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William Michael Traylor died Sunday, Nov. 22. He was 26 years of age.

Born at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, he was the eldest son of Latondra Traylor and William Milton Clay. He was the first grandchild in his family to graduate with a bachelors degree, which he received in May from Central State University, magna cum laude.

Deborah Lee Benning of Yellow Springs died Nov. 24, after a courageous battle with cancer, surrounded by her family. She was 62.

Deborah was born Sep. 12, 1947. She was a fixture in the community and an active participant in a number of civic activities. She was clerk for the Yellow Springs Council for 17 years. Deborah’s tenure at the Village completes 200 years of service by the Benning family, who first arrived in Yellow Springs in 1864.

The annual Yellow Springs High School alumni basketball tournament will take place Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 26 and 27, at the high school. Organizers ask that participants register by e-mailing bulldog.basketball@yahoo.com.

Jalana Lazar’s stint with the Peace Corps in Madagascar began inauspiciously. On her first day in the country, she was driven to the village of Nosiarina and dropped off with little fanfare. Remembering her initial dismay, she said, “They left me on the side of the road with a bike and my steel trunk.” She figured out the logistics of her new life on her own.

The “deafening” and “brain rattling” sensation of an F-16 jet veering near town on a training mission is, some villagers say, an “assault on the nervous system”— an inescapable sensation that “penetrates the body” and sometimes rattles windows.

Other villagers find the occasional low flyover to be a mere annoyance, or even a curiosity to count with the kids.

The Village made what some would call a wise and prescient decision last year when it declined to sign on to the coal-fired power plant American Municipal Power, Inc. planned to build along the Ohio River. AMP announced last week on Nov. 25 that it was terminating the AMPGS project due to a spike in construction cost estimates that rendered the project unaffordable for its customers.