Columns

From The News-Enterprise

Signs standing on the shoulders of Interstate 71 in rural Carroll County mark the site of one of our country’s most deadly bus disasters. Flowers, crosses, messages and other items can be seen around this sign, left as tokens to honor the lives lost on this stretch of highway.

Late on that May 14, 1988, night, a fiery collision involving a pickup truck in the wrong lane operated by a drunken driver and a church bus packed with children forever changed the lives of so many more.

One of the things I like most about genealogists is their thirst for continuing education.

Year-round, conferences and workshops are offered on a wide range of topics by local, state, regional and national organizations. It’s possible that someone with unlimited time and financial resources could attend two or three a month. Maybe more.

I encourage anyone interested in family history research – whether for your own enjoyment or as a paid professional – to seek out these opportunities.

Typically in my monthly column, I address legal issues or current topics in the legal field, but, with your indulgence, I am going to deviate slightly this month.

In case you did not know, this is National Teacher Appreciation Week. It is a week when we are to give thanks to those who give so much.

They may wear a variety of uniforms and have different areas of expertise, but one quality binds all first responders: They’re the ones who immediately run toward an emergency when the first impulse is to run away.

Their invaluable contributions have been highlighted in recent weeks in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, the ricin-poisoned letters in Washington, D.C., and Mississippi and the explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant.