Sun files

Members of the Paducah Area Community Reuse Orga-nization finance committee sit at a February meeting at the Purchase Area Development District office in May-field. The finance committee is a subcommittee of the full 26-member PACRO, which is tasked to mitigate the im-pact of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant closure and recently released details of administrative costs since its 1999 inception.

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

Jack, a Dia-betic Alert

Dog, rests on the floor in front of owners Dianne and Paul Sloan of Graves County on Wednesday. Jack is a 20-month-old red golden re-triever.

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Not much older than a puppy, Jack exudes a reserved excite-ment sitting in the Sloan family’s living room.

It’s quiet and relaxed inside the home, but still, something isn’t right to the 20-month-old gold-en retriever. Without hesitation, Jack gets up from the carpet and trots over to Dianne Sloan, plac-ing a furry paw on her leg.

“He catches it even before the meter, it’s incredible,” Sloan said, as she opened her glucometer. A few seconds later and the digital

screen fl ashed 145. “And he is right, absolutely right.”

Jack, a specially trained dia-betic alert dog from the Califor-nia-based National Institute for Diabetic Alert Dogs, Inc., keeps a close eye — make that a nose — on his owner’s blood sugar levels. Sloan, 66, of Graves County, has Type 1 diabetes.

Nearly 11 years ago, a fated trip to Baptist Health Paducah to see her newborn grandson ended with Sloan in the emergency department. That day she lost

Beyond just man’s best friendBY WILL PINKSTON

wpinkston@paducahsun.com

Dog plays lifesaver for Graves woman

Please see JACK | 7A

The organization tasked to mitigate the impact of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant closure divvied out nearly $2.5 million in admin-istrative costs over 13 years while issuing grants, manag-ing loan programs and per-forming other duties to keep and create jobs in the region.

The 26-member regional Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization, PAC-RO, formed in 1998 with nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s now-defunct Offi ce of Work-force and Community Rede-velopment. Purchase Area Development District staff have performed duties for PACRO from the time of its inception as the administra-tor. The duties included set-ting up and manning grant and loan programs, said Jen-nifer Beck Walker, PADD ex-ecutive director. From meet-ing with clients and fi lling out paperwork to performing credit and collateral checks, most of the PACRO staff act-ed similar to bank staffers.

“They did whatever a bank

would do,” Walker said.According to year-to-date

employee gross pay records, between seven and 16 district staff members were paid an-nually with PACRO and Paducah Uranium Plant As-set Utilization, PUPAU, task force dollars from 2003 to 2013. Walker said PADD staff destroyed the salary re-cords from 1999 to 2002.

John Anderson, PACRO executive director, received the bulk of the funds each year. According to the re-cords, his total gross salary for those 10 years equaled nearly $622,400. The num-bers listed in the records are pre-taxed gross salaries, meaning they do not include fringe benefi ts, sick or vaca-tion pay, or travel expenses.

Other staffers listed as ad-ministrators during those years included Walker and Kim Toon, PADD offi ce manager. Toon drew more than $181,500 and Walker, who was not paid with PAC-RO or PUPAU funds after 2008 when she assumed her roles as PADD director, re-

PACRO revealsadmin expenses

BY MALLORY PANUSKAmpanuska@paducahsun.com

Please see PACRO | 8A

Saturdays are fairly quiet on Mar-ket House Square, with a handful of patrons browsing the shops and popping into the restaurants that line Second Street.

But this Saturday, the Market House Theatre’s 50th Anniversary Street Fair brought droves of par-

ents and kids down the cobblestone street of the square. Children of all ages explored the activities offered in a cluster of booths that extended from Broadway to Kentucky Av-enue, and the sound of kids’ music echoed across the lawn of the Lu-ther F. Carson Four Rivers Center.

By all accounts, the event was a success.

“It’s a wonderful street fair. We’ve had back-to-back kids all morning long,” said Chris Everett of Grand Chain, Ill. “We were expecting a few, but this is amazing.”

Everett, dressed as Mother Goose, treated passersby to nursery rhymes played on the psaltery harp

Market House Street Fair draws crowdBY LAUREL BLACKlblack@paducahsun.com

Please see STREET FAIR | 6A

Fans donning blue and white, or maroon and black, fl ooded into Marquette Stadium on Saturday for the epic beginning to a series be-tween two local teams, now rivals.

The Paducah Tilghman Blue Tor-nado faced off against the newly formed McCracken County Mus-

tangs for the fi rst game in the new school’s stadium. The complex be-gan fi lling up after the doors opened at 5 p.m. and the bleachers on either

side — as well as the additional seat-ing added for both school’s student sections — were full by 6:30 p.m.

Mallory Breeding, special events coordinator for McCracken County Public Schools, estimated atten-dance at 5,000.

The stadium’s capacity, without

BY KATHLEEN FOXkfox@paducahsun.com

■ Concession items impress fans. 3A■ A tale of two schools: A look at the game from both sides.

1B

Please see FANS | 3A

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

McCracken County High School student Jared Burnett high-fives his fellow Mustang fans just before the game against Paducah Tilghman gets started Saturday night at Marquette Stadium. All 3,500 seats were

filled for the game, while about 1,500 more tickets were sold to people willing to stand to watch the game.

Fans throughout county embrace rivalry

Western Baptist is now

Details 5ADetails 5A

2A • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Local paducahsun.com

The LineupMonday

Farley Neighborhood Watch Association, 6:30 p.m., Farley El-ementary Cafeteria, 1250 Husband Road. 442-6704.

Paducah Masonic Lodge No. 127 F&AM, 7:30 p.m. , 24th and Jack-son streets. Meal at 6. 443-3127.

McCracken County Conservation District, 7 p.m., Kentucky Farm Bu-reau Building, 5470 U.S. 60 West, Suite B. 408-1244.

Ballard-Carlisle Historical & Genealogical Society, 6 p.m., 257 Fourth St., Wickliffe. Murray Akers, 270-841-4331.

■ ■ ■

Items for the Lineup must be received in writing five days in advance. Mail to: Lineup, The Paducah Sun, P.O. Box 2300, Paducah, KY 42002-2300; fax the newsroom at 442-7859; or email news@paducahsun.com. An-nouncements are published day of event. Information: 575-8677.

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SATURDAY

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THURSDAY

■ Looking at the eff orts of the Paducah Renaissance Alliance. News

■ Answering health exchange questions.

News

■ Press is on for Murray State Racer football.

Sports

■ Th e art of letter writing returns.

News

■ Follow the money: MSU at Mizzou. Sports

■ McCracken at Mayfi eld: a tune-up?

News

FRIDAY

■ What’s up in Lower Town? One year aft er sale of Mentor home. News

Descendants of Daniel Boone Wil-liamson (1822-1870) and Martha G. Bannister (1824-1873) are invited to the annual Williamson family and friends reunion from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Lamasco Baptist Church fellowship building in Lamas-co. Bring food and drinks for your family to share in a buffet lunch at noon. Plates, cups, napkins, eating utensils and ice will be furnished. Bring old photos of your family to share. For information contact Dolly Williamson Travis-Gresham at 270-994-5741.

Reunion

■ Hendron-Lone Oak Elemen-tary School SBDM — 3:40 p.m. Wednesday.

Items for In Our Schools must be submitted by noon Thursday of each week by e-mailing news@pa-ducahsun.com.

In Our Schools

Saturday’s lotteryKentucky

Pick 3-midday: 4-7-5Pick 3-evening: 8-0-2Pick 4-midday: 9-8-3-6Pick 4-evening: 5-5-3-3Cash Ball: 6-13-17-33 CB 29 Cash Ball Kicker: 6-2-7-4-25 Card Cash: QC-3D-5D-6H-7SPowerball: 12-17-25-45-59 PB 19

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Wreck injures Paducah teenager

A Paducah teenager was hurt Saturday in a one-vehicle wreck.

Responders took Keely Thompson, 17, to Lourdes hospital with non-life threat-ening injuries after a wreck at 11 a.m. at 6555 Houser Road, according to a news release from Deputy Trent Hardin of the McCracken County Sheriff’s Department.

Police said Thompson was traveling north in her 1998 Buick Century. An in-vestigation showed Thompson’s vehicle dropped off the right shoulder of the

road and she was unable to gain control. The car hit a mailbox, then a concrete culvert and several trees.

— Staff report

Coal industry takes spotlight at Sept. 5 chamber breakfast

Coal in Kentucky will be the topic for the Paducah Area Chamber of Com-merce’s Power in Partnership breakfast meeting at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 5 at the Julian Carroll Convention Center. Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal

Association, will be the featured speaker at the networking breakfast sponsored by AT&T.

Bissett will speak on the state of the Kentucky coal industry, the future of Kentucky coal, and how these affect Paducah, coal producing regions and the state’s economy.

He was named president of the KCA in 2010. He was instrumental in the estab-lishment of the Friends of Coal campaign while serving as vice president of public relations for Charles Ryan Associates, an integrated marketing firm with offices in

Charleston, W.Va., and Richmond, Va.A native of West Virginia, Bissett has

also served as director of communica-tions for both the West Virginia Depart-ment of Agriculture and the West Virginia Department of Transportation. Bissett earned his bachelor’s and master’s de-grees from Marshall University, in addi-tion to receiving his commission in the U.S. Army.

Tickets cost $15 for Chamber mem-bers, $25 otherwise. RSVP by 5 p.m.

Local Briefs

Please see BRIEFS | 5A

NICHOLAS RESIDE | The Sun

Allyson and Denny Alvey provide worship music Saturday evening at the Dolly McNutt Plaza at Pray for Paducah. The service, aimed to unite the community in prayer over a range of topics, focused on the USEC workers facing layoffs.

Christians of all denomina-tions met Saturday night at Dolly McNutt Plaza to unite in prayer.

Dennis Thomas, a Sunday school teacher at Gospel Mis-sion Worship Center, said he helped organize the service, called Pray for Paducah, so the community could pray for the country, schools, marriages and the economy. Thomas said the event was sparked by Unit-ed States Enrichment Corp. workers facing layoffs.

“People were concerned be-cause people at USEC are losing their jobs,” he said. “We thought, what can we do to call on our

God to help these people?”The fi rst phase of announced

layoffs of most of the plant’s 1,100 workers hit this month with 160 workers losing their jobs. Thomas said the commu-nity may not understand the ramifi cations of the layoffs.

The event featured several preachers leading prayers and sermons while local musicians offered praise music.

Thomas said Gospel Mission contacted 169 churches, pos-sibly every one in McCracken County, to attend.

About 100 people showed up for the service, held the same night as McCracken County High School’s fi rst ever football

game against Paducah Tilgh-man High School.

Thomas said he wasn’t wor-ried about numbers, noting it could have been 12 or 1,200 people who arrived.

“Look what Jesus did with 12 people,” he said. “He turned the world upside down.”

Bill Harrison, human resources manager at USEC, spoke to the crowd, drawing upon his faith and his experience at the plant.

Harrison said the fi rst round of layoffs was a sad day, but no-ticed some workers, ready to re-tire, looked happy while others seemed uncertain and fearful. He compared the USEC workers to the Jews being released from

Egypt in the book of Exodus. They were heading to the prom-ised land, Harrison said, but had to trust in God to take them there.

He said he is uncertain of the future as well, but said God will take care of him when the time is right.

Kym Johnson, a member of Gospel Mission Worship Cen-ter from Paducah, said God could be depended on during troubled times.

“Our purpose is to rely on the only one you can rely on,” she said.

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

Christians meet to pray for communityBY NICHOLAS RESIDEnreside@paducahsun.com

AURORA — The Hot August Blues Festival lived up to its name Saturday, with heavy hu-midity and music straight out of the Mississippi Delta.

The festival, held Friday and Saturday at Kenlake State Resort Park, featured perfor-mances from seven acts. The fi rst group, Nightfi sh, started in the afternoon while the fi -nal group, Terry Quiett Band, wrapped up well after the sun went down.

Ed Sumara, from Wynns-burg, Tenn., said the $15 ticket

was money well spent.“It’s been wonderful,” he

said. “I love blues.”Sumara said he has attended

the festival four times, noting how the event changes little from year to year.

“The blues is always going to be the same,” he said.

Other fans enjoyed the music from the water, with numer-ous boats anchored behind the stage.

Bob and Linda Taylor, from Paducah, rode their motorcy-cles out to the lakes area.

Hot August Blues festival rocks until after dark

BY NICHOLAS RESIDEnreside@paducahsun.com

NICHOLAS RESIDE | The Sun

Basil Daley, from the Nashville, Tenn.-based Nick Matthews band, performs Saturday at the Hot August Blues festival at Kenlake Marina. The festival began Friday and concluded Satur-day with music until midnight. Please see FESTIVAL | 5A

paducahsun.com McCracken vs. Tilghman The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • 3A

additional seating, is 3,500 (2,500 seats on the home side and 1,000 seats on the visitors’ side). The added seating accommodated several hundred more fans, Breeding said.

Fans who arrived lat-er than 6:30 p.m. stood around the fi eld’s fence, sat on the hill behind the sta-dium and even sat under the bleachers.

What used to be a rivalry among the county schools of Reidland, Lone Oak and Heath with Paducah Tilgh-man before consolidation has transitioned to a Tilghman versus McCracken rivalry.

Students covered in body paint wore their team’s gear and hoisted humorous and spirited signs. They fi lled both designated sections behind the end zones and cheered widely throughout team introductions and whenever their team made a dazzling play.

Matthew Moore, a se-nior at Paducah Tilghman who previously attended Lone Oak High School, said before the game: “We (Paducah Tilghman) are just looking to continue our tradition and beat them again. The rivalry is based on the close distance be-tween the schools. We beat all three schools before so I’m not worried at all.”

Paducah Tilghman soph-omore Lauren Eickholz and her friends wore blue body paint. She said the group wants to show off its Tilgh-man pride for every game but considers Mayfi eld the school’s biggest rival.

“We just love Tilghman and are proud of them no matter what,” she said. “But we want to beat them (Mc-Cracken) so bad that there won’t be talk of a rivalry.”

Students sitting across the fi eld on the McCracken County side also showed off their school spirit with signs, body paint and loud cheers. McCracken High students reinforced the unifi ed feeling of three high schools becoming the Mus-tangs as they cheered on their new team.

Senior Jared Burnett, who previously attended Reidland High School, said, “After just eight days, everything with the new school has been so exciting.

I just love this school and love all these people.”

Burnett said the student body gathered Friday for a pep rally that excited and bonded students together through a desire to break the tradition of losing to Paducah Tilghman.

He said before the game, “We are starting the ri-valry off right with this game. The record is 0-0. We (McCracken County) haven’t beat them and they (Paducah Tilghman) haven’t beat us yet.”

McCracken County Princi-pal Michael Ceglinski said he couldn’t contain his excite-ment and commended the atmosphere and the facilities as unlike many other high school football stadiums.

“After the last week, the school pride is as good as I could have dreamed it to be,” he said. “I think we have a great chance in ev-ery game with our team and coaching staff. I’m pulling for the Mustangs.”

As tipoff loomed, both teams took the fi eld and the school bands played

their respective fi ght songs, “Go Mustangs Go” and “Go Big Blue.” Fire-works lit up the sky. Fans from both sides — a sea of blue and white on one side and crimson and black on another — were ready for

the fi rst game in what they hope will be a long, com-petitive series.

Contact Kathleen Fox, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8651 or follow @kathleendfox on Twitter.

FANS

CONTINUED FROM 1A

Fans and students at-tending the McCracken County-Paducah Tilgh-man game Saturday were in store for a competitive hard-fought battle along with new tasty options from the concession stands.

The primary concession stand was set up between the two ticket entrances near the front of Marquette Stadium, with one supple-mental smaller stand and four additional pop-up Pep-si tents around the stadium. McCracken County High School’s band booster club also had a large tent near the entrance, with members of the club grilling meat and serving up barbecue as well as two separate stands serv-ing Dippin’ Dots and fl a-vored ice.

The McCracken band boosters are in charge of the concession stands at McCracken County football games. According to Barbie Warner, McCracken Coun-ty High School band boost-er president, the stand was busy the entire evening beginning at 5 p.m. when the doors opened, with a steady stream of customers all night. The primary con-cession line had between 10 and 20 hungry spectators,

with the other stands, serv-ing just drinks and candy, with shorter lines.

“It has been a lot of

work,” she said. “We have had long lines from the be-ginning, but in the end it will be worth it.”

The menu included many staples, including popcorn, hamburgers, hot dogs, pretzels, pizza, can-

dy, and bottle sodas and Gatorade. It also included more advanced fare, such as barbecue sandwiches

and nachos, Chick-fi l-A sandwiches, a chili bowl, and Frito chili pie.

Warner said the hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue and the Chick-fi l-A sandwiches were the best sellers. Over-all fan response to the con-cession options was posi-tive, she said.

She said any issues will be worked out throughout the season with the Paducah Tilghman game being the fi rst for the new consolidat-ed club in the new stadium and with a different kitchen to work with. Warner em-phasized the need for more volunteers, especially for the big games that will bring larger crowds, in the future. The club had enough sup-plies to keep up with the de-mand without running out of food items, she said.

“If people can be patient, we will work out the kinks. We learned things from this game and will keeping learning things,” she said.

The McCracken Coun-ty Football Booster Club had a merchandise booth at the game selling Mus-tang shirts, hats and other school merchandise.

Contact Kathleen Fox, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8651 or follow @kathleendfox on Twitter.

New concession items impress football fansBY KATHLEEN FOXkfox@paducahsun.com

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

Shaun Barber (right) smiles as she delivers two drinks to Sherri Wadlington with the buzz of a busy kitchen in the background Saturday at the concession stand before McCracken County High School’s game against

Paducah Tilghman at Marquette Stadium. The new stand offered up popular items such as barbecue nachos and Chick-fil-A sandwiches to football fans.

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

Paducah Tilghman fans shout for their team as they enter Marquette Stadium just before going head-to-head with McCracken County High School. The first

game of the season saw approximately 5,000 fans.

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Jim PaxtonEditor & Publisher

Duke ConoverExecutive Editor

This is what entrepreneurship looks like. Risks and all.

Angie Yu, owner and president of the newly established Two Rivers Fisheries in Wickliffe, saw a niche and found a way to fill it. She identified a market on the other side of the globe for Asian carp, which are abundant in American waterways but for which there is little demand in the domestic market, for either food or sport fishing.

With nothing to control the growth of Asian carp populations, their numbers in U.S. waters are spreading at an alarming rate. The invasive species has become a serious problem in the U.S., threatening populations of mussels, snails and native fish species.

But Yu, who has been in the import/export business for two decades, knew that Asian carp is in high demand in China. With the help of state and local economic development funds, Yu established her new enterprise in Wickliffe because of its proximity to the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The 36,000-square-foot plant began operations in May, processing grass carp and three other varieties of carp for shipping overseas.

On Tuesday, the day of the ceremonial ribbon cutting at Two Rivers, the

company’s 12 employees saw the first truckload of 40,000 pounds of flash-frozen fish leave the plant bound for China, via Los Angeles. Two Rivers already has orders from Chinese companies for 1 million

pounds of fish. The plant also buys catfish to process for sale in the local fish market.

In addition to the 12 plant jobs, Two Rivers is also supporting eight full-time fishermen who deliver their catches to the plant. The fish come out of both rivers, as well as Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.

Both the number of plant employees and the number of commercial fishermen

who supply the fish are expected to grow. Yu promises 50 jobs at the plant to keep up with the orders, which will also mean more fishermen will be needed to supply the fish. The promised employment is why regional, state and local economic development agencies were willing to provide more than $1.5 million in incentives, both grants and loans, to add to Yu’s own $2.5 million investment.

The agencies were willing to share in the risk for this endeavor because of the potential. And the potential is great, with an over-abundance of carp in U.S. waters and a ready market for the fish among the growing populations in Asia.

The fact that the company’s products will also make a dent, albeit small, in the U.S. trade deficit is icing on the cake.

Every commercial enterprise is fraught with risk, and Two Rivers isn’t immune. But it was thousands of risks like this in the free market that made the United States the prosperous nation it is.

This is what is meant by pursuing the American Dream, and it is a model for other entrpreneurs

PRINCETON, N.J. — Fifty years from now, when Malia and Sasha are grandmothers, their father’s presidency might seem most consequential because of a small sum — $100 million — for studying some-thing small. “As humans,” Barack Obama said when an-nouncing the initiative to study the brain, “we can identify galaxies light-years away ... but we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears.”

Actually, understanding the brain will be a resounding suc-cess without unlocking the es-sential mystery, which is: How does matter become conscious of itself? Or should we say, how does it become — or acquire — consciousness? Just trying to describe this subject takes scientists onto intellectual ter-rain long occupied by philoso-phers. Those whose fi eld is the philosophy of mind will learn from scientists such as Princ-eton’s David Tank, a leader of the BRAIN Initiative, which aims at understanding how brain regions and cells work together, moment to moment, throughout our lives.

If, as is said, a physicist is an atom’s way of knowing about atoms, then a neuroscientist like Tank is a brain cell’s way of knowing about brain cells. Each of us has about 100 bil-lion of those, each of which communicates with an average of 10,000 other nerve cells. The goal of neuroscientists is to discover how these neural conversations give rise to a thought, a memory or a deci-sion. And to understand how the brain functions, from which we may understand disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy.

Biological causes have been determined for only about 3 percent of the disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

With “mapping,” scientists may at last establish connections between neurotransmitters and particular mental disor-ders. This might infl uence how pharmaceutical companies direct their research. And treat-ments of post-traumatic stress disorders might benefi t from learning how the mind erases disturbing memories.

Understanding the brain is, Tank says, different from the Human Genome Project. The latter simply sequenced, and made straightforward extrapolations, concerning a well-defi ned group of 3.1 billion “letters” that comprise the “alphabet” that determines the growth of a human being from a single cell to a complex human being. We are learning what each letter does, if not yet how. In the case of the brain, “mapping” is not just trying to ascertain what particular parts of the brain do in response to external events, but how the brain parts engage in “conver-sation” with each other, and how they can change over time.

Much brain activity — much thinking — is not, Tank notes, the result of external stimuli. So, is the brain conversing with — acting upon — itself? This internal conversation is at the core of who — and what — we are.

New technologies enable scientists to watch the brain in action, monitoring neu-ral activity as it thinks. Even a decades-old technology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals, Tank says, “what parts of the brain

are active in particular compu-tations and behaviors.”

In 50 years, fMRI images will seem as crude as Magel-lan’s maps. We will understand thought processes with instan-taneous cellular resolution, and hence the essence of what brains do, and what derails them.

Development of the transis-tor, progenitor of the Digital Age, required only advances in materials science. There is, Tank says, “no comparable base of knowledge for the brain” because there is no mechanistic understanding of how the brain works. Pharma-cology is groping for thera-peutic effects because drugs target particular receptors the workings of which are not understood. To the brain, small pills can be sledgehammers. Understanding brain dynamics will enable ever more precise chemical and other interven-tions.

If we had to think about combing our hair or making toast, we would never get out of the house in the morning. Habits enable us to function because neurons are “convers-ing” with networks involving thousands of other cells. But ethicists — and courts, and poets — will be warily watching what is learned about the neu-ral basis of choices, habits, love and other important things.

Do we have bodies or are we bodies? What will become of the fi eld of psychology as explorations of brain anatomy advances our understanding of how brain architecture infl u-ences, or even determines, be-havior? “The devil made me do it” is no longer an exculpation. But what about “My brain cir-cuitry made me do it”? Some-day debates about free will may be resolved by understanding that we are responsible for our actions because we have “ownership” of three especially intricate pounds of matter.

WASHINGTON — Conservatives are in high dudgeon about what they see as President Obama’s arrogant lawlessness. He has usurped congressional authority and violated his duty to faithfully execute the law, they contend, by ignoring statutes with which he disagrees and summarily rewrit-ing the problematic parts of those he likes.

“Under President Obama, inconvenient or unpopular legal requirements have re-peatedly been swept aside by executive fi at,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn wrote in National Review.

There is an undeniable element of politi-cal theater here. Contrast the howls of Re-publican outrage at Obama’s move to delay enforcement of the employer mandate for a single year with reaction to Mitt Romney’s heralded plans, on Day One of the Rom-ney administration, to grant waivers from Obamacare to all 50 states.

After all, Obama’s moratorium came in the service of taking care that the law is implemented smoothly. Romney’s goal was to dismantle it by, well, executive fi at. Cornyn wasn’t crying foul then.

Still, the question of whether any presi-dent is overstepping his authority is too important to relegate to adolescent, he-would-have-done-it-too arguments. So let us examine the conservative indictment of Obama by dividing it into three counts: abusing prosecutorial discretion, regulatory fl exibility and constitutional power.

The most recent example of the Obama administra-tion’s use of prosecutorial discretion involves Attor-ney General Eric Holder’s announcement that the Justice Department would avoid triggering manda-tory minimum sentences in low-level drug cases.

An even more controver-sial moment came when the Department of Homeland Security announced that, given limited resources, it would use prosecutorial discretion to delay deportation proceedings for certain ille-gal immigrants who were brought here as children.

Can the president simply choose not to enforce any law with which he disagrees — say, announce that he would no longer prosecute marijuana or gun-possession crimes? Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee on the federal appeals court here, wrote recently that the president “has clear constitutional authority to exercise prosecutorial discretion to decline” to bring such cases.

That position feels like a stretch — em-ploying discretion is one thing, ignoring an entire statute another. But Kavanaugh’s position underscores the relative modesty of the Obama administration’s supposedly lawless moves on mandatory minimums

and deportations.On Count Two, regulatory fl exibility, Obama rankled Republicans earlier by using his waiver authority under welfare reform. But he has sent them over the edge on health care.

The administration de-fends its chief tweak, delaying enforcement of the employer mandate for a year, as a

routine exercise of the Treasury Depart-ment’s discretion to grant “transition relief” in administering complex tax laws.

Yet the examples the administration proffers seem small bore compared to the employer mandate extension. For example, when excise taxes on aviation were reinstat-ed retroactively to July 23, 2011, Treasury decreed that they would not be imposed on purchases made after July 22 and before Aug. 8. Big whoop.

This is not to say that the administration lacks legal fl exibility to make various fi xes to the health care law — just to underscore the scale of its interventions. If Obama can sus-pend enforcement of the employer mandate for a year, could President Romney have decided not to implement the individual mandate for eight?

The fi nal count in the conservative critique involves the president’s recess ap-pointments. Obama has used this consti-

tutional power more sparingly than recent predecessors; President Clinton made 139 recess appointments, President Bush 171, and Obama so far only 32.

But Obama has also been bolder in deploying the power, acting even when the Senate was holding brief sessions designed to frustrate recess appointments. Bush refrained from this in-your-face move, although, notably, his Justice Department concluded that would be constitutional.

The administration argues that Obama acted with restraint — the appointments were only to agencies at risk of not function-ing — and in the face of Senate intransi-gence. But another president could use this tactic to gut the advice-and-consent require-ment. The legality of Obama’s appoint-ments is now before the Supreme Court.

The constitutional tug-of-war between Congress and the executive arises in every administration. The tensions are especially acute when power is divided between the parties, and even more infl amed in an era of relentless obstructionism. Presidents, as Obama has acknowledged, are driven to take unilateral action when the normal leg-islative process would be the better route.

Obama is not the rogue usurper of con-servative imagining. Rather, he has been understandably aggressive in wielding executive power while remaining within the lines. Still, those lines bear constant watch-ing, whatever president holds offi ce.

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

Editorial

4A • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Opinion paducahsun.com

Obama pushes limits of executive power but remains within the lines

Ruth Marcus

Mysteries of brain being unlocked

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paducahsun.com Local The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • 5A

The mission of Commu-nity Ministries started sim-ply: the group wanted to feed the hungry and clothe the needy.

And for the past 5 1⁄2 years, the volunteer-run Commu-nity Kitchen, 1225 Broad-way, has served more than 240,000 free hot meals to area residents.

But members of Commu-nity Ministries realize the people who walk through the kitchen’s doors will re-quire more help if they’re to get back on their feet.

“When we fi rst started, we just wanted to feed and clothe. That was the direc-tion the Lord had placed in our heart. But we have seen more and more individuals who have special needs and special challenges,” said Jim Trimble, co-founder of Community Ministries.

Members of the organiza-tion say they hope to expand their services to include life skills education, laundry, showers, and possibly an emergency shelter. Com-munity Kitchen director Sally Michelson said that while other organizations, including River City Mis-sion and Paducah Coopera-tive Ministry, offer similar services, the community’s needs often exceed those shelters’ capacities.

But Community Minis-tries will face challenges as it looks to grow. The fi rst step is fi nding the funding to secure a location and

bring it up to code, minis-try members said.

“The money is always the main cog in anything,” Community Ministries Board treasurer Gary Eck-elkamp said. “We’re trying to fi nd people who would be backers to the kitchen.”

According to Eckelkamp, the Four Rivers Covenant Church hopes to sell the property on which the Community Kitchen is lo-cated. Community Minis-tries is exploring the option to buy the property.

“The church has been very gracious with us; they’re trying to work with us on the terms. The nego-tiations have just started,” Eckelkamp said. “We’re looking forward to sitting down with them and fi gur-ing out what the fi nal costs are going to be.”

While the ministry rec-ognizes the benefi ts of its current location — the site is easily accessible to resi-dents of the Jackson House and the Irvin Cobb, who often stop by for meals —

members haven’t ruled out looking at other buildings.

“People know where we are, so we were kind of thinking that’s where we need to stay,” he said. “However, some of the contractors said there are some problems with the building ... so we have to make that decision of do we want to fi x and repair where we’re presently at, or look for other alternatives.”

No matter the ministry’s location, Trimble said, its members hope expansion will help those in need to begin independent lives.

“We’ve all got a value in

society, and we’ve all got a place we can contribute. We want to help getting their strengths out there,” he said.

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

Paducah’s Community Ministries expands vision

BY LAUREL BLACKlblack@paducahsun.com

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

Jakaden Reed, 1, of Paducah enjoys a meal Friday morning at the Community Kitch-en, 1225 Broadway. The kitchen serves a free hot lunch five days a week, and hopes to expand its services to include laundry, showers, a shelter, and life skills training.

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

Sheri Johnson (left) and Susan Baker eat lunch Friday morning at the Community Kitchen, 1225 Broadway. Community Ministries founded the kitchen in 2007 and is planning to expand its services once funding and a location are secured.

Sept. 3 to 270-443-1746 or email info@paducah-chamber.org.

— Staff report

Alzheimer’s disease topic of meeting

The McCracken County Public Library, 555 Wash-ington St., will host a town hall meeting to discuss Alzheimer’s disease from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday. The public can share ideas and concerns with government representa-tives, hear about the latest Alzheimer’s issues, and discuss concerns families are facing.

For more information and free registration: 1-800-272-3900.

— Staff report

The festival’s living up to its name,” Bob Taylor said.

The couple, also long time fans of the festival, said they enjoyed the music.

Bob Taylor said he appre-ciated the extra help that went into the festival.

“My hat’s off to the volun-teers that do this,” he said. “I’ve helped at festivals like this and they’re hard to put on.”

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

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6A • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Local/From Page One paducahsun.com

Students at one local school will continue to en-joy fresh, healthy snacks as Farley Elementary School has been selected for a statewide nutritional grant.

The school is one of 134 elementary schools in Ken-tucky to participate in the federal nutritional program implemented through the U.S. Department of Agri-culture for the 2013-2014 school year.

McCracken schools Su-perintendent Nancy Wal-drop said “programs like this one encourage ele-mentary students to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables.

We have noticed that our students are more willing to try new foods and to take different kinds of food from their lunch options.”

The Fresh Fruit and Veg-etable Program (FFVP) will provide about 56,000 students in Kentucky this school year with a variety of fruits and vegetables options as an afternoon snack. The 2013-2014 school year is the second consecutive selection of Farley Elementary School for the FFVP program.

“The fresh fruit and veg-etable program shows stu-dents that eating healthy can be delicious,” Waldrop said.

The program’s goals in-clude: offering healthier

food options within a school environment, increasing the consumption and vari-ety of fruits and vegetables available to students and positively impacting future healthy eating habits, ac-cording to a news release

from the Kentucky Depart-ment of Education.

Farley principal Paula Grubbs said she noticed that students are open to trying and enjoying more nutri-tious food options outside of their food comfort zone,

such as pomegranates, cel-ery, carrots and caulifl ower.

“This program exposes our students to food they might not have an oppor-tunity to experience,” she said. “Once they eat the fruits and vegetables, it be-comes part of their diet and a substitute for unhealthy snacks, like potato chips.”

The individually-pack-aged healthy snacks are passed out to students from a decorated, wheeled fruit cart in the afternoons as the students return to class so there is no decrease in the amount of instruction time, Grubbs said.

School districts that partic-ipate in the National School

Lunch Program and have 50 percent or more students on free or reduced meals were eligible to apply for the FFVP. The National School Lunch Program is a federally as-sisted meal program operat-ing in public and non-profi t private schools. The state has $2.78 million in total pro-gram funding for the current school year and each selected school will receive about $50 for each student enrolled in October 2012, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Contact Kathleen Fox, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8651 or follow @kathleendfox on Twitter.

Elementary school receives nutritional grantBY KATHLEEN FOXkfox@paducahsun.com

at West Kentucky Commu-nity & Technical College’s booth.

Casey Kupper of Paducah attended the event with Re-ese Kupper, a cousin whom she was baby sitting. Reese, 8, is entering her second year as a participant in Mar-ket House Theatre’s educa-tional Footlights program.

“She (Reese) pulled me down here. She said we had to come,” Casey Kupper said as Reese worked on a drawing at the Art Guild of Paducah’s booth.

The Market House also opened its doors to visitors, who browsed the displays highlighting the decades of the theater’s presence in Paducah. Show programs, photographs and newspaper clippings led viewers from the founding of the theater in 1963 to the present day.

Event organizer and MHT Executive Director Michael Cochran said the street fair exceeded his ex-pectations in terms of at-tendance.

“I knew it had the poten-tial to be big, or it could be small. And it went to the big side. We had more people here than we had planned on,” he said.

Events such as improv theater workshops, musical demonstrations, and dance lessons were held about every 15 minutes during the four-hour festival, giv-ing visitors a wide array of activities from which to

choose, Cochran said. He added that he’d

checked in with businesses around the square, who reported a solid stream of shoppers and diners throughout the morning and afternoon.

“It generated lots of peo-ple for the arts, but also business income,” he said.

Cochran expressed his gratitude to the long list of arts organizations that participated, and said the groups plan to sit down soon and discuss whether to hold a similar event next year.

“This was a 50th kick-off for us, but they (the arts groups) all partnered with us to make it bigger than that, and I think that’s the success of the event,” Co-chran said.

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

“This program exposes our students to food they might not

have an opportunity to experience. Once they eat the fruits and

vegetables, it becomes part of their diet and a substitute for unhealthy

snacks, like potato chips.”

Paula GrubbsPrincipal, Farley Elementary School

STREET FAIR

CONTINUED FROM 1A

LAUREL BLACK | The Sun

Reese Kupper draws a dog at the Art Guild of Paducah’s booth Saturday during the Market House Theatre’s 50th Anniversary Street Fair on Market House Square. Cousin Casey Kupper said Reese, a member of MHT’s Foot-lights program, insisted the two attend the fair.

“I knew it had the potential

to be big, or it could be small. And it went to

the big side. We had more people

here than we had planned on.”

Michael CochranEvent organizer/

Market House Theatre executive director

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paducahsun.com From Page One The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • 7A

consciousness and began convulsing in the hospi-tal’s parking lot. Physicians later determined her blood sugar to be above 1,000.

With no family history of diabetes and no prior indi-cators except for an exces-sive thirst at night, Sloan and her husband, Paul, were absolutely shocked.

“The doctor said she would have never made it if she had been at home because the ambulance wouldn’t have made it in time,” Paul Sloan said.

Attempts to manage Sloan’s drastic high and low blood sugar swings over the years were un-successful. Sloan went through insulin injections, pins and even a pump, yet she still couldn’t accurately regulate the swings, often leaving her in precarious situations.

The Sloans felt like they were nearly out of options.

“I’d go to sleep every night wondering if I would wake up the following morning,” Dianne Sloan said.

Her husband added: “Ten years I haven’t been able to leave her alone by herself because her sugar drops so fast, but (Jack) catches it so fast, it’s before it even starts dropping it seems.”

After months of research and interviews, the Sloans received Jack as a part of their family in July, but he’s already earned his place in the family time and time again.

In the same way other working dogs are trained to sniff out illegal narcotics or explosives, diabetic alert dogs learn to identify the fl uc-tuations in the scent of their owners that indicate high or low blood sugar levels.

Dogs’ noses contain more than 225 million scent re-

ceptors, compared to hu-mans’ 5 million. When a person’s blood sugar level soars, the body’s scent be-comes slightly sweeter, while a lower level makes the scent slightly pungent. As every person is differ-ent, the dogs learn to pick up the unique scent of their particular owner, said Lily Grace, founder and CEO of NIDAD.

“Learning that particu-lar scent and how to alert is critical,” she said. “The owners have to be trained, as well. It’s like any other tool that you can use. The owner has to know how to use it or it isn’t any good.”

These nasally acute ca-nine specialists aren’t your average run-of-the-mill

mutts. Dogs graduating from the agency must pass three different phases of training revolving around obedience and scent profi -ciency.

NIDAD alert dogs under-go at least a year of training to achieve obedience certi-

fi cations from the Ameri-can Kennel Club — ensur-ing the dog is comfortable and well tempered in pub-lic settings — in addition to the key instruction in de-tecting blood sugar levels.

Primarily training Labra-dor or Golden retrievers, as

well as mixes with standard poodles for the breeds’

temperament, trainability and scent abilities, Grace said diabetic alert dogs can range vastly in prices and qualifi cations. Some dogs can cost up to fi ve fi gures, often making it diffi cult for some people to attain.

Visitors to www.nidad.com can view viral videos for people considering pur-chasing or even training a dog.

“People come to us des-perate to get a dog, and I’m hoping we can educate more people on what they can expect,” Grace said.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that these dogs aren’t saving lives.”

And that’s a sentiment that Dianne Sloan echoes on a personal level. After Sloan takes her medicine, Jack settles back down at the foot of the armchair, rel-ishing the air-conditioning and a little ear scratching.

“He’s given us a peace of mind, and he’s just won-derful, he’s just incredible,” Sloan said. Contact Will Pinkston, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8676 or follow @WCPinkston on Twitter.

JACKCONTINUED FROM 1A

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

Dianne Sloan of Graves County gives her Diabetic Alert Dog, Jack, praise and attention while her husband, Paul, looks on Wednesday. Dianne was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 11 years ago.

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ceived more than $25,400.Henry Hodges, former

PADD executive director, was listed in PACRO’s ad-ministration and program area. Records show that he was paid nearly $136,000 to-tal from 2003 through 2008. He was paid between rough-ly $15,700 and $36,000 in PACRO dollars each year.

Walker said that she could not offi cially speak for the work Hodges performed for PACRO at that time, but she said that she assumes he was helping launch the organization’s programs.

“I imagine that was a very hands-on time,” Walker said. “When I became direc-tor, it was not as hands on.”

PACRO began issuing grants and loans in 2000 while money was fl owing in from the DOE. In 2006, the funding stream to PAC-RO came to a halt when the Offi ce of Workforce and Community Redevelop-ment dissolved. With $3.6 million left in the bank, the board opted to switch from providing grants to estab-lishing a revolving loan program.

The program provides money for industrial park sites to create jobs across the region.

Walker said that the PAC-RO board opted to save the last of the money and draw interest in preparation for the plant closure, which the United States Enrichment Corporation announced on May 24. USEC leases the plant from the DOE and the closure means the ma-jority of the plant’s roughly 1,100 workers will be laid off within the year.

Most of the other staff members who collect-ed money from PACRO worked sporadically over the years. PADD staff provided documentation breaking the nearly 20 staff members into categories that included administra-tion, administration and program, program, loan and accounting areas.

Andy Bennett, PADD as-sociate director of fi nance, performed accounting du-ties for PACRO and PU-PAU from 2003 to 2013, drawing about $67,100 from those sources during that time.

Charlotte Key, who was listed in the administra-tion and program area with Hodges from 2003 to 2008, collected more than $29,200 during that time. The only other PADD staff member to collect more than $26,000 from PACRO or PUPAU during that 10-year period was Norma Pruitt, who worked in the loan area from 2003 to 2011 and col-lected more than $47,600. The other staff members drew between about $140 and $25,300 total for hours worked during that time.

The PACRO and PUPAU dollars equaled various percentages of the staffers’ full PADD salaries.

W-2 tax forms dating back to 1999 show that An-derson was the only staff member paid with PACRO dollars from 2000 to 2002. Walker was the only person who drew PACRO money in 1999. The forms do not show how much of their total sala-ries came from PACRO.

According to records in-cluded in a PADD packet issued at a July 15 meet-ing, the total administra-tive costs disbursed to PADD from PACRO funds from 2000 to 2013 equaled nearly $2.5 million. The same chart showed that from 2007 to 2012, PU-PAU paid PADD more than $806,000 in administra-tive costs. The records not-ed that the 2013 total has not been audited yet.

The full PACRO board met infrequently until the atomic plant closure was an-

nounced. Members are now meeting more often and a new administrative contract is the main topic of discus-sion. PADD staff announced in early July they would be ending their contract at the end of the month. At the same time, Anderson an-nounced his retirement and never returned to work, leaving PACRO with no one to run it. PADD has stayed on to administer PACRO until a new contract is inked.

The McCracken Fiscal Court is the prime candi-date to take over the con-tract and details are still in the works. A seven-member PACRO spinoff committee going over the contract will

meet Wednesday and the full executive committee is slated to meet Thursday.

PACRO is one of 15 Com-munity Reuse Organiza-tions in the country. The groups were formed in re-gions with nuclear plants facing closure and received funding from the Offi ce of Workforce and Community Redevelopment.

Walker said that PACRO came about after she attend-ed a meeting in California and learned that the PGDP site was on deck for closure.

Members began by hir-ing two consultants who advised the board to divide its tasks into programs.

PACRO fi rst provided

grants to its fi ve impact counties — McCracken, Ballard, Graves, Marshall and Massac County, Ill. — for industrial park devel-opment.

It also provided funds for other programs that sup-ported its mission.

Since the revolving loan program was established, Walker said that the only other additional funds PACRO spent have gone toward administration. She said that she believes PADD spent the money wisely and carried out PACRO’s mis-sion adequately while serv-ing as administrator.

According to PADD re-cords, the loan program

helped create regional in-vestments equaling more than $47,200 and created or retained 2,445 jobs since its inception.

In 2008, PACRO created a spin-off group to focus on trying to move other nucle-ar projects to the PGDP site.

PUPAU was made up of Paducah and McCracken County elected offi cials and other regional rep-resentatives. Additional federal funds helped the group complete its mis-sion, which ended in 2012 when it disbanded.

The group formed to oversee a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership that the PGDP site was issued

along with 11 other sites across the country. That program never took off, but the group was at the fore-front of the discussions.

During PUPAU’s tenure, members completed the transfer agreement that al-lowed for the sale of the personal property assets, visited other industrial sites and communicated with the DOE, among other tasks. Members also helped pass a bill in the state legislature in 2012 that lifted a statewide nuclear moratorium.

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

8A • Sunday, August 25, 2013 • The Paducah Sun From Page One paducahsun.com

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