By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher It was 30 years ago this week that I stood in the Monroe County Publishers basement in Sparta and watched the big offset press clank into position to roll out the first issue of this newspaper. It was with great satisfaction...
Electrical grid has long history of sparking controversy
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor Few things seem to stir up controversy more than the prospect of expanding the electric grid. Who can forget the contentious battles several years ago in Ridgeville when Invenergy, a Chicago company, proposed a string of wind...
Video tombstones add new dimension to our legacies
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher And now, friends and readers, just in time for Halloween gift giving, we have the video tombstone. Who hasn't strolled through a cemetery and at least suffered the uneasy thought that someone might speak to us from the grave?...
Woman maintains fondness for Ontario eight decades after leaving it
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher My guess is that few people are left in the Ontario area who recall the three daughters of Adam Beaver. The late Bill Gibson did, and he would often regale me with stories of the three young ladies: Madonna, Ruth and Regina....
Perhaps another country's government should manage the United States
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher As the government shutdown drags into its third week, it occurs to me that perhaps it is time to do with the United States government what has worked so well for business: Let's farm it out to someone else to run. Why not? Our...
Co-op merger may be evidence that bigger isn't better
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher I admit my record for coping with change isn't impressive. I have had the same husband, same kids, same home and same job since forever, or at least it feels that way. In 38 years, I have had only three dogs, and I probably...
UN study challenges notion of U.S. government's greatness
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher "It is now midnight, and the great government of the United States is now closed," House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., announced on the floor Tuesday. The United States government's greatness may be...
Stack of 1969 newspapers shows times have changed — and haven't
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher If you don't think times have changed, drop by my office and browse through a stack of newspapers from 1969 dropped off by one of our readers, who knows a surefire way to keep me out of mischief, at least for a short time. If...
Though a boon to efficiency, technology also brings a lot of junk
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Somewhere deep inside, I know that email is the greatest thing since crepe sole shoes. It has vastly improved newspaper production, for example. We no longer wait for ads to come in the mail, we can contact customers in an...
New telecom legislation could leave some in silence
By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor By golly, finally the Wisconsin Legislature did something we can all get behind. Actually, it goes back to 2011, when most of us were snoozing or fretting over the Packers or scraping the last of the peanut butter out of the jar....
