Local Columnists

Often in the news, and in our online comments section after news stories are posted at Daily-Chronicle.com, the focus is on things that seem to be going wrong or that need to be improved.

Fred Hornbuckle drove to Iowa to pick out a German shepherd puppy, but in the end, Major picked him.

With DeKalb City Manager Mark Biernacki stepping aside Friday, who will be the city of DeKalb’s new most powerful civil servant?

I had planned to write about the DeKalb County Landfill expansion this week, but unforeseen events happen, and ya gotta go in a new direction when the muse says so.

One of my closest friends got bad news last week.

Out of 103,000 residents of DeKalb County there must have been 7,000, give or take a few thousand, who saw the locally-filmed movie “At Any Price” starring Dennis Quaid (as Henry Whipple) and Zac Efron (as his race car-driving son Dean) at the local theater. Probably another 3,000 will rent it on DVD when it becomes available.

I sympathized with the organizers of the Stop the Mega-Dump group this week.

I write a lot about how we could improve our DeKalb and Sycamore communities. It’s part of my job as your friendly, local columnist. (Taxes, fees and restrictions may apply. Your mileage may differ.)

DeKalb Police Chief Gene Lowery ate more than his usual at breakfast Thursday.

Most columnists are comfortable going after public officials – calling out their shortcomings and misdeeds in pieces ranging from epic prose to shrill screeds.

I hope you’ll be seeing friends this Memorial Day weekend.

Most of the world’s tornadoes happen in the United States, and many of us have seen them. I grew up in the Texas panhandle, which is in Tornado Alley. We had a basement and kept a radio, shovel (Mom thought we might have to dig our way out), dried foods … and that’s it.

I think I would have liked Annie Glidden if she were alive today. I hope she would have liked me.