finishing my first legislative session as majority floor leader, I am proud to look back at the significant accomplishments of the 2013 Regular Session of the General Assembly.  Most importantly, we successfully established a new spirit of bipartisan collaboration which allowed us to move the state forward in a meaningful fashion on substantive issues such as comprehensive public employee pension system reform, university bonding, a regulatory framework for hemp production, and added transparency for special taxing districts.

All 120 counties across the state of Kentucky have at least one thing in common at this time of the year. I call it “March Madness” and it has nothing to do with playing ball or shopping. In the county clerk’s office it is time for the renewals of all trucks, trailers and farm tags.  I encourage you not to wait until the last working day of the month, because the lines are always long at the end of March.  Be sure that you bring your last years registration and insurance with you.

This week, the regular session of the Kentucky General Assembly reached its halfway point, with the Senate passing legislation on education, healthcare, judicial matters and economic development.

With a multibillion dollar deficit, it appears there was little the U.S. Postal Service could do to thwart its plan to discontinue Saturday mail delivery.
The Postal Service announced last week that beginning in August, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only Monday through Friday, but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices would remain open on Saturdays.
The cutback is expected to save the agency $2 billion annually.

It’s what they call a short session at the General Assembly.
Since the state’s legislature started holding annual meetings instead of every two years, the odd numbered years have been limited to 30 days instead of 90.
The state faces a lot of problems and 30 days doesn’t seem like a lot of time to address them in any realistic way.