He's baack.

For the record, welcome back. I'm sure we'll spar as in times of old, but who knows? Maybe not this time.

SUDDEATH COLUMN: It's me again, by Daniel Suddeath (once again) of the News and Tribune

Hello Southern Indiana, how have you been?

Almost five years ago, I transferred from my post with the News and Tribune to serve as editor of the Glasgow Daily Times in Glasgow, Kentucky. It was a wonderful experience, but I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to return here after spending eight years in New Albany previously as a reporter.

I’ll be reporting once again, and I’ll also be taking photos, helping with Southern Indiana Business, and doing whatever else I can to help bring you the news that matters.

Daniel Suddeath is returning to the News and Tribune.

(Monday morning update: Multiple sources have since confirmed that Chris Morris is leaving the News and Tribune to take a job in public relations at the hospital. Schools and health care are the two great magnets attracting journalists in search of greater employment stability. We wish Morris well.)

Roughly four and a half years after leaving the News and Tribune to become editor at the Glasgow Daily Times, Daniel Suddeath disclosed in a column on Friday that he is leaving Glasgow and returning to ... New Albany?

"On May 4, I’ll return to the News and Tribune in New Albany, Indiana."

That's interesting. Since the merger in 2011, the newspaper's primary base of operations has been at the former Evening News offices in downtown Jeff. What remains of the New Albany basically is Chris Morris and perhaps one or two others.

At the same time as Suddeath was penning his goodbye, the News and Tribune's publisher Bill Hanson was revealing a curtailment of daily issues owing to a bottoming-out of revenues.

The newspaper shrinks -- but let's leave psychiatrists out of it, okay Bill?

It's hard to imagine the financially challenged local newspaper taking on new payroll -- so who's leaving?

In any event, let's welcome Daniel back to town.

SUDDEATH: Thank you, Glasgow, by Daniel Suddeath (Glasgow Daily Times)

Glasgow, where do I even begin?

I started as editor of the Glasgow Daily Times on Sept. 29, 2015, and I can’t describe how proud I’ve been to hold this post during the past five years. The experiences belong in a book, as sometimes they’re hard for even me to believe when I begin discussing them aloud with friends and family. We’ve been through so much, and I just know the best is yet to come for this community and hopefully, this newspaper.

But it’s time for me to move on, and next week will be my last with the Daily Times. On May 4, I’ll return to the News and Tribune in New Albany, Indiana. I’ll be privileged to work alongside some talented and dedicated professionals there, continuing to do what I love — report the news and keep the public informed.

Suddeath: "You can love the South without loving its biggest mistake."

Daniel Suddeath and I jousted often during his tenure as News and Tribune reporter, and while our exchanges occasionally got testy, I viewed it as healthy in the main.

We barked and snarled, and kept talking. Both of us are prone to streaks of self-righteousness, which isn't always helpful when writing an essay such as the one linked here.

Speaking merely as an observer, one who toils at writing and feels like he never gets it quite right -- and who doesn't always feel obliged to practice what he preaches -- the objective is to maintain poise while in the throes of passion, making the necessary points with cool precision with just enough emotion to engage readers and keep their attention.

I believe the writer's ability to communicate in this fashion is a sign of maturity, skill and command, even when he or she occasionally decides to chuck it and go straight for the polemical jugular.

What I'm meandering around to saying is that Daniel does a damned fine job here, quite apart from the fact that I agree with his point of view.

Suddeath: Fake history, by Daniel Suddeath (Glasgow Daily Times)

There is a difference between remembering history and holding on to beliefs that were never right.

While I generally don't support removing articles of history, be they reminders of good or bad, it's hard to distinguish between those who want to keep Confederate statues in place for historical reasons versus those who would like to see our country revert to a time when it was OK to be racist, and frankly brutal and primitive to our fellow man or woman.

This paragraph is the anchor.

What's the point? What was so great about the Confederacy that it should be cherished? You can love the South without loving its biggest mistake.

Continued best wishes to Daniel in Glasgow.

For Suddeath, "Draft evasion dampens memories of Ali."

Overall in his opinion piece, the last reporter to cover the New Albany city beat 259 days ago prior to relocating to Glasgow to serve as editor for yet another CNHI chain entity ... um, where was I?

Right: Suddeath does as balanced a job as could be expected in weighing the experiences of the generation drafted to fight in Vietnam.

DANIEL SUDDEATH: Draft evasion dampens memories of Ali

While Ali certainly deserves respect and acknowledgment for his courage in the face of racism and his pure athletic talent, his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War and some of the subsequent comments after his death by those attempting to justify his decision do not stir heroic sentiments in my book.

But he gives the game away in the header, and it's an object lesson about why language matters. Suddeath uses neither "conscientious objector" nor "draft dodger," both nouns describing persons, but with radically different meanings. He refers instead to "draft evasion" in the sense of the action taken -- artistic, though it still clearly suggests what side the writer is about to take.

Let's review Muhammad Ali's statement at the time. Suddeath fails to mention that the US military was desegregated only after World War II.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

Then there's this point of view (thanks GS).

Muhammad Ali was no draft dodger, but here are a bunch of famous people who were, by Jack Hunter (Rare)

... But Ali didn’t “dodge” anything. As Rare’s Tom Mullen explains, “Ali never dodged the draft; he opposed it, accepting the legal consequences without any attempt to evade them.” “He didn’t flee to Canada or enroll in college to obtain a deferment,” Mullen noted. “From the moment he learned of his induction, Ali stood firmly in the proud tradition of civil disobedience, saying ‘just take me to jail.”

Suddeath: "Darkness doesn't last, unless you let it."

Following a long stint at the News and Tribune, reporter Daniel Suddeath accepted a position as editor of the Glasgow Daily Times in October of 2015.

Daniel and I seemingly are destined to disagree on many fronts, and we continue to do so. However, the commentary linked here is fine writing on the most difficult of topics, death. It is catharsis as a writer, and more importantly, as a son and a friend.

In fulfilling the task of the essayist, it also is instructive and beneficial for the reader. Read it, and I think you'll agree.  

A very good job, indeed. May your loved ones rest in peace.

Darkness doesn't last, unless you let it, by Daniel Suddeath (Glasgow Daily Times)

It's that dreary stretch of winter when most of us sane folks who can't stand the winter chill begin dreaming of the freshness of spring and warmer weather.

I was especially glad to see 2015 go, as it was one of the roughest years of my life. My father died somewhat unexpectedly in November, and his passing came just a few days after I received the news that one of my best friends from my former post in Southern Indiana had taken his own life.

Yay! Suddeath espouses governmental transparency! But in Glasgow, not New Albany!

Apparently the Glasgow KY Police Department doesn't run year-round website ads in the Glasgow Daily Times.

Suddeath: Why the secrecy behind the GPD headquarters move?, by Daniel Suddeath (Glasgow Daily Times)

 ... In case you couldn't tell, I'm not a big fan of closed-door meetings. As mentioned earlier, they are needed at times, but shielding taxpayers from how their money is being spent seems to defy the spirit of democracy.

The new headquarters will likely be just fine, and allowing for more public input may not have changed the vote, but in the future, city officials should spend as much time talking in public about a taxpayer-funded project as they do behind closed doors.

News and Tribune blasts Boomtown, Houndmouth for non-localism as Bill Hanson cowers during phone call to 'Bama HQ for further instructions.

There are times when the phrase "penal servitude" takes on a whole new coloring. Was the whole thing just a dream?

I ran into one of NABC's twenty-something customers while out for my walk, proving that today's youth can be up early on the morning after Derby, just like the old man.

The conversation turned to the forthcoming Boomtown Ball and Houndmouth show. He was excited, and since we've chatted in the past about like topics, I broadened the scope and reminded him that not everyone feels the same way.

He appeared puzzled, so I elaborated.

You see, there's this fellow at the News and Tribune, and he was tweeting last night about how the Boomtown event wasn't local enough, and as a localism advocate, I was being a hypocrite by participating, and NABC was just in it for the money, and that Houndmouth itself is populated by "some dudes who ripped off a Dylan backup band." We got into this big Twitter dust-up, and I concluded by suggesting  -- nay, pleading -- that if he felt so strongly about it, maybe he should be a man, lead the crusade, and publish an editorial or some such -- you know, take the whole thing public and let the people decide, which is fine by me, because I'm serene about it.

My twenty-something customer looked at me with a very strange, solemn expression.

"What's the News and Tribune?"

The reporter vents, and he has a fine point.

He's spot on, don't you think?

For the 10th straight year, NA Confidential fails to bring back a Pillar Award.

I'm glad trib_daniel was able to temper his annoyance and summarize the annual DNA fete with tact and professionalism.

Actually, they may have gotten them all correct this year.

Worth the recognition: Develop New Albany hands out Pillar Awards; Annual meeting held on Thursday

NEW ALBANY — The 15th annual Pillar Awards were bestowed to individuals and businesses deemed to have contributed to the restoration and continued revitalization of downtown or uptown New Albany.

During its annual meeting on Thursday, Develop New Albany recognized Steve Resch, Michelle Kristiansen, The Exchange pub + kitchen and Star Cleaners with Pillar Awards.

Suddeath breaks Jeff Speck coming-to-New Albany story as I search for the hidden candid camera and prepare to fall on my ass.

I'd seen where Jeff Speck would be nearby, and didn't dare hope. Now Daniel's telling me that Speck will be right here in New Albany in one week's time. What's more, the city officials most in need of his medicine are the ones doing the deed.

I've had that football pulled away so often that unlike Charlie Brown, I'm not sure my level of trust remains all that high. When details come down the one-way arterial street to NAC headquarters, I'll share them with readers.

More "wisdom" from the Book of Daniel.

8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

Memo to what passes for newspaper "management": Too late to stop the defilement. Can you pass the proverbs, please?

Plaid Friday 2: "Holidays test Indiana woman's 'buy local' strategy."

Seems like we were here just yesterday. We wuz ... we wuz here yesterday: "Buy thoughtfully and support our entrepreneurs and community businesses."

There's thoughtful, and then there's ...

But let's go back to thoughtful. Kate's in the newspaper.

Holidays test Indiana woman's 'buy local' strategy, by Jere Downs (Courier-Journal)

In June, Kate Caufield traded her routine of shopping at Kohl’s, Target and Kroger with meals at Subway or McDonald’s for a “buy local” habit. Christmas shopping, however, has tested that mission while she strives to find gifts first from homegrown sources in and around New Albany.

Locally owned food sources include Rainbow Blossom. Clothing has been purchased from Mariposa Fine Consignments on Pearl Street, while coffee comes from Quills on Market Street. Salon Strandz is nearby on Vincennes Street for hair care and makeup.

Then the holidays arrived, which has been an extra challenge with two children, ages 6 and 9, and family members not invested in the idea of meeting all their needs via local merchants.

If the director of Community Housing Initiatives is involved, does it mean Legacy Square will have condos?

In a single news story, the News and Tribune’s Daniel Suddeath provides one of the best ever assessments of New Albany’s perennially comic pandemic of cross-pollinated, multiple-board staffed, conflicted-interested, “but I know better than you”, backdoor-dealing, palm-greasing, sheer caterwauling dysfunction of a “ruling” class.

Blessed with such a wealth of material, Suddeath coolly functions as concise journalistic straight man, permitting the words of the principle players to function as self-hoisting petard mechanisms. Excellent work.

In this instance, the narrower topics are a rapidly approaching Bicentennial, the future of the former slumlord property in the epicenter of downtown, and how many hundreds of thousands of dollars it will take to bring to fruition the specific vision of just one from a handful of competing community political pillars, who are united only in a determination that whatever planning is done might occur with as little public input as possible.

But the story might have been written to describe the local political process as it pertains to any number of civic matters doomed to perpetual misfiring in precisely the same fashion.

New Albany council may be asked for more funds for Bicentennial Park; Horseshoe Foundation yet to vote on construction grant

Benedetti said the council has been supportive of bicentennial events, and the body wants to ensure any projects associated with the celebration are handled appropriately.

In a larger sense, we’re only one month into the new mayoral administration, and already the probable course of the coming years can be clearly grasped.

The new council president, who seemingly regards a razor-thin election squeak-through as mandate, has spotted a power vacuum, and now she will be weaving spider webs from her adroitly chosen, power-brokering seats on Redevelopment and the Horseshoe Foundation.

Her chief council enabler from the 2nd council district will rally the DNA shock troops and hoard the Bicentennial portfolio as closely as his fairy godmother will allow, eager to prevent the slightest whiff of counter-cultural impropriety to intrude on his buttoned-down worldview, even as discredited England administration’s operatives who inexplicably remain in positions of authority seek to assert their time-honored influence, simultaneously preparing the ground for the ex-mayor’s forthcoming, doomed candidacy against Ed Clere in the House 72 race.

As for Mayor Gahan, a few simple and unsolicited words of advice should suffice: As it pertains to the Bicentennial, the culture vultures are not going to wait for you to take the initiative, so please do it now.

And as it pertains to every other aspect of running the city?

Same exact advice.

UEA's market study the subject of three-part OSIN series.

Daniel Suddeath's three-part OSIN newspaper series examining the Urban Enterprise Association's 2010 retail site assessment survey, and its context within the city's overall economic prospects, concludes today. Links are provided below. The UEA's market study by the Buxton firm was first suggested during my tenure on the organization's board, and unlike certain other viewpoints, it falls squarely within the UEA's stated mandate.

MISSION: The mission of the NAUEA is to improve the physical, business, residential and socioeconomic environment of the New Albany Urban Enterprise Zone through collaborative, public-private initiatives that stimulate private investment in real and personal property.

This creates a continuum of jobs, including “living wage” jobs; and provides a supportive atmosphere for employers, employees and zone residents alike.

In all its endeavors, the NAUEA shall strive for the common good and reciprocity among its many stakeholders.

As most readers should know, I no longer serve on the UEA's board, but then, as now, my primary personal interest in this topic has to do with expanding opportunities for independent, local and small businesses, which have proven their resilience, especially the ones located New Albany's revitalizing downtown during the past few recessionary years.

When the market study idea first surfaced, my questions were appropriately narrow. Would such a study be used as chain bait alone? Would we be looking for the Qdobas and Bed & Bath & Whatevers that form the basis for the endless, soulless exurb (see: Veteran’s Parkway?

In the end, I was satisfied with the answers proffered, to the effect that the results would take the form of a factual compendium with a broad range of potential uses.

Oddly, my reading of the second installment of Suddeath’s series seems to reveal that a strange, latent affection for a larger-box retail presence downtown among some of the district’s boosters has never really gone away. The chosen euphemism for these trial balloons would seem to be the words “large” or "larger." Speaking for myself, it would be informative to hear more about what is meant by “large” when the word is used in this way, and whether the speakers truly understand why a small businessman like myself fight - and whom.

To repeat something written here numerous times in the past: Downtown is a case for a strategy approximating that of branded destination marketing.

Downtown business will succeed to the extent that its businesses and its overall feeling represent the polar antithesis of the exurb. Small, independent, local and niche are the keys. Not only is such a strategy possible; it is practical, and it is proven in cities across the country. NA 1st, the city's first-ever grassroots small and independent business alliance, exists for precisely this mission, and not only in downtown.

1. Despite low economic segments, some say New Albany’s consumer base still strong

2. Bringing business to New Albany: Study shows city capturing more than its share of the market

3. Next wave for New Albany: Officials: Education, housing and marketing must be focal points for city’s economic future

His "beef with meat."

The reporter donned his "opinion" garb yesterday, and as a result, we learned that Daniel Suddeath has been free of meat since January.

SUDDEATH: My beef with meat

When my grandmother decided she felt like chicken for dinner, she didn’t swing by the neighborhood supermarket and nab a few pounds of poultry.

If it were available on-line, I'd direct you to a column written for the old Sunday magazine of the Courier-Journal by the legendary John Ed Pearce, in which the writer introduced readers to the concept of Bowser Burgoo. If anyone finds this, please let me know.

Until then, I have only one tiny beef of my own about the meat-free column. Referring to what he sees as hypocritical public attitudes toward cruelty to animals, Daniel uses a recently opened Louisville gastropub, The Blind Pig in Butchertown, as an example:

I wonder how well received the restaurant would have been if it were perhaps named The Put Down Pound Puppy?

If one feels that it's always wrong to kill an animal for human food, my point is of far lesser significance. However, I'll note that while the gastropub in question specializes in meat and riffs off of its location, it serves (to my knowledge) "locavore" meat, coming from small producers in the region more likely to treat their livestock in a fashion more in keeping with Daniel's overall theme of cruelty-free management.

Overall, The Blind Pig is a fine establishment. I believe that fast-food chains are a far better target for oppribrium in this sense.

They'll be too busy popping Bud Light tops to listen, anyway.

My guess is that the Tribune's reporter-turned-columnist Daniel Suddeath doesn't share my views on abortion, which are stridently pro-choice, but I agree with his assessment of the Tebow non-controversy in today's newspaper: SUDDEATH: Cover your kid’s ears, it’s Tim Tebow.

Not unexpectedly, today's New York Times says it better than I can:

The would-be censors are on the wrong track. Instead of trying to silence an opponent, advocates for allowing women to make their own decisions about whether to have a child should be using the Super Bowl spotlight to convey what their movement is all about: protecting the right of women like Pam Tebow to make their private reproductive choices.