Everyone sometimes has a beef with what they see and hear in “the media.” But for me, the week before last was exceptionally bizarre. On Friday of the week before last (Aug. 8), I was able to scoot out of the office early enough – as I had eagerly intended — to catch the broadcast of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. I made it home in time to even catch the national news broadcast just before it.

News that Russian troops had invaded the republic of Georgia hit home for Madison County residents Michael and Melissa Martin. In 2006, the couple opened their Locust Dale residence to Dodo Gotsiridze, an exchange student who came to Madison from Georgia, an eastern European country in the former Soviet Union. During her yearlong stay, Dodo, now 19, became “like a daughter to us,” Melissa Martin told The Madison County Eagle during an Aug. 18 interview.