HE BRIGHT SIDE
Valentine’s Day is all about love and a perfect day to say, “I Do.”
The Cove of Lake Geneva wants to be a part of that. The Cove will be giving away four free wedding ceremonies this Valentine’s Day. Couples are to enter their love story by January 31st to the Valentine Vows Contest
The couples who enter could win a 45-minute ceremony on Valentine’s Day, a champagne toast and desserts, a professional photographer and officiant, and space for fifty guests. One couple wins the grand prize, a future reception banquet space, plus an overnight stay. If you’re feeling the love and think your love story is remarkable, get your story submitted and make Valentine’s Day 2026 special.
The newly redesigned coins marking the nation’s 250th birthday are now circulating.
The new coins are beginning to circulate, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding. The coins feature pilgrims and early presidents, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. The special coins were authorized back in 2021 in anticipation of this year’s big semiquincentennial celebration. That launched a lengthy design process. It was ultimately recommended that five commemorative quarters be rolled out during the year. One would feature Frederick Douglass to mark the abolition of slavery. Another would highlight the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. A third coin would have shown 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, to celebrate school desegregation and the civil rights movement.
The idea of the series was to honor not only the 250-year-old Declaration of Independence but also some of the battles fought in the centuries that followed to help realize that founding creed. But when the Trump administration unveiled the new anniversary coins a few weeks ago, the Frederick Douglass, Ruby Bridges, and suffragette quarters had been scrapped, replaced by coins featuring pilgrims, the Revolutionary War, and the Gettysburg Address. A spokeswoman for the Mint says the new designs were selected by the Treasury Secretary, but that all had been reviewed at some point either by the citizens advisory committee or the Commission of Fine Arts.
The Mint has also floated the idea of marking the nation’s 250th birthday with an unprecedented $1 coin featuring Trump’s likeness, which is a bit of ridiculousness all on its own. George Washington’s face didn’t appear on a coin until 1932, more than a century after his death. The nation’s first president was strongly opposed to that kind of personal aggrandizement. Nine Democratic senators have written to the Treasury secretary, urging him to reject the Trump coin and avoid the appearance of a “cult of personality.”
