“It’s a paradox — the beauty is so tragic,” Anna VanMatre says of the theme behind her latest series of graphite paintings, DeNatural Disaster.  

Most ultra-conservatives hate Big Government. Until they use it for their own personal benefit, that is. A case in point is local attorney Chris Finney, a conservative activist whos railed against the evils of excessive governmental power and wasteful spending for years.  

I moved to Westwood this past spring, and I like it just fine. That feeling didn't change on Sept. 14, when the electric power went off. As of this writing, it's still off. I guess we have Hurricane Ike to thank.   

I don’t know a person who wasn’t affected by the windstorms that swept through here Sept. 14. If it was n’t tree branches littered all the yard or a tree lying in a road you normally take, you encountered a grocery store nearby without power, a gas tank on empty and not a station open any where.