John Derby

This is the first time in my life I have had to depend on a well for my water, and I have been seriously thinking of letting my lawn go dry. However, it would be the only lawn on the whole block which would be dry. Then as fate would have it, the Saturday of July 4th weekend, I woke up, and there was no water. The well had gone dry. At…

Paradise, California is like a moonscape. It has been more than two and half years since the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s…

With 41 percent of the normal rainfall in most areas of California, what are we looking at this fire season? The same as the past, only worse. There…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Publisher John Derby drove more than 4,000 miles in less than a week to be with his sister for her 88 birthday and present in Illinois for the birth of his first great grandson. He arrived in time for both, which is how he happened to be in Lincoln country. There is something hallowed about the ground on which Abraham Lincoln…

They said it was a crazy idea, and they were probably correct. How could anyone drive from Bahia Conception, three quarters the way down the Baja…

I wonder what my grandfather would have thought as he came from Ireland in 1875. He did not land at Ellis Island because he was sponsored. He in turn…

When the $600 prepaid debit card arrived, I did not know what to do with it. I did not ask for it. I did not need it. And I felt like it was some kind of dirty money. A “stimulus” payoff from the government to keep my mouth shut. I do not like the government handouts because they are not well directed. A lot of people get them and…

Years ago, when I was a child of 7, my parents sent me away to a military school in 
Tennessee, and I was never taught how to read. I dreaded getting up…

Editor’s note: Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week. It’s a time to share what FFA is and the impact it has on members…

Editor’s Note: The following is from a Legacy column by Publisher John Derby that was first published 14 years ago, on May 26, 2005. This beautiful state that we live in is the most prosperous in the nation, generating more income than most countries in the world. Yet it is on the verge of going broke under the weight of pension and…