‘Navigating the Flow’ by: Karen Restivo

   Watching unprecedented achievements in gymnastics, sports, research, space travel, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), you recognize things once thought unbelievable are now, in fact, believable.

"Tidehaven fans showed up en masse for their Tigers" by: Mike Reddell

   Covering playoff games for local schools certainly is an experience.     A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about riding the Bay City Blackcat bus for the Kilgore game at Houston.

"Sometimes learning new things completely out of our hands" by: Jessica Shepard

   One of the oddball perks of this job is attending meetings, lectures, and other discussions about topics that don’t interest me at first glance.     Now, I attend these events with the same viewpoint as I do with my movie review columns.

"It certainly looks like a jolly holiday season" by: John Sample

   Now that the Holiday season is officially open for business, it seems the Santa Claus rally is off to a great start.       The various averages and indexes have posted four straight weeks of gains with the Dow and S&P 500 stock-index closing in on record highs.

PSA: Can life insurance provide retirement income?

   If your children are grown and your mortgage is paid off, do you still need life insurance?     It depends on your situation, but many people find that a cash-value life insurance policy, such as whole life or universal life, can help supplement their retirement income.

"Reel Reviews: ‘Napoleon’ storyline only highlights rise and fall of Bonaparte" by: Jessica Shepard

   I’m not going to lie, my main motivation for seeing “Napoleon” last week was to see just which direction the film would take.     Honestly, I feel misled by the trailers I’ve seen the past few weeks.     Everything appeared to show a more realistic view of Napoleon.

‘Accepting Current Conditions’ by: Karen Restivo

   Time flies just fine by itself without us counting the days until the weekend or declaring Wednesday as ‘hump day’ in an effort to roll faster through Thursday right on to the weekend.

"Enjoying the local sights en route to a football playoff" by: Mike Reddell

   I had the opportunity to ride one of the Blackcats’ team buses en route to Bay City’s area playoff against Kilgore last Friday.    It was quite the convoy of buses ferrying students representing the different groups that are part of the Blackcat Friday night experience.

"Holiday motivation coming up short this year" by: Jessica Shepard

   As I get older, I notice more things than I used to – especially after the broken leg experience last year.    Not only am I more conscious of others around me, but I’m also painfully aware of how I’m seeing common decency and manners go out the window as we count down the holidays.

PSA: Can you make charitable giving less ‘taxing?

   Once again, it’s the season of generosity.    If you’re thinking of making charitable gifts, what should you know?    For starters, make sure that any charity you’re planning to support is reputable and uses its funds wisely.