Article from the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer

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Messenger-Inquirer
MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013
Vol. 139, No. 63 Owensboro, Ky. • 75¢
Housing market sees strong growth
Realtors, home builders report gains in 2012, hopeful for 2013
BY KEITH LAWRENCE
MESSENGER-INQUIRER
That music you’re hearing at
the Greater Owensboro Realtor
Association and the Home Builders Association of Owensboro is
“Happy Days Are Here Again.”
Last year, local Realtors sold
more houses for more money
than they’ve sold since 2007 —
just before the Great Recession.
Local builders started work
on 47 more houses than they
built in 2011. And the value of
the houses was up $7 million.
“Last year was a good year,”
Steve Lewis, president of the
Greater Owensboro Realtor
Association, said last week. “And
we expect this year to be even
Clerk
hopes more
will renew
license tags
by mail
better.”
“All our gains were from May
forward last year,” said Richard
Stallings, executive of ficer at
the Home Builders Association
of Owensboro. “But we’re still
trending up this year. We feel
like we’ve got a good start on a
recovery.”
Local residential construction
peaked in 2003 with 589 singlefamily houses and 79 multifamily units built at a cost of $47.61
million.
Housing starts last year were
still a long way from that level
— 280 single-family houses and
eight multifamily units built at a
cost of $27.63 million.
But they were up significantly
— 11.6 percent more permits
and 34.7 percent more money —
from 2011, when only 233 houses and four multifamily units
were started at a cost of $20.55
million.
The building boom in the
1990s and early 2000s saw local
construction companies building houses at an “unsustainable”
level, Stallings said.
SEE HOUSING/PAGE A2
Program combines exercise with fun for seniors
BY KEITH LAWRENCE
MESSENGER-INQUIRER
March is the busiest month of the
year for the Daviess County Clerk’s
office.
And Daviess County Clerk David
“Oz” Osborne is hoping more people
will handle their license tag renewals
by mail this year.
Ever y vehicle owner bor n in
March has to get his or her license
tag renewed during the month. And
so does the owner of every farm vehicle, truck, trailer, motor home and
recreational vehicle — regardless of
when the person was born.
“Our receipts increased nearly
50 percent between Februar y and
March last year,” County Clerk David
Osborne said Tuesday. “March is our
busiest month.”
And Osborne is worried about a
SEE CLERK/PAGE A2
McConnell
readying
for tough
re-election
Photos by Gary Emord-Netzley, Messenger-Inquirer [email protected] 691-7318
Dwight Anderson, 23, a health sciences major at Kentucky Wesleyan College, right, leads a warm-up session for residents of Roosevelt
House II recently in Owensboro. Roosevelt House resident Judy “Julia Ann” Carrico, center, laughs as Anderson encourages fellow resident, Margaret Bartlett, left, to join in.
Bingocize
approved
BY ROGER ALFORD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FRANKFOR T — U.S. Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell
is gearing up for a tough re-election
fight next year in Kentucky.
He wants to prevent one, too.
McConnell is tr ying to head off
a GOP primar y challenge by cozying up to the tea party.
He’s also tr ying to
scar e of f potential
Democratic contenders — actress Ashley
Judd is one — by providing a glimpse of his
no-holds-barred political tactics.
Sen. Mitch
McConnell
The strategy seems
to be working, so far. No serious
Republican opponent has emerged.
Democrats haven’t fielded a candidate
yet, though Judd, a Kentucky native
who lives in Tennessee, is considering
a run. She would have to re-establish
a residence in Kentucky before she
could challenge McConnell.
SEE MCCONNELL/PAGE A2
BY MEGAN HARRIS
H
Above: Bingo caller and
Roosevelt House resident, Helen Summers,
left, does resistance
exercises with surgical
tubbing during a break
in the bingocise game.
Right: Pat Rutter gives a
thumbs up after getting
the first bingo of the
day, but that wasn’t all
that important to her.
“I’m not here for the
bingo. I’m here for the
exercise,” she said.
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elen Summers, 82, sets her bingo card
aside, stretching up and down and side to
side before gingerly stepping on a bright
blue balance pad.
“Now lift one leg, just a little higher now,
good,” said DeWight Anderson, health science
major at Kentucky Wesleyan College. The 23-year-old leads seniors through
a series of motions designed to increase
cardiovascular fitness, balance and flexibility
between bingo calls. The program, dubbed
Bingocize, was recently approved for
evidence-based disease prevention and health
promotion through the U.S. Health and Human
Services Administration on Aging (AoA),
which will let regional groups such as the
Green River Area Development District apply
for federal grants to implement the program in
their own areas.
“Imagine you’re walking and come to a
rug,” Summers said. “If you don’t have the
SEE BINGOCIZE/PAGE A2
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A2 MESSENGER-INQUIRER, Monday, March 4, 2013
Most of Florida house
over sinkhole demolished
BY TAMARA LUSH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEFFNER, Fla. — Crews on
Sunday razed more than half of the
Tampa-area home perched over
a huge sinkhole that swallowed a
man three days ago, managing to
salvage some keepsakes for family
members who lived there.
Jeremy Bush, 35, tried to save
his brother, Jef f, when the ear th
opened up and swallowed him
Thursday night. On Sunday morning, Bush and relatives prayed with
a pastor as the home — where he
lived with his girlfriend, Rachel
Wicker; their daughter, Hannah, 2;
and others — was demolished and
waited for firefighters to salvage
anything possible from inside.
Early Sunday mor ning, just
before the demolition began, Bush
and an unidentified woman knelt
and prayed at the mailbox in front
of the home, owned by Leland
HOUSING
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
“I don’t know what
the sustainable level is,”
he said, “but we feel like
we’ve still got room to
grow.”
Lewis said the slowdown
in home construction has
helped existing homes hold
their resale value and made
them sell better.
“We’re not seeing so
many new neighborhoods
being created all the time,”
he said, “but they’re building more houses again.
And that’s good for the
future.”
In 2012, local Realtors
sold 1,103 houses for a
total of $139.13 million —
an average of $126,136.
And the houses sold for
95.2 percent of the asking
price.
“We’re seeing a pretty
good price value,” Lewis
said. “A lot of people see
on TV where you can buy
houses for practically
nothing. But you’re going
to pay market value here.
Wicker, Rachel’s grandfather, since
the 1970s.
After praying, Bush and the
woman walked across the street
to a neighbor’s lawn to watch the
demolition.
The operator of the heavy equipment worked gingerly, first taking
off a front wall. Family belongings
were scooped onto the lawn gently in hopes of salvaging par ts of
the family’s 40-year histor y in the
home.
As of Sunday afternoon — when
demolition had stopped for the day
and only a few walls of the home
remained — a Bible, family photos,
a jewelry box and a pink teddy bear
for Hannah were among the items
saved. Firefighters also were able
to pick out the purse of one of the
women in the home.
C h e e r s w e n t u p f r o m f a mily, friends and neighbors each time
something valuable was salvaged.
Our sales went down during the recession, but
our proper ty values held
their own. We didn’t see
big drops in the value of
homes here.”
The most expensive
home sold locally in 2012
brought $1.5 million. That
was up from $585,000 the
year before.
“Sales of high end properties — the over-$250,000
market — dropped the
most over the past few
years,” Lewis said. “But
that’s coming back up
now. The hospital is helping with that. We’re seeing
more medical professionals coming to town.”
The average house was
on the market 123 days
last year, down from 132
in 2011.
In 2011, local Realtors
sold 921 single-family
homes here for a total of
$116.86 million — an average of $126,888.
In 2007, just before the
recession began, 1,325
houses were sold here for
$153.5 million — an average of $115,855.
“Typically, Februar y is
BINGOCIZE
Roosevelt House so we
threw in a round of bingo,”
he said. “Before we had
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
two or three people. Now
we’re consistently getting
strength to lift your feet,
15 to 20. They’re still
you’re going to get tangled working out and having
in that rug and you’ll go
great results so far.”
down. We all need the
Daphne Cole, service
exercise and the bingo,
coordinator at Roosevelt
well, most of us love that
House II, monitors
too.”
Bingocize every Tuesday
Jason Crandall, assistant and Thursday morning.
professor of kinesiology
Her residents use their
and health promotion,
walkers a little less, she
developed the program in
said, and smile a little
collaboration with KWC
more.
students for residents
Pat Rutter, who declined
at Roosevelt House II
to give her age, said she
three years ago. Since
doesn’t care about bingo.
then, they’ve completed
“I come for the
a study and added more
exercise,” she said. “I did
exercises. His students
yoga for 50 years, and I
now lead biweekly classes can’t do it anymore so this
at Roosevelt House I and
gets me moving. Maybe
Adams Village.
with this, I can get back
“We had trouble getting to it.”
people to come to a regular
Cole teases them, said
fitness program at the
Summers, adding the only
MCCONNELL
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
The lack of an opponent
hasn’t kept McConnell from
sounding an alarm over
his potential vulnerability.
It’s a tactic rooted in reality
and intended to help raise
money.
“We know that President
Obama’s allies in Washington are doing ever ything
they can to find a candidate
to run against me in a primary or a general election,”
McConnell said in a statement to The Associated
Press. “They’ve made no
secrets about their willingness to back anybody right,
left, or center to get me out
of their way.”
Defeating McConnell
would be the Democrats’
biggest prize of the 2014
election.
His seat is one of 14 that
Republicans are defending
while Democrats try to hold
onto 21, hoping to retain or
add to their 55-45 edge.
The 71-year-old
McConnell, first elected to
the Senate in 1984, is a resilient politician with an unbroken string of victories and
a reputation of pummeling
opponents. He’s taking no
chances even with an election more than a year away.
He has amassed a hefty
bank account, with $7.4
million on hand of the $10
million he’s already raised,
mostly from out-of-state
donors. That’s a huge
amount in Kentucky, where
TV advertising rates are less
expensive than elsewhere.
Given his leadership post
and fundraising prowess,
McConnell could double
that as the election nears.
He spent more than $20
million in 2008 and won by
just 6 percentage points
over Louisville businessman
Wanda Car ter, the daughter of
Leland Wicker, cradled the large
family Bible in her arms. She said
her mother and father had stored
baptism certificates, cards and photos between the pages of that Bible
over the years.
“It means that God is still in control, and He knew we needed this
for closure,” she said, crying.
Carter said she spent from age
11 to 20 in the home, and she had
to close her eyes as the home was
knocked down.
“Thank you for all of the memories and life it gave us,” she said.
The Rev. John Mar tin Bell of
Shoals Baptist Church said he had
been with the family all morning.
“We just prayed with them,” he said.
He added that all five who lived in
the house — Bush, Wicker, Hannah
and two others ages 50 and 45 —
were in need of support and prayers
from the community.
a slow month because of
“These are unbelievthe weather, but it’s been ably good times,” Stallings
good this year and it was said. “Interest rates are
last year,” Lewis said. “The still extremely low. Financweather has been better ing is the key to most of us
than it usually is.”
being able to buy a home.
Sales have picked up, he We’ve stayed pretty strong
said, because “I
in this area.”
think people are The most
This summer’s
more confident expensive
Parade of Homes,
about the econowhich opens new
my and their jobs home sold
houses for the
locally in
now.”
p u b l i c t o t o u r,
D e s p i t e t h e 2012 brought “looks like it will
p r o b l e m s i n $1.5 million.
be bigger than
Washington, the
recent years,” he
s t o c k m a r k e t That was up
said. “But financhas been at near from
ing is still tough
record highs in $585,000 the for developers.”
recent weeks.
Still, Stallings
year before. said,
During the
“New neighdepths of the
borhoods are on
recession, many Realtors the horizon. As the new
dropped out of the market hospital opens (on June 1),
and some others took on I think we’ll see more resisecond jobs.
dential in that area.”
But those days are over,
And he said, “We’re seeLewis said.
ing a lot of infill in existing
“Our Realtor numbers subdivisions lately on lots
dropped from around 220 that have been vacant for up
in 2007 to around 150 to 20 years. That’s always a
now,” he said. “But they’ve good sign.”
held steady the last few
years. And we’re seeing a
Keith Lawrence, 691-7301,
few starting to come back klawrence@messengerinto the market.”
inquirer.com
reason she and others drop
by is to stare at the young
men. “Hey, that’s an added
incentive,” Summers said.
“As we get older, falling is
such a terrible thing for
us and it’s so easy to do.
No one likes to be told you
have to exercise, especially
if you’re already recovering
from a fall. It’s not like that
here. You do it because
you want to and that will
help you a lot more than if
you’re told you have to.”
The benefits extend
beyond that of traditional
exercise, Cole said.
“It’s helped a couple of
people with depression —
just out of this world. They
like the interaction with
the younger adults,” Cole
said. “Families, they get
so busy they kind of put
mom on the back burner
sometimes and these guys,
they love on them and
make them feel all warm
and fuzzy. It’s really hard
to find something to pull
them together that makes
them this happy and is
good for them.”
Crandell, who plans to
teach at Western Kentucky
University in the fall, said
he wants to continue to
promote Bingosize in the
Owensboro area while
making it available to other
areas as well.
“Our participants stay in
their apartments so much
of the week, it’s nice to get
them laughing,” Anderson
said. “The program was
designed to improve the
overall quality of life. That’s
what we’re here to do. I
think a lot of older people
see the term ‘exercise’ and
think, well, I can’t do that.
I want them to know this
program really is universal.
Whether they’re in chairs
or wheelchairs, we have
Bruce Lunsford. This time,
he’ll probably need as much
as he can collect. Polls show
that McConnell is widely
unpopular in the state, and
Democratic-leaning groups
have started running ads
against him.
To endear himself to
voters, McConnell has promoted his efforts to protect
jobs in Kentucky. In doing
so, he has sent them a notso-subtle message that his
clout as Republican leader is
reason enough to give him a
sixth term.
Factory representatives
have credited him with helping preser ve some 3,000
Kentucky jobs last year
alone. Many were in small
sewing factories that were
at risk of losing federal militar y contracts. A deal he
brokered with Energy Secretar y Steven Chu saved
1,200 jobs at the Paducah
gaseous diffusion uranium
enrichment plant.
The longest-ser ving
senator in Kentucky history
has presided over a GOP
revival in the state over the
past three decades. Republicans hold both Senate
seats and five of the state’s
six seats in the U.S. House.
All were won with help
from McConnell, who may
not look the part of a political powerhouse but whose
keen instincts have kept
him at the top.
The chairman of Kentucky’s Democratic Party,
Dan Logsdon, says McConnell’s longevity will be a
critical issue. “He’s become
a part of Washington, and
Kentuckians all across our
commonwealth have said
it’s time to make a change,”
Logsdon says.
McConnell counters: “I
have no sense of entitlement
about representing Kentucky. Kentuckians always
choose the person who
earns their support.”
CLERK
worse today with 98,597
vehicles registered in
the county — more than
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
one vehicle for each of
the 97,234 people who
shor tage of parking live here. And that figspaces near the Daviess ure includes children.
County Cour thouse
Only 8,181 of those
because of downtown vehicles have had their
construction.
tags renewed so far this
“They’re supposed year.
to star t hanging steel
“If you r enew by
for Cour t Place,” a mail, you’ll get your
$3 million, four-stor y, license tags back in two
1 6 , 0 0 0 - s q u a r e - f o o t or three days,” Osborne
retail/condo complex at said. “If you don’t renew
124-126 W. Second St. — by mail, we’re hoping
next to Bee Bops — “on you’ll come down durMonday,” he said.
ing the first two weeks
That means the 200 of March so the lines
block of St. Ann Street aren’t quite as long.”
— by the courthouse —
Even last year, he
will be closed
said, lines
f o r f i v e t o To use the
sometimes
seven days.
mail system, stretched halfAnd the
way down the
east side of the send a check
hall between
street will be or money
his of fice and
used to store order, vehicle the Sherif f ’s
building mate- registration
Department.
rials for about
“If we have
certificate
three months.
ever ybody
T h e w e s t and proof of
working at the
s i d e w i l l b e insurance to
same time,
open to traffic.
there
are
Daviess
“ T h e r e
seven stations
won’t be many County Clerk, f o r h a n d l i n g
g o o d p l a c e s Box 609,
renewals,”
to park on St. Owensboro,
Osborne said.
Ann,” Osborne
“But a lot of
KY 42302said.
people come
And the city 0609.
during their
is closing other
l u n c h h o u r.
downtown
We s t a g g e r
streets from time to our people’s lunches
time for ongoing down- between 11 a.m. and 1
town renovations.
p.m. We don’t have all
The southbound lane seven stations working
of the 100 block of Allen during that time.”
Street is closed until FriThis year, the clerk’s
day.
office will close at noon
“We’re encouraging on March 29 for Good
people to mail in their Friday and be closed for
registration,” Osborne the Easter weekend, he
said. “It costs $2 more said.
(for postage and han“More and more peodling) but it will save ple are using the mail
people a lot of hassle.”
system,” Osborne said.
Until 1983, all vehi- “And we hope more will
cles had to have their this year.”
license tags renewed
To use the mail sysbetween Jan. 1 and tem, send a check or
March 31.
money order, vehicle
A n d m o s t p e o p l e registration cer tificate
seem to wait until the and pr oof of insurlast couple of weeks of ance to Daviess CounMarch to do it.
ty Clerk, Box 609,
“We had lines all the Owensboro, KY 42302way through the build- 0609.
ing and halfway around
the block back then,”
Keith Lawrence,
Osborne said.
691-7301, klawrence@
It would be even messenger-inquirer.com
exercises for everyone and
we’ll never push them over
their comfort level.”
Once seniors lose their
mobility, they lose their
independence, Crandell
said. They sit more often,
gain weight and need
more frequent help with
activities for daily living.
“Getting up and down
out of a chair, walking
a few feet back and
forth, lifting, stretching,
endurance -- all these
things add up,” he said.
Seniors often assume
they don’t need to
exercise, Anderson said.
Sometimes they give up.
“But they shouldn’t,” he
said. “They don’t have to.
Now is the time to keep
going strong.”
Megan Harris, 691-7302,
mharris@messenger-inquirer.
com
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Nation
MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013
Messenger-Inquirer
Nation
Briefs
From wire reports
Romney: Heart
told him he’d win,
until he saw Florida
WASHINGTON —
Mitt Romney said his
heart said he was going
to win the presidency,
but when early results
came in on election
night, he knew it was not
to be.
The GOP nominee
told “Fox News
Sunday” that he knew
his campaign was in
trouble when exit polls
suggested a close race
in Florida. Romney
thought he’d win the
state solidly.
Obama ended up
taking Florida and won
the election by a wide
electoral margin.
Romney said
there was “a slow
recognition” at that time
that President Barack
Obama would win.
Romney said the
loss hit hard and was
emotional. Ann Romney
said she cried.
The former
Massachusetts governor
acknowledges mistakes
in the campaign and
flaws in his candidacy.
Romney said his
campaign didn’t do a
good job connecting
with minorities and that
Republicans must do a
better job in appealing to
African-Americans and
Hispanics.
Scientists say baby
born with HIV
apparently cured
WASHINGTON
— A baby born with
the virus that causes
AIDS appears to have
been cured, scientists
announced Sunday,
describing the case of a
child from Mississippi
who’s now 21⁄2 and has
been off medication for
about a year with no
signs of infection.
There’s no guarantee
the child will remain
healthy, although
sophisticated testing
uncovered just traces
of the virus’ genetic
material still lingering.
If so, it would mark
only the world’s second
reported cure.
Specialists say
Sunday’s announcement,
at a major AIDS meeting
in Atlanta, offers
promising clues for
efforts to eliminate HIV
infection in children.
Expectant parents die
in crash; baby lives
NEW YORK — A
pregnant young woman
who was feeling ill was
headed to the hospital
with her husband early
Sunday when the car
they were riding in was
hit, killing them both,
but their baby boy was
born prematurely and
survived, authorities and
a relative said.
The driver of a BMW
slammed into the car
carrying Nachman and
Raizy Glauber, both
21, at an intersection
in the Williamsburg
neighborhood of
Brooklyn, said Isaac
Abraham, a neighbor of
Raizy Glauber’s parents
who lives two blocks
from the scene of the
crash.
Spending cuts seem here to stay
BY PHILIP ELLIOTT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The spending cuts are here to stay if you
believe the public posturing Sunday.
The Senate’s Republican leader Mitch McConnell called them
modest. House Speaker John
Boehner isn’t sure the cuts will
hur t the economy. The White
House’s top economic adviser,
Gene Sperling, said the pain isn’t
that bad right now.
So after months of dire warnings, Washington didn’t implode,
gover nment didn’t shut down
and the $85 billion budget trigger
didn’t spell doom. And no one has
yet crafted a politically viable way
to roll back those cuts.
“This modest reduction of 2.4
percent in spending over the next
six months is a little more than
the average American experi-
to talk about any bargain without
them.
“That’s not going to work,” said
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. “If we’re
going to increase revenue again,
it’s got to go to the debt with real
entitlement reform and real tax
reform when you actually lower
rates. ... I’m not going to agree to
any more tax increases that are
going to go to increase more government.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
said any tax increases were unacceptable.
“I’m not going to do any more
small deals. I’m not going to raise
taxes to fix sequestration. We don’t
need to raise taxes to fund the government,” Graham said.
All of this comes ahead of a
new, March 27 deadline that could
spell a government shutdown and
a debt-ceiling clash coming in May.
Boehner said his chamber
would move this week to pass a
measure to keep gover nment
open through Sept. 30. McConnell
said a government shutdown was
unlikely to come from his side
of Capitol Hill. The White House
said it would dodge the shutdown
and roll back the cuts, which hit
domestic and defense spending in
equal share.
“We will still be committed to
tr ying to find Republicans and
Democrats that will work on a
bipartisan compromise to get rid
of the sequester,” Sperling said.
Senate Democrats and Senate
Republicans last week put forward
alternatives that would have avoided the cuts, but each side voted
down the others’ proposals. The
House Democrats proposed an
alternative but the House Republicans did not let them vote on it.
House Republicans twice
passed alternatives last year.
BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Associated Press
Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., lead a group across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge on Sunday in Selma, Ala. They were commemorating the 48th anniversary
of Bloody Sunday, when police officers beat marchers when they crossed the bridge on a
march from Selma to Montgomery.
Biden leads re-enactment
of voting rights march
BY PHILLIP RAWLS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SELMA, Ala. — The vice
president and black leaders
commemorating a famous
civil rights march on Sunday said efforts to diminish
the impact of African-Americans’ votes haven’t stopped
in the years since the 1965
Voting Rights Act added millions to Southern voter rolls.
More than 5,000 people
followed Vice President
Joe Biden and U.S. Rep.
John Lewis, D-Ga., across
the Edmund Pettus Bridge
in Selma’s annual Bridge
Crossing Jubilee.
The event commemorates the “Bloody Sunday”
beating of voting rights
marchers — including a
young Lewis — by state
troopers as they began a
march to Montgomery in
March 1965. The 50-mile
march prompted Congress
to pass the Voting Rights
Act that struck down impediments to voting by AfricanAmericans and ended allwhite rule in the South.
Biden, the first sitting
vice president to participate
in the annual re-enactment,
said nothing shaped his
consciousness more than
watching TV footage of the
beatings. “We saw in stark
relief the rank hatred, discrimination and violence
that still existed in large
parts of the nation,” he said.
Biden said marchers
“broke the back of the forces of evil,” but that challenges to voting rights continue
today with restrictions on
early voting and voter registration drives and enactment
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enced just two months ago, when
their own pay went down when
the payroll tax holiday expired,”
McConnell said.
“I don’t know whether it’s going
to hurt the economy or not,” Boehner said. “I don’t think anyone
quite understands how the sequester is really going to work.”
And Sperling, making the
rounds on the Sunday news
shows, added: “On Day One, it will
not be as harmful as it will be over
time.”
Both parties cast blame on the
other for the automatic, acrossthe-board spending cuts but gave
little guidance on what to expect
in the coming weeks. Republicans
and Democrats pledged to retroactively undo the cuts but signaled
no hints as to how that process
would start to take shape. Republicans insisted there would be no
new taxes and Democrats refused
Tax bills approach
30-year high for rich
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of voter ID laws where no
voter fraud has been shown.
“We will never give up or
give in,” Lewis told marchers.
Jesse Jackson said Sunday’s event had a sense of
urgency because the U.S.
Supreme Cour t heard a
request Wednesday by a
mostly white Alabama county to strike down a key portion of the Voting Rights Act.
“We’ve had the right to
vote 48 years, but they’ve
never stopping tr ying to
diminish the impact of the
votes,” Jackson said.
Referring to the Voting
Rights act, the Rev. Al Sharpton said: “We are not here
for a commemoration. We
are here for a continuation.”
The Supreme Court is
weighing Shelby County’s
challenge to a portion of the
law that requires states with
a history of racial discrimination, mostly in the Deep
South, to get approval from
the Justice Depar tment
before implementing any
changes in election laws.
That includes ever ything
from new voting districts to
voter ID laws.
Attor neys for Shelby
County argued that the preclearance requirement is
outdated in a state where
one-fourth of the Legislature
is black. But Jackson predicted the South will return
to ger r ymandering and
more at-large elections if the
Supreme Court voids part of
the law.
Attorney General Eric
Holder, the defendant in
Shelby County’s suit, told
marchers that the South
is far different than it was
in 1965 but is not yet at the
point where the most important part of the voting rights
act can be dismissed as
unnecessary.
Martin Luther King III,
whose father led the march
when it resumed after
Bloody Sunday, said, “We
come here not to just celebrate and observe but to
recommit.”
One of the NAACP attorneys who argued the case,
Debo Adegbile, said when
Congress renewed the
Voting Rights Act in 2006,
it understood that the act
makes sure minority inclusion is considered up front.
“It reminds us to think
consciously about how we
can include all our citizens
in democracy. That is as
important today as it was in
1965,” he said.
Adegbile said the continued need for the law was
shown in 2011 when undercover recordings from a
bribery investigation at the
Alabama Legislature included one white legislator referring to blacks as “aborigines” and other white legislators laughing.
“This was 2011. This was
not 1965,” he said.
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WA S H I N G T O N —
The poor rich.
With Washington gridlocked again over whether to raise their taxes, it
turns out wealthy families
already are paying some
of their biggest federal tax
bills in decades even as
the rest of the population
continues to pay at historically low rates.
President Barack
Obama and Democratic
leaders in Congress say
the wealthy must pay
their fair share if the federal government is ever
going to fix its finances
and reduce the budget
deficit to a manageable
level.
A new analysis, however, shows that average tax
bills for high-income families rarely have been higher since the Congressional Budget Office began
tracking the data in 1979.
Middle- and low-income
families aren’t paying as
much as they used to.
For 2013, families with
incomes in the top 20 percent of the nation will pay
an average of 27.2 percent
of their income in federal
taxes, according to projections by the Tax Policy
Center, a research organization based in Washington. The top 1 percent
of households, those with
incomes averaging $1.4
million, will pay an average of 35.5 percent.
Those tax rates, which
include income, payroll,
corporate and estate
taxes, are among the
highest since 1979.
“My sense is that
high-income people feel
abused by being targeted
always for more taxes,”
Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said. “You can understand why they feel that
way.”
Last week, Senate
Democrats were unable
to advance their proposal
to raise taxes on some
wealthy families for the
second time this year as
part of a package to avoid
automatic spending cuts.
The bill failed Thurs-
WHO WILL
PAY WHAT IN
2013 TAXES?
How much
households at different
income levels will pay in
federal income, payroll,
corporate and estate
taxes for 2013.
Bottom 20 percent
Average income:
$10,552.
Average tax bill: -$284.
Average tax rate: -2.7
percent.
Share of federal tax
burden: -0.4 percent.
Middle 20 percent
Average income:
$46,562.
Average tax bill: $6,436.
Average tax rate: 13.8
percent.
Share of federal tax
burden: 8.6 percent.
Top 20 percent
Average income:
$204,490.
Average tax bill:
$55,533.
Average tax rate: 27.2
percent.
Share of federal tax
burden: 71.8 percent.
Top 1 percent
Average income: $1.4
million.
Average tax bill:
$514,144.
Average tax rate: 35.5
percent.
Share of federal tax
burden: 30.2 percent.
Note: The average
family in the bottom 20
percent of households
pays no federal taxes.
Instead, many families in
this group get payments
from the federal
government by claiming
more in credits than they
owe in taxes, giving them
a negative tax rate.
Source: Tax Policy
Center
day when Republicans
blocked it. A competing
Republican bill that included no tax increases also
failed, and the automatic
spending cuts began taking effect Friday.
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MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013
Messenger-Inquirer
World’s Catholics ponder future with new pope
BY BRADLEY BROOKS
Some South African
Catholics called for what
SAO PAULO
they said was a more
aithful attending Sunday pragmatic approach to
contraception given the
Mass on five continents
AIDS epidemic devastating
for the first time since
that continent. They also
Pope Benedict XVI’s
suggested ending the
retirement had different
ideas about who should next celibacy requirement for
priests, insisting on what’s
lead the Roman Catholic
viewed as the traditional
Church, with people
importance of a man having
suggesting everything
a family.
from a Latin American
Catholics likely will find
pope to one more like the
out
this week whether such
conservative, Polish-born
hopes
become reality, as
John Paul II. What most
cardinals
worldwide arrive
agreed on, however, was the
in Rome for a conclave that
church is in dire need of a
could elect a new pontiff.
comeback.
Many expect the church to
Clergy sex abuse
pick another European to
scandals and falling
replace the Pope Emeritus
numbers of faithful
Benedict XVI, who resigned
have taken their toll on
on Thursday.
the church, and many
In Brazil, the Vatican has
parishioners said the next
seen its numbers chipped
pope should be open about
away by neo-Pentecostal
the problems rather than
churches offering
ignore them.
the faithful rollicking
Worshippers in the
music-filled services and
developing world prayed
hands-on practical advice.
for a pope from a poorer,
It’s an approach matched
non-European nation, while by the massive Mother
churchgoers in Europe said of God sanctuary led by
what was more important
Brazil’s Grammy-nominated
was picking a powerful
“pop-star priest” Marcelo
figure who could stop the
Rossi.
steep losses in Catholic
More traditional
Catholics snub Rossi’s
numbers.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
F
Associated Press
Filipino Catholic Priest Victorino Cueto, center, sprinkles
holy water on devotees during a mass at the Shrine of Our
Lady of Perpetual Help on Sunday in suburban Paranaque,
south of Manila, Philippines.
“charismatic” masses, but
many point to his style of
aggressive evangelization
as the way forward in the
world’s biggest Catholic
nation, which has seen
Catholics drop from 74
percent of the population in
2000 to 65 percent a decade
later.
“I’m certain the most
important step in surpassing
the challenges facing the
church is having a new pope
who renews the believers,”
said Solange Lima, a
32-year-old new mother
who spoke over the roar
of a Christian rock band at
Mother of God. “A Brazilian
pope could do this. Look at
the faithful here, this place is
a laboratory for what needs
to be done.”
The archbishop of Sao
Paulo, Odilo Scherer, is
considered by many to be
Latin America’s leading
candidate to become pope.
That message of change
was echoed by chimney
sweep Zbyszek Bieniek,
who was among 200
worshippers at a Mass in
Warsaw’s 13th century St.
John’s Cathedral. For him,
the sex abuse scandal that
has enveloped the church
will be the next pope’s most
pressing challenge.
“The key thing will be to
clear the situation and calm
the emotions surrounding
the church in regard to
the comportment of some
of the priests, the cases
of pedophilia and sexual
abuse,” Bieniek said. “The
new pope should tell the
truth about it and make
sure that such things don’t
happen again and are no
longer swept under the
rug.”
Benedict’s predecessor,
John Paul II, is still much
admired in his native Poland
and elsewhere, and many
faithful around the globe
said the next pope should
strive to be as beloved as
him.
“I have been praying for
a new pope to be just like
Pope John Paul II, who was
close to the people and was
very humble,” said Charlene
Bautista, while attending
Mass in the working-class
Baclaran district in Manila,
Philippines.
The Southeast Asian
country, for the first
time, has a cardinal being
mentioned as a papal
candidate, Father Antonio
Luis Tagle. That encouraged
the Rev. Joel Sulse as he
celebrated Sunday Mass
at the Santuario de San
Antonio parish in an upscale
residential enclave in
Manila’s Makati business
district.
“How we wish that, you
know, there will be a pope
coming from the third or
fourth world,” he said,
so that the pontiff would
understand the suffering in
poor nations.
Some were looking for
even more radical change.
Nigerian medical
laboratory technician
Boniface Ifeadi, who
was worshipping at the
Holy Trinity church in
Johannesburg, said while
he believes in abstinence,
the reality of human nature
makes it difficult to follow
church doctrine that’s
generally against condom
use. Benedict did say in
a 2010 interview that if a
male prostitute were to use
a condom to avoid passing
on HIV to his partner, he
might be taking a first step
toward a more responsible
sexuality.
Kerry says U.S. releasing aid to Egypt Syrian opposition
head visits rebel
areas in north
BY MATTHEW LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO — U.S. Secretar y of State John Kerr y
on Sunday rewarded Egypt
for President Mohammed
Morsi’s pledges of political and economic reforms
by releasing $250 million
in American aid to support
the country’s “future as a
democracy.”
Yet Kerr y also ser ved
notice that the Obama
administration will keep
close watch on how Morsi,
who came to power in
June as Egypt’s first freely
elected president, honors
his commitment and that
additional U.S. assistance
would depend on it.
“The path to that future
has clearly been difficult
and much work remains,”
Kerry said in a statement
after wrapping up two days
of meetings in Egypt, a
deeply divided country in
the wake of the revolution
that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt is trying to meet
conditions to close on a
$4.8 billion loan package
from the Inter national
Monetary Fund. An agreement would unlock more
of the $1 billion in U.S.
assistance promised by
President Barack Obama
last year and set to begin
flowing with Ker r y’s
announcement.
“The United States can
and wants to do more,”
Kerry said. “Reaching an
BY BARBARA SURK
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday at the Ministry of Defense in Cairo, Egypt. Kerry is wrapping up a
visit to Egypt with an appeal for unity and reform to the country’s president and military chief.
agreement with the IMF
will require further effort
on the part of the Egyptian
gover nment and broad
support for reform by all
Egyptians. When Egypt
takes the difficult steps to
strengthen its economy
and build political unity
and justice, we will work
with our Congress at home
on additional support.”
Ker r y cited Egypt’s
“extr eme needs” and
Morsi’s “assurances that
he plans to complete the
IMF process” when he
told the president that the
U.S. would provide $190
million of a long-term $450
million pledge “in a goodfaith effort to spur reform
and help the Egyptian people at this difficult time.”
The release of the rest of
the $450 million and the
other $550 million tranche
of the $1 billion that
Obama announced will be
tied to successful reforms,
officials said.
Separately, the top
U.S. diplomat announced
$60 million for a new
fund for “direct suppor t
of key engines of democratic change,” including
Egypt’s entrepreneurs and
its young people. Kerr y
held out the prospect of
U.S. assistance to this
fund climbing to $300 million over time.
Recapping his meetings
with political figures, business leaders and representatives of outside groups,
Kerr y said he heard of
their “deep concern about
the political course of
their country, the need to
strengthen human rights
protections, justice and
the rule of law, and their
fundamental anxiety about
the economic future of
Egypt.”
BEIRUT — Following
rebel gains, the leader of
the Syrian opposition made
his first visit Sunday to
areas near the embattled
nor thern city of Aleppo
as fighters tr ying to oust
President Bashar Assad
captured a police academy and a border crossing
along the frontier with Iraq.
Assad, meanwhile,
lashed out at the West for
helping his opponents in
the civil war, delivering a
blistering rebuke to Secretary of State John Kerry’s
announcement that the
U.S. will for the first time
provide medical supplies
and other non-lethal aid
directly to the rebels in
addition to $60 million in
assistance to Syria’s political opposition.
Aleppo, the nation’s
largest city, has been a
major front in the nearly
2-year-old uprising. Government forces and rebels
have been locked in a stalemate there since July.
Mouaz al-Khatib met
Sunday with Syrians in the
two rebel-held Aleppo suburbs of Manbah and Jarablus, a statement said. The
stated goal of his trip — his
first since being named the
leader of the Syrian National Coalition late last year —
was to inspect living conditions.
But his foray to the
edge of Aleppo also could
be an attempt to boost his
group’s standing among
civilians and fighters on
the ground, many of whom
see the Western-backed
political leadership in exile
as irrelevant and out of
touch.
The areas along Syria’s
northern border with Turkey are largely ruled by
rival brigades and fighter
units that operate autonomously and have no links
to the political opposition.
Al-Khatib’s visit came
as rebels captured a police
academy west of Aleppo
after an eight-day battle that
killed more than 200 Syrian
soldiers and rebels, activists said. Anti-Assad fighters also stormed a central
prison in the northern city
of Raqqa and captured the
Rabiya border crossing in
the east along the border
with Iraq, activists said.
Iraqi officials said the crossing in northern Ninevah
province has been closed.
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Opinion
To Make Your Opinion Known
• Readers Write, P.O. Box 1480, Owensboro, KY 42302;
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MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013
A5
Messenger-Inquirer
EDITORIAL BOARD
Bob Morris
Don Wilkins
Publisher
Editorial Page Editor
Matt Francis
Suzi Bartholomy
Executive Editor
Editorial Assistant
Editorial
Small business
bill makes sense
BY THE LEXINGTON
HERALD-LEADER
S
mall businesses dot the
landscape of every city,
town and community.
These small businesses
employ nearly half of all
private-sector workers. And
53 percent of the businesses
are home-based. Small businesses are important to local
governments for the payroll
taxes they generate and to
the state for their sales tax
revenue.
For the most part, these
are independent familyowned operations that have
been in business for many
years. They might be a
neighborhood market, hardware store, drugstore or
even newspaper.
Those small businesses
focus on offering quality
products and customer service, complying with state
and federal laws and treat
their employees with dignity
and fairness.
But there is also a segment of those who create an
unfair advantage for themselves by not paying Social
Security taxes, unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation by referring to their employees as
subcontractors or independent contractors.
This slanted playing field
puts the employers following all the rules at a disadvantage and deprives workers of their rights under the
law.
Senate Bill 89, sponsored
by Rep. John Schickel,
R-Union, offers a clear determination on whether or not
an employer is correctly
classifying workers.
SB 89 delineates six conditions that must be met
to ensure the independent
nature of the subcontractor
company.
One of those tests is verification that the subcontracting company is complying
with current federal immigration statutes.
Backed by the Kentucky
Small Business Coalition, a
group of 43 organizations
and associations that represents thousands of local
business around the state,
the bill offers a simplified
system requiring proof that
a subcontractor is truly an
independent, legitimate
business.
It also would add clarity to the Revenue Cabinet’s
authority by streamlining
compliance. It would document procedures that will
clarify responsibilities of
small business owners
toward subcontractors of all
types.
Without the provisions
in SB 89, employers who
misclassify their employees
as independent contractors could continue avoiding taxes paid by legitimate
businesses, depriving the
state of revenue and unfairly enriching unscrupulous
businesses.
The legislature needs to
pass SB 89.
Readers Write
EPA regulations real reason Big Rivers raising rates
How come the real issue has never been brought to
light about why Big Rivers is having to raise their rates?
Due to the EPA regulations that the Obama administration
is forcing coal firing power plants to adhere to is requiring
them to add additional scrubbers to clean the air (reduce
carbon footprint etc).
These additions are costing the power plants $300-plus
million in capital projects that they have to absorb
somehow. This is the real reason Big Rivers is having to
raise their rates.
In doing so, they are forcing Century & Alcan Sebree to
look elsewhere otherwise they go out of business. Hence,
we have the snowball effect. Big Rivers loses 70 percent of
the customer base, they crank their rates up to absorb that
loss causing smaller businesses to fail along with individual
households suffering the consequences.
Household rates jump by a minimum of 40 percent over
the next year (FYI: They will never come back down). That
new car you want to buy is not happening because you can’t
afford the payment so the economy suffers. Big Rivers isn’t
to blame my fellow citizens. It starts at the very top.
Who did you vote for? Look in the mirror and see how
well you sleep at night now knowing there is no winner in
this battle. Jobs will be lost.
Br yan Flannigan
Henderson
Sequester has its roots with JFK
B
lame it on JFK.
revenues, and the end of the Cold
Fifty years ago, President
War, lowering military spending.
Kennedy made a decision
Balancing a budget compels
that, with hindsight, ranks as
choice. Pleasurable spending must
the biggest mistake of
be weighed against painful
domestic policy since
taxes. Before Kennedy’s
World War II. In many
tax cut, it was assumed
ways, it led directly
that, in ordinary times,
to today’s “sequester”
Americans would strive to
debacle.
balance the federal budget.
What Kennedy did was
They might not have
this: In early 1963, he
always succeeded, but
proposed a $13.6 billion
they often came close.
ROBERT J.
tax cut (today: about
Wars and economic
SAMUELSON slumps were exceptions
$320 billion) even though
NEWSWEEK,
the economy was not in
when borrowing became
WASHINGTON POST
recession and the tax cut
a practical necessity. The
would enlarge the budget
government consistently
deficit. Kennedy adopted the
ran deficits in the Great
theory that government could, by Depression of the 1930s.
manipulating its budgets, increase
But debt was generally bad.
economic growth, reach “full
In the Civil War, the federal debt
employment” (then: a 4 percent
rose 42 times to a then-astounding
unemployment rate) and reduce
$2.8 billion. Repaying it became
— or eliminate — recessions.
a “national obsession,” writes
It was a disaster.
political scientist James Savage
High inflation was the first
in his “Balanced Budgets &
shock. An initial boom (by 1969,
American Politics.”
unemployment was 3.5 percent)
One English diplomat observed
spawned a wage-price spiral. With that most Americans “appear
government seeming to guarantee disposed to endure any amount
4 percent unemployment, workers of sacrifice rather than bequeath
and businesses had little reason to a portion of their debt to future
restrain wages and prices.
generations.”
In 1960, inflation was 1 percent;
Kennedy himself initially
by 1980, it was 13 percent. The
accepted the virtue of balanced
economy became less stable.
budgets and had to be converted
From 1969 to 1982, there were
to Keynesian economic doctrines
four recessions, as the Federal
(after John Maynard Keynes,
Reserve alternated between trying 1883-1946).
to push unemployment down and
In 1962, his advisers urged
prevent inflation from going up.
a big tax cut; Kennedy rejected
Only in the early 1980s did the
it. Led by Walter Heller, the
Fed, under Paul Volcker and with
economists peppered Kennedy
Ronald Reagan’s support, crush
with more than 300 memos in his
inflationary psychology.
thousand-day presidency. By 1963,
We are now suffering from
he’d come around.
— and have for decades — the
Debt became benign. The
second defect of JFK’s decision:
promise of Kennedy’s tax cuts
the loss of budgetary discipline.
was that, by promoting faster and
Since Kennedy’s tax cut passed more stable economic growth,
in 1964 — after his assassination
government could afford more
— there have been 43 budget
because the economy would
deficits and only five surpluses
perform better. When Republicans
(1969, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001). proposed “supply side” tax
Even the surpluses reflected luck
cuts in the 1980s, they made
more than policy. The last four
similar arguments and referred
resulted mostly from the 1990s
admiringly to Kennedy.
economic boom, boosting tax
Over time, what was
politically convenient — higher
spending, lower taxes — became
habit-forming. It pleased the
public, which deplored deficits in
the abstract but rejected specific
(unpopular) measures to control
them.
Without pressure to balance
the budget, choices were delayed
or denied. Discipline diminished.
When politicians needed to
“do something” about deficits,
they resorted to obtuse, often
ineffective formulas that fudged
choices by making across-theboard changes to both good and
bad programs.
Think: “budget caps,” “spending
recessions,” and “continuing
resolutions.” The sequester is the
latest and most grotesque example
of this approach.
To be sure, deficits are
sometimes desirable. In a
recession, the “automatic
stabilizers” (the tendency of
taxes to fall and spending to
rise) help revive the economy.
A deep downturn, such as the
Great Recession, may justify
extra borrowing, spending
or tax cuts. The irony is that
the careless use of deficits, by
piling up unnecessary debt, has
compromised this legitimate role.
It’s one unnoticed consequence
of downgrading the budget as
an instrument to force decisions
about government’s size and role.
(A constitutional balanced-budget
amendment is not a solution.
Even if ratified — doubtful — it
could ruinously turn every budget
dispute into a legal crisis.)
Kennedy and his advisers,
overconfident of their ability to
control the economy, damaged
long-standing national norms and
customs. They didn’t know what
they were doing.
It is hard to think of another
policy decision in recent decades
that has caused so much havoc for
so long. Deficits became routine
events rather than emergency
reactions. Keynes said “in the long
run we are all dead”; but others
are alive and suffer from distant
blunders.
Obama administration trying its best to control media
T
o the world beyond the
become dangerous.
Beltway, it might not mean
Understandably, everyday
much that Bob Woodward of
Americans may find this
the famed Watergate duo went
discussion too inside baseball
public with his recent
to pay much mind. Why
White House run-in.
can’t the president play a
This would be an
little golf without a press
oversight.
gaggle watching? As for
It also may not mean
Woodward, it’s not as
much that the White
though the White House
House press corps got
was threatening to bust his
teed off when they weren’t
kneecaps.
allowed access to President
Add to these likely
KATHLEEN
Obama as he played golf
sentiments the fact that
with Tiger Woods. This,
PARKER Americans increasingly
WASHINGTON POST
too, would be an oversight.
dislike the so-called
Though not comparable
mainstream media,
— one appeared to be a veiled
sometimes for good reason.
threat aimed at one of the nation’s Distrust of the media, encouraged
most respected journalists and the by alternative media seeking to
other a minor blip in the scheme
enhance their own standing, has
of things — both are part of a
become a useful tool to the very
pattern of behavior by the Obama powers the Fourth Estate was conadministration that suggests not
stitutionally endowed to monitor.
just thin skin but a disregard for
When the president can bypass
the role of the press and a gradual media to reach the public, it is not
slide toward state media.
far-fetched to imagine a time —
This is where oversight can
perhaps now? — when the state
controls the message.
To recap: Woodward
recently wrote an op-ed for The
Washington Post placing the
sequester debacle on Obama’s
desk and accusing the president of
“moving the goal posts” by asking
for more tax increases.
Before the story was published,
Woodward called the White House
to tell officials it was coming. A
shouting match ensued between
Woodward and Gene Sperling,
Obama’s economic adviser,
followed by an email in which
Sperling said Woodward “will
regret staking out that claim.”
Though the tone was
conciliatory, and Sperling
apologized for raising his voice,
the message nonetheless caused
Woodward to bristle.
And, how might Woodward
come to regret it? Sperling’s
words, though measured, could
be read as: “You’ll never set foot in
this White House again.”
When reporters lose access
to the White House, it isn’t about
being invited to the annual holiday
party. It’s about having access to
the most powerful people on the
planet as they execute the nation’s
business.
Inarguably, Woodward has
had greater White House access
than any other journalist in
town. Also inarguably, he would
survive without it. He has filled
a library shelf with books about
the inner workings of this and
other administrations, the fact of
which makes current events so
remarkable.
Woodward, almost 70, is
Washington’s Reporter Emeritus.
His facts stand up to scrutiny.
Sperling obviously assumed that
Woodward wouldn’t take offense
at the suggestion that he not only
was wrong but was endangering
his valuable proximity to power.
He assumed, in other words,
that Woodward would not do his
job. This was an oversight.
This is no tempest in a teapot,
but rather is the leak in the
dike. Drip by drip, the Obama
administration has demonstrated
its intolerance for dissent and its
contempt for any who stray from
the White House script.
Yes, all administrations are
sensitive to criticism and all
push back when such criticism
is deemed unfair or inaccurate.
But no president since Richard
Nixon has demonstrated such
overt contempt for the messenger.
And, thanks to technological
advances in social media, Obama
has been able to bypass traditional
watchdogs as no other has.
More to the point, the Obama
White House is, to put it politely,
fudging as it tries to place the onus
of the sequester on Congress.
And, as has become customary,
officials are using the Woodward
spat to distract attention. As
Woodward put it: “This is the old
trick ... of making the press ... the
issue, rather than what the White
House has done here.”
A6 MESSENGER-INQUIRER, Monday, March 4, 2013
Messenger-Inquirer Weather
Area Forecast
Tonight
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Mostly Cloudy
Rain Shower Possible
Mostly Cloudy
Rain Increasing
Mostly Cloudy
Sct'd Rain to Snow
Showers
Mostly Cloudy
Few Flurries
Mostly Sunny
Warmer
Mostly Sunny
Warmer
37º 27º
47º 30º
56º 38º
47º
David Heckard
37º
44º 28º
Local Discussion
Sun and Moon
Regional Weather
Clouds return to the Tri-State today, with a rain shower possible and
warmer highs in the 40s. Rain increases Monday night, and snow is
likely late Tuesday into Tuesday Night.
Sunrise . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6:15 a .m .
Sunset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5:46 p .m .
Moonrise . . . . . . . . . . . 12:20 a .m .
Moonset . . . . . . . . . . . . 10:32 a .m .
Indiana: Cloudy skies with temps in the 40s.
Almanac
Moon Phases
Regional Cities
Temperatures (Yesterday)
Precipitation (Yesterday)
High . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Normal High . . . . . . . . . 55
Normal Low . . . . . . . . . . 33
Record High . . 78 in 1976
Record Low . . . . -1 in 1980
24 hours through 6 p.m. . . . . 0 .00"
Month to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 .07"
Normal Month to Date . . . . . 0 .42"
Year to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 .53"
Normal Year to Date . . . . . . . 7 .74"
Today
(For the 48 contiguous states)
UV Index
International Cities
New
3/11
First
3/19
Lake and river levels are in feet . Change is over the past 24 hrs .
High: 87° in Yuma, Ariz.
Low: -17° in Land O'Lakes, Wis.
River Stages
Flood Stage Current Change
42
42
9 .70
20 .80
+0 .20
+0 .90
38
38
10 .70
24 .80
0 .00
+1 .10
23
23
M
M
M
M
Today
33/18
45/30
51/41
36/29
41/36
37/30
38/32
35/23
50/39
42/32
44/35
41/33
National Extremes
Full Pool Current Change
Lake Barkley
361
356 .10
+0 .05
Kentucky Lake (Above)
361
355 .93
+0 .06
Kentucky Lake (Below)
---309 .41
+0 .73
Tue .
Akron, OH
Ashland, KY
Bowling Grn, KY
Champaign, IL
Cincinnati, OH
Columbus, OH
Dayton, OH
Defiance, OH
Evansville, IN
Frankfort, KY
Lawrenceville, IL
Lexington, KY
Last
3/4
Full
3/27
UV Index for 3 periods of the day .
8 a.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
Noon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
0-2: Minimal
3-4: Low
5-6: Moderate
7-9: High
10+: Very High
The higher the UV
index, thae higher the
need for eye and skin
protection .
www.WhatsOurWeather.com
Today
City
Kentucky: Mostly cloudy with highs in the 40s.
Hi/Lo Wx Hi/Lo Wx City
Statistics through 6 p .m . yesterday at Owensboro
Hartford
49/40
Central City
Beaver Dam
53/42
49/40
National Cities
City
Lake Levels
Ohio River/Cannelton
Upper
Lower
Ohio River/Newburgh
Upper
Lower
Green River/Calhoun
Upper
Lower
Tell City
Evansville
Lewisport 46/37
50/39
Rockport 46/38
51/40
Hawesville
Owensboro
46/37
47/37
Today
s
s
cl
rs
pc
pc
s
s
ra
ra
rs
ra
36/29
44/31
50/30
34/25
40/29
38/29
37/27
33/27
43/29
43/30
41/27
43/30
Today
sn
rs
ra
sn
rs
rs
rs
sn
rs
ra
rs
ra
Tue .
City
Hi/Lo Wx Hi/Lo Wx
Beijing
Buenos Aires
Hong Kong
London
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Sydney
58/33
75/54
70/62
49/36
20/-2
58/41
60/41
77/67
s
s
s
s
sn
s
s
pc
65/32
77/60
71/62
55/38
21/-1
60/42
62/42
75/68
s
s
s
s
mc
pc
mc
pc
Tue .
Hi/Lo Wx Hi/Lo Wx
London, KY
Louisville, KY
Nashville, TN
Paducah, KY
Peoria, IL
Rockford, IL
46/35
43/37
53/44
55/42
37/28
34/26
ra
rs
mc
cl
rs
sn
48/31
44/30
54/32
46/30
33/23
32/25
sh
ra
sh
rs
sn
sn
Tue .
Hi/Lo Wx Hi/Lo Wx
Atlanta
56/44
Baltimore
45/33
Boston
42/31
Chicago
34/30
Cleveland
32/21
Detroit
31/21
Las Vegas
72/50
Los Angeles
66/51
Miami
68/53
New York
41/31
San Francisco 60/45
Washington, DC 44/30
s
s
sh
cl
s
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
60/38
48/38
44/35
34/30
36/31
32/27
75/54
65/52
73/63
47/37
60/49
47/36
sh
s
mc
sn
sn
s
s
pc
s
s
ra
pc
Weather (Wx): cl/cloudy; fl/flurries; pc/partly cloudy;
mc/mostly cloudy; ra/rain; rs/rain & snow; s/sunny;
sh/showers; sn/snow; t/thunderstorms; w/windy
National Weather
110s
100s
90s
80s
70s
60s
50s
40s
30s
20s
10s
0s
H
L
H
L
This map shows high temperatures,
type of precipitation expected and
location of frontal systems at noon.
Cold Front
Stationary Front
Warm Front
L
Low Pressure
H
H
High Pressure
UK: Queen hospitalized over stomach illness
BY RAPHAEL SATTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Britain’s Queen
Elizabeth II was hospitalized
Sunday over an apparent stomach infection that has ailed her
for days, a rare instance of ill
health sidelining the long-reigning monarch. Elizabeth will have
to cancel a visit to Rome and
other engagements as she recovers, and outside experts said she
may have to be rehydrated intravenously.
Buckingham Palace said the
86-year-old queen had experi-
enced symptoms of gastroenteri- later date.
tis and was being examined at
The symptoms of gastroenLondon’s King Edward VII Hos- teritis — vomiting and diarrhea
pital — the first time in a
— usually pass after one
decade that Elizabeth has
or two days, although
been hospitalized.
they can be more severe
“As a precaution, all
in older or otherwise vulofficial engagements for
nerable people. Dehydrathis week will regrettation is a common complibly be either postponed
cation.
or cancelled,” the palThe illness was first
Queen
ace said in a statement.
announced Friday, and
Elizabeth’s two-day trip to Elizabeth II Elizabeth had to cancel
Rome had been planned to start a visit Swansea, Wales, on SaturWednesday. A spokeswoman said day to present leeks — a nationthe trip may be “reinstated” at a al symbol — to soldiers of the
Associated Press
This film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Nicholas Hoult in a scene from
“Jack the Giant Slayer.”
Royal Welsh Regiment in honor
of Wales’ national day, St. David’s
Day. She instead spent the day
tr ying to recover at Windsor
Castle, but appears to have had
trouble kicking the bug.
A doctor not involved in the
queen’s treatment said that if
medical officials determined that
she is losing too much fluid, she
would be rehydrated intravenously.
“Not ever yone can keep up
with oral hydration so it is pretty routine to go to hospital and
have a drip and wait for the
thing to pass and keep yourself
hydrated,” said Dr. Christopher
Hawkey of the University of Nottingham’s faculty of medicine
and health sciences.
Britain’s National Health Service says that the two most common causes of gastroenteritis in
adults are food poisoning and
the norovirus, a common winter vomiting bug which typically
afflicts between 600,000 and 1
million Britons each year. British health guidelines advise that
people with the norovirus avoid
work for at least two days.
Give them more.
‘Giant Slayer’ scares up
ho-hum $28 million debut
BY CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP MOVIE WRITER
LOS ANGELES — It
wasn’t exactly a mighty victor y, but “Jack the Giant
Slayer” won the weekend at
the box office.
T h e Wa r n e r B r o s .
3-D action extravaganza,
based on the Jack and the
Beanstalk legend, made just
$28 million to debut at No. 1,
according to Sunday studio
estimates. It had a reported
budget of just under $200
million.
But the studio also hit a
milestone on the global front
with Peter Jackson’s fantasy
epic “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” crossing
the $1 billion mark worldwide. The first of three films
based on the classic J.R.R.
Tolkien novel has made
$301.1 domestically and
$700 million internationally.
“Jack the Giant Slayer”
comes from Bryan Singer,
director of “The Usual Suspects” and the first two
“X-Men” movies. It stars
Nicholas Hoult, Ewan
McGregor, Ian McShane
and Stanley Tucci.
Among other new releases, the college romp “21 &
Over” from Relativity Media
made only $9 million this
weekend to open in third
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 10
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S.
and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com:
1. “Jack the Giant Slayer,” $28 million.
2. “Identity Thief,” $9.7 million.
3. “21 & Over,” $9 million.
4. “The Last Exorcism Part II,” $8 million.
5. “Snitch,” $7.7 million.
6. “Escape From Planet Earth,” $6.7 million.
7. “Safe Haven,” $6.3 million.
8. “Silver Linings Playbook,” $5.9 million.
9. “A Good Day to Die Hard,” $4.5 million.
10. “Dark Skies,” $3.6 million.
place. And the horror sequel
“The Last Exorcism Part II”
from CBS Films debuted in
fourth place with just more
than $8 million.
Jeff Goldstein, Warner
Bros.’ executive vice president of theatrical distribution, said “Jack the Giant
Slayer” opened lower than
the studio had hoped, but
he’s encouraged by its
CinemaScore, which was
a B-plus overall and an A
among viewers under 18.
One bit of good news for
“Jack” is that it had a 56-percent uptick from Friday to
Saturday, suggesting strong
word-of-mouth and more
family audiences for the
PG-13 adventure.
“That tells us that the
audiences that are seeing it
really do like it,” Goldstein
said. “The international
opening in Asia has been
very strong — the 3-D component of the special effects
works in a big way outside
the domestic marketplace.”
“Jack the Giant Slayer”
made $13.7 million in 11
international territories for
a worldwide total of $41.7
million. Internationally, “A
Good Day to Die Hard,” the
fifth film in the blockbuster
Bruce Willis franchise, was
the big winner with $18.3
million for a global total of
nearly $222 million.
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