By Luke Brantley
Staff Writer

Teachers strive to create supportive and challenging classroom environments for their students. Such settings can bring out the best in students and help them overcome obstacles, including an inability to focus. The struggles students can have with focusing on their studies was apparent during the pandemic. A 2020 survey of more than 400 college students found that 64 percent were concerned about their ability to maintain their focus and discipline in remote instructional environments.

By DAVID RAINER

By Scott Johnson
General Manager
MONTGOMERY - On Friday, Governor Kay Ivey is issuing a limited, narrowly-focused state of emergency based on the surge in Covid-19 cases being experienced in an effort to support Alabama’s frontline heroes and cut red tape.
According to a press release from Ivey’s office, this will allow the state’s healthcare community greater flexibility to offer care for patients coming through their doors as the state’s vaccination push continues.

A growing number of left-leaning political activists and thinkers are proposing that Democrats should legalize non-citizen voting in a purely political power grab. In America, voting is one of our most sacred privileges as U.S citizens and playing partisan games with our voting laws will weaken the integrity of our elections. Even setting aside the problematic motivations of non-citizen voting, the political, cultural, and public policy effects of non-citizen voting would prove equally problematic.

I am back today ( to update you on our situation at North Mississippi Health Services and to continue to seek your help. We are all in this together.

This long hot and wet summer is coming to a close, and Labor Day is on the horizon. Labor Day weekend will not only mark the beginning of college football season, but also the traditional start of the 2022 political season.
Most of the horses are in the chute for the May 24, 2022, primary election. So let the fun begin.

Two school systems, two policies pertaining to students with masks. We have a unique opportunity to observe how these policies compare.
The Marion County School System began the school year last week simply recommending students to wear masks in classrooms. The Winfield City School System went ahead and required them in all of its facilities.

By LOUIS MELLINI
Staff Writer

HAMILTON - Marion County jailers, Hamilton Police Officers and Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies had their hands full after a riot broke out in the Marion County Jail in Hamilton on Thursday night, Aug. 12, in Hamilton.
Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams spoke briefly about the incident to the Marion County Commissioners on Monday, Aug. 16, during a regular commission meeting at the commission office in Hamilton.
Williams said that the inmates became angered due to the high temperatures within the jail on the day of the riot.

By Luke brantley Staff Writer WINFIELD - On Monday, Aug. 16, the Winfield Chamber of Commerce voted to cancel Mule Day for the second year in a row, according to Chamber of Commerce President Dana Peoples. Last year’s event was canceled due to COVID-19, and this year’s event met the same fate. “We greatly regret that Mule Day 2021 has been cancelled,” a statement released by the Chamber of Commerce said. “COVID-19 continues to pose a serious public threat to the State of Alabama and to our community.

By LOUIS MELLINI
Staff Writer

By SCOTT JOHNSON
General Manager

By LOUIS MELLINI
Staff Writer

By Luke Brantley
Staff Writer

By LOUIS MELLINI
Staff Writer

HAMILTON - Marion County Emergency Management Agency Director Eric Terrell spoke to the Journal Record on Friday, Aug. 13, expressing great concern about the effectiveness of the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m very concerned about where we’re headed. We had a quiet summer, but a month or so ago, we started seeing that things were not trending in the right direction,” said Terrell.

By Louis Mellini Staff Writer HAMILTON - New water plant operator Jeff Watkins is set to begin work in the City of Hamilton after an official vote by the Hamilton City Council to hire him on Monday, Aug. 2, at Hamilton City Hall. Watkins will replace David Peoples, who officially retired on Sunday, Aug. 1. Mayor Bob Page stated he is glad to have Watkins come to the City of Hamilton to take the position at the Hamilton Water Department.

By LOUIS MELLINI Staff Writer Gov. Kay Ivey announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted June unemployment rate is 3.3%, down from May’s rate of 3.4%, and well below June 2020’s rate of 7.7%. June’s rate represents 73,744 unemployed persons, compared to 75,398 in May and 171,721 in June 2020, representing an over-the-year drop of 97,977. “As our unemployment rate continues to drop and employers continue to fill jobs, we’re proud to celebrate the fact that Alabama is open for business,” said Ivey.

HAMILTON - North Mississippi Health Services hospitals in Hamilton and Tupelo, Amory, Eupora, Iuka, Pontotoc and West Point, Miss., have been recognized with a 2021 Premier QUEST Hero Award.
The QUEST Hero Award recognizes NMHS hospitals for their exemplary efforts to act nimbly and quickly evolve care and operations in the face of extraordinary circumstances presented by the pandemic.

Last March, the world shut down.
I was still in college at Troy, and all classes went online. All work for the Tropolitan (the student newspaper) was being done virtually.
After a few weeks of not leaving my apartment, I was starting to go insane. I beat all my video games and binge-watched all the shows I’d been planning to watch. Cabin fever was setting in.