Cruise ship briefly seized in Texas

GALVESTON, Texas —U.S. marshals briefly seized a cruise ship in Texas as part of a $10 million lawsuit related to the fatal Italian cruise ship wreck.

The Carnival Cruise Lines ship was seized for several hours Saturday while docked in Galveston, where it was scheduled to leave with 2,700 passengers. Attorneys later reached a deal releasing the ship.

A Texas judge had ordered the seizure to secure the plaintiff's claims against Carnival Corp., the Miami-based parent of the Italian cruise line whose ship crashed in January. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a German citizen who died in the wreck. - http://goo.gl/J8DWS

Nominations being sought for awards

MT. VERNON - The American Heart Association and Peoples National Bank are seeking nominations for Lifestyle Change Awards.

The awards are to be given to individuals who have taken control of their health in areas such as weight loss, exercise habits, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and stress management, information states.

The nominees and winners will be recognized at the American Heart Association's South Central Illinois Heart Walk on April 14 at Veterans Park, information states.

The Lifestyle Change Awards are being nominated across the country in conjunction with the Heart Walk, said Beth Walker of the American Heart Association.

She said anyone who has made a change in their life to better their cardiovascular health can be nominated.

Winners from the past three years of the awards program have taken such steps as joining Weight Watchers, Walker said.

"Peoples National Bank is proud to be partnering with the American  Heart Association on this project," said Hunt Bonan, Peoples National Bank president in a press release. "We hope that there are many nominated for us to recognize at the Heart Walk. Making healthy lifestyle changes is something we want to encourage our employees, customers and community to do."

To nominate an individual for a Lifestyle Change Award, log onto www.southcentralilheartwalk.og and download the nomination form from the front page of the Heart Walk website. Area residents may also pick up nomination forms from any Peoples National Bank locations throughout the region. All applications are due by March 31.

The Heart Walk in Mt. Vernon is sponsored locally by St. Mary's Good Samaritan, and endeavors to raise more than $115,000 for heart disease and stroke research, information states. Companies, groups and individuals interested in participating can sign up at www.southcentralilheartwalk.org or call the American Heart Association at 983-3234.

"The Heart Walk is the signature fundraising event for the American Heart Association in the region," information states. "Participants are encouraged to collect donations on behalf of the American Heart Association. Attendance is free. The event starts at 8 a.m. with registration, education and booth activities. Opening ceremonies start at 9 a.m., and the 2 mile walk begins at 9:30 a.m. with closing ceremonies following." » http://goo.gl/m52eB

14 people shot outside Miami funeral home

MIAMI -- Fourteen people have been shot and two are dead after authorities say gunmen opened fire outside a Miami funeral home.

The Miami-Dade Police Department says shots were fired Friday as services were taking place at the Funeraria Latina Emanuel.

One person died at the scene and another after being transported to a nearby hospital. The injured include a five-year-old girl.

The Miami Herald reports the shots are believed to have come from at least one gunman who drove by the funeral home in a vehicle and began shooting at the crowd.

Witnesses told the newspaper the funeral was being held for 22-year-old Marvin Andre, who was killed in another shooting.
   http://goo.gl/dP2do

Plans for new festival in the works

MT. VERNON - Spring has barely sprung, but the Mt. Vernon Fall Fest committee is well into planning the new festival for October.

"We had about 25 people attend our first planning meeting," said Mt. Vernon Fest Executive Director Bonnie Jerdon. "It was very encouraging."

The Mt. Vernon Fest will be held Oct. 19 through 21, and has obtained its non-profit status. The board for the fest include Chairman Todd Piper, Jerdon, Cyndy Mitchell, Vice Chairman Hank Villani, Chris Collins, Derrick Quitsch, Diane Morris, Debbie Greene, Wes Plummer, Dante Moore and Marcus Holland. There are still seats available on the board as well. In addition, more community members have stepped forward to help with planning of the event, working in the marketing committee, entertainment committee, operations committee and vendor committee. Piper, Jerdon and Villani sit on all committees.

Preliminary plans are calling for live entertainment on the main stage, a beer tent and carnival on Friday, Oct. 19; live entertainment on the main stage, a beer tent, vendors marketplace, chili cookoff, parade, kid's area, carnival, the DMDC car show and the Fall Fest Run on Saturday, Oct. 20.

"This year we are planning events on Sunday for the first time," Jerdon added. Events planned at this time are live entertainment on the main stage, vendors marketplace, kid's area and carnival.

"We're moving things back to the Ninth Street corridor," Jerdon said. "DMDC has also decided to hold their car show during the festival along that area. Having the events along Ninth Street seems to work our best and it's what our participants want."

"We are proposing to change the parade route," Jerdon said. "The parade would start at the library, go up Main Street, turn on 10th Street and go south to Jordan Street and back up towards the high school."

In addition, the main stage and reviewing stand would be at the intersection of Jordan and Ninth streets.

"That's where the bands and entertainment will be," Jerdon said. "We've done the parade the same route for many, many years. We want to change it a bit."

Anyone who would like to learn more about the fest and volunteer opportunities may contact Jerdon at 242-3151 or by email at tourism@mvn.net. - http://goo.gl/ctyDE

Chamber of Commerce holds banquet

MT. VERNON - The Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce celebrated a record-breaking year and honored members of the community during its annual banquet on Friday.

"We brought in over 40 new members this year," Chamber Executive Director Brandon Bollard reported.

In addition, Bullard unveiled a new Chamber website.

"This is the official unveiling of our newly designed website, at www.southernillinois.com," Bullard said. "This is the Rolls Royce of Chamber sites."

The new site will be more member and user-friendly, described as "streamlined" for member-to-member communication.

Bullard also announced a newsletter will be going online in the near future, and starting in January 2013, a new billing system will be used for members.

"And, we've put prayer back in our board meetings," Bullard concluded, as members of the Chamber applauded. "Lord knows we need the help."

According to outgoing Chamber President Brett Hall, a more efficient office will be the result of the new billing structure, as well as a better budget. Hall said in the past, the board determines a budget based on what it thinks it will receive. Under the new system, all members will be billed at the same time instead of at various times throughout the year.

"Starting this time next year, we will have the money and an actual budget for it," Hall said.

Hall also noted the record breaking year, with more ribbon cuttings, more participants in the Leadership Academy, more classroom grant awards, more member-to-member sponsors and the new Momentum Summit with leaders at the state, regional and local level participating.

The Chamber also took the opportunity to honor its selected Students of the Year and Rend Lake College Scholarship recipient — Hannah Herzing of Waltonville High School, Kathryn Thomas of Woodlawn High School and Christian Hollenkamp of Woodlawn High School.

Other honorees included Sarah Beard — Ambassador of the Year; the Citizen of the Year — the Rev. Rob Dyer; Small Business Person of the Year — Jim Czerwinski of Magnum Steel; and the President's Award honoree — Continental Tire the Americas.

Hall passed the gavel to the new Chamber president, Kay Zibby and retiring vice presidents and board members were introduced. Retiring vice presidents are Lynn Hutchison, Ambassadors; Zibby, from Educational Clearinghouse Committee; Tom Upchurch from Internal Affairs; Ed Cunningham from Past Presidents; David Keen from Small Business Council and Chris Bernard from the Special Events.
   http://goo.gl/MTSuL

New Illinois law would outlaw having sex with a corpse

SPRINGFIELD - Necrophilia is not illegal in Illinois. Not yet.

A measure outlawing fornication with a corpse, along with banning the unauthorized movement of a corpse, passed the Illinois House, 114-0, Wednesday.

"It's all out of respect for the deceased," said state Rep. Daniel
Beiser, D-Alton, who is sponsoring the legislation.

State laws don't specially address the issue of sex with a corpse, and
prosecutors have resorted to charging suspects with criminal damage to property.

"When you think of that you think of someone going throw a neighborhood and breaking a mailbox or something similar, Beiser said. "We obviously
understand that isn't adequate, that anybody who abuses or mishandles a deceased just demeans the meaning of that person's life. "

If the measure becomes law, sex with a corpse would result in a Class 2 felony, with punishment ranging from probation to seven years in prison. Anyone caught moving a corpse would be face a Class 4 felony, with punishment ranging from probation to three years in jail.

The legislation stems from investigations that found corpses had been moved.

"People were trying to cover up a crime scene and avoid prosecution by actually physically moving the deceased from one spot to another," Beiser said.
   http://goo.gl/AhMh3

Council budgets for cost of demolition

MT. VERNON - Demolishing dilapidated structures is becoming a priority with the City Council as it works on budgeting costs for demolition into the 2012-13 budget.

"We have 30 to 50 properties in the pipeline at this point," City Manager Ron Neibert said. "We'll be carrying over some demolitions scheduled from this fiscal year into next year."

During a budget session on Monday, councilmen David Wood and Dennis McEnaney both expressed a wish to revisit the amount budgeted for demolitions, stating all council members had been receiving calls about wanting to clean up neighborhoods.

The council budgeted $118,000 this fiscal year for demolition of dangerous and dilapidated structures, and $50,000 of the funds will be carried over into the next fiscal year, which begins on May 1. For the previous year, $100,000 was budgeted, going up from $50,000 in the year before that. At this time, $120,000 is being budgeted for demolition in the 2012-13 budget, for a total of $170,000 with the carry-over from this year.

Council members decided to keep the $120,000 in the budget at this time for demolition, however, monies from capital improvements may be used to increase the demolitions to alleviate the back log of properties - a decision that won't be made until the capital projects budget for the next fiscal year is presented for review.
http://goo.gl/npELO

Newspaper finds suspicious test scores nationwide

ATLANTA - An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows that hundreds of school systems nationwide exhibit suspicious test scores pointing to the possibility of cheating.

The newspaper (http://bit.ly/GNrxOW) examined results on standardized achievement tests for 70,000 public schools. It uncovered high concentrations of suspect scores in school systems from coast to coast.

The analysis doesn't prove cheating. It reveals that scores in hundreds of cities followed a pattern that, in Atlanta, indicated cheating in multiple schools.
    http://bit.ly/GJUPcA

Hike to ancient stone walls Saturday

Carrier Mills-Stonefort High School history teacher Mark Motsinger is
leading a hike Saturday for the River to River Trail Society to three
ancient stone walls in the area.

Everyone is welcome to meet the group 10 a.m. for the "Indian Wall Hike" at Shawnee Mart on state Route 145 in Eddyville and will travel as a caravan. The first stop is the wall at War Bluff in Pope County, then to Millstone Knob in Johnson County and to Stonefort Bluff in Saline County -- the wall from which the village of Stonefort derived its name.

The walls in Southern Illinois have been a mystery to many and a
fascination to Motsinger all his life.

"We know there are at least 10 walls (in Southern Illinois) and there could be others," Motsinger said.

Some, like War Bluff are very apparent and others, like the one at
Millstone Knob, was dismantled and likely used to build other structures at the later American Indian site of Millstone village.

There are other stone walls such as Fort Mountain in Georgia and Hill Fort in Ohio known to have been used as fortifications, but Motsinger and archeologists doubt the stone structures in Illinois served a protective purpose.

"These are ancient walls we have no explanation for," Motsinger said.

They would not have been large enough to protect from attacking humans. More recent walls were built by settlers in the shapes of funnels upon bluffs as though they were used to drive animals over.

The old Southern Illinois walls more likely served a spiritual purpose.

"The general thing now is they were delineated spaces for ceremonial purposes," Motsinger said.

The walls obviously were laborious to build, as would have been other
ceremonial sites throughout the world such as at Medicine Wheel, Wyo., and Stonehenge.

While these walls are no Stonehenge in their scale, they are special places to Motsinger.

"What started the whole thing out was when I was a little kid my dad
took me to Stonefort Bluff. In my mind I thought I was going to see Fort Apache," Motsinger said.

While his imagination had built the wall up larger than what turned out
to be reality, that exposure began a lifetime of researching walls
throughout the midwest that Motsinger intends to present in a book.

The rest of the spring hiking schedule -- with all hikes starting at 10 a.m. unless otherwise noted -- is:

- March 31 -- Herod Bluff and Benham Ridge area led by Eric Johnson. Meet at Herod Post Office on state Route 34.
- April 7 -- Dixon Springs to Lake Glendale led by Bill Gilmour. Meet at the boat ramp parking lot at Lake Glendale, state Route 145 south of Eddyville.
- April 14 -- Cove Hollow lower trail and Cedar Lake led by Anne Gaylord and Don Monte. Meet at the boat ramp parking lot on Boat Ramp Road at Cedar Lake. Take state Route 127 south from Old Route 13 in Murphysboro
8.7 miles to Ramp Road and go east 1.4 miles.
- April 15 -- Work Day on River to River Trail, Camp Cadiz area with
Shawnee National Forest trail crew, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Late arrivals
are welcome, no tools needed, bring water bottles, lunch, sturdy shoes, long pants, long sleeve shirt and gloves. Meet at Camp Cadiz Campground off of Karbers Ridge Road 3 miles west of state Route 1.

- April 21 -- Max Creek Loop "The Vortex" led by Brian DeNeal. Meet at New Simpson Hill School at Tunnel Hill on U.S. Route 45.

- April 28 -- Williams Hill and Sally Hollow led by Brian DeNeal.
Meeting spot to be announced.

- June 2 -- National Trails Day, time and place to be announced.
   http://goo.gl/q2Zk8

Tornado kills one, injures two in Jefferson County

MT. VERNON — One person died and two were injured after a tornado touched down in Jefferson County.

Pat Brown, 60, of 18079 E. Lynchberg Rd., died from injuries sustained during the tornado, said Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch.

He said two people were treated for contusions and bruising at the scene and were released. He declined to identify the two people who were injured.

Three houses on East Lynchberg Road about 3 miles north of Illinois Highway 142 were damaged, one leveled, Mulch said.

“A tornado struck three residences in the 19000 block of East Lynchberg Road,” Mulch said. “One house received very little damage on the outside, but because the wind blew out the windows, it is very badly damaged on the inside. One house was leveled, it’s just a pile of rubble.”

The structure that was destroyed was a double-wide mobile home. The ruins of the home are spread across the street from where it sat, next to a greenhouse that was also destroyed.

Mulch said the tornado on Lynchberg Road was seen by trained storm spotters and local law enforcement. He said two Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies had spotted the storm and were working to track its progress, but they did not see it hit the most-damaged area on East Lynchberg Road.

He said Friday afternoon’s storm approached from the south-southwest and headed north-northeast.

The tornado destroyed the double-wide mobile home and damaged part of a garage structure on the property, but left an Amish school yards away undamaged.

School was in session, Mulch said, while the tornado passed by.

Henry Mast, 6, was one of the students in class who watched the tornado as it moved nearby.

“I saw it, but I didn’t know what it is,” he said, adding that he was frightened.

Friends, family and neighbors worked on Friday to remove valuables and keepsakes from the remnants of the home before night fell.

There was a tornado warning for southeastern Jefferson County until 1:30 p.m. according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky. According to the NWS, at 12:46 p.m., local law enforcement reported a tornado near DuQuoin, moving northeast at 25 miles per hour. There were numerous reports of tornado touch downs and funnel clouds with this storm, which moved northeast into Jefferson County.

Mulch said cells popped up across the county, causing rotation and funnel cloud sightings in several areas.

There was also a severe thunderstorm warning for Jefferson County and the Mt. Vernon area. A severe thunderstorm watch continued until 7 p.m.

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