Video summary
Twenty-five years after the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the Big Sandy Community and Technical College hosted an annual memorial service to honor the heroes and victims of that historic day. The event took place on Thursday, September 10th, at the Pikeville campus, where local first responders, students from Pike Central High School's band, and JROTC cadets gathered to pay their respects. Major Steve Mazenski, a JROTC instructor, emphasized the importance of such ceremonies for younger generations who were not alive during the attacks, noting that without active commemoration, the lessons learned could be lost, potentially leaving society vulnerable to future tragedies. For the participating students and instructors, the ceremony was a profound opportunity to serve their community and country by keeping the memory of 9/11 alive through the raising and lowering of the flag at half-mast.
In other local news, authorities have unsealed a federal child pornography case against 55-year-old William L. Bonds Jr. of Canada, who was arrested in Pike County yesterday. Although he was originally indicted on August 27th for receiving child pornography, the details of the charges remained sealed until his recent arrest. The allegations state that Bonds is accused of possessing child sexual abuse material in Letcher County as recently as September 7th, 2025. If convicted of these federal charges, he faces a prison sentence ranging from five to twenty years and is currently being held at the Pike County Detention Center while his case proceeds through the legal system.
The broadcast also covered upcoming community events, specifically highlighting the return of the Pikeville Pride Festival to downtown Pikeville for its seventh year this Saturday. Organizers aim to educate the public on the true meaning of pride, which extends beyond misconceptions often found in media to include issues like marriage equality, anti-discrimination in housing and employment, and general community acceptance. The festival promises a family-friendly atmosphere with drag entertainment, live music from Pumpkin Guts and Daryl Amburgey, speeches by various organizations including Charles Booker, food trucks, and vendors. Safety is a top priority for the event organizers, who have engaged private security to ensure a secure environment, while stressing that the gathering is about showing neighbors that LGBTQ+ individuals are simply normal people living among them in hospitals, schools, and local businesses.
Rounding out the news segment, sports updates indicated that Jackson and Angel will represent their teams at the Paintsville All-A Region Tournament tonight, with games scheduled against Pike Central and Prestonsburg. Additionally, the program featured a tribute to Ned Pillersdorf, a pro bono attorney recognized as one of the best in the nation for his work advocating for vulnerable populations in courtrooms and classrooms. The segment concluded with a promotional message from Appalachian Wireless, highlighting their 5G network and local customer service before signing off with host Nick Collum, reminding viewers to tune in daily for more updates on Mountain Top TV and their digital platforms.
Read the full video transcript
The tragedy of September 11th is
remembered 25 years later, and a Pike
County man is arrested on a federal
child porn charge. I'm Nick Collum, and
this is the Mountain Top Daily.
For those of us who were alive to
witness it, the terrorist attacks of
September 11th, 2001, were a
life-changing moment that will never be
forgotten. Today, Big Sandy Community
and Technical College held a service to
remember the heroes and victims of that
day. I attended today's event to bring
you a look.
On Thursday, September 10th, Big Sandy
Community and Technical College hosted
its annual 9/11 memorial event on the
Pikeville campus. Local first
responders, along with Pike Central High
School's band and JROTC students,
attended to pay respects and emphasize
the impact of that historic day. Pike
Central JROTC instructor, Major Steve
Mazenski, he tells us more about what
the event means to him.
>> I thought the program was fantastic. I I
think, you know, we had the combination
of uh raising the flag uh and then
lowering it to half-mast in um memory of
those that perished in 9/11, not just at
the World Trade Center, but I'm so glad
that the college is doing that uh
because uh like the speaker said
earlier,
uh Mr. Johnson, who was our band
director at Pike Central,
um um None of my students here were born
at the time this occurred, you know.
Uh and so, unless we actually make an
effort to commemorate and remember
uh this event, uh the lesson can be
lost, and that would be tragic uh
because if that were the case, we could
be setting ourselves up for yet another
9/11 sometime in the future.
>> Major Mazenski says it was an honor for
for and his students to be involved with
the memorial. For them, it was about
service to the community and the
country.
>> In Junior RTC, our primary mission is to
make younger people young people better
citizens. And uh we do that through uh
service uh if to primarily three
different uh parts of our community.
Service to our school, service to our
community, and service to our country.
And so, in today's ceremony, really what
we did was we did a ceremony to
community and country uh by
commemorating the 9/11 the attacks on
9/11.
>> A federal child porn case against a Pike
County man has been unsealed after the
suspect was arrested yesterday.
55-year-old William L. Bonds Jr. of
Canada was arrested yesterday. He was
originally indicted on a single charge
of receiving child pornography on August
27th, but the case remained sealed until
authorities took him into custody.
Details of the allegations against Bonds
are sparse, but he is accused of
receiving child porn in Letcher County
back on September 7th, 2025.
If convicted, Bonds faces a prison
sentence of between 5 and 20 years. He
is being held in the Pike County
Detention Center.
Coming up after the break,
Pikeville Pride is returning to downtown
Pikeville for its seventh year. We'll
preview this year's event when the
Mountain Top Daily continues. But first,
sports and weather.
>> How's it going, everybody? I'm Garrett
Markham, and this is your Mountain Top
Sports Recap.
Our guys Jackson and Angel will be at
Paintsville tonight for the All A 15th
Region Tournament. The games being
played tonight are Paintsville versus
Pike Central, with game time set for
6:00. The second game will be Pikeville
versus Prestonsburg, and that game will
kick off at 7:30. Be on the lookout for
the updates on our Facebook. That's your
Mountain Top Sports Recap. For the
latest in sports, be sure to follow
MountainTop Sports on Facebook,
Instagram, and X, or visit
mountaintop-sports.com.
>> Ned Pillersdorf fights for the underdog
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He's the best pro bono attorney in the
nation.
Now, he's bringing his fight to
Washington.
>> I'm Ned Pillersdorf and I approve this
message.
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>> The Pikeville Pride Festival has grown
rapidly in its 7 years of existence from
a few hundred people in the park in its
first year to a couple thousand taking
over downtown streets in recent years.
This year's event takes place this
Saturday. Connor spoke with Pikeville
Pride's vice president to find out why
they feel the festival is so important.
>> Coming up on the 12th of September is
going to be the 7th annual Pikeville
Pride event held on and around Main
Street downtown. Everyone is invited to
attend as there will be vendors and food
trucks for everyone to enjoy and the
event is free. Here we have Pikeville
Pride vice president Sarah Ratliff to
tell us more.
>> This is the the seventh year that we've
had an event.
Pikeville Pride has historically been
held down here for the last few years.
We started out at Pikeville City Park
with just a couple hundred people.
The last few years we've seen upwards of
2,000, 2,500 people attending. September
12th, Saturday, September 12th from
12:00 to
7:00 p.m. So, we'll have drag
entertainment from 2:00 to 3:30, then
3:00 to 4:30. We'll have music from
Pumpkin Guts and Daryl Amburgey. We'll
have some
speakers from different organizations.
Charles Booker will be speaking,
I believe at 5:30.
And then we just have a a lot of
family-friendly activities, vendors,
food trucks,
that kind of stuff.
>> With events like these, safety is a
priority as Main Street will be blocked
off for the day. This event is being
held to help to inform the community
about the true meaning of pride, and
anyone interested in learning should
attend.
>> This is a family-friendly event.
We do this
to show that we are here, and we've
always been here. We
We have a lot of misconceptions in the
media and just in society that
pride is is about what we do in the
bedroom. It's not.
It's about the ability to legally get
married and have families, not be
discriminated against when it comes to
housing or employment. And just to show
that we have a community here, you know,
we're we're your neighbors, we're your
family members.
We're the people that work at the
hospital, at your schools. We work at
your dentist office, at the gas station.
You already know us. We're not some
scary monster from out of town that's
come in.
We're just normal people. So, we work
really hard to make sure that this is,
number one, a safe event. We have
private security that we have every year
to make sure that everything's safe. You
don't have to worry about anything. And
then we work really hard to make sure
this is family-friendly. There's nothing
disgusting, graphic, nothing like that
going on here. There's nothing sexual.
This is a family-friendly event because
pride is families, right? So,
I just challenge everybody who thinks
they know what pride is or what a drag
show is
to come out here and check it out
because it's not what you think. It
really isn't.
Just make sure to look at our social
medias at Pop Pop Up Pride.
We're active on Facebook. You can follow
us on there.
Find out updates about the event,
schedule of events and um
give us a shout.
>> Reporting from Mountain Top News, I'm
Connor Kid.
>> That will do it for this edition of the
Mountain Top Daily. Be sure to check us
out at 6:00 p.m. every weekday on
Mountain Top TV, the Mountain Top TV
app, and the Mountain Top News Facebook
page. With your Mountain Top Daily, I'm
Nick Collum for Mountain Top News.