We salute some of the top holiday TV scene-stealers — great characters who make us laugh, cry and sometimes wince, year after year.

Gospel has always been the family way for Ann McCrary.

The battle being fought this Thanksgiving is over where you spend your turkey dollar. Meijer, which has nine stores in its Lexington-Louisville market area but is the dominant grocer in Michigan, has set turkey prices as low as 29 cents a pound with a $20 additional purchase.

The national pharmaceutical company that serves numerous Kentucky public-sector employees might be dropping Walgreens as a drugstore provider beginning in January. The end of service comes as a result of the drugstore chain and Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit management company, reaching an impasse in rate negotiations.

This holiday season we want to shine a light on the good deed doers in our community. In a series of stories we call Spirit of the Season we’ll profile people who offer a helping hand to a neighbor, volunteer at a nonprofit, care for children or the elderly or simply show kindness for others in a special way. If you know someone like this, we’d like to hear from you. Send information about your good deed doer to Mary Meehan in care of the newsroom, Herald-Leader, 100 Midland Ave., Lexington, Ky., 40508 or email mmeehan1@herald-leader.com or send us a tweet at @bgmoms. Please include a daytime phone number and put "spirit" in the subject line of the emails. We’ll share your stories throughout the holiday season.

RICHMOND — Eastern Kentucky University music professor Richard Crosby does not fear the steam-grilled patty, fragrant with onions, marbleized with cheese. In fact, he eats from the White Castle menu 300 days a year.

University of Kentucky researchers have been studying watermelon's juice, and results show that it may be good for keeping your weight down and your heart strong.

LOUISVILLE — At the outbreak of the Civil War, Priscilla Davidson of Todd County experienced a heartbreak that was not uncommon in Kentucky: She watched her brother John take up the Union cause and her other brother, Frank, rush to join the Confederate Army. It was a tragic scenario that was played out time and again in Kentucky, one of two states — the other was Missouri — to have stars on both the Union and the Confederate flags.

Kentucky's overall high school graduation rate for the 2009-10 school year was 76.68 percent as computed under a new formula, the state Department of Education said Tuesday.

To raise awareness last year about domestic violence, prominent businessmen and politicians in Lawrence, Kan., donned bright red stilettos and posed for the 2011 Red Shoe calendar. The effort also raised money for their local shelter.