FINALIST: Princeton’s Emma Talley is ready for the finals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur. | 1C

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NEWS TRACKER

1. An abducted teen is found safe, while her alleged abductor is killed. 1B

2. Maysville officials look to move and repair a historic cabin. 2A

3. Local retailers get a boost from back-to -school shoppers. 1D

4. Ten years after a major blackout, the U.S. grid faces new threats. 1B

5. Lance Davis shoots a 69, lead-ing Graves County to the team title at the Paducah Tilghman In-vitational golf tourna-ment at Paxton Park. 1B

A shower.

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

Construction equipment stands outside the new Paducah Middle School on Friday afternoon. About 690 students will flood the halls of the 92,000-square-foot building Monday morning for the first day of classes.

Despite the many changes that have come to Paducah Public Schools this year, one element re-mains the same: school pride.

When students enter the new Paducah Middle School on Mon-day morning, a blue-and-white compass pointing to Paducah Tilghman High School will greet them in the front entrance. The school colors dominate the 92,000 square-foot building’s hallways. Every few feet, a blue tornado — the schools’ mascot — smiles up from the fl oor.

“This is a dream come true for the students and families and

staff,” Principal Stacey Overlin said. “For a long time, (the mid-dle school has) been in a condi-tion that hasn’t been a very con-ducive environment to learning. Now we’re in a building these kids really do deserve.”

Overlin himself represents an addition to the school, having been named principal earlier this month by a unanimous decision of the site-based council.

He said Friday that Nora Cox, a former guidance counselor and special education teacher at the school, will serve as assistant principal this year.

“It’s a lot of change: a new building, new administrators.

But once we settle down into our routine, it’s going to run really well,” Overlin said.

That routine begins for kids in sixth through eighth grades at 7:26 Monday morning, but the public will have a chance to take a look at the new building at 2 p.m. today.

“It’s been a really visible proj-ect,” Overlin said of the school construction. “Everybody’s watched the progress as they’ve driven down Lone Oak Road.”

Administrators believe this may be one of the reasons enroll-ment has grown to around 690

Schools see change, but pride remainsBY LAUREL BLACKlblack@paducahsun.com

Please see SCHOOLS | 8A

A redistricting plan that a Paducah lawmaker says will at-tract bipartisan support is almost on its way to the state House fl oor.

Rep. Gerald Watkins, D-Pa-ducah, helped form a plan with former Demo-cratic House Speaker Jody Richards that he said evens out the Jackson Pur-chase precincts to the liking of both Democrats

and Republicans. Watkins said that he worked with Richards and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-

Prestonsburg, on the plan, which he said started in the far west and moved east. He expects the plan, which he said is almost com-plete, will pass both the House and Senate dur-ing the upcom-

ing session.“To a T, everyone won’t vote for

it, but almost everyone will,” Wat-kins said Friday. “Democrats and Republicans are very supportive of what we’ve done.”

Watkins said the plan is on deck for introduction during the special

Watkins: Precinctsplan shouldplease pols

BY MALLORY PANUSKAmpanuska@paducahsun.com

MAYFIELD — Training to han-dle routine medical screenings while on deployment, military cli-nicians opened the doors to a lo-cal free health clinic to fi nd a need far greater than can be tackled in one short week.

As part of the Department of Defense’s Innovative Readiness Training program, U.S. Army reservists established free clinic operations across Kentucky, Ten-nessee, Missouri and Arkansas to provide needed health care to medically underserved communi-ties throughout the Delta Region-al Authority service area.

Three days into the four-state medical mission operating out of the old Morgan-Haugh Clinic in Mayfi eld, reservists provided free care to more than 200 residents, and while staff anticipated the masses, they weren’t prepared for the large turnout for one particu-lar service.

The mission’s two dentists were inundated by the numbers of oral examinations requested — more than 50 the fi rst day, and averag-ing more than 40 daily afterward. The volume required a third den-tist to be deployed to Mayfi eld as patients sought care for oral prob-lems left untreated for years.

“It was a little overwhelming, to be honest,” said Maj. Adam Bush-

Military clinic sees big turnout

BY WILL PINKSTONwpinkston@paducahsun.com

Judy Calhoun and Rose Low-ery said a prayer as the Emanci-pation Day Parade lined up Sat-urday morning on Walter Jetton Boulevard.

Calhoun, parade and events organizer, said Lowery, founder and director of the Nia Dancers, and she prayed the rain would stop in time for the annual pa-

rade.And it did.The showers turned to a light

drizzle as Paducah Tilghman High School’s football team and Band of Blue made their way down the boulevard. Represen-tatives from Fed Ex, the Paducah Area Transit System, the NSSR Motorcycle Club, Mercy Region-al EMS, Paducah Public Schools and many other organizations

waved and threw candy to spec-tators. By the time the parade reached its end at Robert Cole-man Park, the skies were clear.

James Trice Jr. headed up the parade as grand marshal. Trice was born in Paducah in 1925, but left to pursue a career in insur-ance, from which he retired in 1991.

Can’t rainon this parade

BY LAUREL BLACKlblack@paducahsun.com

Please see CLINIC | 3A

Watkins

Rudy

Please see REDISTRICTING | 3A

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

James Trice carries the day, serving as the grand marshal of the Emancipation Day Parade on Saturday along Walter Jetton Boulevard. A Paducah native, the 88-year-old Trice has attended the Eighth of August festivities every year for the past 69 years.

Event begins under mist, ends with rays of hope and sunshine

Please see PARADE | 8A

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HICKORY — A little rain on Saturday didn’t stop the Trinity United Methodist Church from enjoying good music and good food, all while raising money for a good cause.

Singer-songwriter Rob Cros-by performed at the church for a free benefi t that helped raise money for the Graves County chapter of Court Appointed Children’s Advocates or CASA. The show was scheduled to be held outside but the weather drove it indoors.

Crosby’s songs have moved well on music charts, with art-ists like Lee Greenwood and Martina McBride recording them. The Nashville, Tenn.-based musician said he has been blessed to make a living doing what he loves.

“Performing and writing, those are the two things that I do,” he said. “I’ve never done anything else other than some silly odd jobs when I was in my early 20s.”

CASA, a group that advo-cates for abused children, has a special connection to Crosby. “Concrete Angel,” a song he co-wrote and that Martina McBride performed, is about an abused child.

“It’s especially nice to be con-tributing to a cause that that song is all about,” he said.

The song is important to Cros-by, he said, not only because of its powerful message but also its success.

“It’s kind of like a tree falling in the forest,” he said. “If you write a really good song and nobody hears it, then what’s the point? It

is important that ‘Concrete An-gel’ was a top fi ve hit, but yes, it comes from the heart.

CASA Executive Director Stephanie Floyd said members of the organization, appointed by a district court judge, help kids by getting to know as much as they can about the child, the family and the environment and by later making reports to the judge.

“We work to have the best out-come for the children,” she said.

The Rev. Joe Hansen, who met Crosby at a cafe in Nash-ville, contacted Crosby about performing at Trinity United Methodist Church, which sold barbecue and asked for collec-tions to raise money for CASA.

Prior to the performance, Crosby hosted a songwriting workshop at the church. For part

of the workshop, Crosby wrote the beginning of a song and had each attendee write the next few lines until it was fi nished. Crosby called the exercise “dynamic co-writing.”

“I think they had fun,” he said.

Contact Nicholas Reside, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8667 or follow @NicholasReside on Twitter.

The LineupMonday

 West Kentucky Songwriters Chapter, Nashville Songwriters As-sociation International, 6-8 p.m. Curris Center, Murray State Univer-sity. 293-7252.

 Ledbetter Masonic Lodge 952

F&AM, 7 p.m. Meal at 6:15. Graves County Genealogical

Society, 7 p.m. , Graves County Li-brary. Refreshments. David Cissell, 247-4010.

 Paducah Masonic Lodge No. 127

F&AM, 7:30 p.m. , 24th and Jack-son streets. Meal at 6. 443-3127.

 Experimental Aircraft Associa-

tion, Big Rivers Chapter, 7 p.m., Mc-Cracken County Extension Office, 2705 Olivet Church Road. Wilma Newberry, 744-3841.

 Pfc. James M. Yancey Detach-

ment 1390, Marine Corps League, 7 p.m., New Life Tabernacle Pen-tecostal Church, 1117 Bell Ave., Paducah. Call 994-2129, 898-7727, or 556-4469.

 Wickliffe Masonic Lodge, 7:30

p.m., Meal, 6:30 p.m.

Photos for You at paducahsun.com

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SATURDAY

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WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

■ VFW hall rises from the fl oodwaters. News

■ Get the fi rst look at the 19th Ever Barbecue on the River. News

■ Racerhoopalooza 2013 coming Th ursday.

Sports

■ A salute to gospel closes out the Eighth of August events. News

■ Results of the truck and tractor pull at the Graves County Fairgrounds. News

■ Talk continues on the future of the Purchase Regional Industrial Park.

News

FRIDAY

■ Food, auction, cars and bikes, live music, all for the Scotts’ fi ght with cancer. News

Saturday’s lotteryKentucky

Pick 3-midday: 6-4-3Pick 3-evening: 2-5-6Pick 4-midday: 2-1-3-4Pick 4-evening: 4-2-9-4Cash Ball: 5-7-25-33 CB 23 Cash Ball Kicker: 8-2-3-7-35 Card Cash: AD-8S-8H-6S-JCPowerball: 4-12-14-37-58 PB 13

IllinoisPick 3-midday: 1-0-9Pick 3-evening: 4-7-0Pick 4-midday: 6-8-8-6Pick 4-evening: 2-9-3-5Lotto: 12-31-35-38-43-51 Extra Shot: 2Lucky Day Lotto-midday: 6-10-15-35-37Lucky Day Lotto-evening: 8-11-14-35-38

2A • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Local/Region paducahsun.com

■ McCracken County Board of Ed-ucation — special meeting, 3 p.m. Thursday, followed by regular meet-ing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, board office, Berger Road.

■ Heath Elementary School SBDM — 4 p.m. Monday, library.

■ Lone Oak Elementary School SBDM — 4 p.m. Monday, confer-ence room.

■ Livingston County Board of Edu-cation — 7 p.m. Monday, Livingston Central High School library, Smith-land.

Items for In Our Schools must be submitted by noon Thursday of each week by emailing news@paducah-sun.com.

In Our Schools

In the Saturday, Aug. 10, edition in a story on home-school football on Page 1B, the headline contained a misspelling. The headline read, “Warriors secure coverted first vic-tory.” The headline should have read, “Warriors secure coveted first victory.” A copy editor erred.

Correction

Songwriter helps abused childrenBY NICHOLAS RESIDEnreside@paducahsun.com

NICHOLAS RESIDE | The Sun

Nashville-based songwriter Rob Crosby performs “Holdin’ a Good Hand” on Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Hardin. The free performance raised money for the Graves County Court Appointed Special Advocates, a volunteer organization that helps abused children.

MAYSVILLE — Driving along on Kentucky 324, the log cabin is easy to miss if one isn’t pay-ing attention, but that is about to change.

Efforts are under way to move the log cabin, which was once home to one of May’s Lick’s most notable citizens, to a new location and bring prominence to the ca-reer of the man born there.

The cabin was once home to Col. Charles Young, whose legacy as a member of the United States Army continues to grow and has become the focus of a national movement to have Young pro-moted posthumously to brigadier general.

Mason County Judge-Exec-utive James L. “Buddy” Gallen-stein recently confi rmed he and the current property owner, Kar-en Hopkins have agreed for the cabin to be donated to the county. In return, the county will make repairs to the property after the cabin is dismantled and moved.

Gallenstein said he will meet with members of the Kentucky Heritage Council next Wednes-day at the site for the purpose of documenting the cabin, its cur-rent condition and location for historic purposes.

To date, the logs have been tagged and numbered, for recon-struction purposes which will take place at a later, undetermined date. The timbers and other ma-terials salvaged from the site will be stored in the meantime.

Gallenstein has been in contact with Charles Blatcher, chairman of the National Coalition of Black Veterans Organizations. The co-alition has been a driving force

behind efforts to have Young pro-moted and to bring recognition to his military and diplomatic ca-reer, which began in the late 1889 when he became the third African American to graduate from West Point.

“Veterans around the country are very excited about this proj-ect ... we are lending our full sup-port to the project,” Blatcher said recently. “We’re all very excited

about the possibility it would serve to attract tourism to the area of interested groups.”

Blatcher said once the cabin is dismantled he wants to work with Gallenstein on the best location to raise public awareness and ac-cess. He said a feasibility study will need to be conducted to de-termine the location and future use of the structure.

Research on Young’s career, from his graduation from West Point in 1889 and service as a Buffalo soldier to his diplomatic service in Liberia and Nigeria, has resulted in the conclusion he never achieved a higher rank than colonel because of the color of his skin. Although Young died in Nigeria on Jan. 8, 1922, his body was brought to the United States for burial in Arlington Na-tional Cemetery on June 1, 1923. Young’s funeral was held in the massive marble amphitheater, where only three other persons had been given formal burials (up to that time) — two Confed-erate veterans and the Unknown Soldier, according to a June 1, 1923 article in The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.

Marla Toncray writes for The (Maysville) Ledger Indepen-dent.

Officials work to move, repair historic log cabinBY MARLA TONCRAY

Associated Press

Associated Press

A historic log cabin that was once the home of Col. Charles Young stands Wednesday in May’s Lick. Efforts are underway to move the log cabin, which was once home to one of May’s Lick’s most notable citizens, to a new location and bring promi-nence to the career of the man born there.

paducahsun.com From Page One/Region The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • 3A

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

Lt. Col. Betty Demus (left) explains the ins and outs of the Mayfield IRT clinic while giving a tour to Greg Terry (left), Shaun Miller and Jeremy Buchanan (right) on Wednesday at the old Morgan Haugh Clinic in Mayfield. The clinic offers free physical, optical, mental and dental exams until Tuesday.

ell, a pediatric dentist who operates his own practice in Las Vegas when not on duty. Despite his special-ization, Bushell said the large infl ux of adults forced him to shift his focus.

“We saw some pretty bad cases. We had numer-ous (adults) that came in and needed every tooth in their mouth taken out, but, of course, we can’t do that. We did the best we could to get the ones out that were hurting.”

The severity of cases weren’t above what the dentists could handle, but they were far less common-place than what Bushell would normally handle at his practice on a routine basis, he said.

Capt. Ji In Kim, a general dentist deployed with the medical mission, said the dental team wasn’t sure of the extent of dental dam-age and issues they would run across.

“I asked my patients and the general consensus was most hadn’t seen a dentist for almost 10 years,” Kim said.

Months before the 7243rd Medical Support Unit set foot in western Kentucky, a Kentucky health issues poll published

in April found many Ken-tuckians didn’t view rou-tine dental care as a high priority.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the Health Foundation for a Greater Cincinnati con-ducted the poll and found that about 1.7 million state residents lacked dental insurance. Furthermore, about 39 percent of sur-veyed adults reported they did not have a usual den-tist, while 79 percent of those respondents said they last visited the dentist more than fi ve years ago.

The poll was a random sample of 1,680 Kentucky adults, conducted via tele-phone between September and October, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

According to the Delta Regional Authority Healthy Delta Database, two Pur-chase Area counties (Carl-isle and Hickman) near the medical mission site were identifi ed as having dental health shortages in 2010, while CDC data for the same year found Kentucky as a whole had the third highest percentage of work-ing age adults who had lost all their natural teeth from tooth decay or gum disease.

“There’s such a need here that we could have two

times the number of den-tists here, and we would still not be able to meet the need,” said Lt. Col. Betty Demus, offi cer in charge of the Mayfi eld IRT clinic.

Demus said the high de-mand forced members of the unit to make unsched-uled resupply runs to sepa-rate medical mission loca-tions earlier in the week, and the unit would be fully restocked on Friday. She did not anticipate the clinic running out of supplies.

Refl ecting on the cas-es dentists treated as of Wednesday, Demus said it was clear poverty, diet and tobacco use contributed to the problems of dental patients coming into the clinic. Dentists offered oral health education and hy-giene care packages to ev-ery patient.

“From my personal standpoint, it would be great if we could do two of these missions here in this area each year,” she said. “If we could do two, although, we still wouldn’t be able to take care of all the need.”

The free clinic continues operations through Tues-day.

Contact Will Pinkston, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8676 or follow @WCPinkston on Twitter.

CLINIC

CONTINUED FROM 1A

session set to begin Aug. 19 along with a proposal that House Republicans developed. Watkins said that the plan he helped ini-tiate does not pit any west-ern Kentucky incumbents against each other.

Both Watkins’ District 3 and Rep. Steven Rudy’s District 1 need to pick up roughly 5,000 voters. The plan Watkins is pushing adds the Reidland pre-cincts currently in District 4 to his district. It also hands Rudy some Lone Oak precincts.

District 3 currently en-compasses all of Paducah and some surrounding areas, while District 1 in-cludes Ballard, Carlisle, Hickman, Fulton and por-tions of McCracken coun-ties.

Rudy, R-West Paducah, said Friday that he has not seen the maps but thinks that most of the boundar-ies seem to check out.

“I’m intrigued with it,” he said. “I like that a lot better than what they pro-posed earlier in the year.”

Democrats proposed a plan during the regular session that would have split more than 150 pre-cincts across the state and placed 13 House incum-bents against each other. The proposal passed the House, with severe Re-publican scrutiny, but died at the hands of the Sen-ate, sending lawmakers back to the drawing board. Lawmakers’ responsibility during the upcoming spe-cial session is to agree on a solution.

The plan that Watkins explained would also pull all of the McCracken County precincts from District 4 — which Rep. Lynn Bechler, R-Marion, represents — and replace them with parts of Trigg County. District 4 cur-

rently encompasses areas in Caldwell, Crittenden and Livingston counties, in addition to a portion of McCracken.

The lines would play a little bit with Republi-can Rep. Richard Heath’s 2nd District, which en-compasses all of Graves County and part of Mc-Cracken, but does not pro-pose any major changes. It also gives Republican Rep. Kenny Imes’ 5th District — which covers Calloway and part of Trigg coun-ties — part of Christian County. It does not touch District 6, which Rep. Will Coursey, D-Benton, repre-sents. The district includes Marshall, Lyon and part of McCracken counties.

Rudy said the GOP-supported plan that House Republican Floor Leader Jeff Hoover, R-James-town, introduced last week is not that much different from the plan Watkins discussed for the western counties. Rudy said that he believes it makes some changes to Marshall Coun-ty instead of Trigg.

The plan is similar, at least for the Jackson Pur-chase area, to a proposal introduced in 2012, Wat-kins said. A judge ulti-mately threw out those maps, citing unconsti-

tutionality with some of the boundaries. Watkins said the current proposal is constitutional and well supported in the local area.

Redistricting is required every 10 years to even out the number of residents represented in the House, Senate and congressional districts in response to population changes. Law-makers say the matter is the most contentious, par-tisan issue they face. While the congressional plan passed in 2012, the Gen-eral Assembly could not come to an agreement on the state boundaries and the matter was tabled until the 2013 session.

The failed attempt dur-ing the regular session in-cluded fi ve districts that pitted Republicans against each other, one district that placed an incum-bent Republican against an incumbent Democrat, and no districts that pit-ted incumbent Democrats against each other.

Hoover’s plan, which garnered support from leadership and members of the House Republican Caucus, splits the mini-mum number of counties, 24, that the Kentucky Su-preme Court requires. It also splits only two pre-cincts in the state, and does not split any districts three ways. The proposed lines place eight current House members together; one district with two Re-publicans, one district with two Democrats, and two districts with incum-bents from both parties.

Contact Mallory Panuska, a Paducah Sun staff writ-er, at 270-575-8684 or follow @MalloryPanuska on Twitter.

REDISTRICTING

CONTINUED FROM 1A “To a T, everyone

won’t vote for it, but almost everyone will.

Democrats and Republicans are very supportive of what we’ve

done.”

Gerald WatkinsD-Paducah

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — A section of 80-foot-tall limestone cliffs overlook-ing the Cumberland River in Clarksville is drawing rock-climbers from all over the region.

Rock climbers fl ock each weekend to King’s Bluff, which offers more than 160 routes over 10 acres of cliffs.

Casey Brock, who works at Vanderbilt University, many area climbers enjoy

the bluff and use it regu-larly.

The cliffs are open to the public and free of charge, but climbers must use their own ropes, harnesses and other gear.

— AP

Site a big draw for rock climbersAssociated Press

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Valuable Inserts The following inserts are in today’s edition of

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Duke ConoverExecutive Editor

The Kentucky Legislature banned texting while driving last year. Drivers pulled over for violating the law can be assessed a fine of $25 for the first offense, $50 for the second.

But the fines are little deterrent. In 2012, more than 50,000 crashes were attributed to driver distraction, including cell phone use, in Kentucky.

Gov. Steve Beshear is trying to put more teeth into the law. The governor announced Wednesday that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will assess penalty points against drivers convicted of texting behind the wheel. When drivers accumulate enough points their licenses can be suspended.

It’s a step in the right direction, although more is needed.

Each violation would result in three penalty points. Adults who accumulate 12 points — be it from texting or other traffic offenses — could have their licenses suspended. Teen drivers could see their licenses suspended after they accumulate seven points.

“Could,” of course is not “will.”

While it’s good that the commonwealth is taking more seriously

the problem of texting while driving, the penalties are not nearly stiff enough to curb a behavior that has become a major factor in thousands of deaths and injuries nationwide.

Imagine if the state applied the same penalty points system to drunk driving. It would mean someone would have to be convicted of drunk driving four times before his or her license could be suspended. One could get away with it

three times before suffering any consequences beyond small fines. Even a teenager could get away with driving drunk twice without serious consequences.

Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that driving while texting is as dangerous as driving while drunk.

A study by the Cohen Children’s Medical Center found that more teenagers

now die annually from texting while driving than die from driving under the influence of alcohol. The study said this makes texting while driving the leading cause of death among teens. It stands to reason, since teens text a lot more than they drink. Surveys show that a high percentage of teens and adults admit to routinely texting while driving despite the prohibition, which is law in most states.

According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, engaging in visual-manual subtasks (reaching for a phone, dialing, texting) associated with the use of hand-held phones and other portable devices triples the risk of getting into a crash. The Institute found that sending or receiving a text message takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s the time it takes a car to travel the distance of a football field.

Beshear notes, “While (the cell phone) has made our lives and jobs easier in many ways, there is no question that far too often it proves to be an irresistible distraction to drivers.”

Kentucky’s decision to assess points for texting violations is a small but appropriate step toward making the distraction a little more resistible.

WASHINGTON — “Col-leagues,” said the June 27 letter to 98 U.S. senators, “now it is your turn.” The let-ter’s authors are Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the chairman and ranking Republican on the tax-writing Finance Committee, respectively. From their com-bined 71 years on Capitol Hill they know that their colleagues will tiptoe gingerly, if at all, onto the hazardous terrain of tax reform.

Together with Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., of the House Ways and Means Com-mittee, Baucus and Hatch propose a “blank slate” ap-proach, erasing all deductions and credits — currently worth more than $1 trillion a year — and requiring legislators to justify reviving them. Hence the Baucus-Hatch letter, in response to which almost 70 senators sent more than 1,000 pages of suggestions. Although some often were short on specifi city, the submissions were given encrypted identi-fi cation numbers and locked in a safe, as befi ts dangerous documents.

Every complexity in the 4 million-word tax code was created at the behest of a muscular interest group that tenaciously defends it. Which is why tax simplifi cation would be political reform: Writing lu-crative wrinkles into the code is one of the primary ways the political class confers favors. Furthermore, “targeted” tax cuts serve bossy government’s behavior modifi cation agenda: Do what we want you to do and you can keep more of your money. Simplifi cation would reduce the opportunities for the political class to throw its weight around. Hence the fl inch from simplifi cation.

In 1986, however, Congress did not fl inch. In the last 40 years, Finance, the Senate’s most important committee, has had formidable chairmen

— Russell Long, Bob Dole, Bob Packwood, Lloyd Bentsen, Pat Moynihan and Baucus. And in 1986 there were additional serious reformers, including Sen. Bill Bradley and Rep. Dick Gephardt.

Of the three biggest tax preferences, unions, especially, oppose taxing as compensa-tion — which it obviously is — employer-paid health insur-ance (a $260 billion benefi t), and Democrats oppose ending the $80 billion deduction for state and local taxes. It encourages high government spending.

The third preference, the mortgage-interest deduc-tion, is a $70 billion benefi t that goes disproportionately to affl uent homeowners. But Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, which have no mortgage-interest deduc-tion, have homeownership rates comparable to America’s. Every congressional district, however, has real estate bro-kers benefi ting from the bank-ers who benefi t by providing mortgages.

Baucus is proud to have been mentored by the greatest Montanan, Mike Mansfi eld, a Democrat who for 16 of his 24 Senate years was major-ity leader. Today, the main impediment to tax reform, aside from Baucus’ risk-averse colleagues, is Majority Leader Harry Reid, who Baucus in-sists, emphatically but implau-sibly, is a friend. Reid, who is as petty as Mansfi eld was grand, deplores partisanship but resents Democrats like Baucus who practice biparti-

sanship. Reid says he did not even read the Baucus-Hatch letter, and insists tax reform “can’t be revenue neutral; it can’t be even close to neutral.”

Each year 6.1 billion hours are spent complying with the tax code. This is equal to the work time of 3 million full-time workers, making tax compliance one of America’s largest industries. Is there time for Congress to reduce this waste of time?

“It’s early,” says Baucus equably. Actually, it is late in this legislative year, and elections are next year. But, says Baucus serenely, 1986 was an election year in a president’s second term. He seems unperturbed about the possibility that Camp might be distracted by seeking Michi-gan’s open Senate seat. Baucus still hopes to bring Congress to an “all join hands and jump together” moment, “a tipping point where there is a sense of inevitability.”

Inevitably, however, the tax code has reached a criti-cal mass of complexity that renders it almost unreform-able. This illustrates the crisis of the regulatory state: Interest groups fasten themselves onto the government and immobi-lize it.

At the 2004 Republican convention, George W. Bush vowed to “simplify” the tax code’s “complicated mess.” The convention roared ap-proval. Next, he promised new complexities — tax benefi ts for “opportunity zones” in depressed areas, a tax credit to encourage businesses to offer health savings accounts. Another roar of approval.

Since the 1986 simplifi ca-tion, the code has been re-complicated more than 15,000 times at the behest of Ameri-cans who simultaneously praise the principle of simplifi -cation. All other taxes could be abolished if we could tax the nation’s cognitive dissonance.

EDITOR:This is in reponse to the letter written by

Thomas Forrester of Paducah, which ap-peared in the July 27 issue of The Paducah Sun.

Matthew 7:22, 23 warns us against self-deception. Professing to be a Christian by-virtue of one’s ancestry/heritage, through associates or by the clothing/accessories one wears doesn’t make one a Christian any more than spending the night in a garage makes one a parked car.

Mr. Forrester states that for over 230 years America’s Christian heritage went unquestioned. I challenge him to show me in any version of the Bible where Jesus encouraged, promoted or instituted hatred (Ku Klux Klan or The Knight’s Party), intolerance (slavery, Jim Crow), avarice (ponzi schemes, economic bubbles, child labor), sloth (public education and paren-tal failures), pride (abortion, eating disor-ders) or wrath (assassinations, lynchings),

all of which stand out in America’s history far more than the principle of love taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ.

Perhaps America, collectively and indi-vidually, would do well to self-examine the foundation of its beliefs. Is your conser-vative or liberal agenda self-serving or serving God? Anti-religious attacks didn’t begin with President Obama. Ms. O’Hare’s stance against prayer in public places pre-dates him. Christianity is a way of life. A spiritual transformation or change in one’s heart must occur. Unless this transforma-tion takes place, you are not following Christ.

Too often the tone of some conserva-tives, as well as some liberals, is fi lled with hatred, intolerance and disdain for anyone who doesn’t agree with their agenda. Civil-ity and the common courtesy of agreeing to disagree without personal attacks are no longer acknowledged. At one time in America, out of respect for the offi ce, the person who held the position as president of the United States was always referred to as such. That is no longer the case among many conservatives who call themselves

Christians.When we disrespect others, we disre-

spect Christ. Love, in all aspects, is the only way for the true Christian.

MELANIE NUNNPaducah

Edwin J. Paxton, Editor & Publisher, 1900-1961

Editorial

Letters

4A • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Opinion paducahsun.com

Civility to disagree, not makepersonal attacks a lost virtue

EDITOR:I would like to express my appreciation

to the volunteers, contributors, organizers, coaches and others who made the Special Olympics Western Kentucky Regional Softball Championships a huge success. It was extremely gratifying watching the over 200 athletes compete for a spot at the Kentucky State Championships.

But for most of these athletes, it was more about the opportunity to participate in the event and strive to do their best. Thanks to WPSD for their excellent cover-age.

The biggest disappointment was that The Paducah Sun chose not to cover this event from either a sports or news angle.

Newspaper should have covered softball regional

Considering the extensive coverage 41 country club women golfers received from the front page through the sports pages during the week, it would have been nice for these athletes to have been given some recognition.

RICH ALLSHOUSEPaducah

EDITOR:I want to take this time to thank you

and your staff for the article written about my 88th birthday party given to me at the Kentucky Veteran and Patriot Museum on July 20.

I was completely surprised when I looked at my paper and saw my picture on the front page. I consider this a great honor.

The Paducah Sun and staff have been very kind to me. I could never thank you enough for the honor you have given me.

EDWARD EARL GIDCUMBWickliffe

Surprise honor for veteranreceived with appreciation

RIGHT MOVETexting drivers deserve

sanctions against license Tax reform rational, ergo unattainable

George Will

paducahsun.com Kentucky The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • 5A

LEXINGTON — The Uni-versity of Kentucky has re-versed course and released records showing the death rates in a children’s heart surgery program that was suspended last fall during an internal review.

UK Healthcare CEO Mi-chael Karpf said the mor-tality rates were in a nor-mal range of between 4.5 percent and 7.1 percent from 2008 to 2012. He said the overall mortality rate for the time period was 5.8 percent.

“These ranges are com-parable to national mor-tality rates averaging 5.3 percent for programs of similar size to ours,” Karpf

said.UK Healthcare stopped

performing cardiothoracic surgeries on children in December and put the pro-gram under review. The university declined to say what prompted the review and had refused to release records on the number of deaths in the program.

The release of the re-cords on Friday came after hundreds of people signed an online petition asking that the fi gures be released.

Tabitha Rainey, who started the petition on Change.org, said she was still reviewing the informa-tion.

“I’m happy that they are at least trying to put some-

thing out there,” Rainey said. “I feel like some of our efforts have been effec-tive.”

Rainey, whose son had surgery through the pro-gram, said she had been contacted by about 20 oth-er parents who expressed concerns about it.

“Some of these cases need to be looked into,” she said.

UK spokesman Jay Blan-ton said the review of the program continues.

“Once the review is com-plete, the university will re-lease as much data as fed-eral and state law allow,” Blanton said via email. “It’s more important that such a process be done right than

quickly.”Karpf said in a statement

that UK Healthcare is com-mitted to “aggressive qual-ity improvement.”

“Anytime a question is raised about a clinical pro-gram or a patient’s care, we bring all involved parties together and review the sit-uation and circumstances in a ‘no holds barred’ man-ner,” Karpf said. “Some-times we even choose to put a program on hold, until we are certain that we are doing everything necessary to provide the highest level of care. This is what we did with our pe-diatric cardiothoracic sur-gery program.”

— AP

UK releases heart program dataAssociated Press

LOUISVILLE — A long-term increase in the num-ber of people served by a Louisville ministry has led it to try a new approach to helping others.

Eastern Area Community Ministries Director Carrie Gerard said the agency is preparing to start the Help-ing Hands Partnership. She said the program will depend on volunteers who mentor people needing long-term help in an effort to try to get families out of poverty.

“We are going to invite them into the process, which we’ve never really done before,” Gerard said.

For 30 years, the min-istry focused on helping people to respond to crises. She said the agency has served up to 300 families each month and has had to turn some away, so wanted to try a new model of assis-tance.

Family advocate Re-bekah Davis will lead the effort and will meet with clients to help them fi nd the root cause of their fi nancial problems, whether it’s in-come, expenses or health-related.

She said Davis will work with clients to come up with a long-term plan for them to become self-suffi cient and clients will work with a mentor to ensure success.

Davis said this is a way to identify “what is keeping that door closed; why are they struggling.” She said the same families are con-tinually coming back, and it’s like “they’re stuck in a vicious cycle.”

“Some clients have said, ‘If only I could get childcare or pay this one bill I could go back to school.’ “

Judy Grider, 56, who

has multiple sclerosis and had to stop working, said she doesn’t know how she could manage without ser-vices offered by the minis-tries.

“You’re living on your own and you don’t know if you’re going to be able to pay your rent this month,” Grider said. “You just have to say one prayer after an-other.”

Lisa Smith, vice chair-woman of the ministries board, said, “This program is taking a different ap-proach, not only helping people who walk in the door, but helping them so they don’t have to walk into the door in the future.”

The program is funded through a combination of grant money from the Gheens Foundation and funds from the city’s bud-get.

Bridges to Tomorrow manager Angie Ditsler said this model is becom-ing more popular because “unlike the traditional ‘case management’ model often found in service delivery, coaching is an empower-ment model whereby the individual being coached identifi es their own path to success.”

Eastern Area Community Ministries will still offer a Dare to Care food pantry and provide emergency funding for utility bills, but long-term assistance will be limited unless people are part of the Helping Hands Partnership.

“We will always provide some emergency services to families, but because there are such limited resources there may be times where we have to say these partic-ular resources are no longer available,” Gerard said.

— AP

New model to helpministry serve needy

Associated Press

Associated Press

Festival funSteve Hamilton of Sumner, Wash., appears to be flying on a magic carpet while showing Jack McHugh, 9, of Lexington a coin trick Saturday at a riverfront fair at Eng-lish Park in Owensboro.

SOMERSET — A man charged in what police have called an apparent road rage shooting has entered a not guilty plea to assault.

Troy A. McAninch, 23, of Stanford also waived his right to a preliminary hear-ing in the Aug. 1 shooting of truck driver Luster L. Rose, 54, of Parkers Lake, which means the case will go to a grand jury.

Police said McAninch

became furious at the way Rose was driving and got out to confront him when both vehicles stopped at an intersection in Somerset.

Police said the situation escalated quickly and an altercation took place at the intersection that resulted in McAninch producing a handgun and fi ring four times at Rose.

Police say Rose remains in the hospital in critical condition. — AP

Shooting suspect pleads not guiltyAssociated Press

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6A • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Region paducahsun.com

RegionOfficials investigating Baptist Health Corbin

CORBIN — A state agency under contract to inspect hospitals for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service said it is conducting an investiga-tion at Baptist Health Corbin.

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services spokeswoman Gwenda Bond confirmed the investiga-tion by the agency’s Office of Inspector General, but said she could not provide any details.

Baptist Health Corbin President Larry Gray said in a statement this week that the hospital is respond-ing to concerns from the federal agency, which cited “procedural and process concerns” during a recent inspection.

He said the hospital has taken action to resolve the problems.

— Associated Press

Two more indicted in couple’s slaying

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. — A grand jury has indicted two more people — a mother and daughter — in the killings of an East Tennessee couple.

A Johnson County grand jury returned indictments on Friday charging Barbara Mae Potter and Janelle Leigh Potter with two counts each of murder in the case. It wasn’t clear whether the women had attor-neys.

Police said the 2012 deaths of Billy Clay Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth stemmed from a dispute the couple had with Janelle Potter after they removed her as a friend from their Facebook page.

Two others are facing murder charges in the case: Marvin Enoch Potter Jr., who is married to Barbara Potter and the father of Janelle Potter, and Jamie Lee Curd, a family friend.

— Associated Press

Greenbrier illnesses blamed on norovirus

NASHVILLE — State health officials say an out-break of stomach illnesses in Middle Tennessee is due to a norovirus.

Tennessee Department of Health spokeswoman Shelley Walker said in an email to The Tennessean that more than 100 people in Greenbrier have report-ed becoming ill, though not all of those are confirmed as norovirus. Officials said it was having an effect on area schools with 62 educators from four schools calling in sick on Friday.

Walker said officials began investigating the sud-den outbreak in the middle of the week. Although they haven’t pinpointed the source of the illnesses, she said they aren’t considered a threat to the com-munity.

— Associated Press

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The name Zeus invokes thoughts of a mighty and powerful Greek god, the supreme being for an an-cient culture. But for Dawn Boyd and Lynda Kuether, Zeus isn’t so much a god as a godsend.

The mixed hound has overcome many odds in the short year and a half of his life, and he’s brought a great deal of joy to his two caretakers, the staff at St. Francis Community Ani-mal Rescue and Education and people across the world who have followed his jour-ney via the Internet.

Zeus’ story has also raised awareness and interest in St. Francis’ mission, helping position the shelter for suc-cess. Outgrowing their cur-rent space, the shelter hopes to expand, a plan Boyd and Kuether have named “The House That Zeus Built.”

Zeus came to the Mur-physboro shelter from Al-tus, Okla., where he had been rescued from likely euthanasia at the county animal control facilities. He had a broken leg, and the paralysis spread quickly. When he arrived at St. Fran-cis, he suffered from paraly-sis engulfi ng his whole body, aside from his tail.

He learned to walk in a wheelchair, purchased with donations from the public, until surgery in May en-abled him to begin to stand on his own. Now, he’s able to climb stairs — albeit at his own pace — and gets around fairly well without

the chair.“Every little milestone

has just been amazing,” Kuether said. “I thought it was the greatest thing in the world when he could stand up to pee.”

With each step of his jour-ney to recovery, Zeus has made more friends, even those he’s never met. One Facebook follower from Germany plans to come to Southern Illinois in August to meet the inspirational mutt face to face.

Kuether said that means Zeus will stay with her at least that long, but eventu-ally, he might be in need of a permanent new home.

“Our ultimate goal is that

he will be adopted, so that frees us up to do this with another dog,” she said. “Of course, there are some peo-ple who would be happy to see him stay where he is, in-cluding his mama.”

Keeping Zeus is an op-tion, but with three other dogs at home already, Kue-ther said it would prevent her from rescuing another.

Zeus has some more progress to make before adoption will be an option. Kuether wants him to im-prove on the steps and tone and develop his muscles a little bit more, especially on the backside. He could be ready for adoption as soon as September.

But those interested in raising Zeus need to be aware his caretakers aren’t willing to turn him over to just anyone.

“His adoption selection will be a little more strin-gent,” Kuether said, noting Zeus will require small ste-roid treatments and other special accommodations for the rest of his life. “We need to do what’s best for him, and that requires fi nding someone who can provide that for him.”

Adam Testa writes for The (Carbondale) Southern Il-linoisan.

Rescued dog hit road to recoveryBY ADAM TESTA

Associated Press

Associated Press

Zeus demonstrates how he maneuvers in a wheelchair July 18 at Evergreen Park in Carbondale, Ill. Zeus was rescued from Oklahoma by St. Francis Community Animal Rescue and Education in August 2012. At that time he could not walk or stand. He has improved to the point of no longer needing the wheelchair.

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paducahsun.com Region The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • 7A

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — An 18-year-old with an inter-est in engineering saw a vacant lot in his neighbor-hood as an opportunity to build something from the ground up.

“I just did a quick sketch of a park and, I don’t know, they just approved it,” said Nick Arteaga.

Jim Schneider, direc-tor of Human Resources, Training and Community Development, said before he received Arteaga’s de-sign, the city had its own plans for the lot.

“Nick’s concept is actu-ally more elaborate,” Sch-neider said. “The young man’s got a good sense of the big picture for such a young man.”

Schneider said the “big picture” includes neigh-borhoods and community members who come to-gether to create what it is they see a need for.

Arteaga said he found out about the unused lot through volunteering in the community. Being of Ger-man descent, he designed a German Heritage Garden.

“It’s hard to describe,” Arteaga said. “They have one middle area, and they have lots of fl owers.”

The park will be located at 110 N. 10th St. near West C Street. Arteaga hopes it will benefi t the seniors at the Belleville Senior Citi-zen’s Club, which is near the lot.

He designed a walk-ing path shaded by trees, which wraps around the perimeter and connects to the center of the lot, and made plans for an exercise center for the seniors.

The lot will be known as Gass Park, named after the Gass family who owned and donated the property.

Arteaga plans to involve students from Belleville West High School, from which he recently gradu-ated, in the construction of the park. He would like to see the art club design a fountain to be placed in the center of the park while students in welding classes design and build a bike rack.

He spoke to Belleville Township High School Dis-trict 201 Superintendent Jeff Dosier who will have Arteaga speak to classes when the school year starts in the fall.

“I’m hoping they’ll be in-terested. We’ll see.”

Benches at the park will be roofed with solar pan-els designed by Arteaga to

power the fountain.“I took a (photovolta-

ics) and wind-power class a long time ago and I still remember my solar panel stuff,” he said.

In the future, Gass Park could be the site of a com-munity garden, Schneider said, if the neighborhood agrees to keep it up.

Arteaga said the park should be fi nished by 2014.

Development of the park began July 11 when volun-teers from across the na-tion traveled to Belleville as part of a Christian youth conference in St. Louis. The volunteers, along with Arteaga and members of the community, construct-ed the walking paths.

Arteaga’s mother Donna Mauno, a Belleville Neigh-borhood Partnership lead-er for the zone that encom-passes the Pleasant Hill area, was in attendance Thursday. She said she couldn’t be more proud of what her son is doing.

“Can’t you tell by my smile?” Mauno said.

The Pleasant Hill Neigh-borhood Watch agreed to hold a fundraiser to help Arteaga’s vision reach com-pletion, Mauno said. They plan to host a fi ve-mile Volksmarch at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 28. Mauno said all of

the money they raise will be used toward the purchase of building materials for Gass Park. Schneider said the people in the neighbor-hood are actually saving the city money in the long run by transforming this lot with funding from sup-porters.

Arteaga said watching his design evolve beyond a “quick sketch” before his eyes made it all real.

“I’m a little surprised because I just volunteered and had time to draw it up,” Arteaga said. “I didn’t think I’d have all this to do and responsibility along with school, but it’s turned out pretty good so far. Ev-erybody’s actually working and doing stuff.”

Arteaga will be a fresh-man this fall, beginning his studies through a dual program at Southwestern Illinois College and South-ern Illinois University Edwardsville. He said he wants to stay involved in the project even after he begins college.

He wants to study aero-space engineering to build planes in the future. For now, he’ll settle with build-ing gardens.

“I just love engineering,” he said.

— AP

High school grad designs parkBY LEXI CORTES

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — New medi-cal students at Washing-ton University are step-ping outside the classroom to see a side of St. Louis far different than the exclu-sive private school’s leafy undergraduate campus and its Central West End medical complex.

The program has incom-ing students visit some of St. Louis’ most distressed neighborhoods to expose the doctors-in-training to public health needs. The voluntary program is in its 14th year and becomes mandatory next year.

The program drew 85 of the school’s 122 incom-ing medical students. Just 10 participated in its fi rst year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“We don’t want them to be locked in a classroom,” said Will Ross, associate professor of diversity and creator of the Washington University Medical Plunge program. “We want them to get out and touch the community.”

Ross said the school is one of the few in the coun-try to offer such programs and has been contacted by other medical schools interested in adding simi-lar programs. He told the students that the city of St. Louis is “a pocket of poverty in the midst of St. Louis County’s relative af-fl uence.”

“Place matters. It has a fundamental impact on how healthy you are,” he said. “Seeing where pa-tients are from, they can now put diseases in con-text such as asthma. They can say: ‘I see where they live now.’ They are no longer locked into blam-ing the patient because they are not adhering to the medical plan. They no longer stigmatize the pa-tient.”

The tour began at Ivory Perry Park, just north of Delmar Boulevard on Belt Avenue. The stark racial split of the east-west thor-oughfare — largely white and affl uent to the south, mostly poor and black to the north — is referred to locally as the “Delmar Di-vide.”

Architecture professor Bob Hansman took the students to the old Homer

G. Phillips Hospital in the city’s Ville neighborhood. The hospital, opened to serve black people, is now a senior living complex. The tour also included Lewis Place, one of sev-eral areas in the city where restrictive covenants pre-vented black people from buying houses.

Medical student Rachel Corbin, 24, is from St. Louis. She was unfamiliar with much of the history Hansman shared.

“This was really an im-portant start to our medi-cal education,” she said. “It took us to parts of the city that we have been warned against seeing.”

Kayla Berry, 22, of Knoxville, Tenn., said the tour should not be limited to medical students.

“Everyone should be go-ing,” Berry said. “People hear about it, but ignore it.”

To bolster his point, Ross compared the ZIP code of 63105 covering the St. Louis County seat of Clayton near campus with 63113 in north St. Louis, the tour’s focus and a sta-tistical area dominated by neighborhoods fi lled with blocks of vacant lots and crumbling buildings.

The life expectancy in the city ZIP code is 65.9 years compared to 82.7 years in Clayton. Births without fi rst trimester pre-natal care are 27.1 percent in the north city compared to 2.2 percent in Clayton. The diabetes mortality rate in north city is almost 20 times higher, the rate of HIV cases eight times greater and heart disease more than double.

“Unless you know the background, it’s easy to walk outdoors and mis-interpret what you see,” Hansman told the stu-dents. “This is the world you are going to walk into.”

At Perry Park, the stu-dents heard about the violent death of Rodney McAllister, a 10-year-old mauled by a pack of dogs in 2001.

A tree and plaque in the park serve as part of a me-morial for the boy.

“Was this a tragic ac-cident or a microcosm of other things?” Hansman said. — AP

Med students see other side of St. Louis

Associated Press

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — A local dog is fast be-coming a Facebook sensa-tion.

Mac, a 2-year-old pit bull, is the heart of a suc-cessful online advocacy ef-fort that has raised funds for the rescue of neglected pit bulls nationwide.

“If I were offered $1 mil-lion for Mac, I wouldn’t take it,” said Rochelle Stef-fen, Mac’s owner. “He’s my Superman.”

Mac’s Facebook page, created by Steffen in Au-gust 2012 to help defray the costs of Mac’s surger-ies, has raised funds for more than 20 pit bulls across the country in need of care after their rescue. Pit bulls from as far away as California, Arizona and Florida have benefi ted from Mac’s Fund, which comes from proceeds from

the T-shirt and decal store found on his Facebook page.

“We’ve raised over $5,000 for pit bulls through Mac’s Fund, and that’s being conserva-tive,” Steffen said. “One-hundred percent of what is made from the store, mi-nus the cost of items and shipping, goes directly into the fund. We’re not keep-ing any of the money.”

Steffen, who also fosters other pit bulls at her home, said the theme of Mac’s advocacy is about “paying it forward” because Mac knows about being res-cued and what it takes to recover.

“I bought Mac from a seller when he was three months old,” she said. “He weighed four pounds when he should’ve weighed over 20. He had mange and ge-netic defects in his hind legs. He would’ve died if I

hadn’t found him.”Steffen said she took

Mac to the Humane Soci-ety of Southeast Missouri for immediate care. Once he was rehabilitated, she fostered him at her home.

“I’d fallen in love with him.” she said.

Helping to get Mac — literally — back on his feet required more than just love. Money would be needed to cover the cost of badly needed leg surgery, and Steffen said that need led her to start selling T-shirts and decals that read, “I Am Pit Bull Strong.”

“I sold them at the Cape Farmers Market,” she said. “Then I created Mac’s Facebook page, and I found there’s this crazy underground for dogs there.”

More than $4,000 was raised through sales via Mac’s Facebook store, and thanks to the generosity of others, Mac was able to re-ceive what turned out to be four surgeries. His recov-ery is coming along nicely, according to Steffen.

“Mac is such a lucky dog,” she said. “He won the lottery. That’s why we’re using his page to pay it for-ward to other pit bulls.”

In addition to raising money for the care of res-cued pit bulls, Mac’s Fund provides for small goody boxes to be sent to the ani-mals. Steffen also has ini-tiated “Mac’s 1 for 1” — if two matching gifts are sent to Mac during his recovery,

one of them will be donat-ed to the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri.

“It’s a cool program,” said Kelly Goff, director of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri. “Ro-chelle brought in what I can only term a lot of toys and other items this past Sunday. She’s been a vol-unteer at the Humane So-ciety for 12 years, and we absolutely appreciate what she does. I wish Mac well in his continued recovery.”

As someone who has

cared for animals since she was 7 years old, Steffen said she doesn’t plan on shutting down Mac’s Face-book page anytime soon. She also is organizing a skeeball tournament fund-raiser this fall at West Park Mall to further aid rescued pit bulls.

“I’ll just keep going,” she said. “Mac and I are so grateful for the help he received, and we want oth-ers to keep receiving help, too.”

— AP

Missouri pit bull at heart of online advocacy effortBY KEITH LEWIS

Associated Press“If I were offered

$1 million for Mac, I wouldn’t

take it.”

Rochelle SteffenMac’s owner

Associated Press

Nick Arteaga (left) of Belleville, Ill., is joined by volunteers July 11 to help finish the project he designed for Gass Park in Belleville. The project takes an empty green space and adds a walking path that will be complemented with future benches, flowers and art work.

8A • Sunday, August 11, 2013 • The Paducah Sun From Page One paducahsun.com

students. The number may drop a bit as the school year begins, but Superinten-dent Randy Greene said it’s still a signifi -cant increase from previous years.

One of the changes might take some getting used to, Greene added. Students will have to enter the school through the back of the building until mid-November at the earliest, as crews are still clearing the rubble from the demolition of the old school.

“We realize the fi rst few days until par-ents get used to that, it could be a small problem. There could be a lot of traffi c back there,” Greene said, adding that crossing guards will be available for stu-dents who are dropped off a block or two away.

Other schools in the system have seen administrative changes as well, with McNabb Elementary selecting Teresa Spann as its new principal.

And Paducah Tilghman High School Principal Art Davis said he has fi lled the space Overlin left with interim assistant principal Alan Paul.

Davis said he’s excited for his fellow educators at the middle school, and that he’s looking forward to another year at Tilghman.

“We’re just operating as normal,” Da-vis said of the school, where seniors re-cently earned the highest composite ACT scores in Tilghman’s history.

“Bodies come and go, but it’s still Til-ghman. We’re in good shape,” he said.

Contact Laurel Black, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8641 or follow @LaurelFBlack on Twitter.

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

Nora Cox, assistant principal at Paducah Middle School, assigns lockers to students Friday afternoon. Monday is the first day for schools in the Paducah district.

SCHOOLSCONTINUED FROM 1A

Now a Chicago resident, Trice has returned home for Emancipa-tion Day every year for the past 69 years.

“We’re celebrating the freedom from slavery,” he said. “I come 300-some miles to celebrate, so I must be serious about it.”

The holiday recognizes the date when, according to local legend, Paducah received word of the sign-ing and implementation of Abra-ham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proc-lamation. The executive order went into effect Jan. 1, 1863, and freed slaves in all states in open rebellion against the Union.

Trice said the Eighth of August events give him a sense of togeth-erness and harmony, and serve as a family reunion of sorts. But he added he was disappointed in the number of people who celebrate and the scant amount of attention he said the events receive.

“Every year I see a sparse crowd because of a few little dewdrops, and that doesn’t make sense,” Trice said.

Others didn’t quite agree.“(The parade) was wonderful,”

said George Ross, president of the board of directors of the W.C. Young Community Center, the

host of the Emancipation Celebra-tion. “It was a great turnout, exactly what we wanted.”

Ross noted that this year’s event, with the theme “Bringing the Com-munity Together,” honored people 80 and older. He said connecting with those people proved a learn-ing experience.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to experience that history, to under-stand and to know their struggles,” Ross said.

But Ross emphasized the most important aspect of the celebration for him was moving forward.

“What I really want to focus on is the future,” he said, adding that the theme of next year’s celebration will be “The Future is Now.”

For Ross, that means bringing every member of the Paducah com-munity together, regardless of race.

“Our struggles just aren’t that different,” he said. “It’s just that di-vision we create among ourselves.”

Eighth of August festivities con-clude today with the Salute to Gos-pel Music, which will be held at 4 p.m. at Paducah Tilghman High School.

Contact Laurel Black, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8641 or follow @LaurelFBlack on Twitter.

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

Paducah Tilghman High School’s Band of Blue marches down Wal-ter Jetton Boulevard during the annual Emancipation Day Parade. Members of the high school football team and several local organiza-tions and businesses also participated in this year’s parade.

PARADE

CONTINUED FROM 1A

WASHINGTON — Depart-ment of Housing and Ur-ban Development employees won’t need to take their final two unpaid furlough days af-ter all.

The agency said Friday it is making enough progress fi nd-ing the $69.6 million spending reductions mandated by the

government’s automatic bud-get cuts without needing the additional days planned for later this month.

HUD’s more than 8,400 workers have had fi ve fur-lough days since May, clos-ing the agency’s headquarters in Washington and shutting down about 80 fi eld offi ces.

HUD is the latest agency

to reduce furlough days. The Pentagon recently reduced its furloughs for civilian employ-ees, cutting the unpaid days off from 11 to six.

The across-the-board bud-get cuts are the result of Wash-ington’s failure to work out a long-term, defi cit-cutting plan.

— AP

HUD reduces furlough days to 5Associated Press

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