POLITICS: Actress Ashley Judd announces she won’t run for US Senate in Kentucky. | 5A POLITICS: Actress Ashley Ju

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THURSDAY,THURSDAY, March 28, 2013 March 28, 2013 www.paducahsun.comwww.paducahsun.com Vol.Vol. 117117 No.No. 8787

56°56°Today Agenda .......... 2A

Business ........ 6BClassifi eds ..... 6CComics ..........7DCrossword ...... 2CDeaths ...........3DMovies ........... 2COpinion.......... 4ATV Listings .....6D

Index

Daily $1.00 Sunday $2.50 Have a news tip? Call 575-8650 Customer Service: 575-8800 or 1-800-599-1771

NEWS TRACKER

1. Lourdes HomeCare added 26 new sedans to replace aging cars in its fleet. 2A

2. Pension overhaul passed, leaders believe gridlock has cleared. 5A

3. Newly released re-cords provide insight into Arizona shooting spree that killed 6. 6A

4. County Clerk Jeff Jerrell has attorney with-draw appeal. 2A

5. As they enter Year 2 under Ep -stein’s regime, the Cubs insist the pieces are falling into place and tha t they ’re poised to make a jump. 3B

Partly sunny.

Dozens of local residents have left Paducah’s Country Inn & Suites this week with crisp bills in hand after selling their wares to a man who calls himself “Jeff the Coin Guy.”

Jeff Parsons, a Springfi eld, Ill., native, travels across the country buying everything from antiques and electronics to gold jewelry and coins. He and his staff have set up shop inside a lobby packed to the brim with everything from mili-tary garb to used electronics in the Paducah hotel, 145 McBride Lane. Parsons’ group is operating under the name Uncle Buck’s Trading Post and will continue doing busi-

ness through 6 p.m. Saturday.Despite some past monetary is-

sues and business complaints as-sociated with a company he once owned, Parsons is reportedly do-ing nothing more at this point than legally pumping cash into the hands of area sellers.

McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden said he sent two detec-tives to the hotel on Monday fol-lowing an anonymous inquiry. As the detectives arrived, Hayden said that they saw two Paducah police offi cers leaving. Hayden and Paducah police spokeswoman Robin Newberry said that the offi -cers determined that Parsons was not breaking any laws and had fol-lowed all necessary procedures to

do business at the hotel.Parsons, former CEO of an Illi-

nois-based company called THR & Associates, has run into his share of fi nancial issues. He fi led personal and corporate petitions for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois on Sept. 10, 2012, according to court docu-ments.

Parsons said Monday that peo-ple commonly think that bank-ruptcy is fi led when money has run out. He said that was not the case for him. Lengthy divorce proceedings associated with a 29-year marriage prompted Parsons

Coin guy hands out cash in PaducahBY MALLORY PANUSKAmpanuska@paducahsun.com

MALLORY PANUSKA | The Sun

Jeff Parsons, also known as “Jeff the Coin Guy,” displays a collect-ible military item at the Country Inn & Suites in Paducah on Monday during a television commercial to promote his six-day traveling road show, Uncle Buck’s Trading Post. Despite past legal and finanicial trouble associated with a company Parsons owned, law enforce-ment officials say he is running a legal business at the hotel, where he pays cash for various collectibles. He began his buying Monday and plans to continue until 6 p.m. Saturday.Please see COINS | 3A

Citing an expected rate increase from its power supplier, Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation an-nounced it will have to pass along the costs to customers and in-crease its own electric rates.

Jackson Purchase plans to fi le a rate increase request with the Public Service Commission that

would hike average residential bills by about $21.30 per 30-day month. Offi cials said commercial and industrial rates are expected to increase by 21 percent in Au-gust, as well.

The measure anticipates a near-ly $10.9 million increase from JPEC’s supplier, Big Rivers Ener-gy Corp. Jackson Purchase is one of three electric cooperatives that

purchase power from Big Rivers.Big Rivers has fi led a $74.5 mil-

lion rate case with the PSC, citing the impact of losing its biggest customer, Century Aluminum, in Hawesville. Century, which pur-chases about 40 percent of the power produced from the utility, gave notice that it would stop pur-chasing power from Big Rivers in August.

The Rio Tinto Alcan Sebree plant notifi ed the utility in Janu-ary that it, too, would cease its contract with Big Rivers.

Jackson Purchase board mem-bers have voted to intervene in the Big Rivers case to represent its members’ interests and assure Big Rivers is doing all it can to hold down its costs, according to a news release.

Kelly Nuckols, JPEC president and CEO, expects public hear-ings on the Big Rivers case to be-gin around the June or July time frame, although a hearing hasn’t been scheduled.

Nuckols said the rate increase will take effect as soon as the com-mission enters an order at the end

Jackson Purchase pursues higher ratesBY WILL PINKSTON

wpinkston@paducahsun.com

Boards will soon cover broken win-dows and doors of the Executive Inn Showroom as the city nears comple-tion on the gutting of the remnants of the downtown hotel.

The city has used its own employ-ees to cut costs during the three-week project. Crews have removed build-ing materials from the site since mid-

February, including broken furniture, shards of glass, shutters, broken doors, and cracked and falling ceiling tiles. Boards and other security measures will be put in place within the next week.

“It was a major undertaking for us,” City Manager Jeff Pederson said. “As long as it appears abandoned, it is go-ing to attract negative attention.”

Pederson said the city has mulled

the cleanup since the Executive Inn was demolished in 2010. At the time of demolition, a fi rm gave the city an estimate of $100,000 to gut the build-ing, but administrators were only swayed to undertake the project once it became obvious that there had been several break-ins and vandalism. Bro-ken windows, doors without glass and

Paducah accelerates cleanup of former hotel’s concert hallBY CORIANNE EGANcegan@paducahsun.com

ALLIE DOUGLASS | The Sun

City employees work Wednesday afternoon to clear out and clean up the rear area of the Julian M. Car-roll Convention Center which used to be attached to the Executive Inn. The city initiated cleanup at the property after reports of vandalism and break-ins.

Big E demolition nears finish

Please see HOTEL | 3A

Please see RATES | 3A

The air traffi c control tower at Barkley Regional Airport faces a May 5 closing, according to Eddie Grant, airport spokesman.

Grant said a measure of convenience and effi -ciency, not safety, is what is at stake as commercial and private pilots will communicate solely with the air traffi c control center in Memphis, Tenn.

The 149 federal contract towers on the Federal Aviation Administration’s list of closures will shut down over four weeks beginning April 7. Grant said the FAA plans to stagger control tower closures based on each airport’s yearly fl ight numbers.

In 2012, the number of outbound passengers at Barkley totaled 20,500, a 15.2 percent increase from 2011’s total of 17,795, according to a report Richard Roof, airport manager, emailed to the Sun. The average number of daily outbound passengers in 2012 was 56, Roof reported. The average per-centage of seats occupied on fl ights was 57 percent in 2012, up from 50.7 percent in 2011.

Control towers at Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport in Owensboro, and at the South-ern Illinois Airport at Murphysboro, Ill., are also on the FAA’s list to close. The FAA’s list was created to implement the federal budget cuts known as the sequestration, which calls for the FAA to cut $637 million.

News of the Barkley tower’s closure had the air-port’s Board of Directors discussing the issue at its meeting Tuesday, said Neil Archer, board vice president.

“Right now, the tower is not the end of every-thing,” Archer said. “You can still fl y without a con-trol tower, it’s just not as convenient.”

Barkley Regional Airport staff tried earlier this month to appeal the FAA’s decision to close its tower — it was one of more than 600 such appeals

Barkley airport tower ceasing operation May 5

BY ADAM SHULLashull@paducahsun.com

Please see AIRPORT | 3A

2 Million 2 Million Dollar Dollar

Warehouse Warehouse Sell OffSell Off

All Excess Warehouse Inventory From All Excess Warehouse Inventory From Furniture Factories like Broyhill, Ashley, Furniture Factories like Broyhill, Ashley,

Thomasville, Serta, And Lane Are All Thomasville, Serta, And Lane Are All Drastically Reduced!Drastically Reduced!

Living Room~Bed RoomLiving Room~Bed RoomDining RoomDining Room

Entertainment CenterEntertainment CenterRecliners~Mattress SetsRecliners~Mattress Sets

The LineupToday

   Senior Medicare Patrol, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., 1400 H.C. Mathis Drive. Learn to detect potential Medicare errors, fraud and abuse. Report errors or suspected fraud to SMP. 442-8993.

AARP with IRS offers free tax service to low- and moderate in-come individuals, with special at-tention to those age 60 and older, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., McCracken County Public Library, 555 Washington St. Walk-ins welcome; and 3:30 to 7 p.m., Concord United Methodist Church, 5178 Hinkleville Road. 443-2669 for an appointment.

   Paducah Toastmasters, noon, The Pasta House Co. Call Joe Shall-better at 506-1791 or Clay Camp-bell at 703-2700.

   Downtown Kiwanis Club, lunch, noon, Elks Club, 310 N. Fourth St. 441-0825.

   Wine tasting to benefit St. Nicholas Family Clinic, 5 p.m., Pasta House Co., 451 Jordan Drive. Guest bartender: Bob Hoppmann & Friends.

   NAMI Night Out, 6 p.m. at Pizza Inn on Joe Clifton Drive, Paducah. For people interested in or affected by mental illness. Ken Jenkins, 554-1915.

   Dance, 7-10 p.m. Trader’s Mall, 6900 Benton Road, Reidland. Band: Due South. $5.

   South Paducah Kiwanis, 7 p.m. 1640 S. Sixth St.

   Friday

  Senior Medicare Patrol, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., 1400 H.C. Mathis Drive, Call 442-8993. Protect yourself from Medicare errors, fraud and abuse. Learn to detect potential er-rors, fraud and abuse. Report errors or suspected fraud to SMP.

Steak night, 5-8 p.m., River City Eagles Aerie 3686, 1919 Cairo Road.

  Dance, 7-10 p.m., American Le-gion Post 26 Hall, Mayfield. Band: Just Breakin’ Even. $5.

  Classic rock dance, 7-10 p.m., Trader’s Mall, 6900 Benton Road, Reidland. Band: Cantageus. $5.

  Dance, 7-10 p.m., Grand Rivers Community Center, 155 W. Cum-berland. Stanley Walker Band. $5. 362-8272.

■ ■ ■

Items for the Lineup must be re-ceived in writing five days in ad-vance. Mail to: Lineup, The Paducah Sun, P.O. Box 2300, Paducah, KY 42002-2300; fax the newsroom at 442-7859; or email news@pa-ducahsun.com. Announcements are published day of event. Information: 575-8677.

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The Agenda is a listing of govern-ment meetings today.

■ McCracken County Fiscal Court — called meeting, 7:30 p.m., conference room.

■ Murray City Council — 6:30 p.m., City Hall.

■ Paducah City Commission — called meeting, 2 p.m., commis-sion chambers.

■ Paducah-McCracken Joint Sewer Agency — 5 p.m., meeting facility, Northview Street.

Agenda

Just days after Lou-isville attorney Kent Wicker fi led a motion appealing a disputed Fiscal Court ordinance on behalf of McCracken County Clerk Jeff Jer-rell, the document is set to be withdrawn.

Wicker fi led a mo-tion for discretionary review with the Ken-tucky Supreme Court on Monday, but Jerrell said he asked Wicker on Wednesday to dismiss it.

Jerrell said that he never asked Wicker to fi le the motion and promptly called Wicker and told him to withdraw it after he learned about the fi ling. Jerrell said in several interviews since Monday evening that while he considered all of his options after the Kentucky Court of Ap-peals ruled against his appeal of a McCracken Circuit Court decision, he had decided not to appeal to a higher court. He said that he plans to abide by the ordinance,

which switches his offi ce from a fee system to a fee pool.

Passed December of 2011, the ordinance requires pre-approval from the Fiscal Court for offi ce expenses, di-rects that the clerk and his staff cannot write any checks except when handing over excess fees, and requires the Fiscal Court to approve bill payments.

The motion for dis-cretionary review asked the state Supreme Court to review the case and

decide whether it would accept an appeal. Wick-er said Tuesday that he fi led the motion to keep the appeal options open.

Deputy Judge-Execu-tive Doug Harnice said Wednesday that the Fiscal Court will take over the fi nances of the clerk’s offi ce on April 1. The commissioners passed an order Monday night to send a letter to Jerrell informing him of those plans. Harnice said a private audit will be performed to clear out the books before

April 1 to ensure every-thing is in order.

Wicker initially fi led a lawsuit on behalf of Jer-rell after the passage of the ordinance. It argued the constitutionality of the language but lost at both the circuit and state appellate levels. The next step would have been the state Supreme Court.

Contact Mallory Pan-uska, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8684 or follow @Mallo-ryPanuska on Twitter.

Jerrell asks attorney to withdraw appealBY MALLORY

PANUSKAmpanuska@paducahsun.com

Considering at the end of ev-ery trip waits a person in need of a local hospital’s home-care team, travel logs tallying more than 92,000 miles each month is the small price of helping pa-tients, but a large toll on the team’s wheels.

To keep up with demand and better serve patients, the Lourdes HomeCare and Hospice team rolled onto the parking lot of Lourdes North Plaza on Wednesday with 26 new 2013 Ford Focus sedans. The pro-gram replaced aging passenger cars and doubled the amount of fl eet vehicles, providing the team with 50 rides for home-care staff.

With more than 120 clinicians serving patients across 13 Ken-tucky counties and three in Il-linois, the cars are the primary means for providing patient care, delivering equipment and medications, and making as-sessments and admissions.

Kay Williams, director of Lourdes HomeCare and Hos-pice, said that staff includes a full support team of nurses, pas-

toral care counselors, physical, occupational and speech thera-pists, social workers, and per-sonal care assistants, traveling to see each patient.

“The team members make vis-its around the clock, 24/7 and are often out during the middle of the night,” Williams said. “Providing cars for our team is imperative to the services that we provide to our communities.”

With the size of the previous

home-care vehicle fl eet, each car would rack up an average of 46,000 miles each year, while the additional 26 cars will cut about 24,000 miles/year off the average total mileage.

Shannah Poindexter, com-munity relationship manager at Lourdes HomeCare and Hos-pice, said the vehicles provide staff with a safe, reliable means of transportation in their pursuit of extending Lourdes’ healing

mission.“This is a big impact, because

the more that we can provide our staff and give them the tools that they need to do their job, the more care and more success-ful care they can provide,” she said.

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

Hospital hospice program bolsters road fleetBY WILL PINKSTON

wpinkston@paducahsun.com

WILL PINKSTON | The Sun

Lourdes HomeCare and Hospice displays 34 of its new 50-vehicle fleet of 2013 Ford Focus se-dans at Lourdes North Plaza on Wednesday. The bolstered fleet will help home-care teams travel to meet patient needs in 13 Kentucky counties and 3 in Illinois.

A chili judging is planned Saturday to benefit the Kentucky Veteran and Patriot Museum. The fundraiser will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Wickliffe City Hall.There is an entry fee of $20 and a large pot of chili. The chili judged the best will be awarded $100. There is a $5 “taste and vote” fee.Also Steve Flairty, author of “Kentucky Everyday Heroes,” will attend and sign copies of his book, which will sell for $12. There is a donation to the museum from the book sales. More information: Sandy Hart at 270-210-2452.

Chili judging to benefit Ballard veterans museum

The Paducah City Commission will hold a special meeting today to an-nounce a memorandum of agreement with Paducah Economic Develop-ment for a new company in the area.

Chad Chancellor, chief executive officer of PED, said the state is set to announce a list of companies receiving state incentives at 2 p.m. today. If the company in question is on that list, PED will move forward with the announcement. Although Chancellor stayed mum on the nature of the an-nouncement, he said he believes the PED has found a company to use its spec building, a 60,000 square-foot in the Industrial Park West, also referred to as I-24 Park, off Olivet Church Road.

The City Commission’s called meeting is at 2 p.m. The McCracken Fis-cal Court called a meeting at 7:30 p.m. for a similar purpose.

City, county to make economic announcement today

— Staff report

A Mayfi eld couple was arrested after being ac-cused of stealing gasoline from a Sedalia grocery.

Deputy Sheriff Brandon Collins was dispatched about 2:30 a.m. to a call of

a suspi-cious ve-hicle at Bob and A n n ’ s Grocery on Ky. 97, ac-cording to a news r e l e a s e f r o m C a p t . J e r e m y P r i n c e of the G r a v e s C o u n t y S h e r -iff’s Of-fice.The c a l l e r had seen

a black pickup in the lot. Two people were standing near it, according to the caller.

The caller also saw two 55-gallon barrels in the bed of the truck.

Collins met the truck as he drove north on Ky. 97 on his way to the grocery and stopped it. Collins learned that 107 gallons of gasoline had been sto-len from Bob and Ann’s, and both 55-gallon bar-rels in the truck were full of gasoline.

He also found an elec-trical pump with a hose attached to it in the bed of the truck, Prince re-ported.

The two in the truck, Dusty Baker, 33, and his wife Brittany Baker, 27, were arrested and charged with receiving stolen property under $500 and jailed. Brittany Baker was released on a $1,500 bond Monday, according to the jail’s web site.

The sheriff’s offi ce seized the truck the Bak-ers were driving, the gaso-line, the hose and the elec-tric pump. Mayfi eld police assisted with the traffi c stop and the arrests.

Grocery store gas theft leads to 2 Graves County arrests

Staff report

D. Baker

B. Baker

Briefs

— Staff report

Wednesday’s lottery

paducahsun.com Region/From Page One The Paducah Sun • Thursday, March 28, 2013 • 3A

to step away from what he called the lucrative business that was THR & Associ-ates. He said the assets out-weighed the debts and he simply made a choice to end it.“Sometimes it’s the right thing to do,” Parsons said.

According to the docu-ments, Parsons owes up to $500 million to a list of more than a dozen credi-tors. The bankruptcy court chose Illinois-based Au-mann Auctions to liquidate all of THR’s business assets, housed in seven retail and warehouse locations across Illinois. A series of nine online auctions, beginning Feb. 22, were set to sell the items. According to an on-line write-up from the com-pany, it was slated to be the largest personal property auction in the history of Illi-nois, selling millions of col-lectible items.

Parsons said he basically cut his losses from THR, which is now out of busi-ness, and proceeded to con-centrate on his traveling

buyback business. He said that he has stopped in sev-eral towns across the coun-try — including Somerset, Hazard and Campbellsville in Kentucky — and bought thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. He said that he and his staff of about 80 then take the items and resell them online. He said he changes the names of the shows frequently as a mar-keting tool.

According to online re-cords with the national Bet-ter Business Bureau, 311 complaints against THR were closed in the central district of Illinois within the past three years. Of those, 296 were closed in the past 12 months. The site lists an alert for the company. A spokesperson for the BBB said that complaints are only listed after they have closed and that THR just stopped answering the com-plaints in July.

Of the complaints, 11 were advertising or sales issues, 13 were billing or collecting issues, three were delivery issues, and 284 were prob-

lems with products.A listing for Uncle Buck’s

Road Show, based in Lin-coln, Ill., does not have any complaints on the site, and Parsons is not listed.

Parsons also ran into some legal trouble in In-diana, according to Erin Reece, public information offi cer for the Offi ce of the Indiana Attorney General. Reece said that a settlement agreement was approved in June 2012 stemming from more than 30 complaints where consumers reported receiving pre-recorded calls soliciting gold and silver buy-back events. She said robocalls in Indiana are ille-gal regardless of whether or not a consumer is registered on the state’s Do Not Call list. The company’s failure to follow the requirements agreed to in the settlement resulted in a lawsuit and the case is ongoing as the bank-ruptcy proceedings contin-ue, Reece said.

She also said that her offi ce has received three complaints regarding THR where consumers reported

receiving bad checks for their items. In one case, she said the offi ce successfully mediated the complaint and the company reimbursed the consumer. The other two cases were closed be-cause of the company de-claring bankruptcy, Reece said.

Parsons said that a lien was placed on a series of checks that accounted for the complaints but that the money was reimbursed im-mediately.

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

COINS

CONTINUED FROM 1A

debris littering the ground dominated the site, so the city took steps to secure the building.

The corridor overlooks the Ohio River and houses a large kitchen, the show-room and a corridor to the former Silver Saddle nightclub. The city fund-ed the demolition of the Executive Inn but left the showroom and the kitchen because of its potential and the permitting head-aches that rebuilding them would cause.

By using employees of the Engineering-Public Works and Parks depart-ments, the city cut the price of cleaning the showroom to about $30,000. With the materials included, the city’s total should come out to $35,000, Pederson said. He also added the city had no plans to renovate or use the space to add to the adjacent Julian M. Carroll Convention Center.

Contact Corianne Egan, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8652 or fol-low @CoriEgan on Twitter.

of August, likely refl ecting a change in customer billing by September.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re being so proactive and letting people know that this is coming,” he said. “That way they can adjust their budgets accordingly and recognize if you’re the average customer, now is

the time to plan for an ad-ditional $20 per month.”

Gary Joiner, JPEC board chairman, wrote in a state-ment that JPEC staff is do-ing all it can to hold down power costs, including cut-ting the workforce by about 10 percent from a year ago and trimming expenses where possible.

The JPEC announce-ment comes two days after

the Paducah Power System board approved a measure to incrementally increase its customers rates through the next year. Nuckols said that decision did not have any bearing on JPEC’s rate request.

Nuckols said now is the time for customers to begin considering energy-saving programs or conservation tips involving appliances,

heating and air condition-ing, windows, light bulbs and other household items.

“We’re encouraging our members to take advan-tage of our programs here to help the offset that bill,” Nuckols said.

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

RATESCONTINUED FROM 1A

nationwide — but was un-successful.Archer said board members discussed, but did not decide on, joining other airports across the nation threatening to sue to keep the FAA from shuttering towers.

Airport boards, such as

the Punta Gorda Airport Authority in Florida, voted to join airports nationwide planning federal litigation.

Archer said the board wants to be careful about asking for money to keep the tower open if it would later deter the federal govern-ment from providing money.

“That’s one of those things

where you don’t want to take that job away from the feder-al government for too long, or they’ll let you own it,” Ar-cher said.

Chris Neihoff, airport board president, wasn’t able to attend Tuesday’s board meeting, but he said Wednesday that the board is not ready to approach the

city or county government about help in keeping the airport’s tower open.

“But we’re open to any op-tions and suggestions,” Nei-hoff said.

Contact Adam Shull, Sun business editor, at 270-575-8653 or follow @ad-amshull on Twitter.

AIRPORTCONTINUED FROM 1A

LEDBETTER — Markets totaled 505 head. Compared to last week: Feeder steers unevenly steady. Feeder heifers steady to $2 higher. Supply included 43 percent feeder heifers and 18 percent of feeders over 600 lbs. Slaughter cows $4 to $5 lower. Slaughter bulls steady.

Slaughter cows: breaker, 75 to 80 percent lean, 1210 to 1885 lbs., $67 to $72.50; low dressing, $65; boner, 80 to 85 percent lean, 1110 to 1610 lbs., $68 to $75; low dressing, $65 to $68; lean, 85 to 90 percent lean, 1150 to 1260 lbs., $63 to $68; high dressing, $72; low dressing, $61 to $64.

Slaughter bulls yield grade 1-2: 1320 to 2330 lbs., $101 to $104; low dressing, $92 to $93.

Feeder steers medium and large 1-2: 100 to 200 lbs., $184; 200 to 300 lbs., $164 to $175; 300 to 400 lbs., $173 to $184; 400 to 500 lbs., $156 to $170; 500 to 600 lbs., $143 to $151; 600 to 700 lbs., $124 to $132; 700 to 800 lbs., $120 to $126.

Feeder heifers medium and large 1-2: 100 to 200 lbs., $166 to $170; 200 to 300 lbs., $165 to $168; 300 to 400 lbs., $147 to $163; 400 to 500 lbs., $135 to $150; 500 to 600 lbs., $129 to $137; 600 to 700 lbs., $115 to $124; 700 to 800 lbs., $115; 900 to 1000 lbs., $90.

Feeder bulls medium and large 1-2: 300 to 400 lbs., $160 to $165; 400 to 500 lbs., $145 to $154; 500 to 600 lbs., $135 to $143; 600 to 700 lbs., $120 to $125.

Stock cows: cows 3 to 10 years old, 5 to 8 months bred, $710 to $1,185 per head.

Stock cows/calf pairs: cows 3 to 9 years old with calves at side, $1,040 to $1,250 per pair.

Baby calves: $140 to $180 per head.

Livingston Livestock

HOTEL

CONTINUED FROM 1A

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The third inmate to die recently under suspicious circum-stances at Menard Correc-tional Center in southern Illinois was found in his cell Tuesday night, author-ities said Wednesday.

Randolph County Coro-ner Randy Dudenbostel said the 35-year-old man, who was housed in the prison’s segregation unit, was declared dead at 10:36 p.m.

Neither Dudenbostel nor Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswom-an Stacey Solano would release the man’s name. Dudenbostel said an au-topsy has been scheduled for Thursday.

The prison in Chester, about 60 miles southeast of St. Louis, was locked down while an investiga-tion got under way, Solano said.

The deaths — which so

far have resulted in murder charges against one former Menard prisoner — come at a critical time for Gov. Pat Quinn’s Corrections Department. With critics

complaining about pack-ing more than 49,100 in-mates in a system designed for 33,000, there have been other violent attacks. A Pontiac guard who was

beaten in January required facial reconstructive sur-gery. In an early February fracas, up to 15 inmates at-tacked two Menard guards and a chaplain.

Inmate dies suspiciously at prisonBY JOHN O’CONNOR

Associated Press

Associated Press

Authorities say the death of a 35-year-old inmate at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Ill., on Tuesday night looks suspicious. It is the third suspicious death at the prison since Jan. 31.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gov. Bill Haslam an-nounced Wednesday that a breakdown in negotiations with the federal govern-ment means that he won’t expand the state’s Medicaid program, a decision that will cost Tennessee billions of dollars in federal money and keep 140,000 uninsured Tennesseans from obtaining

free coverage.Haslam told a joint ses-

sion of the General Assembly that he tried to get approval for a “Tennessee Plan,” in which the state would ac-cept the federal money to subsidize private insurance. But he was unable to get the proposal OK’d before his fi nal amendments to the state’s annual spending plan came due.

“I cannot recommend to

you that we move forward on this plan,” Haslam said in a 12-minute speech. “Our budget amendment will not include language to accept the federal funds.”

The announcement ap-peared to catch lawmakers by surprise, as there was only tepid applause by a group heavily dominated by Republican opponents of President Barack Obama and his signature Afford-

able Care Act.Democrats said they were perplexed by the decision that they said leaves rural hospitals and the uninsured in the lurch.

“I’m a bit confused, cer-tainly disappointed in what the governor had to say,” said House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley. “It certainly doesn’t bode well for the Tennesseans that had hoped to have real insurance for their health care.”

Tennessee’s governor rejects Medicaid expansionBY ERIK SCHELZIG

Associated Press

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Editor and Publisher Jim PaxtonGeneral Manager Gary AdkissonExecutive Editor Duke ConoverController Jean HurfordAdvertising Director Carolyn RaneyCirculation Director Matt JonesCustomer Service Judy LynchMarketing Manager Kendra MitchellProduction Manager Jesse Rogers

Edwin J. Paxton, Editor & Publisher, 1900-1961Frank Paxton, Publisher, 1961-1972

Edwin J. Paxton Jr., Editor, 1961-1977Jack Paxton, Editor, 1977-1985

Fred Paxton, Publisher, 1972-2000

David CoxEditorial Page Editor

Jim PaxtonEditor & Publisher

Duke ConoverExecutive Editor

The Murray State University Board of Regents has still not revealed why it is forcing President Randy Dunn out.

It’s past time. The public has the right to know.

The regents could begin by releasing the Ad Hoc Contract Committee’s report on which this decision was ostensibly based.

Board Chairman Constantine Curris, in an e-mail to a Sun reporter, said regents saw only a draft of the committee’s report and he does not know the status of the final report — “now that the Board has made a decision on Dr. Dunn’s contract.” If he is implying that the committee is no longer required to release its report, in light of the board’s abrupt decision to vote on the matter at its meeting March 15, we take exception.

A concern is that Curris and the regents are taking the position that because the report is a “draft,” it is exempt from disclosure under the law, and because the regents went ahead and fired Dunn, there will never be a final, public report.

Such a view, if taken by the regents, is certain to draw a legal challenge from local media. The board reviewed the report and then took monumental action on its subject matter. A report cannot be any more final than that. To try to evade disclosure by calling it a “draft’’ would be disingenuous and, we think, illegal.

Questions also remain about the series of events that led up to the

vote:Why did the board decide

to vote early — two months before the “final” report was due? In an e-mail to MSU staff Monday, Curris said four regents, after seeing the report, asked to vote at the March meeting instead of waiting until May.

Curris said three of the four regents who asked for the early vote were among those who supported extending Dunn’s contract. Apparently they found sufficient reason in the

report for retaining Dunn. What did the other seven see that Dunn’s supporters did not?

Curris said the committee’s report did not include a recommendation regarding Dunn’s future with the university. But both the faculty senate and staff congress passed resolutions supporting Dunn, and their letters of support were included in the report. Yet, with no recommendation from the committee charged with reviewing Dunn’s contract, the regents saw fit to ignore the faculty and staff. What reason did Curris and six other regents find so compelling?

The regents have still not explained why they discussed board

business for about an hour at a social gathering at the home of Regent Sharon Green the night before the vote. They are surely aware that this violated Kentucky’s Open Meetings Law. This is a public board and its business must be conducted in public.

What was the substance of their discussion?

Six or seven regents attended — Curris says he can’t remember if Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton “stopped by” — but only one of those attending, Susan Guess of Paducah, was among the four voting to renew Dunn’s contract the next day. The other three who would vote in support of Dunn were not at the gathering. Curris said the local members, Staff Regent Phil Schooley and Faculty Regent Jack Rose, both of whom would vote to extend Dunn’s contract, were not invited. Why not?

We want to believe that among the 10 regents still on the board (Rose resigned over the vote) there are a few who respect the public’s right to know — or at least recognize their obligation under the law. Stonewalling will only foster distrust of the regents and bring further embarrassment on the university.

A decision of this magnitude demands a thorough public airing. Release the report.

“President Obama has argu-ably established the authority of the president to intervene militarily virtually anywhere without the consent or the ap-proval of Congress, at his own discretion and for as long as he wishes.” — Jim Webb

WASHINGTON — As America tiptoes toward a fourth intervention in an opaque and uncontrollable confl ict — now Syria, after Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya — Webb’s words require two minor modifi cations: Obama has demonstrated a power, not an authority; only the Constitution authorizes. And as Webb understands, Obama has been able to do so only because Congress, over many years, has become too supine to wield its constitutional powers.

Webb, a Virginia Democrat who declined to seek a second Senate term, vents his dismay in the essay “Congressional Abdication” (in The National Interest), a trenchant indict-ment of the irrelevance of an institution to which the Con-stitution gives “certain powers over the structure and use of the military.” The president, Webb says, is commander in chief but only in “executing policies shepherded within the boundaries of legisla-tive powers.” Those powers have, however, atrophied from a disuse amounting to institutional malfeasance as Congress has forfeited its role in national security policy-making.

Webb, who was a Marine infantry offi cer in Vietnam and Navy secretary for Ronald Reagan, remembers when Congress was “fi ercely protec-tive of its powers.” Webb vigorously opposed the inva-sion of Iraq before he entered the Senate, which he departed disgusted by Congress’ self-made irrelevance.

In December 2008, in its fi nal hours, George W. Bush’s administration signed with Iraq a Strategic Framework Agreement that was, Webb

says, “not quite a treaty” requiring two-thirds Senate approval, but neither was it merely implementing current policy and law. It outlined the U.S. role in defending Iraq from internal and external threats, in promoting rec-onciliation and combating terrorist groups.

For more than a year the SFA was negotiated and fi nalized, but there was no meaningful consultation with Congress, no congressional debate on its merits and none sought by congressional lead-ers. In contrast to Congress’ passivity regarding policy toward “an unstable regime in an unstable region,” Iraq’s parliament voted on the SFA — twice.

In May 2012, Obama visited Afghanistan to sign “a legally binding executive agreement” concerning the structure of future U.S.-Afghan relations, U.S. commitments to Afghan security and an anticipated U.S. presence beyond 2014. The agreement calls Afghani-stan a “Major Non-NATO Ally.” Congress was not formally consulted about this, but Afghanistan’s parliament voted on it.

Noting that in foreign as well as domestic policy Obama is “acutely fond of executive orders designed to circumvent the legislative process,” Webb recalls that in 2009 the administration said it would return from the United Nations’ Copenhagen conference on climate change with a “binding” commitment for an emission-reduction program. So Webb wrote to remind the president that “only specifi c legislation

agreed upon in the Congress, or a treaty ratifi ed by the Sen-ate, could actually create such a commitment.”

Webb notes that presi-dents now act as though they have become de facto prime ministers, unconstrained by the separation of powers. This transformation was drama-tized in the Libya interven-tion:

“Was our country under attack, or under the threat of imminent attack? No. ... Were we invoking the inherent right of self-defense as outlined in the U.N. Charter? No. Were we called upon by treaty com-mitments to come to the aid of an ally? No. Were we re-sponding in kind to an attack on our forces elsewhere, as we did in the 1986 raids in Libya after American soldiers had been killed in a Berlin disco? No. Were we rescuing Ameri-cans in distress, as we did in Grenada in 1983? No.”

Instead, “we took military action against a regime that we continued to recognize diplomatically, on behalf of disparate groups of opposing forces whose only real point of agreement was that they wished to rid Libya of [Moam-mar] Gaddafi . This was not even a civil war” because there was “no cohesive opposition facing a regime.” The re-sult? “Rampant lawlessness” perhaps related to the murder of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and “the regionwide dispersion of thousands of weapons from Gaddafi ’s armories.”

The question, Webb says, is whether in “a world fi lled with cruelty,” presidents should be allowed to “pick and choose when and where to use mili-tary force” by merely citing the “undefi nable rubric of ‘humanitarian intervention.’”

Imperial presidents and in-vertebrate legislators of both parties have produced what Webb correctly calls “a break-down of our constitutional process.” Syria may be the next such bipartisan episode.

EDITOR:Recently, in the Mayfi eld Matters City News-

letter, our mayor asked the citizens of Mayfi eld for their input on a citywide smoking ban. The evidence supporting the validity of this is overwhelming.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), secondhand smoke causes close to 50,000 deaths per year. In adults who have never smoked, secondhand smoke can cause heart disease and/or lung cancer. In children, secondhand smoke can cause ear infections, asthma, respiratory infections and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

When I go out to dinner and pay money for my meal, I want to enjoy my food, not worry about the chemicals I’m inadvertently inhal-ing. There are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes. When burned, they create more than 4,000 chemicals. At least 50 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer and many are poisonous (American Lung Associa-tion 2013).

You might think you are safe by sitting in the “non-smoking” section, but you’d be wrong. The CDC states that current heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems do not control secondhand smoke exposure. In fact, these systems distribute it throughout the

building. Even separately enclosed, exhausted, and negative-pressure smoking rooms do not keep secondhand smoke from spilling into adjacent areas. Establishing a smoke-free en-vironment is the only effective way to protect from secondhand smoke. I would like to thank Paducah for being smoke free and protecting my health.

SHARON HODGESMayfi eld

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

Editorial

Letters

4A • Thursday, March 28, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Opinion paducahsun.com

DUTYMSU regents shouldrelease Dunn report

We wish TO CALL ATTENTION to our rules for letters to Viewpoints.First, sign YOUR NAME. Don’t send a photocopy of a letter or of your

signature.Second, include YOUR COMPLETE ADDRESS and telephone number

where we can reach you in the daytime.Third, be BRIEF. Readers should limit letters to a maximum of 300

words; shorter letters are preferred.All are SUBJECT TO EDITING for clarity and brevity. Letter writers are

limited to one letter per month. Writers may send letters by e-mail to lcocke@paducahsun.com.

The rules LISTED ABOVE also apply to e-mail letters. Letters may be mailed to Viewpoints, The Paducah Sun, P.O. Box 2300, Paducah, KY 42002-2300.

Mayfield looking into smoking ban;idea deserves support of public

EDITOR:For several hours I walked among the thou-

sands of get well wishes, prayer signs, teddy bears, candles and mementos displayed at Gabby Gifford’s memorial after the shooting in Tucson. One of the last tributes was a fl ower bouquet placed by the U.S. House of Repre-sentatives.

The tragedy in Tucson came and went. The tragedy in Aurora came and went. The tragedy at the Sikh Temple came and went. The trag-edy at Sandy Hook Elementary School came and went.

What has Congress done to stop the rain of tears shed by families who have lost loved ones to gun violence? When will our congressmen care? Enough! Enough! Enough!

GREGG STOLLWest Paducah

When will Congress care enoughto stop gun violence in America?

Congress enables imperial presidents

George Will

paducahsun.com Region The Paducah Sun • Thursday, March 28, 2013 • 5A

FRANKFORT — Actress Ashley Judd announced Wednesday she won’t run for U.S. Senate in Ken-tucky against Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, saying she had given seri-ous thought to a campaign but decided her responsi-bilities and energy need to be focused on her family.

The former Kentucky resident tweeted her deci-sion.

“Regretfully, I am cur-rently unable to consider a campaign for the Sen-ate. I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months who expressed their desire for a fi ghter for the people & new leader,” Judd wrote.

“While that won’t be me at this time, I will continue to work as hard as I can to ensure the needs of Kentucky fami-lies are met by returning this Senate seat to whom it rightfully belongs: the people & their needs, dreams, and great poten-tial. Thanks for even con-sidering me as that per-son & know how much I love our Commonwealth.

Thank you!”Her publicist Cara Trip-

icchio confi rmed Judd’s decision.

Judd had hinted last week that she was nearing a decision about the race.

Now living in suburban Nashville, Tenn., Judd has said little publicly about her intentions. However, she has been meeting with several Democratic leaders, including Gov. Steve Beshear, to discuss a possible run.

Defeating McConnell would be the Democrats’ biggest prize of the 2014 election.

His seat is one of 14 that Republicans are defend-ing while Democrats try to hold onto 21, hoping to retain or add to their 55-45 edge.

Judd, known for lib-eral political views, would have been running in a largely conservative state where Republicans hold both Senate seats and fi ve of the six seats in the U.S. House.

Former State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, a Judd supporter, said she would have been a strong candi-date.

Judd won’t run for US Senate

BY ROGER ALFORDAssociated Press

FRANKFORT — With a Republican-controlled Sen-ate and a Democratic-led House, the Kentucky Leg-islature had been mired in political gridlock through most of the past decade.

Frankfort political lead-ers believe passage of a complicated pension over-haul Tuesday is a clear in-dication that things have changed.

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican Senate President Robert Stivers had promised a new day of bipartisan coopera-tion coming into the legis-lative session in January. Both political leaders, along with Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo, cit-ed pension reforms as evi-dence that they held true to their word.

Week after week, they continued talks until they arrived at a compromise. Republicans conceded to tweaks to the state tax code to generate money for pen-sions. Democrats accepted a 401(k)-like retirement plan for newly hired state workers.

“It was truly remarkable what we got done on pen-sions,” said House Majority Whip Tommy Thompson, the Owensboro Democrat who participated in talks. “I had not seen that degree of congeniality in some time.”

Soon after the pension reform bill had passed Tuesday night, Beshear ap-peared in his press briefi ng room with Stivers, Stumbo and a bipartisan group of other lawmakers to praise their cooperation.

In particular, Beshear pointed to Stivers for his ex-emplary leadership. Stivers in turned credited Beshear.

“We sent a positive mes-sage that we did what our constituents wanted us to do,” Stumbo said. “I think that that is a ray of hope that we sent out not only across Kentucky, but across the nation, that not every government that’s divided along political lines has to end up in gridlock.”

Beshear and Stumbo are veterans in their positions. Stivers is in his fi rst year as Senate president. He replaced Sen. David Wil-liams, a sometimes brash political fi gure who retired last year when Beshear ap-pointed him as circuit judge in southern Kentucky.

The pension bill would

provide nearly $100 million a year to make the state’s required contribution to the pension plans of state government employees. It also would create a 401(k)-like retirement plan for new employees in an effort to protect the pension plans of current employees and retirees.

Lawmakers keep promise of cooperationBY ROGER ALFORD

Associated Press

FRANKFORT — Soldiers deployed overseas would have a better shot at voting back home under one of sever-al high-profile measures that passed in this year’s legislative session.

The following bills also passed before the Legislature adjourned late Tuesday night:

■ Pension reformThe bill would provide nearly $100

million a year to make the state’s required contribution to financially troubled pension plans for Kentucky government retirees. The bill also would create a 401(k)-like retirement plan for new employees.

■ Christians-only health planThe bill would allow Florida-based

Medi-Share to resume operations in Kentucky by exempting it from state insurance regulations.

■ Religious freedomThe bill would provide Kentuckians

additional protections to prevent gov-ernment intrusion on their religious beliefs.

■ Industrial hempThe bill would allow Kentucky to

quickly license hemp growers if the federal government ever lifts a ban on the crop.

■ High school dropoutsThe bill would allow Kentucky to

join 15 other states that bar stu-dents from dropping out of school before they’re legally adults.

■ Taxing districtsThe bill would provide more over-

sight of more than 1,200 local taxing districts that collect and spend some $2.7 billion a year.

Legislative winnersAssociated Press

FRANKFORT — A proposal to draw new boundary lines around House dis-tricts was among a litany of high-profile bills that didn’t survive the legislative session that ended Tuesday night.

The following bills also fell by the wayside:

■ Medicaid paymentsThe bill would have forced Medic-

aid-managed care organizations to reimburse hospitals for all types of emergency care.

■ Dating violenceThe bill would have allowed couples

who don’t live together — including minors — to obtain protection from abuse.

■ Nullification of federal gun lawsThe bill would have prohibited Ken-

tucky from enforcing new federal gun control laws if enacted, though sever-al state lawmakers said the proposal was symbolic and had no power to supersede federal law.

■ Abolishment of constablesThe bill would have abolished the

office of constable. ■ Medicaid expansionThe bill would have required legisla-

tive approval before the state could expand Medicaid or operate a market-place that sells insurance.

■ DNA TestsThe bill would have required police

to take DNA samples when they ar-rest people on felony charges.

■ Coalfield scholarshipsThe bill would have used coal sever-

ance tax revenue to pay for scholar-ships to college students in Kentucky’s eastern and western coalfields.

Failed proposalsAssociated Press

Region Briefs

HENDERSON — A western Kentucky man died after his vehicle apparently stalled in flood waters.

Henderson County Deputy Terry Har-mon told The Gleaner that he found the body of 70-year-old Melvin Duane Marks on Sunday during routine patrol on the roadway. He said a rescue squad was called out to the area on Friday when someone reported seeing a truck in floodwaters with the driver’s side door open. He said workers searched, but did not find anyone.

Harmon said it appears that Marks unsuccessfully tried to drive through the water, and then tried to walk through it.

Body found along flooded road

— Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Authorities said that a mother and toddler have been located in Memphis after their disappear-ance led to a search by West Tennessee authorities.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said 26-year-old Katie Lin Barnes and her son, 16-month-old Landon Cole Barnes, were found Wednesday afternoon at a friend’s house in Memphis.

The sheriff’s office said the mother was taken to a hospital. The child and the mother’s vehicle were handed over to the TBI Memphis and the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office.

Mother who disappeared with child found in Memphis

— Associated Press

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6A • Thursday, March 28, 2013 • The Paducah Sun Nation paducahsun.com

WASHINGTON — Con-cluding two days of in-tense debate, the Supreme Court signaled Wednes-day it could give a boost to same-sex marriage by striking down the federal law that denies legally married gay spouses a wide range of benefi ts of-fered to other couples.

As the court wrapped up its remarkable argu-ments over gay marriage in America, a majority of the justices indicated they will invalidate part of the federal Defense of Mar-riage Act — if they can get past procedural problems similar to those that ap-peared to mark Tuesday’s case over California’s ban

on same-sex marriage.Since the federal law

was enacted in 1996, nine states and the District of Columbia have made it le-gal for gays and lesbians to marry. Same-sex unions also were legal in Califor-nia for nearly fi ve months in 2008 before the Propo-sition 8 ban.

Justice Anthony Ken-nedy, often the decisive vote in close cases, joined the four more-liberal jus-tices in raising questions Wednesday about a provi-sion that defi nes marriage as the union of a man and a woman for purposes of federal law.

It affects more than 1,100 statutes in which marital status is relevant, dealing with tax breaks for

married couples, Social Security survivor benefi ts and, for federal employ-ees, health insurance and leave to care for spouses.

Kennedy said the De-fense of Marriage Act ap-pears to intrude on the power of states that have chosen to recognize same-sex marriages.

When so many fed-eral statutes are affected, “which in our society means that the federal government is intertwined with the citizens’ day-to-day life, you are at real risk of running in confl ict with what has always been thought to be the essence of the state police power, which is to regulate mar-riage, divorce, custody,” Kennedy said.

Justices question law that denies gay couples benefits

BY MARK SHERMANAssociated Press

Associated Press

Allan Hoyle of North Carolina, with the large white sign (center), speaks out against gay marriage Wednesday across from the street from the Supreme Court in Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the second day of gay marriage cases, turned Wednesday to a constitutional challenge to the federal law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples.

PHOENIX — Almost ev-eryone who crossed paths with Jared Loughner in the year before he shot former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords described a man who was becoming more unhinged and delusional by the day.

He got fi red from a cloth-ing store and thrown out of college, shaved his head and got tattoos of bullets and a gun on his shoul-der. He showed up at the apartment of a boyhood friend with a Glock 9 mm pistol, saying he needed it for “home protection.” He made dark comments about the government, and, according to one acquain-tance, appeared suicidal.

His spiral into mad-ness hit bottom on Jan. 8, 2011. He broke down in tears when a wildlife agent pulled him over for a traffi c stop. He went to a gas sta-tion and asked the clerk to call a cab as he paced ner-vously around the store. Gazing up at the clock, he said, “Nine twenty-fi ve. I still got time.”

About 45 minutes later, Giffords lay bleeding on the sidewalk along with 11 oth-ers who were wounded. Six people were dead.

The information about Loughner’s mental state — and the fact that no one did much to get him help — emerged as a key theme in roughly 2,700 pages of in-vestigative papers released Wednesday.

Still, there was nothing to

indicate exactly why he tar-geted Giffords.

The fi les also provid-ed the fi rst glimpse into Loughner’s family and a look at parents dealing with a son who had grown nearly impossible to com-municate with.

“I tried to talk to him. But you can’t. He wouldn’t let you,” his father, Ran-dy Loughner, told police. “Lost, lost and just didn’t want to communicate with me no more.”

His mother, Amy Lough-ner, recalled hearing her son alone in his room “hav-ing conversations” as if someone else were there.

Despite recommenda-tions from offi cials at Pima Community College, which expelled Loughner, that he undergo a mental evalua-tion, his parents never fol-lowed up.

In a statement released

by the gun control advocacy group she started with her husband, Giffords said that “no one piece of legislation” would have prevented the Tucson shooting.

“However, I hope that commonsense policies like universal background checks become part of our history, just like the Tucson shootings are — our com-munities will be safer be-cause of it.”

While such checks may keep those with mental illnesses from obtain-ing guns, the 24-year-old Loughner had never been diagnosed with any con-ditions, meaning nothing would have stopped from purchasing a weapon.

Friends and family inter-viewed by law enforcement after the shooting painted a picture of a young man who was deeply troubled in the weeks before the shooting.

Newly released records provide new look at 2011 shooting spreeBY BRIAN SKOLOFF AND

JACQUES BILLEAUDAssociated Press

Associated Press

Jared Loughner pleaded guilty in the 2011 Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that killed six people and left several others wounded, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Gif-fords. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investi-gation of the shooting were released Wednesday.

NEW YORK — A huge international effort involv-ing more than 100 institu-tions and genetic tests on 200,000 people has uncov-ered dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal further a person’s risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, scientists reported Wednesday.

It’s the latest mega-col-laboration to learn more about the intricate mecha-nisms that lead to cancer. And while the headway seems signifi cant in many ways, the potential payoff for ordinary people is most-ly this: Someday there may be genetic tests that help identify women with the most to gain from mammo-grams, and men who could benefi t most from PSA tests and prostate biopsies.

And perhaps farther in the future these genetic clues might lead to new

treatments.“This adds another piece

to the puzzle,” said Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research U.K., the charity that funded much of the research.

One analysis suggests that among men whose family history gives them roughly a 20 percent lifetime risk for prostate cancer, such ge-netic markers could identify those whose real risk is 60 percent.

The markers also could make a difference for wom-en with BRCA gene muta-tions, which puts them at high risk for breast cancer. Researchers may be able to separate those whose life-time risk exceeds 80 percent from women whose risk is about 20 to 50 percent. One doctor said that might mean some women would choose to monitor for cancer rather than taking the drastic step of having healthy breasts removed.

Scientists have found risk markers for the three dis-eases before, but the new trove doubles the known list, said one author, Doug-las Easton of Cambridge University. The discoveries also reveal clues about the biological underpinnings of these cancers, which may pay off someday in better therapies, he said.

Specialists not connected with the work said it was encouraging but that more research is needed to see how useful it would be for guiding patient care. One suggested that using a gene test along with PSA test-ing and other factors might help determine which men have enough risk of a life-threatening prostate can-cer that they should get a biopsy. Many prostate can-cers found early are slow-growing and won’t be fatal, but there is no way to differ-entiate and many men have surgery they may not need.

Scientists find new markers for cancer riskBY MALCOLM RITTER

Associated Press

Nation Briefs

WATERLOO, Iowa — Supporters of an inmate serving life in prison for a 1974 murder urged Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad on Wednesday to commute the sentence so he can be released, while the victim’s relatives said they had forgiven him.

The statements, given during an unusual public hearing called by the governor, ap-peared to add momentum to 66-year-old Rasberry Williams’ bid to have his sen-tence changed to a fixed term so he can be released on parole after 38 years in prison.

The Iowa Board of Parole recommended last month that Branstad commute Wil-liams’ sentence, saying he has been a model inmate who has mentored scores of young offenders and students, got an education while behind bars, and once in-tervened in a hostage situation to save the lives of two prison guards. The judge who presided over his 1975 trial and the pros-ecutor who convicted him have also sup-ported Williams’ commutation application.

Iowa governor asked to reduce life sentence of convicted killer

— Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama pressed for swift action on a sweeping immigration bill Wednesday, saying last-minute obstacles are “resolv-able” and predicting Congress could pass historic legislation by the end of the summer.

In back-to-back interviews with Spanish-language television networks, Obama repeatedly voiced confidence in a bipartisan Senate group that appears to be on the cusp of unveiling a draft bill.

And he said that while he is still pre-pared to step in with his own bill if talks break down, he doesn’t expect that step to be necessary.

“If we have a bill introduced at the beginning of next month as these sena-tors indicate it will be, then I’m confident that we can get it done certainly before the end of the summer,” Obama told Tel-emundo.

Obama: Immigration bill could pass in Congress by summer

— Associated Press

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SEOUL, South Korea — Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul on Wednesday, saying there was no need to con-tinue military communi-cations between the coun-tries in a situation “where a war may break out at any moment.”

The hotline — a dedicat-ed telephone link between the two militaries — was used mainly to arrange for South Koreans who work at an industrial complex in the North to cross the heavily armed border. When the connection was last severed in 2009, some workers were stranded in the North.

Normal direct telephone

communications do not exist between the two countries.

The shutdown of the ho-tline is the latest of many threats and provocative actions from North Ko-rea, which is angry over U.S.-South Korean mili-

tary drills and recent U.N. sanctions punishing it for its Feb. 12 nuclear test.

A senior North Korean military offi cial informed the South that all regu-lar military dialogue and communications chan-nels would remain cut

until South Korea halts its “hostile acts” against the North.

North Korea recently also cut a Red Cross hot-line with South Korea and another with the U.S.-led U.N. command at the bor-der between the Koreas.

North Korea cuts military hotlineBY HYUNG-JIN KIM

Associated Press

Associated Press

A South Korean army K1 tank fires live rounds Wednesday during an exercise at Seungjin Fire Training Field in mountainous Pocheon, South Korea. North Korea said Wednesday that it had cut off a key military hotline with South Korea that al-lows cross border travel to a jointly run industrial complex in the North.

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Banks in Cyprus are to open for the fi rst time in more than a week on Thursday, operating for six hours from noon, but restrictions will be in place on fi nancial transactions

to prevent people from draining their accounts.

Among the capital con-trols, cash withdrawals will be limited to $383 per person each day.

No checks will be cashed, although people will be able to deposit them in their accounts, according to a ministerial

decree that was released late Thursday.

The controls will be in place for four days.

Cyprus’s banks were closed on March 16 as politicians scrambled to come up with a plan to raise $7.5 billion so the country would qualify for $12.9 billion in much-

needed bailout loans for its collapsed banking sec-tor.

The deal was fi nally reached in Brussels early Monday, and imposes se-vere losses on deposits of over 100,000 euros in the country’s two largest banks, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus.

Restrictions cap cash withdrawals in Cyprus banksBY MENELAOS HADJICOSTISAssociated Press

AMMAN, Jordan — Mid-east powers opposed to President Bashar Assad have dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syr-ian rebels in coordination with the U.S. in preparation for a push on the capital of Damascus, offi cials and Western military observers said Wednesday.

A carefully prepared co-vert operation is arming reb-els, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a senior Arab offi cial whose government is participating. His account was corroborated by a dip-lomat and two military ex-perts.

The Arab offi cial said the

number of arms airlifts has doubled in the past four weeks. He did not provide exact fi gures on the fl ights or the size of the cargo. Jor-dan opened up as a new route for the weapons late last year, amid U.S. worries that arms from Turkey were going to Islamic militants, all four told The Associated Press in separate interviews. Jordan denies helping fun-nel weapons to the rebels.

The two military analysts, who closely follow the traf-fi c, said the weapons in-clude more powerful, Cro-atian-made anti-tank guns and rockets than the rebels have had before.

The Arab offi cial said there was a “master plan” for the rebels to seize Da-mascus. He and the diplo-mat spoke to the AP on con-dition that their identities and their nationalities not be disclosed because the op-eration was covert.

Officials: Shipments of weapons to Syrian rebels rising sharply

BY DALE GAVLAK AND JAMAL HALABYAssociated Press

Associated Press

Syrian rebels listen to their trainer on how to use a rocket propelled grenade Dec. 17 in Maaret Ikhwan, near Idlib, Syria. America’s Arab allies have dramatically stepped up weapon supplies to Syrian rebels in prepara-tion for a push on the capital Damascus.

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