Last Monday, I tagged along with the 2021 cohort of the Putnam County Leadership Academy on a whirlwind tour. We also had a very special individual be our tour guide. Jinsie Bingham was an entertaining one to boot. What makes her remarkable, though, is how she is an invaluable wealth of remembrance of how things were, and also have changed, in Putnam County over many years. She has been right here her entire life...

Last Monday, I had the opportunity to talk about the Banner Graphic and what I do as a local journalist with the 2021 cohort of the Putnam County Leadership Academy. They also heard from Scott Monnett and Lea Durbin about the important community service work they do with Family Support Services and the Beyond Homeless shelter, respectively. I insisted that I'd go last, because I wanted Scott and Lea to set the pace...

Many, if not all, of my friends and acquaintances know that I was born with a spinal defect. However, I recognize that many might not know how it affects someone's life. October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month, an annual campaign focused on advocacy and support for those with spina bifida. People like me are also encouraged to share perspectives about the challenges — big and small, occasional or everyday — we have...

In my not quite three-and-a-half years here at the Banner Graphic, I have been to my fair share of crashes and fires. As such, I have developed good rapports — or at least acquaintances — with many of our fire, police and medical personnel along the way...

I readily admit that Facebook and Instagram are big parts of my everyday, especially the former. This is not only in terms of my personal life, but my professional life, too. I always have Facebook up here at the office so I can follow Paul's Scanner, as well as be on the lookout for potential news which doesn't come to us directly. ...

With the caveat that I was only six years old, I don't remember how the days went after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked back on Sept. 11, 2001. Though it comes in a moment, what I do remember is coming home from school and seeing a photo of the burning twin towers on the front page of the Banner Graphic. This was when we printed six days a week except for Sunday — and how early you got yours depended on how quick your paperboy was. Things have changed since then...

It seems much longer than November 2019 since the last Wabash football game I went to. However, the wait ends this Saturday when the Little Giants return to the gridiron. Wabash will face off against the Rose–Hulman Fightin' Engineers in a non-conference scrimmage beginning at 7 p.m. Aside from it being at Rose, this one will the first night game I've been to. It will not be the first non-Wabash/DePauw campus game for me...

Fridays are my favorite day of the week. I will come in, do an obituary here and there and get a blog post written. I will usually be out of the office by 3 p.m. without a whim. This Friday was not one of those Fridays. I came into work wary about what I expected to get accomplished quickly. It was because different necessities compounded at once...

This week, I thought it would be good to switch gears some and talk about how I am involved with the Putnam County Hospice and Palliative Care Association (PCHPCA). The PCHPCA is an organization committed to helping Putnam County residents know what hospice and palliative care are, and how both can enhance quality of life for the dying. ...

I may have grown up in Putnam County. However, this doesn't mean I can't get lost out in the country. It also doesn't mean that I know by heart which streets are which. On Aug. 6, multiple local fire departments were dispatched for a fire somewhere in the vicinity of the Ivanwald subdivision and the Cataract Lake dam. ...

After all the hustle and bustle of the Putnam County Fair last week, this week has been pretty uneventful. Until now, I've just not had any workable ideas come up for a post. The first week of each month is my least busiest. The Fillmore Town Council's regular meeting is always on the first Thursday at 7 p.m., so there's not a rush to come back to the office and write about it before deadline. My philosophy here is quality over speed...

If someone were to suggest that to any of us in the Banner Graphic newsroom, there might be an awkward silence. Or we might laugh with a little bit of unsubtle irony. I guess the answer, though, would be that we have mixed feelings about covering the Putnam County Fair. Getting photos for our inserts with the various animals — at least at one point — can be a pain. It's hot. It's crowded. We have pesky deadlines to meet...

As I waited in line at Subway last Saturday evening, the last thing I expected was for the Greencastle Fire Department to go blazing by. My gut decision to then find where they were going has inspired some reflection my own personal standards as a reporter...

The Volkswagen Brigade will once again bring up the rear of the Putnam County 4-H Fair Parade this Sunday. However, this year's event will maybe be a little bittersweet. Last year's fair parade would have been our best opportunity for us to honor longtime Volkswagen mechanic Dick Funk, who passed away the previous April. Since then, we have been in a kind of holding pattern on how to move forward without his direction...

So if Friday's Banner Graphic might seem a little "off" in a few parts (sports pages certainly not included), it's because yours truly had his first trial by fire on Thursday. Jared took some time off for a "mancation" out in the woods somewhere, and so part of building and proofing the paper was left to me, Eric and our sports editor Trent (someone who knows how to create pages). ...

There are plenty of frustrations which come with being a local reporter. It doesn't help that I can (a lot of times) be a little compulsive and down on myself about my writing. I will preface here that many of these frustrations are pretty minor annoyances on the whole. ...

It feels kind of crazy that last week was my three-year anniversary as a staff writer for the Banner Graphic. I told someone recently that it has seemed like a whole lifetime. During this time, I have made connections with some of the movers and shakers here in Greencastle, as well as in our other communities in Putnam County. Being a local reporter has afforded me many amazing opportunities which others might not have...

As I was making my way to the accident that occurred on State Road 42 late Tuesday morning, the very last thing on my mind was that it would turn out to be a fatal one. I am sure there are some who think I was just being a paparazzi type taking a ton of photos and running around. The opposite was true. I only stood from a distance as paramedics tried to revive one of the victims. I watched all their efforts be to no avail...

There are times in my job where it simply doesn't work out for me. This is especially true when it comes to trying to get photos that are of "workable" quality for the paper. I can put a little of this on my Canon that I carry around with me. It is a great piece of equipment and I love using it. Still, autofocus can suck at the most inopportune times...

Graduation can be one of the more stressful assignments. Besides just wanting a few quality photos, there's still an overarching fear of misidentifying the students in them. With covering both South Putnam's and Cloverdale's graduations last weekend, my M.O. was just to sit somewhere close to the stage and do my thing. By no means did I take many photos, and that was okay. Sometimes all it takes is having just one or two...