Last night, I spoke with a few folks who recently moved to the city I now call home. I still live in rural America. The town I call home now has a much larger population than West Plains, but it is by no means a city. more

Dear Readers: I do believe in miracles, so why was I surprised when arriving at Handy on Friday, Sept. 13, that there had been a rain shower? Rainwater was still standing, so I must have just missed it. more

Missouri Good Neighbor Week has always been about more than being friendly. It is about doing something. more

There’s something about the “-ber” months (SeptemBER OctoBER NovemBER DecemBER… you get it ) that whispers books, coffee and a “Gilmore Girls” rewatch. I know many of my readers could be happiest experiencing a crisp autumn morning in a cozy chair, surrounded by books with a hot pumpkin beverage in hand. I want to highlight a couple of events around town to get you more involved in your community and inspire your next read. more

Every August, I travel across southeast and south central Missouri to visit farms and small businesses as part of my annual Farm Tour, and this year was no different for our 14th annual tour. Stop after stop, I got to walk fields, tour mills and factories, and sit down with the families who feed and fuel our nation — and every conversation reminded me why I do this job. more

Dear readers: I hope you have enjoyed the Handy Roots series telling how three of our Handy Heroes carried the same little Bible into war zones of three different eras. The first, Elmer Probst … more

I miss magazines. Real magazines. Paper magazines with glossy covers and crisp, colorful pages that smelled faintly of ink. Yes, I know magazines still exist, but not like they did in the 1980s and ’90s. more

As the kids go back to school and we are all ready for cooler weather (and a sense of routine, hello), there are a lot of great things in the literary realm happening at our local library and community that deserve our attention! more

At our house, back-to-school looks like Moving Day. We’ve evolved from cute lunchboxes to U-Haul trailers. By my count, we’ve moved a kid to a dorm or apartment 12 times over the past seven years, all during the sweltering month of August. more

Every election season we hear politicians promise to invest in infrastructure. They talk about roads, bridges, water systems, broadband and electrical grids. Those investments matter. Communities cannot thrive without them more

For producers, federal conservation programs are complex compared with straightforward transactions with equipment or seed vendors. Enrolling in a three- to five-year federal contract requires extensive data logging, compliance reporting and strict implementation guidelines. more

Dear readers: This will continue the military history of our third soldier to carry the Shield Bible, Doug Adair, following Elmer J. Probst Jr. and Aime Jo Beeks. more

            Last December, I wrote to you about the challenges of managing Missouri’s deer herd in the presence of … more

It is almost back-to-school time. The advertisements have begun, and Walmart's seasonal aisle is filled to the brim with crayons, markers, No. 2 pencils, notebooks, and backpacks. more

The floods that swept across Reynolds, Iron and Crawford counties last week left behind heartbreaking devastation. The National Weather Service confirmed the event as a 1,000-year flood, with up to 12 inches of rain falling overnight and the Black River rising to record levels, more than 20 feet in less than 12 hours. more

One time when I was a kid, I was invited to play and have dinner at a friend's house from church. She was the preacher’s daughter, so I knew the whole family. I’d already said an enthusiastic yes to the invitation before my friend mentioned that her mother was making tuna casserole for dinner. My stomach flopped over like a dead, smelly fish. more

        It’s never too late to join our library’s Book Club! Our group reads the same book one month, discusses it the next month and picks up a new book … more

The Missouri Constitution is the people’s constitution. Every word of it has been approved by a simple majority statewide vote. For 118 years, important provisions of our constitution have been proposed by the people themselves, not by legislators or other elected officials. more

Dear readers, especially National Guard members and veterans: Our “Hero of Handy” this week is one of you. As I am writing this, he is making one last trip to the Utah National Guard headquarters to register for his retirement. His service in both Missouri and Utah included two year-long deployments to Iraq alongside various other calls to duty during times of natural disaster. more

        Editor’s Note: The Quill introduces “The Bookshelf Collective,” a new monthly column dedicated to reading, local library events and the joy of … more