The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/947382
B-8 Opinion Wednesday, Februar y 28, 2018 The Press-Dispatch Court Report CRIMINAL Pike Circuit Court Steven McRoberts charged with count I possession of methamphet- amine, a level 6 felony, count II main- taining a common nuisance, controlled substances, count III possession of a controlled substance, count IV posses- sion of marijuana and count V posses- sion of paraphernalia. Colt Nall charged with count I pos- session of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony, count II maintaining a common nuisance, controlled substances, count III possession of marijuana, count IV possession of paraphernalia, and count V operating a motor vehicle without ev- er receiving a license. Search warrant. Special investigation/investigation subpoena. CIVIL Pike Circuit Court Capital One Bank sues Drew Smith on complaint. Capital One Bank sues Samantha R. Masters aka Samantha Ingle on com- plaint. Douglas M. McCormick sues Holly M. McCormick for dissolution of mar- riage. Jerame S. Bass sues Alisha A. Bass for dissolution of marriage. Jesse Lee Nicholson sues Grace C. Nicholson for dissolution of marriage. Tommy T. Woolsey sues Kendra E. Woolsey for dissolution of marriage. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike Circuit Court Kenneth Eugene Hornby charged with driving while suspended. Marvin L. Goodrid charged with op- erating a vehicle while intoxicated. Trey A. Welton charged with oper- ating a vehicle with an ACE of .08 or more. Joseph Jones, Jr. charged with driv- ing while suspended. Michael Stephens charged with driving while suspended. SMALL CLAIMS Pike Circuit Court Personal Finance Company sues Phillip Sisk and Darlene Sisk on com- plaint. Mark Hildebrand sues Luke Ward on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike Circuit Court Abdullah Almuslim charged with driving while suspended. Marcus Armes charged with speeding, 78 mph in a 55 zone. Amelia Bosse charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Madelyn Fischer charged with speeding, 70 mph in a 55 zone. Jesse Gehlhausen charged with speeding, 69 mph in a 55 zone. Destiny Hancock charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Warren Hibdon charged withspeeding, 64 mph in a 55 zone. Ashley Holeman charged with seatbelt violation. Austin Hollis charged with speeding, 100 mph in a 70 zone. Daveyiale Howard charged with speeding, 69 mph in a 55 zone. JN Jean Louis charged with no valid driver's license. Kristopher Kuebler charged with speeding, 65 mph in a 55 zone. Brandon Loftin charged with speeding, 98 mph in a 70 zone. Agustin Mandujano charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Lori Mattingly charged with seatbelt violation. Noah McCain charged with seatbelt violation. Christopher Miller charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Noah Onyett charged with seatbelt violation. Spencer Ridge charged with unsafe start. Warren Riker III charged with seatbelt violation. Jessica Sommers charged with speeding, 100 mph in a 70 zone. Katie Stemply charged with speeding, 75 mph in a 55 zone. Caleb Stiles charged with speeding, 64 mph in a 55 zone. Alexus Townsend charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Corey White charged with seatbelt violation. Danny Whitehouse charged with seatbelt violation. Brooke Dean charged with speeding, 88 mph in a 70 zone. Michelle Duncan charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Clayton Eads charged with speeding, 86 mph in a 70 zone. Miranda Gale charged with speeding, 87 mph in a 70 zone. Melissa Haxton charged with speeding, 90 mph in a 70 zone. Stephon Holland charged with speeding, 95 mph in a 70 zone. Brandon Kalb charged with disregarding stop sign. Jeffrey Lengacher charged with speeding, 86 mph in a 70 zone. Bailie Mittman charged with speeding, 85 mph in a 70 zone. Pembroke Moreland charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. John Perkins III charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Caitlin Pierson charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Sean Poselwait charged with seatbelt violation. Philip Rasberry charged with speeding, 85 mph in a 70 zone. Kelly Schnarr charged with speeding, 82 mph in a 70 zone. Schreka Simpson charged with speeding, 87 mph in a 70 zone. Continued from page 6 TARIFFS Continued from page 6 MURDER Behavioral scientists are suggesting one cause of the increase in violent behavior in youths is the use of psychoactive drugs. This claim comes from the fact that a number of youths who became violent had been given antidepres- sants and other mood alter- ing drugs. However, thus far sci- ence has failed to discover what makes a person turn killer. I suspect the experts are looking in the wrong di- rection. They should look inward to the spiritual es- sence of man, but that was rejected long ago. Science and humanism rejects the potential evil that lurks within all of us by the very fact that we are human. The prophet Jerimiah wrote over 25 centuries ago, "The heart is deceit- ful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? " The heart is the drive of life. Jesus spoke of it in Matthew's gospel: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adul- tery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slan- der. The apostle Paul sum- marized humanity's plight in his letter to the Romans: "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing…Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me." Murder is about attack- ing God. In the book of Genesis, we read of Cain who was angry with God, and jealous of his brother Able for whom God had re- spect. God warned Cain that sin [evil] was about to overcome him: "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." Cain rejected the admo- nition and gave into the im- pulse of sin and "attacked his brother Abel and killed him." Humanity has been told why there is violence, may- hem, and murder—sin; and at the same time has been given an antidote. The antidote is Christ Jesus, who came to break the bondage of sin upon humanity and give ever- lasting life. But alas, science and our leaders keep looking in the wrong place demanding we control, ban, outlaw, con- fiscate, or lock up "some- thing" that can be identi- fied as the cause. Sadly, they still fail to look inward where the evil resides. Think about it! Continued from page 6 EVIL the U.S. Some things, mean- while, have stayed the same (unfortunately). When NAF TA was first negotiated, U.S. energy ex- ports to Mexico were virtu- ally prohibited because the market there is controlled by a government monopo- ly known as Pemex. Those restrictions are still in place. Why? Because this antiquated agreement must be updated. Speaking of technolog- ical advances, I have a friend in New Mexico who uses fracking technology to extract oil from deep wells. But he has to flare off the resulting gas from this process — gas that he could have piped and sold in Mexico. But NAF TA doesn't permit it. Why? In short, there is distinct room for improvement as NAF TA is renegotiated. The administration is ab- solutely right to play hard- ball and work to ensure that NAF TA is improved. A pull-out, however, would be a serious mis- take, one that would touch off severe economic rip- ples. "Let's hope all the recent saber-rattling on trade by the Trump admin- istration has been just the old trade negotiation tactic of 'jawboning' to get a bet- ter deal," writes trade ex- pert James Roberts. Nobody wins a trade war. We help ourselves and each other when we stand foursquare for freedom. It's time to trash the tar- iffs and update the "rules of the road" for all con- cerned. Ed Feulner is founder of The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org). QUESTIONS Continued from page 6 but seems like everyone kept their ci- vility. In my simple way of thinking, I begin to wonder about the following things. Example, why is it that the crazed as- sassins belong to the male specie only? I don't seem to remember if there has been any female perpetrator of these horrible murders via mass shootings. Another question that was not clearly answered: why do gun shops sell as- sault rifles to civilians? Especially beginning at 18 years of age. These rifles main purpose is to kill as many as possible, but mainly in the battlefield of war. Some gun en- thusiasts relate they buy these types of guns because it is a nice addition to their collection of arms. Another question: in countries where we hard- ly hear mass killings by crazed mur- derers, how do they screen people who buy guns of any kind? I heard in countries like Japan, it takes months to be given a permit to purchase a firearm. In Canada where I lived for a few years, and this was in the seventies, the police are quite in- volved in questioning people who pur- chase guns, especially handguns. I even heard the police officers visit the applicant who wants to buy a hand- gun at his or her home. In Switzerland where the civilian population is permit- ted to keep rifles for the purpose of na- tional defense, how do the authorities screen who may not keep arms in their homes? There are a thousand questions about this matter but I think there is a way to find out how other nations who appear to have very little problem with gun ownership keep their population safe. It's not rocket science for our bod- ies of law enforcers to get together and analyze this matter. And then come up with some great solutions for tough- er gun laws. • • • Here's from the standpoint of cul- ture. As far as I can remember even as a child, the movies that came from this country were very well patronized if the theme was about cowboys and Indians, if it's about heroics of war, James Bond Movies, etc. In the later years, more movies began to be about violence and killings, plus profane lan- guage. The depictions of killings be- came more graphic, if you know what I mean. Now, you feed several generations with these violent behaviors in every creative way you can, and there will be vulnerable broken beings who will be- gin to think violence is indeed accept- able and somewhat glorious. Thank you Hollywood. Or Helly- wood. Gone are the days when you can watch uplifting movies that show the goodness of life. In fairness though, I think there are still a few good movies produced the past few years that are in- spiring and uplifting, but they are few. It is harder to find movies with G rat- ings. Many movies now show PG, R, or age restrictions ratings. I have not even touched the topic of video games that glorify shooting and killings. Just visit places with video games and there are many machines for young kids that have toy pistols and rifles. Why oh why. My oh my. Must we wonder then that we are in this state of scare and mis- ery? • • • A quote from Mother Teresa: "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." jects. How different would history have been if those Jews had a credible capac- ity to resist and deter Na- zi thuggery? There proba- bly would have been a fair- ly high level of street vio- lence, some heartbreaking innocent casualties, and chronic tension between Jews and gentiles. Nobody would have been grateful that a great geno- cide was averted, because we would have never heard of the Holocaust. Some would still call for disarm- ing the Jews every time a rival or innocent victim fell to Jewish gunfire. There were Jewish criminals and lunatics, after all, not just Nobel laureates and sym- phony composers. What if all Germans— Jew and gentile alike—had stood their ground against gun registration in 1928? The Nazis might still have come to power in 1933, but they would have faced ro- bust opposition when they took a radical turn toward totalitarianism in 1938. They would not have been able to intimidate and si- lence adult supervision from decent, sensible Ger- mans. The German opposi- tion would have been able to call the Nazis' bluff, and perhaps nip the Holocaust and a catastrophic Europe- an war in the bud. In 1968, Americans, grieving over the shooting deaths of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King that Spring, marched to the brink of gun registra- tion. Sen. Thomas Dodd proposed a gun control bill that closely resembled the Nazi gun laws. We know that he was aware of the German law, because the Library of Congress doc- umented its translation of Dodd's personal copy four months before he chaired the bill's Senate hearings. That copy was perhaps a souvenir of Dodd's 15 months in Nuremberg 20 years earlier, prosecut- ing Nazi war crimes. Sen. John Dingell eventual- ly persuaded the commit- tee to remove the gun reg- istration provisions from the bill. He angered fel- low Democrats by point- ing out the German expe- rience with gun registra- tion, but he prevailed. An anguished friend posted on social media last week that he has tired of gun rights. Something has to be done to prevent future school shootings, he wrote, no matter the cost. He's a very good man, one of the best. But the cost does mat- ter. What if it costs 18 lives to save 17 lives? What if it costs 6 million lives? I hope my grandchildren never have to look back on my generation as the one that relinquished our Con- stitutional right and ca- pacity to resist violent and genocidal tyranny. Some people can learn from history like Sen. Dingell. Some can't. Un- fortunately, the ones who don't learn from history can drag the rest of us in- to preventable tragedies along with them. Gun reg- istration is a really bad idea. Continued from page 6 CONTROL danced before his eyes. His mouth was full of something that tasted like tin. "Anyway, I needed you then... But I don't need you anymore. It was all very smart, though, you can rest assured of that." Therese patted David on the shoulder and began clearing the table, hum- ming over the sounds Da- vid was making. They had stopped by the time she'd finished washing the dish- es, and she went to bed smiling. It had been a spe- cial day. Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Investing in opportunity Included as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Trump in December, was an important new initiative called the Investing in Opportunity Act. The IIOA was a bipartisan initia- tive, sponsored by Republican Tim Scott and Democrat Cory Booker in the Senate, and Republican Pat Tiberi and Democrat Ron Kind in the House. It provides a major new platform for directing capital for business develop- ment into America's poorest commu- nities. This alone refutes claims from the political left that this tax bill was just for the wealthy. The concept was started in 2015 with the appearance of the Economic Inno- vation Group in Washington, D.C. It's a new initiative of a group of high-tech entrepreneurs — leaders from compa- nies like Facebook and Napster — to do nonpartisan work developing ideas to restore a dynamic American econo- my and bring vitality to the many parts of the country that are falling behind. The first major paper produced was co-authored by two economists — Jar- ed Bernstein, a Democrat, and Kev- in Hassett, then of the American En- terprise Institute and now chairman of President Trump's Council of Eco- nomic Advisors. The paper, titled "Unlocking Private Capital to Facilitate Economic Growth in Distressed Areas," laid the ground- work for the Investing in Opportuni- ty Act. Bernstein and Hassett wove togeth- er several key points. First, large parts of the country — the most distressed communities — are not participating in the econom- ic recovery. Poverty rates, unemploy- ment, income levels in these communities are far out of line with na- tional averages. The Economic Inno- vation Group has sur- veyed 26,000 ZIP codes nationwide, rating them according their state of economic well-being, and has published a Dis- tressed Community In- dex. The conclusion — 52.3 million Americans, 1 in 6, live in economical- ly distressed communities. Second, Bernstein and Hassett sur- veyed the various programs over the years designed to bolster business in- vestment in these communities and discussed why these programs have been disappointing. And third, they pointed out what appears to be an exciting opportu- nity. With the stock market surging since the beginning of the economic recovery in 2009, investors are holding around $2.3 trillion in unrealized cap- ital gains. Often, appreciated securi- ties are not sold because of the capital gains taxes due when the sale is made. Bernstein and Hassett's idea, which is now part of the IIOA, is to allow in- vestors to defer and receive reductions in the tax liabilities on this $2.3 trillion if the funds are invested in Opportuni- ty Zones — census tracts containing these most distressed communities. Governors have until March 22 to designate up to 25 percent of the most economically distressed census tracts in their state as Opportunity Zones. Opportunity Zone Funds will be estab- lished as the entities through which the investments are made in these distressed commu- nities. Final details of the IIOA will be worked out as the Treasury Department writes the rules defining how it all will work. But those whose lives are root- ed in these distressed com- munities should see this as an exciting opportunity and get involved to make the most of it. Many churches operate nonprofit community development corporations whose purpose is developing busi- nesses. Those operating these CDCs should be on top of emerging details of this program to see how they can at- tract investors into their communities. Furthermore, appreciated capital is not limited to the stock market. It's al- so in real estate. Specifically, commu- nity leaders should apply pressure on absentee landlords whose abandoned properties in these communities are places of blight and crime. This could be a golden opportunity for these prop- erties to be sold and the capital now tied up in blight can be redirected to productive economic development. Kudos to the Economic Innovation Group for pioneering this idea and to Senators Scott and Booker and Con- gressmen Tiberi and Kind for getting it in the tax bill. Star Parker is an author and presi- dent of CURE, Center for Urban Renew- al and Education. Contact her at www. urbancure.org.