Gov. Brian Kemp announced this week that all K-12 public schools would remain closed for in-person instruction for the rest of this school year. This is a hard reality, and a real loss – for teachers who miss their students, students who miss their teachers, and for our graduating seniors.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength." (Proverbs 17:22 NLT)

I confess to a certain self-interest in today's column.

I took my wife for better or worse. I didn’t take her for a coronavirus quarantine.

People are dying faster than a columnist can cite the number of deaths, that is to be sure. Whatever number I might cite today will be obsolete by the time you read the paper, but I will give you a few numbers, anyway

It is not cognitive dissonance -- the impossibility of holding two or more contradictory beliefs simultaneously -- to favor the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump while at the same time worrying about what the increasing national debt (nearing $24 trillion and counting) will do to the country.

I guess it is completely appropriate that I pen this column on Friday the 13th, although you might not be reading it until the 14th or 15th, or never if the internet is shut down indefinitely to combat the deadly coronavirus.

I don’t think I’ve seen the world, or my little corner of it, in such widespread panic my entire life — not even during the Cuban Missile Crisis when we were crawling under our school desks every day in fear of the “Big One” being launched from Havana, apparently right toward the Osprey Mill in Porterdale.

He was the 44th vice president of the United States in the George H.W. Bush administration, but for the last 20 years, Dan Quayle has stayed mostly away from the unfriendly glare of political life.

If anything good can come from the coronavirus pandemic, it is the revelation of America's overreliance on China, especially when it comes to drugs.

There are enough opinions and frightening stories out there to last us a while. I want to just tell you a story today, of a simpler time.

Some years ago, I wrote a book titled "The Things That Matter Most." It was a critique of the continuing impact the '60s generation has had on the country.

There are a few human beings — but, very few, mind you — of whom I have never heard a harsh word spoken. Kent Lawrence was one of those individuals.

So here I am, self-sequestering for 14 days. Who would have ever believed that?

The modern media trend is to make fun of President Trump for his alleged and actual misstatements of fact.

Last week was a momentous week, as many important events occurred.

The modern media trend is to make fun of President Trump for his alleged and actual misstatements of fact.

Just when you may have thought that the low quality of political rhetoric in Washington could not get any worse, along comes Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to prove otherwise.

We're traveling in a crowded subway car somewhere under Manhattan when, without warning, the car comes to an abrupt halt in a tunnel in between stations.

Mrs. Alma Patterson was one of the sweetest souls I have ever known and would go the extra mile to help her students, even to the point of making sure they did well on her tests.

President Trump was rightly critical of the deal struck with Cuba during the Obama administration when he said the communist Cuban government got everything they wanted, and the U.S. got nothing in exchange. He has thankfully been reversing some of those unilateral concessions.

As I write these words, I am 6,386 miles from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

There is a disease going around, and I'm not talking only about the coronavirus.

Last week marked the halfway mark of this year’s legislative session in Georgia. Thus, we are starting to take up a lot of bills that are finally on the House floor.

Pat Floyd played for the Newton County High School Lady Rams and was one of the best high school basketball players I’ve ever seen. 

Our fledgling nation was in a real crisis in 1776. We were about to lose our war for independence before it really got started. The number of people who even supported independence was far south of 50%. The majority preferred living under British tyranny to actually fighting for liberty and freedom.

The Russians are like the devil. Each gets blamed (or credited) with more than they are responsible for.

It is no secret that Rockdale County has an aging stormwater infrastructure that requires immediate repairs and upgrades to 133 miles of corrugated metal pipes that lie underneath the roadways.

I’ve lived in Conyers 38 years. Since I was 30 when I moved here, simple math proves that I have lived here a lot longer than I haven’t. 

The only thing that can be said about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first appearance with his fellow Democratic presidential candidates in Las Vegas Wednesday night was that Mike did not get it done, as his campaign ads promise he will if he becomes president.

Last week, we passed the amended or “small” budget for fiscal year 2020. As I have stated before, this adjustment to the current year’s budget took a long time as we had to reduce our expected spending for the first time in over a decade.