Editorials
Columnist offers his thoughts on the candidates in the election
by Ben Baker By request – My thoughts on the election and the candidates. Some people have asked my opinion about who is running for office in the coming primary. Here ya go, but first a few things: Early voting starts April 27 and goes through May 15. Election Day is May 19. Local races…
Read MoreThe death penalty in Cook County, Ga.
By Charles Shiver I drove through Sparks down a back street due to a detour one morning last week. I saw where what I believe was a club where the owner was stabbed to death with an ice pick years ago is now a daycare center. I remembered the store in Adel where the owner…
Read MoreFate of the I-75 Rape Gang
By Charles Shiver Did you know back in 1973, a Cook County Superior Court judge and juries sentenced three defendants in the same rape and kidnapping case to death in the State of Georgia’s electric chair? And all three monsters were put on Death Row less than six months after they had committed the offenses?…
Read MoreRemembering Jennifer
By Charles Shiver I have worked at the Adel News Tribune during the time that two tragedies shook the community to the core: First, the broad daylight double murders of Adel store owner Carroll Bennett and his employee Becky Browning in November 2000, and then the tornado disaster that took the lives of seven people…
Read MoreReturn from the Danger Zone
By Charles Shiver Donald S. “Bush” Bryan, who passed away on May 15, 2012, at the age of 90, was among the greatest of The Greatest Generation, and we will never see his like again. Cook County Airport Manager Jerry Connell, the Airport Authority, and Cook County should be commended for preserving Mr. Bryan’s awesome…
Read MoreAirport terminal named for World War II ace fighter pilot
By Charles Shiver If you ever want to learn about some interesting local history, please visit the Cook County Airport terminal building named for Donald S. “Bush” Bryan. The airport has an exhibit with historic photos of the World War II ace pilot and his wife Frances, “Little One.” The exhibit features artifacts on loan…
Read MoreOn the trail of Cain
On the trail of Cain By Charles Shiver After reading my recent article about the unsolved 1973 murder of Claude Wood, a family member asked me to report on another “cold” unsolved local case, the May 1989 murder of Benjamin “Benny” Dale Nolan, 42, of Route 1, Sparks. According to a front page article in…
Read MoreMurder case remains unsolved from 52 years ago
Murder case remains unsolved from 52 years ago By Charles Shiver In 2019, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a poster seeking information in one of Cook County’s oldest “cold” murder cases. Claude Norris Wood was shot and killed at his business (a country store/gas station) at the intersection of Fellowship Road and Val-Del Road…
Read More‘We Are The Champions, My Friends!’ Remembering Cook High School’s 1949 State Football Champs
“… Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”…
Read MoreThe World’s Only Nude Magician (in Enigma) and the Lenox Lights
New Frontiers ‘The World’s Only Nude Magician’ takes a bow, Or ‘it’s an Enigma to me!’ By Charles Shiver The tiny municipality of Enigma in Berrien County has been much in the news lately. Fights have broken out between the Mayor and City Councilmen in City Council meetings, some elected officials have been arrested, and…
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