Health department schedule

Jim Tolley, public health director, has announced that Crittenden County Health Department will offer some vital health services for clients from 10 a.m., until noon Thursday and Friday, Feb. 14 and 15.

The health department has been without power and closed the last couple of days. When power has been restored, normal operating hours will be resumed at the health department.

In the meantime, the health department will operate on a abbreviate schedule for the next couple of days. The phone lines are out of service. Should anyone need general information, they may contact the Pennyrile District Health Department in Eddyville (270)388-9747. For emergency services please call 911 or your local authorities.

Kenergy power outages

The following is a report that came from Kenergy, the electric cooperative serving customers in all or portions of 14 western Kentucky counties, just before 4 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Approximately 8,600 Kenergy customers remain without power due to this week's storm. The following is a list of counties and the number of customers without power in those areas without electricity:

Caldwell: 849

Crittenden: 737

Daviess: 707

Henderson: 730

Hopkins: 2,200

Lyon: 145

McLean: 672

Union: 820

Webster: 1,800

Press delayed by storm

The Crittenden Press printed edition has been delayed due to the storm.

The Press office in Marion is still without power. Therefore, the newspaper had to be printed out of town. It should be available at newsstands around 7 p.m., Wednesday night. All regular sales outlets will have the newspaper available Thursday before noon.

Mail subscribers should get their paper either Thursday or Friday. It will go in the mail early Thursday morning.

The staff is especially grateful to the Marion Ed-Tech Center for opening its doors and allowing us to prepare the newspaper there Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gaining little ground

Despite their best efforts, power companies are having very little success restoring power to Marion and Crittenden County.

County Judge-Executive Fred Brown said Wednesday afternoon that many homes could still go without electricity for another couple of days. With another winter storm heading this direction later in the week, it doesn't look good for Crittenden County.

Kentucky Utilities and Kenergy – the power companies that serve this area – were working round the clock and bringing in crews from all across the state and region Wednesday. However, their efforts have largely been in vein as trees and limbs continue to fall onto power lines, wiping out what progress has been made since the storm first hit late Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Temperatures Wednesday did not provide much respite from the icy conditions although sunshine did appear to help melt the roadways.

Many people in the county will continue to go without power, perhaps into Thursday or Friday. Maybe longer if the weather fails to cooperate. An emergency Red Cross shelter has been established at Crittenden Elementary. Call 965-3500 if you or someone you know might need help. The inset photo is from the Red Cross shelter.

This family was forced from a Marion home on Keeling Street when a tree weighted with ice fell across the structure. Pictured are (from left) Kevin Tolley, 7; Destiny Tolly, 3; Nathan Stokes, 8; Michael Tolley, 5 months; and Heather Tuck.

Check on loved ones

If you are out of town and can read this, you might want to call your loved ones in Marion and Crittenden County to check on their well being.

Due to widespread power outages, there is a good chance that many people living in Crittenden County are unaware of the problems facing them in the coming days. Most are possibly not aware that power will be out for much of the county for another 24 to 48 hours, perhaps longer.

There is Red Cross emergency shelter operating at Crittenden Elementary School. There, residents who need help can get a warm meal and place to stay until power is restored in the community.

Notes from a natural disaster

A major winter storm nailed Marion and Crittenden County late Monday and early Tuesday morning, paralyzing the community and causing havoc for rescue personnel.
Power was out all across the county and even in town. Because The Press office was without juice, I spent the day at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The following is a blow-by-blow account of the news gathered there:

Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown and Disaster Emergency Management Deputy Director David Travis declared a state of emergency early Tuesday morning at 7:30 and notified the governor's office which mobilized the Kentucky National Guard. Travis was the acting director of DEM most of the day as Director Greg Rushing was out of the county until about 4 p.m., attending required training in Paducah.

The Marion Police Department was set up as the county emergency operations center (EOC) early Tuesday. It was operating on backup generator power most of the day.

Members of Marion's Bravo Company Kentucky National Guard unit arrived at 10:39 with four guardsmen and two Humvees. Sgt. Frank Murphey was in charge of the relief effort which worked tirelessly all day evacuating people, directing traffic for work crews and assisting local authorities at a variety of emergency situations.

"This is the worst damage to trees and power lines that I have seen since I started in law enforcement," said Crittenden County Sheriff Wayne Agent.

Volunteer firefighters and rescue squad members were mobilized early Tuesday morning to help clear roadways and evacuate people in rural areas who needed to get to emergency shelters. Few were willing to go to the shelter until about dark Tuesday when it became apparent that many would go another night without power. Most homes in the county lost electricity between 2-3 a.m., Tuesday.

U.S. 60 closed at Dyer Hill curve due to falling trees at midday Tuesday. One tree fell on a rescue vehicle at the scene.

Red Cross, with local director Geraldine Shouse and crew, arrived in Marion at 11 a.m., to assist the county in providing shelter and aid to those in need. The Red Cross set up its headquarters at Crittenden Elementary School. Marion Baptist and Marion United Methodist churches were ready to open their doors and provide emergency shelter for those in need; however, power was not restored to either building thereby eliminating their use as emergency centers.

Smoke in the Crittenden Hospital Emergency Room at 12:03 p.m., sent city firemen in a rush to the scene. As it turned out, the source of the smoke was a heat and air unit that overheated. It caused no major problems. The hospital, clinic and jail were all operating on backup power systems Tuesday. All surgeries at the hospital and appointments at Family Practice Clinic were cancelled.

A handful of small fires broke out at homes, but none turned out to be serious fires.

Schools in Crittenden County were called off for Wednesday and may be out more days this week.

Sandy Heady, who works in the office at Kenergy in Marion, said phone calls were coming in constantly, but she had very little information for customers without power. They were advised to call 1-800-844-4832.

Lisa Owen, a spokesperson for Kenergy, said 2,400 Crittenden County residences were without power Tuesday morning. She said Crittenden was one of several areas in Kenergy's 14-county service area that suffered severely from the ice storm. About 10,000 Kenergy customers were without power in the region, including many in McLean, Daviess, Hopkins and Webster counties.

"Crittenden was the hardest hit," Owen said.

Every available employee was working on lines for Kenergy and Kentucky Utilities Tuesday and Wednesday. The electricity companies called in additional crewmen from Warren Rural Electric Cooperative in Bowling Green and other private contractors to help restore power.

David Travis, the DEM deputy director, said he was advised that a major service line from Big Rivers Power had been severed, creating many of the problems in the Crittenden County area.

"Anyone in Crittenden County who is without power should make arrangements for long-term outages," Owen told The Press Tuesday. "It could be one day, two or maybe three before everything is back up."

District Court in Crittenden County was cancelled Wednesday.

National Guard troops went door to door Tuesday searching for anyone in need of emergency service or shelter.

Judge Brown said getting the word out was difficult because the local radio station, WMJL, was down Tuesday and most people had no electricity to get messages from WPSD-TV.

Marion policemen started going door to door at Creekside and Bellville Manor apartments about 4 p.m., Tuesday looking for people who might need assistance. Everyone who did was taken to the Red Cross shelter at CCES.

The National Guard's efforts were hindered by a lack of communications equipment. Their vehicles are not equipped with radios that allow them to communicate with one another and they do not have hand-held devices. To alleviate the problem, county rescue squad members were called to the EOC and asked to give up their spare hand-held radios to the guardsmen operating in the county. Most were reluctant to do so because they were also on duty due to the disaster.

There was a serious accident about 4:20 p.m., two miles south of Marion in U.S. 641

One of the vehicles caught fire. As temperatures dropped at sundown, road conditions worsened dramatically. Roads were completely covered with black ice, according to law enforcement officials, then it began snowing shortly after 5 p.m.

Conrad's Food Store and Food Giant were both open early Tuesday, but by late afternoon only Conrad's on the south side of town was operating. The deli was especially busy as people without electricity flocked to town all day seeking a hot meal. Lori Holeman at the deli said they served more than 1,000 meals Tuesday. Getting fuel was another problem for most residents as power outages kept most of the city's gas stations from being able to pump fuel. Liberty Fuels on the south side of town was able to stay open most of the day.

The media and Barry Obama

Listening to Barack Obama speak is an easy thing to do. He is very eloquent, articulate and commands your attention. Kind of like E.F. Hutton.

And that's how many of his classmates recall him from high school and college, according to a New York Times article out this morning. The piece is like many other in the media today, it seems to offer deliberate caution in protecting Sen. Obama. He's clearly the choice of the national media to be our next president.

The New York Times piece is quite revealing, explaining that Barry (the name Obama went by as a teen and college student) used drugs, but only in moderation. Ironically, his childhood friends and classmates don't recall him smoking pot, drinking or using cocaine to the extent that Obama's own memoirs reveal. The article goes as far as trying to explain why those people might be covering up for the presidential candidate. It vaguely substantiates claims Sen. Obama made in his own book, which was written a few years ago.

It's kind of an odd angle, but so is Obama's decision to scrap Barry and stick with Barack. The NY Times piece is worth a read. Keep in mind that journalists from MSNBC to the Times and beyond are blindly caught up in the Obama revolution. Even though Sen. Hillary Clinton won the crucial states of New York, California and Florida on Super Tuesday, the national media tailored its coverage to make it appear as though Obama was the big winner. In fact, Super Tuesday was a virtual dead even draw for the two Democrats.

Here's a link to the New York Times piece: Obama Article.

Sharing dinner time

Scientist and researchers have been studying the benefits of dining together as a family for years. Oddly, they're just now realizing that it's not the entrée that makes the difference.

Those of us who grew up in a traditional family setting have long understood the value of familial interaction. A functional family is so important to the moral, ethical and intellectual development of children.

Sorry, mom, but it's not the corn pudding or homemade mashed potatoes that helps junior grow up and become healthy, wealthy and wise – it's responsible and educational interaction that makes the difference.

National Public Radio produced a wonderful piece on this issue today. It's worth reading and listening to the accompanying audio news story. Check it out at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18753715

Now, pass the cranberry sauce.

Absolutely moronic legislation

Kentucky Rep. Jim Gooch of Providence has proposed the most ridiculous new legislation that I have seen in more than 20 years of reporting and covering government in the commonwealth.

Gooch wants newspaper columnists and editorial cartoonists to register as lobbyists.

Absolutely insane. Whoever came up with the idea of citizen legislators meeting every year in the state capital was equally moronic. This is the kind of stuff we pay them for.

Gooch believes editorial writers like yours truly and cartoonists such as those talented individuals who use charcoal to make comment and statement through the use of wacky depictions of their favorite political buffoons are lobbyists? What is he thinking?

If Mr. Gooch thinks this is an appropriate retaliation against some newspapers that have recently painted him with pokey dots, he's sadly mistaken. This spiteful swing will come home to roost like a big red rooster.

His House Bill 468 adds only one sentence to existing law that regulates lobbyists. It simply states in paragraph 22, provision 3 that "editorial writing or cartooning for a news media organization which engages for profit, in these issues" is a legislative agent – a.k.a. lobbyist.

Thereby, if Frankfort officials ever get their way, those writers and cartoonists would have to pay an occupational tax in that city in order to report on the happenings in state government.

Absolutely amazing.

This one leaves me speechless ... which is precisely what some of these citizen legislators want. Many of them have no understanding of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights nor common sense.

I encourage readers to give Mr. Gooch a shout at Jim.Gooch@lrc.ky.gov. Be careful, he's carrying a muzzle and wants to use it.

I suggest calling him at home (270) 667-7327, in Frankfort (502) 564-8100 Ext. 687 or at work (270) 635-1139. He's an insurance agent by day and represents Webster, McLean and parts of Daviess and Hopkins counties.

We know 'Lost in the Mail'

In southern Illinois this week, a judge is wanting answers to the question: "Where's the mail?'

Postal officials are looking for about 1,800 pieces of mail sent by a candidate to Massac County residents that never arrived over the weekend. Now, the court is jumping in and demanding answers. The Paducah Sun Online at http://www.paducahsun.com/ has an article this morning where you can read the details.

We in the newspaper business have mail missing every week. Our customers call constantly demanding better service from their weekly newspaper. Although we mail to our subscribers their copy every Wednesday without fail, the papers often arrive at their destinations days late or sometimes never. Where has a judge been when we need him?

The postal service is awash in inefficiency and flagrant disregard for the mail. Our local post offices in Crittenden County do a good job and so do the other small, rural stations in the area. But when our mail leaves western Kentucky, it's like throwing a bottle into the sea.

I sure hope the judge in southern Illinois gets to the bottom of the mail bag and finds the missing campaign materials. While you're in there scratching around for the lost envelopes, judge, look for about a 10 year's worth of Crittenden Presses that are missing too!

Now that's a preacher

Most of my old memories of David Cozart have something to do with his days a three-sport athlete for the Crittenden County Rockets. Back in the late 1980s, Cozart was a gangly quarterback with a sharp wit and penchant for using donnish four-syllable words that impressed high school girls and left his teachers with a suspicious grin.

I always wondered if he rehearsed those cunning lines or whether they came as natural as his boyish smile. Now I know that his preachy manner was no facade.

Cozart has been gone from Marion for the better part of two decades, but we have kept in touch over the years. He finished his college education at Campbellsville University, a private Christian school in Kentucky, where he played football four years. Then, Cozart moved to Lexington where he has been a successful community leader with the Lexington-Fayette County Urban League.

At some point over the past couple of weeks it came to my attention that my old buddy was now doing some itinerant preaching – this time behind a real pulpit. Sunday morning my family and I attended our normal Sunday school class at Marion United Methodist Church then skipped across town for what turned out to be a real treat. We were visitors for Sabbath service at a church we'd never attended before.

Cozart is now preaching on the first Sunday of each month at the tiny Marion Free Will Baptist Church on South Main Street. And I mean he's preachin' Amen sermons.

The little white frame church just up the hill from Conrad's Food Store is the only predominately African American congregation in this rural western Kentucky town. Its membership reflects the small population of African American people in Marion, Kentucky. About a dozen or so regulars make up the Sunday rendezvous. Although the pews are far from full, there's a strong vibrancy among the faithful followers.

There is no question that Cozart brings a renewed vigor to the church which is made up largely of his own kinfolk. His evangelistic orations will continue to gain more and more attention as he makes a regular appointment at the homey little church. I predict the flocks will grow as his sermons are publicized through word of mouth. A talented preacher, his clear messages are braced by an obvious deep understanding of the Gospels.

Over the years, I have had the favorable opportunity to hear Russ Davidson's sermons on many occasions. Rev. Davidson is a young – I say young, he's like me in his early 40s – dynamic preacher who has produced large followings everywhere he's gone. He grew the tiny Union Baptist Church in Crittenden County until it was bursting at the seams. Much to this community's chagrin, Davidson was called away to preach in Missouri. For the last couple of years, he has returned to lead the traditional outdoor gatherings in the tabernacle at the annual Hurricane Camp Meeting near Tolu.

Davidson's reputation is of the highest standard and his preaching well known by most in this area. I have absolutely no reservations in saying that David Cozart, just a lay minister at this point, ranks right up there with Rev. Davidson and any other of the great Men of God produced by Crittenden County.

It doesn't appear that Cozart has an immediate desire to leave his highly-rewarding job with the Lexington Urban League, but you can be assured that his ability will continue to draw followers. As a brash quarterback and fastball hurler 20 years ago, Cozart was anything but unassuming. Now, though, he is clearly humbled by his divinely inspired ability to spread the Word of God. To this point, though, the calling is apparently not as clear to him as it is to those who have heard his Sunday sermons.

To tax or not to tax

The proposed insurance premium tax being initiated by the Crittenden County Fiscal Court is drawing a great deal of fire from the community.

As written and proposed, the plan would levy a 4-percent new tax on county residents who pay premiums on homes, cars, health and life insurance.

What's unclear is whether magistrates will maintain the current framework when the measure comes to a final vote during its Feb. 19 regular meeting. Chances are that county officials will do one or two things before eventually passing the ordinance creating the new tax.

1. Look for magistrates to retool the ordinance in order to exclude health and life insurance. Most insurance companies in the area say it's virtually impossible to tax those types of policies, not to mention highly unpopular.

2. There is a high probability that county officials will lower the rate from 4 percent to either 3 or 2 percent before final passage of the plan. That's based on some of the feedback we're hearing from those officials.

Opposition to the tax is going to be heavy. Already, the lead is thicker at the courthouse than it was at Antitiem. Farmers and business folk in the county are the most vocal. Some say their insurance premiums will go up thousands of the dollars if the tax is passed as proposed. While they understand the need to raise additional funds to maintain local government, their up in arms about such a drastic increase.

County leaders maintain that without a big influx of cash, the 2008-09 budget cannot be balanced. Rising costs in labor, retirement, fuel and everything else will create a major shortfall, says Judge-Executive Fred Brown. Slashing contributions to the park, fire departments and civic groups would not come close to solving the problem, officials say.

Stay tuned, this could be the most controversial issue in some time. The Crittenden Press will provide coverage leading up to the Feb. 19 meeting and we will be there to see how the final vote goes.

County students focus on fitness

Crittenden County High School has added two additional advance physical education classes this year to keep up with demand, and in a video news clip posted here, we visit the school.

The students are starting to feel better about themselves, and their grades are on the rise. Socially, mentally and physically, the CCHS student population is becoming better. For 45 minutes per day, Coach Denis Hodge says students "get a personal trainer for free."

In this video news clip, you'll also see the amazing physical progress of one student who will be profiled this week in our print edition.

Better dental care for Crittenden County?

According to a story over at kentucky.com, dental health in Kentucky is on the minds of our legislators. What do you think about this? Submit your comments at the bottom. Here's a snippet of the story:

Proponents say a bill before the House Health and Welfare Committee would be a first step toward dental education. House Bill 186 would require all children entering public school to have their teeth checked.

"By getting this check-up they can actually get in the mold of going to the dentist on a regular basis," said Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, the bill's sponsor.

Kentucky has some of the worst oral health in the nation. The state ranks number two in the nation for toothlessness among adults, and number one in toothlessness among adults of working age.

The teeth of Kentucky's children are not much healthier. Approximately 42 percent of kids ages 2 to 4 have active cavities. At any given point, some 4,500 3-year-olds, or 8 percent of the population, have a tooth ache, said Julie McKee, the state dental director.

Click here for the full story.

State tournament bound

Crittenden County can be proud of its high school girls' basketball team. The Lady Rockets earned a trip to the All A Classic for the fourth time in about 20 years by defeating Lyon County Saturday night at Smithland where the Second Region championship was held. The girls will play in Richmond, Ky., this week in the All A Classic State Tournament.

You can see a video clip of the Lady Rockets cutting down the nets Saturday on the home page of The Press Online or clicking here to watch it on YouTube.

The Press Online will be adding much more audio and video news reporting in the future. It's part of our expansion on the Web. Please understand that we're primarily print journalists making our first foray into video reporting. Some of the stuff may seem a bit amateurish, but from our review of YouTube's content, that doesn't seem to matter as much as getting the content out to our readers and viewers.

If you have any suggestions about our step into the video realm, please share your thoughts and ideas. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our multimedia approach to new online content.

Polishing our cultural intellect

Welcome to this new feature at The Crittenden Press Online. For the past few years, we've held off on the creation of a news and commentary blog, but it appears this type of information stream is becoming ever more popular.

Part-time Press contributing writer and online consultant Matthew T. Patton, formerly of Dycusburg and creator of http://www.dycusburg.com/ now of Pennsylvania, has been encouraging this move for a time. Readers can expect regular updates, so check back often.

On the home front, I can tell you that about 9,000 Crittenden Countians missed an enlightening cultural event Thursday night at Fohs Hall where the Community Arts Foundation sponsored a fireside chat with Kathleen Guess, a local artist and former school teacher.

While Fohs Hall's Nunn Room glowed from the hues jumping off the gas fireplace logs, Guess spent a solid hour and a half discussing art from the Enlightenment to the contemporary "American Gothic" painted in 1930 by Grant Wood. It was a bit cool inside the historic old building as temperatures dipped to near single digits outside, providing a perfect backdrop for Guess' warming presentation.

"American Gothic" is one of the most recognizable and most parodied pieces in American art history. The painting depicts an Iowa farm couple in front on a Carpenter Gothic style home. Does anyone know who were the real life models for the work?

For a small town, Marion offers a great number of opportunities to polish our cultural intellect. We can thank the Community Arts Foundation for many of those opportunities. Some of those in attendance Thursday were Mayor Mickey Alexander and his wife Susan, Nancy Paris, Linda Schumann and Kim Hunt.

Tolu at center of Arab-Isaeli conflict ... sort of

By Chris Evans

This week leaders from the Middle East are meeting in Annapolis, Md., near Washington to discuss further a road map for peace among Arabs and Israelis. Namely, the dispute is over some territories in and around presentday Israel which the Arabs believe they own and want to establish a Palestinian state on. While most of us have heard the terms Gaza Strip, West Bank, PLO and Arab-Israeli Peace Process, the vast majority of Americans have only narrow understanding of the whole situation despite it being a major story almost nightly on the television news. An expert on Middle Eastern affairs, I am not.

However, with this week's peace talks going on in America, I figured it would be timely to discuss – in simple terms – what all of this fuss is about. In doing so, I will use some familiar terms and landmarks to draw a figurative comparison to the Arab-Israeli situation. Let's say for instance that Jerusalem is Tolu, the West Bank is Hurricane Island, the Gaza Strip is Sawmill Hollow and Golon Heights is Carrsville and its tall hillside overlooking the Ohio River. OK, snicker if you will, but using this imagery might make the whole thing easier to comprehend.

Tolu and the surrounding area from Carrsville to Hurricane Church, if you will, were once ruled by the British. When the British Empire pulled out, some of the ancient tribes of the area decided they would retake Tolu for their own. Those were the Israelis who during a war in the late 1940s won back the land that their religion claims to be an inalienable right from God (see Abraham, Genesis and the Old Testament). Now, when the Israelis repatriated their ancient lands they ticked off their age-old rivals the Palestinians (see Philistines, Goliath and the Old Testament). Instead of wiping out the residents of the whole area as the Old Testament says God demanded in Biblical times, the modern Tribes of Israel decided to try to live side by side among their enemies – granted their enemies were subservient to the leaders of new Israel, I mean Tolu.

After it was apparent that the outlying areas were becoming staging grounds for their enemies, the Israelis took by force in the late 1960s all of the area surrounding Tolu, including Hurricane Island and Sawmill Hollow. Slowly since then they've started moving outward, establishing Israeli communities at E-town Landing, Sheridan and even Carrsville where a strategic hillside overlooks the valley where the capital city Tolu is located. The new Tolu leaders couldn't have the upset native river people dropping bombs down from Carrsville Heights, now could they?

Understand, too, that the old Tolu School, the Tolu Post Office and former Tolu Grocery Store buildings are sacred locations among ancestral tribes, including the Israelis, the Palestinians and other Arabs living in the region (see Wailing Wall, Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock). In fact, those sacred sites are among the most beloved by all of the ethnic groups living in and around Tolu. Each group wants to own, occupy and control its ancestral sites.

However, the new rulers of Tolu say the Arabs are too dangerous to let roam the streets. They are considered low-life terrorists and an almost sub-human class of people. Because of that, the Israelis are building walls like in China around their cities and communities out in Sawmill Hollow and on Hurricane Island. If any of the non-Israeli people want fruit, meat or vegetables grown in the fertile Sawmill Hollow lands, they have to buy it from the Israelis who only allow a certain amount to be sold to the Palestinians. Likewise, if the Arabs living around Hurricane Island want gasoline from the island refineries, they have to stand in line and can only have a small amount to put in their cars.

The Palestinians are ticked off about their treatment. Some want to kill or eliminate all of the Israelis from Tolu and surrounding areas. Other Palestinians, or Arabs, say they can tolerate the Israelis, but want Sawmill Hollow, Hurricane Island and part of Tolu proper for their own state. Some are willing to concede a great deal of land to Israel, including part of the town of Tolu and most of the area from Hurricane Creek to McKinley Island and from Buck Creek below Carrsville all the way out to Sheridan.

If the Palestinians would quit throwing rocks at Israelis in Tolu and bombing buses near Sawmill Hollow, the Israelis, also known as Jews, say they are willing to talk about giving up some of the lands that the Arabs want. The biggest problem is that there is no one in Tolu who can speak totally on behalf of all of the people. Both sides of the conflict have weak leaders who are feeble in the eyes of a number of their more radical followers. Israel really wants to keep all of Tolu and is reluctant to consider giving up a single acre of it. Israel also wants to keep some of its settlements near Sawmill Hallow and a fraction of Hurricane Island.

Folks in southern Illinois, across the Jordan, I mean the Ohio, would like for the two sides to find an equitable solution to the strife and to quit fighting all of the time. Folks as far away as Smithland, Marion, Paducah and even Frankfort are urging the two factions to find a peaceful solution to their quarreling over land. For me, the only solution I can see is greater international influence on the process.

Tolu should be made an independent city-state such as the Vatican. It could be ruled by an international board so that everyone with a stake in the ancestral city could enjoy its historic and religious values. As for Sawmill Hollow, Carrsville and Hurricane Island, give up totally. Go back to the 1960 border that was established by the Israelis. Then, if the Palestinians can't get along with the Israelis, let the rules of engagement from the Old Testament be the guide.

Chris Evans is editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press. You can reach him at chrisevans@the-press.com.

Brushes with fame, part two

By Chris Evans

Brushes with Fame may turn out to be a regular feature in The Press. It’s been lots of fun finding out about friends and neighbors who have had a brush or two with famous people or famous events.

Since the last column regarding such brushes, I’ve received a few new stories. Here are a few:

Being on the East Coast, brushes with fame are sometimes easy to come by for former Dycusburg resident Matthew Patton. He’s a fairly regular contributor to The Press, has authored a few books about local history and maintains a Web site http://www.dycusburg.com/. Patton sent me an e-mail right after the last Brushes with Fame column. Here’s what he had to say:

At the University of Kentucky, he met Angela Y. Davis, who spoke to his class on prison reform. On Aug. 18, 1970, Davis was the third woman and the 309th individual to appear on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List because she was implicated in a prison escape. She was later exonerated of the charges. She is now a professor at UCLA. Patton spent several hours that weekend showing her around Lexington.

He met Diane Sawyer at a journalism conference in New York City and chatted for several minutes about, of all things, how difficult it is to get nonstop flights from the East Coast into Kentucky (Sawyer is a Louisville native).

He met former President Bill Clinton in Philadelphia on July 4, 2004, at the National Constitution Center and he has an autographed copy of his book, “My Life.”

Currently, Patton is working now on setting up a telephone interview with Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards. Patton works for a publishing company in Philadelphia. He shared several other brushes with fame, but we’ll move on to some others.

Sister-in-law Andrea Mick sent in an e-mail and photo of her brush with the WWE. She’s flying in for a Labor Day visit and figured the timing was right to get her mug in The Press next to Hulk Hogan. Like Patton, she’s something of a jet-setter, touring around the country and working in one big city after another.

Your chance of running into a famous person is much better in Denver or New York than it is in Mattoon or Sheridan. Andrea says she visited with the Hulk in a Denver nightspot. She’s also had some brushes with pro football and baseball players. Denver Bronco quarterback Jay Cutler lives in her apartment complex, which overlooks Coors Field.

Getting back closer to home, Wayne Keeling sent me a letter regarding a legendary visit by President William McKinley (pictured) to Nunn Switch back in the early 1900s.

He wrote: “The McKinleys that lived near Nunn Switch were relatives of President McKinley. One day when the president was traveling through this area on the presidential train, it stopped at Nunn Switch and parked on a side track.”

Keeling went on to tell that the president was met at the railroad line by some of his kinfolk, who took him off in a horse-drawn buggy to their home nearby.

Faye Conger verified the story as a long-told family tale. Her father, Riley Emerson “Emmie” McKinley, often told the same thing, Conger said.

A Cleveland, Ohio native, McKinley was president from 1897 to 1901 when he was assassinated by a lone gunman, Leon Frank Czolgosz, at Buffalo, N.Y., during the Pan-American Exposition.

Chris Evans is editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press. You can reach him at chrisevans@the-press.com.

A redneck dinner outing in Tennessee

By Chris Evans

I covet nothing other than the ability to sing.

The talent to croon like Johnny Cash or Willie is attractive to countless thousands. Some of us would simply like to pick and play like artist impersonators. As you know, lots of them sound just like the original.

Went on a short family outing recently down in the home country of western Tennessee. While searching for a place to dine one evening, brother suggested we try a little dive on the side of the road near the state line that looks more like a bar than a restaurant. Most of the time when I pass by it, there are Harleys and big Chevys lined up in front. Looks exactly like a place I’d have frequented 20 years ago. Now, though, with younguns in tow, there’s less desire to see what’s on tap inside.

With the reassurance from my younger sibling that this little country shack provides a family atmosphere – at least prior to 7 p.m. – we loaded the children and traveled up Tennessee highway 119 toward Ky. 121 to Largo’s. Come to find out, one of my old college fraternity brothers owns the place.

Endorsements for food are not my forte. A connoisseur of fine cuisine, I am not. But slap a big chunk of ribeye on a plate and my inner coyote takes over.

A little red oozing from the center of a well spiced steak is like honey for a sweet tooth. Have tried ribeyes and prime ribs from New Orleans to Chicago and never – I say never – have I dined upon a finer piece of meat than the one at Largo’s.

Surely, it’s the best ribeye in the Jackson Purchase. Let me take this opportunity to provide a little geography lesson to press home the point. Most of us know that the Jackson Purchase includes the eight Kentucky counties west of the Tennessee River, but few realize that the Purchase area originally included some 8,500 square miles and 20 counties in Tennessee.

That land deal – lesser known than the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 – was completed 15 years after President Thomas Jefferson snagged the entire Northwest from French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for a mere $15 million in the Louisiana deal.

In 1818, Andrew Jackson (later to become president) and Isaac Shelby (the first governor of Kentucky) orchestrated the Jackson Purchase, which was thousands of acres known to the Chickasaw Indians only as their Happy Hunting Ground.

The Jackson Purchase completed a missing physical link right in the heart of America, taking colonial land claims directly to the Mississippi River and beyond. It opened massive areas along numerous navigable rivers, allowing pioneers an uncontested water route from the East Coast to the soon-to-be American heartland. A labyrinth of rivers and streams made property in western Tennessee and western Kentucky accessible by boat, aided rapid settlement and kept trading routes open and busy.

Strangely enough, all of these historic facts were running through my mind as a fellow stepped up to the microphone, went through a series of sound checks, then started wailing like the Man in Black. He took a long draw off a cigarette, blew the smoke toward a ceiling fan, then fastened the lit butt between the tuning pegs of his guitar before transitioning into a Waylon Jennings hit.

There were a few families still in the place by that hour, and the rednecks had started filing in by the droves. Oh, how I wanted to stay and relive my youth. Understand that in western Tennessee the term redneck is not offensive. In fact, it’s something of a badge. Its stripes are to be worn conspicuously on body or pickup truck.

A few weeks ago, Brian Murphy, the director of Quality Deer Management Association, was in Marion for a speaking engagement. He told me that he spent his younger days as chief of the wildlife restoration project in Australia.

Rednecks in America, he said, have nothing on the provincial outback yokels in the Land Down Under. That’s just a tidbit of information that some might find meaningful.

As the clock struck 7, it was time to grab the kids, pay and tip the waitress and say goodbye to one of the best meals west of the Tennessee River. It was time for the pool players and beer drinkers to take over this roadhouse that prompted an otherwise raveless writer to wax on about a cow part.

Chris Evans is editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press. You can reach him at chrisevans@the-press.com.

Brushes with fame

By Chris Evans

Ever had a brush with fame? Got to asking around town recently about folks who’ve been near famous people or famous events. The following is what I came up with. If you’ve had a brush with fame, let me know as I may pile up another set of these interesting tidbits for a later column.

Stan Hoover is now the director of the Crittenden County Economic Development Corporation. In years past he was an auditor and investigator for the Ineternal Revenue Service. Hoover was part of the IRS team that investigated the federal tax evasion case against Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in South Carolina.

From a visit this week to the dentist office, I got this tidbit of info. Dr. Crider’s son, Marion native Corey Crider, recently had a brush with a big time performer that didn’t go too well. Crider, a very successful opera singer, runs with famous musicians in Nashville quite often. Recently, he and former college buddy Chris Thile of the band Nickel Creek were at award-winning artist Alison Krauss’s home. Thile was practicing with her as a backup performer. Crider and Krauss’s boyfriend were cutting up and apparently disturbing the practice session so Alison asked both to leave.

Chantel Benton Millikan and Hutch Goad had parts in Madonna’s big movie, a League of Their Own, about a woman’s baseball team in the early 1900s.

The late Forrest Pogue wrote the only authorized biography of Gen. George Marshall (pictured), who Winston Churchill called the organizer of victory in World War II.

One of our newest residents, author and marathoner Bob Yehling has written articles on Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Jefferson Starship musician Marty Balin and singer Carrie Underwood.

Rip Wheeler and Roy Little of Marion were actually at the Battle of the Bulge, which basically broke the Germans’ final offensive and their will in World War II.

Gordon Guess, retired president of Peoples Bank, was treasurer for the Kentucky Republican Party during the Watergate Scandal in the early 1970s. His records were subpeonaed as part of a federal investigation of CREEP (the Committee to Re-Elect the President). All of Guess’s records were clean, but CREEP’s tactics eventually led in-part to Nixon’s resignation.

Jeremy Wheeler, a former Marine from Marion, was part of the team that protected the president at Camp David.

Down around Sheridan is a farmer named Alben Barkley III, the grandson of former United States vice president Alben Barkley.

Chris Evans is editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press. You can reach him at chrisevans@the-press.com.