We will be publishing soon some of the many pictures readers have sent magnoliareporter.com regarding the spectacular show of the Northern Lights. It is rare to witness the aurora this far south. It’s a great show and a living science lesson. It also gives us an opportunity to mention one of our newer features on our website, the daily Weather/Sky report. We’re always on the lookout for material we think our readers will find informative, but for which a compilation may be lacking with specific local interest. Every night, we ask ChatGPT to search hard for information specific to our geographic coordinates, 33.2671° N, 93.2394° W , as they relate to weather, the rising and setting of the sun and moon, recorded earthquakes, regional observations of fireballs, astronomical phenomenon, even space launches from sites within the United States. We’re kinda nerdish about this but we think others will find this data informative. CLICK HERE to see today’s feature.

Should be unusually warm on Saturday. Fall indeed.

A reminder that if your church, group, club, school or neighborhood is planning special activities for the public as part of the Thanksgiving or Christmas/New Year’s holidays, email the information to news@magnoliareporter. We can’t tell our readers what we don’t know. You shouldn’t count on your Facebook page to spread that information beyond your own group of followers. We average around 11,000 individual site visits daily – yesterday, it was 12,168.

Today’s installment of our weekly Re-imagining Magnolia feature looks at a block of Carver Street, which is between Calhoun Road and Renfroe Street near the former Calhoun Heights Elementary School. It’s clear that one house on the block has been well maintained through the years, but it is now vacant. It is hard to imagine that anyone would want to occupy or buy it if one examines the rest of the block, which consists of dilapidated housing. Most of the east side of Carver is a weedy lot – part of it is piled with demolition debris. Magnolia doesn’t have to look like this. We used ChatGPT to rehab the best home and to re-imagine a quasi-duplex. We’ve also turned the ugly lot into a beautiful garden. Carver Street may never take on the appearance we have given to it, but it CAN look better than it does. Magnolia’s residents should expect more from its property owners, and from people who live in all of our neighborhoods. CLICK HERE to see today’s feature.

We are not real estate agents, but we note that several properties are available for rent, lease or purchase on the Magnolia Square right now. Come join us! We love being on the square.

We also appreciate that the Magnolia Police Department walked – yes, walked – through our neighborhood very early one recent morning. We’ve always felt perfectly safe here.

Fifteen years ago, we reported that Southern Arkansas beat Champion Baptist 101-40 in basketball. CLICK HERE to read the article.

Release the Epstein files. All of them.

Mike McNeill is publisher and editor of magnoliareporter.com. Email him at news@magnoliareporter.com or call him at 870-904-3865. Opinions expressed in this column are his own.

CLICK HERE to see past installments of Mike McNeill’s Diary.

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