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heraldgazette.comONLINE AT

Vol. 107 No. 119

Published by the Herald Gazette Company, Inc.

and MediaNews Corp.Memphis, Tennessee

© COPYRIGHT 2014

66° 59°INDEX

By MARTIN DAVISAP Politics Writer

WARSAW, Poland — De-nouncing Russia’s actions in Crimea as “nothing more than a land grab,” Vice President Joe Biden warned Russia on Tuesday that the U.S. and Europe will im-pose further sanctions as Moscow moved to annex part of Ukraine.

With limited options, the United States was seeking ways to show it won’t stand idly by as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty for the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to join Russia. So far, Putin has been undeterred by sanctions and visa bans levied by the U.S. and the European Union, and there’s no U.S. appetite for mili-tary intervention.

“Russia has offered a variety of arguments to justify what is nothing more than a land grab,

including what he said today,” Biden said in Poland, which shares a border with both Rus-sia and Ukraine. “But the world has seen through Russia’s ac-tions and has rejected the flawed logic behind those actions.”

Biden arrived early Tuesday in a region on edge over Russia’s nascent aggression in Crimea. Amid eerie echoes of the Cold War, U.S. allies including Po-land have raised concerns that they could be next should the global community be unable to persuade Putin to back down.

Former Soviet states are among the most alarmed by the prospect that Moscow could be resuming its traditional imperial ambitions. But Ukraine is at greater risk mili-tarily because it lacks membership in NATO and the promise of collective defensive measures that NATO membership provides.

CRIMEA | A7

By CANDICE CHOIAP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Fast-food protests are planned for several U.S. cities Tuesday as labor or-ganizers look to bring attention to practices they say illegally de-prive workers of their wages.

The protests are planned for about 30 cities, but it’s not clear what the scope of the turnout will be. It’s part of an ongoing

campaign by labor groups to build support for pay of $15 an hour and bring attention to the rights of low-wage workers.

Organizers have also been referring workers to attorneys, who filed lawsuits in three states last week saying McDonald’s was stealing their wages in a va-riety of ways, such as by dock-ing paychecks for the cost of their uniforms.

FAST-FOOD | A4

By SHEILA BURKEAP Court Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A

special state Supreme Court panel ruled Monday that Ten-nessee’s current retention elec-tion system for appellate court judges does not violate the state constitution.

The decision stems from a lawsuit filed in 2012 by John Jay Hooker of Nashville, a former Democratic candidate for gov-ernor who has long been a foe of the way Tennessee picks and retains appellate court judges.

The system, known as the Tennessee Plan, calls for the governor to fill judicial vacan-cies from a list of nominees submitted by a commission. Appellate court judges run for election and re-election on a yes-or-no vote in which voters decide whether they should be retained. The plan is an attempt to limit partisan politics in the judiciary; however, critics say it keeps the public from having a real say in the process.

Hooker argued that language in the Tennessee Constitution

COURT | A5

By CHRIS BRUMMITTAP Asia Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Investigators trying to solve the mystery of a missing Malaysian jetliner received some belated help Tuesday from Thailand, whose military said it took 10 days to report radar blips that might have been the plane “because we did not pay attention to it.”

A coalition of 26 countries, including Thailand, is looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished March 8 with 239 people aboard on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Search crews are scour-ing two giant arcs of territory amounting to the size of Australia — half of it in the remote seas of the southern Indian Ocean.

Cmdr. William Marks, a spokes-man for the U.S. 7th Fleet, said finding the plane was like trying to locate a few people somewhere

between New York and California.Malaysian officials said early in

the search that they suspected the plane backtracked and flew toward the Strait of Malacca, just west of Malaysia. But it took a week for

them to confirm Malaysian mili-tary radar data that suggested that route. On Tuesday, Thai military officials said their own radar showed an unidentified plane, possibly Flight 370, flying toward the strait

beginning minutes after the Malay-sian jet’s transponder signal was lost.

Air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn said the Thai military doesn’t know

LOST PLANE | A8

By ERIK SCHELZIGAP Business Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The owner of the Full Throttle moon-shine distillery wants to add Ten-nessee whiskey to his product list. But Michael Ballard doesn’t want to have to make his spirits in the style of Jack Daniel’s, the world’s most famous Tennessee whiskey.

Ballard, star of the cable reality show “Full Throttle Saloon,” says a state law enacted last year prevents him from exploring his own style of Tennessee whiskey, and he is urg-ing lawmakers to dial back some of the new regulations.

“We don’t want to make our whiskey like Jack Daniel’s makes their whiskey,” said Ballard, who built his distillery in his home town of Trimble in rural north-western Tennessee. “Why put us all in one box together?”

Ballard and Jesse James Du-pree, who is building a distillery next to the Full Throttle facility, plan to attend legislative hear-ings Tuesday on scaling back the Tennessee whiskey rules. They in-clude proposals to do away with

provisions requiring charcoal fil-tering and storing whiskey only in new oak barrels.

Jack Daniel’s, owned by Lou-isville, Ky.-based Brown-Forman Corp., was behind a 2013 law that laid out requirements for spirits to be labeled Tennessee whiskey. The company is resisting efforts to do away with the rules on filtering and oak barrels, argu-ing that the changes would result

in inferior products and artificial coloring and flavoring.

“It’s really more to weaken a title on a label that we’ve worked very hard for,” said Jeff Arnett, the master distiller at the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn. “As a state, I don’t think Tennessee should be bashful about being protective of Tennessee whiskey over say bour-bon or scotch or any of the other products that we compete with.”

Jack Daniel’s sold 11.5 million cases of its Black Label last year, a 5 percent increase from 2012. George Dickel, the second-larg-est Tennessee whiskey producer, sold 130,000 cases in 2013.

Dickel is owned by the Brit-ish conglomerate Diageo PLC, which is supporting the bill to unwind last year’s law.

Ballard said he has 18 full-time employees and is finishing a barrel house with a capacity to store 4,000 whiskey barrels.

“We’ve got millions of dollars invested in this town based on the fact that we’d be able to use the words Tennessee whiskey on our product,” Ballard said.

His business partner Dupree is also lead singer of the hard rock band Jackyl.

Dupree said he’s disappointed that Jack Daniel’s would try to create high barriers to entry.

“We grew up loving Jack Daniel’s, we’ve been big fans and they’ve been an inspira-tion,” Dupree said. “But this is not really about the barrels, this is about them trying to main-tain a monopoly.”

Bidenwarns Moscow

State law restricts whiskey style

Fast-food workers protest low wages

MALAYSIA PLANE SEARCH 031414: Diagram shows how a search is conducted, lists countries participating and a map shows search areas for missing Malaysia Airlines jet; 3c x 6 inches; with BC-AS--Malaysia Plane; FD; ETA 11:30 p.m.

Editor’s Note: It is mandatory to include all sources that accom-pany this graphic when repurposing or editing it for publication

SOURCES: FlightAware; U.S. Coast Guard AP

Search for lost plane expands The international search for the missing Malaysian jetliner expanded further into the Indian Ocean on Friday amid signs the aircraft may have flown well after its last contact.

The path a search aircraft follows depends on how far the aircraft can see objects in the water.

A zigzag path saves fuel and overlapping.

PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES

Australia: Air support

Brunei: Provided vessels

China: Four naval vessels, four civilian vessels and four helicopters

India: Provided vessels

Indonesia: Provided vessels

Japan: Will deploy aircraft

Philippines: Vessels and air-craft in the South China Sea

Singapore: Provided vessels

United States: USS Kidd and USS Pickney to the Gulf of Thailand and the Strait of Malacca

Vietnam: Vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea, heli-copter was sent to scour the southern tip of Vietnam

Wind direction and speed can affect floating objects.Water currents

would affect sub-merged objects.

How far the plane can see.

Crash area Estimated

area

Bay of Bengal

INDONESIA

MYANMAR

MALAYSIA

THAILAND

VIETNAM

CAMBODIA

Gulf of Thailand

South China Sea

Initial search area

Andaman Islands

Nicobar Islands Indian ships have expanded

their search to areas west of the Andaman and Nicobar

Islands chain, Friday.

250 km

250 mi

INDIA

AndamanSea

Thai radar tracks unknown plane, maybe Flight 370

Court upholds TN plan

Distillery owner to ask lawmakers for relaxing state regulations

MARK HUMPHREY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJack Daniel’s master distiller Jeff Arnett in one of the aging houses at the distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee

TOBY TALBOT | THE ASSOCIATED PRESSBottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey in a liquor outlet

SOURCES: FLIGHTAWARE, U.S. COAST GUARD | THE ASSOCIATED PRESSLost aircraft: Expanded search areas for missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner

BEBETO MATTHEWS | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS22-year-old fast-food worker Naquasia LeGrand