Birney Imes: When a tornado touches down

Lynn Spruill: What do we want to be?

The most recent study done on behalf of the Golden Triangle Development Link by POLICOM Corporation was presented on Tuesday morning at EMCC. The Dispatch offered an insightful editorial on the critical finding about education and the opportunities this requires from the people who care deeply about our region and our future.

A 'late child' remembers her mother

Dear Frances, "Sarah said, 'God has brought me laughter and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me...'"

Ask Rufus: Moundville, Columbus and C.B. Moore

This weekend the Moundville Archaeological Park, located about 10 miles south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Birney Imes: Celebrating Emancipation Day

Thursday afternoon son John and I attended the Eighth of May observance at Historic Sandfield Cemetery. There Chuck Yarborough and his Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science students presented a Tales-from-the-Crypt-style performance, complete with gospel music and visitations by the African American luminaries buried there.

Jay Lacklen: A son's salute

During the summer of 1975, I got a chance to salute my mother with a flyby, of sorts, near her childhood home of Somerset, Ky. She had returned home to be with her mother in my grandmother's final days, and I happened to be flying a mission on the Richmond, Ky., bomb site on a route that circled Somerset. I thought a minor flight plan deviation would not ruffle any feathers and would provide a richly deserved tribute to my formative parent.

Lynn Spruill: Choosing motherhood

It is the role of a lifetime, literally. Nothing comes close to the facets of life this role touches.

Slimantics: 8 O'May stirs meditations on the nature of emancipation

Until recently, the only significant thing for me about May 8 was that it is my brother's birthday. Long-time Columbus residents will forgive my ignorance on this topic, I am sure.

Lynn Spruill: Turnover time

A large number of the Starkville property owners are girding their loins for battle. It is the collective gearing up for the turnover of college kids for our landlord population.

Possumhaw: One week ago tonight

A curtain of darkness fell as we spread blankets and pillows on the floor near the stairway. Sam watched the local news until the satellite cut out. An ominous message came across the screen saying, "Don't call us -- we already know."

Slim Smith: When breaking ground means breaking a vow

Hell froze over Saturday morning: I planted a garden, thus fulfilling an ancient prophecy.

Slimantics: Voter fraud is more a question of 'who' than 'how'

During the month of April, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann began criss-crossing the state -- at taxpayer expense, naturally -- to promote the state-mandated Voter ID law that will require Mississippians to produce a state-issued ID before casting a ballot.

Partial to Home: The morning after, talk turns to the night before

By 10 o'clock Tuesday morning Bobby Ray had almost finished picking up storm debris in his yard on Tabernacle Road when neighbor Ricky Ward showed up. The two are old friends, their friendship rooted in their shared passion for dirt-track racing.

Slimantics: A community comes together

A couple of miles down Lee-Stokes Road, where Pleasant Hill Baptist Church sits on a hill above a cluster of modest brick homes where Lacy Road runs into Pleasant Hill Road, church pastor Bill Hurt wearily tended his flock, scattered but unharmed after a pair of Monday tornadoes plowed through East Columbus.

Storm journal: Residents rally in the storm's aftermath

Maybe there is something to that old saying, "The good guys wear white hats."

Possumhaw: One night in the pen

The bunny numbers had grown to four, though not in the usual way. The first bunny, small and untamed, was Toby. He began his life at the Bardwells in a birdcage that opened into a small bathroom.

High School Football Preview 2017

College Football Preview 2017

2017 Dining Guide