The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1277609
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, August 12, 2020 B-11 collapse Court Report PANDEMIC Continued from page 10 CREDIT Continued from page 10 too, am slightly hooked on watching Youtube and Net- flix programs. They are not harmful if you carefully choose what you watch. One has to practice the balancing act of taking good nutrition, exercising, reading good books, connecting with family and friends, and being involved in worthwhile proj- ects that benefit Church and community. So, another week has gone, and another week will come. Let's do our best to make it worthwhile. School is about to start and the way it will be done is just so confusing to me, from what I read and hear. Difficult times indeed. Humor of the week: Due to COVID-19, we are asking rioters and looters to work from home and destroy their own property. And please don't forget to wear masks too. HISTORY JEKYLL Continued from page 10 Continued from page 10 making the internet rounds that raises naming issues. What about the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians? The New York Yankees might offend Southerners be- cause there is no team named for the Confederacy, Some people, particularly Catho- lics, might be offended by or deem it sacrilegious to have sports teams named the New Orleans Saints, the Los An- geles Angels or the San Di- ego Padres. Then what about team names that glorify sav- age barbarians and criminals who raped and pillaged such as Oakland Raiders, Minne- sota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Pittsburgh Pirates? The New York Gi- ants and the San Francis- co Giants might be promot- ing obesity and the Milwau- kee Brewers promoting alco- holism. There is another naming issue that needs resolution. I have been working 40 years at George Mason University. Despite his monumental con- tributions, such as our Bill of Rights, George Mason was a slave owner. Therefore, in keeping with the times, George Mason University is due for a name change. How about Al Sharpton Univer- sity, Jesse Jackson Univer- sity or Black Lives Matter University? Does objection to these names make one a racist? Walter E. Williams is a pro- fessor of economics at George Mason University. FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Eric D. Burkhart charged with count I intimidation, a level 5 felony, and count II domestic battery with bodily injury, per- son under 14, a level 5 felony. Eddie W. Brown charged with count I operating a motor vehicle after forfeiture of license for life, a level 5 felony, count II possession of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony, count III resisting law enforce- ment and count IV possession of para- phernalia. Eric Lance Carter charged with count I possession of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony, count II unlawful possession of syringe, a level 6 felony, count III operat- ing a vehicle while intoxicated, and count IV possession of paraphernalia. Ashley Dawn Sowder charged with count I possession of methamphet- amine, a level 6 felony, count II unlaw- ful possession of a syringe, a level 6 felo- ny, and count III maintaining a common nuisance - controlled substances, a lev- el 6 felony. George Edward Askren charged with count I operating a vehicle with a sched- ule I or II controlled substance or its me- tabolite in the body and count II operat- ing a vehicle while intoxicated, prior, a level 6 felony. Eric D. Burkhart charged with resist- ing law enforcement, a level 6 felony. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike County Circuit Court Demarkus Dobson charged with pos- session of marijuana. Aaron Gabrriel Shover charged with operating a vehicle with an ACE of at least .08 but less than .15. Jacob P. Dudenhoeffer charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Christopher Murray charged with pos- session of marijuana. Sasia J. Fehribach charged with pos- session of marijuana. Timothy Mikale Evans charged with count I contributing to the delinquency of a minor and count II possession of mar- ijuana. Ryan M. Collins charged with reck- less driving. Christy D. Lassiter charged with oper- ating a vehicle with an ACE of at least .08 but less than .15. James K. Leonard charged with driv- ing while suspended, prior. Terry E. Jones charged with domes- tic battery. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court Midland Credit Management, LLC sues Joseph Long on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Patri- cia Dulworth on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Korri Shoemaker on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Jake McDougall on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Angel- ica Merkley on complaint. Riley Nelson Fowler sues Ludy Salas Fowler for dissolution of marriage. SMALL CLAIMS Pike County Circuit Court Procol, Inc. sues Dakota Gutierrez and Lacie Gutierrez on complaint. Procol, Inc. sues Candace Newlin and Shawn Newlin on complaint. Procol, Inc. sues Josh Moore and Krys- tle Moore on complaint. Procol, Inc. sues Candice Walburn and Michael Walburn on complaint. Procol, Inc. sues Brittney Simmons and Jordan Simmons on complaint. Procol, Inc. sues Paul Rousey on com- plaint. Procol, Inc. sues Kyle Kaeck on com- plaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Robert Greer on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Shan- non L. Emanuele on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court In Seung Heo charged with workzone speeding, workers present. Jacob Paul Dudenhoeffer charged with count I failure to register and count II op- erating a motor vehicle without financial responsibility. Demarkus D. Dobson charged with no valid driver's license. Bryan R. McIntyre charged with op- erating a motor vehicle with a fictitious plate. Kenneth W. Bryant charged with disre- garding an official traffic control device. James R. Freihaut, Jr. charged with dis- regarding an official traffic control de- vice. Jordan D. Baker charged with disre- garding an official traffic control device. Diamond D. Hawthorne charged with no valid driver's license. Adam J. White charged with count I fol- lowing too closely and count II open al- coholic beverage container during oper- ation of a motor vehicle. Kevin L. Catt charged with speeding. Randall L. McClellan charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Melanie A. Hernandez charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Erin M. Chestnut charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Brandon Hawthorne charged with count I improper headlights and count II driving while suspended. Falicia D. Hayes charged with count I allowing unlicensed individual to operate vehicle on highway, and counts II and III seatbelt violations. Shelly K. Church charged with count I operating a motor vehicle without finan- cial responsibility, count II driving while suspended and count III disregarding stop sign. Clint B. Earley charged with boat equipment - USCG Type I, II, III or V float device per person required in boat. Letter to the Editor Government inefficiencies To the Editor: If you had a business and you had a satellite office for that business, and the following were the facts, what would you do? There is one employee in that office and the employee has three advisors. The purpose of the office is to manage a financial pass-through account to sup- port the needs of your sales force. You put $76,000 in the account. The cost to operate the office, including rent, wag- es, operating supplies and equipment is $72,000. The other $4,000 goes to sup- port my ten sales people and my busi- ness is not doing so well. I can shut the office and get all of the $76,000 to my sales support by myself or I can contin- ue business as usual. You are my advi- sor, what should I do? I have just described to you in sim- plicity the operation of the Washington Township Trustee Office. The following is another reason why your taxes are higher and only going up: The cost of administration in 2018 for the Washington Township Office was way out of line with normal busi- ness practices, including similar trust- ees in the county. The beginning ac- count balance was $432,159, equal to 10 years of expenses. If taxes collected were "0," the office could still operate for 10 years. Receipts for the year were over $100,628, almost two times year- ly expenses. The ending balance was $475,929. This leaves a balance equal to 12 years of expenses. Services to the public cost $11,800. The cost to admin- ister this $11,800 was $ 35,631, mostly wages, which were $ 32,000. The rest of the $ 35,621 was office expenses. Twelve thousand of this was paid to Boyd De- velopment for an office used part time. Total expenses for the office operations was $72,178, and $40,636 went into the bank. In simple terms, it costs the taxpay- er $ 3 for operating the office and pay- ing the trustee and the board of advi- sors, for every $1 going to the public. These services to the public were only 10 percent of receipts ($110,628 divid- ed by $11,800). The cost of administration for the Washington Township office in 2019 was only worse than 2018 at about $40,000, of which $29,188 was for wages. Total operating cost was $72,178. Another $12,000 was paid to Boyd Realty for rent for a very, very part-time office. There was also a cost for retirement benefits of $ 3,757.20. Did you know a very part- time job came with retirement benefits? The public received only $ 3,800 in assis- tance (3.5 percent of receipts), and the trustee and advisory board put $ 3,757 in their retirement accounts. 2020 only gets worse. The 2020 Wash- ington Township tax levy went up to 39 percent. The beginning balance was $ 366,141, nine times the yearly oper- ating expenses. The $12,000 rent will most likely be paid. If we only put $5,000 in an account for the treasurer to use to give to the poor, we could eliminate the costly township position all together. This budget has to be considered by the same council that approves other county spending, but in the years I sat in budget setting meetings, it was never discussed. Public records which I have will confirm this. Jim Johns Petersburg Unfortunately, legislators are on the verge of complete- ly squandering this hard- earned privilege. The rapid accumulation of debt even during times of strong economic growth, combined with unfunded li- abilities associated with pro- grams such as Social Se- curity, had America on a bad financial course before COVID-19 struck. With the double punch of dramatically increased fed- eral spending and lower tax revenue during the pandem- ic, the debt has risen from $23.5 trillion in mid-March to $26.5 trillion today. This means an additional $23,000 in debt per household in few- er than five months. These facts alone are only part of the reason why Fitch Ratings downgraded the fed- eral government's credit rat- ing. It also cites "the absence of a credible fiscal consolida- tion plan," meaning a lack of political effort toward reduc- ing the debt and unfunded li- abilities. Countless examples ex- ist of officials not taking our nation's finances seriously, from a lack of regular bud- geting to utterly irresponsi- ble spending proposals. Even the president's most recent budget, which envisions a path to stabilizing the debt, is not quite bold enough. The Federal Reserve cur- rently enables this explosion of spending by digitally cre- ating dollars and using those to purchase government bonds from the Treasury, which prevents the debt mar- ket from being overloaded. In under a year, the Federal Reserve has more than dou- bled the amount of U.S. gov- ernment debt it owns (print- ing money to buy debt), leap- ing from $2.1 trillion to $4.3 trillion, most of this coming during the COVID-19 crisis. This allows politicians to distribute large sums of money without immediate- ly raising taxes or overload- ing credit markets, a process that simply cannot go on for- ever. Future generations will bear the brunt of the conse- quences. We have little reason to worry about inflation to- day, but eventually the Fed- eral Reserve will have to re- verse those actions and sell the bonds back to the public, or else risk stoking inflation. What would happen at that point? Nobody really knows, but it could be a disaster. Since mid-March, the dollar has already lost 9 percent of its value relative to other cur- rencies. The bottom line: We will pay for this through the vis- ible burden of direct taxa- tion, the hidden tax of infla- tion, higher borrowing costs, or some combination of the three. The notion that Con- gress—or the Fed—simply will be able to fine-tune taxes and inflation without any con- sequences is a fantasy. It is time for our leaders to take the national debt se- riously. That means addressing benefit programs that are growing at an unsustainable rate, ensuring that the next COVID-19 relief package is targeted and affordable, and adopting policies that allow a return to robust economic growth. The current trend of more spending and more debt eventually will lead to Amer- ica's creditors demanding higher interest rates, which quickly would become a se- vere drag on the economy. The prosperity and opportu- nity we often take for grant- ed could become a thing of the past. America needs leadership on this emerging crisis. David Ditch is a budget and transportation associate in the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation. COLLAPSE Continued from page 10 been occurring in our nation is not occurring in a vacuum. Values are changing. For those who are worried about the situation, who want to see marriage and family strengthened again, the be- ginning must be awareness of the problem. To this end, the Joint Economic Commit- tee report provides an im- portant service to the nation. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renew- al and Education and au- thor of the new book "Nec- essary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why This is Good News for America." Readers can respond to Star's column by emailing star-parker@ur- bancure.org. something, bigger than he was to set him free. The book [Dr. Jekyll] is a tragedy because there is no salvation-no last minute de- liverance. But in the opening passag- es of John's gospel we find the prescription for overcom- ing our own Mr. Hyde, "But as many as received Christ, to them He gave power to be- come the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." The power needed to overcome sin that Dr. Jekyll sought, begins with the Cross. Think about it! Ian STamps, MD Neurology R e s p e c t f o r H u m a n D i g n i t y • C o m p a s s i o n a t e C a r i n g S t e w a r d s h i p • Q u a l i t y • J u s t i c e Ian Stamps, M.D. was recently appointed to the active medical staff at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center. Dr. Stamps received his medical degree and completed his residency at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. He also completed a fellowship in electromyography (EMG) at IU School of Medicine. Dr. Stamps is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, Indiana Neurological Society, American Academy of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine, and American Clinical Neurophysiology Society. Dr. Stamps' office is located at Memorial Neurology Associates' new location in the St. Thomas Medical Center, 600 W. 13th Street, Suite 205, Jasper. Appointments are being accepted with a physician's referral. For more information, please call Memorial Neurology Associates at (812) 996-7388.