Transcript

4.3.25 · The Mountain Eagle

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Speaker 1: Now we turn to the Mountain Eagle to read news
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from Whitesburg. Your reader today is Bill den Arsdale. We
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will begin with the addition dated April second, twenty twenty five,
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which the publishers have donated to RADIOI as a reminder.
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RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
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blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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read printed material. The first item is two photographs. The
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first is captioned a ninetieth Birthday Surprise. Five generations of
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Evedeen Brandham's family gathered to celebrate her ninetieth birthday Saturday.
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Family from Texas, Chicago, Florida, and all over Kentucky attended
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the event, held at the Shriners Building in Whitesburg on
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March twenty ninth. Evideen's mother was Flora or Wright, known
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by people on Pine Creek as Granny Wright and much
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loved by all. And the second photograph is captioned celebrating
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ninety years in style. While many people hope they are
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healthy enough at age ninety to ride on the back
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of a motorcycle, Evdene Branham of Making had no problem
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hopping aboard the bike operated by her grandson James Iisen
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at a party held this past Saturday in honor of
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her ninetieth birthday. The next story is County workers will
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get fifty cent per hour rais Lectra. County workers will
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get a fifty cent per hour raise beginning this weekend.
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The Fiscal Court voted five to one at a special
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called meeting to increase the pay for full and part
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time workers in every department of county government. The county's
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five magistrates had asked for raises for workers at the
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regular monthly meeting, and Judge Executive Terry Adams came back
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at the special meeting with a proposal to increase pay
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two percent now and another two percent after July first,
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when the new fiscal year begins. However, court members did
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not want to wait. Magistrate Kenny Anderson made a motion
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for a fifty cent raise now, and Magistrate deb Parker
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Colliers seconded it. Magistrate Jack Banks tried to strike a
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middle ground with a three percent rays now and the
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rest after June, but that failed. The Court voted five
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to one for the rays, with Banks voting no. Both
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he and Adams had earlier said they were afraid the
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Court could not pay fifty cents per hour more before
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the new budget year, but in the end, Adams voted
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in favor of the rays. The Court voted unanimously to
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extend the increase to the base entry level hourly rate.
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Also at the meeting Friday, the Court took the following actions.
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Announced a new flood hazard mitigation buyout program for the
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February fifteenth flooding. The deadline to apply is April twenty fifth,
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and those wanting to participate can apply at the Letter
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County Recreation Center. Adams urged people who think they might
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want to participate to apply even if they're not sure.
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He said, people who sign up can back out at
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any time up until the deed is signed and hurt
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a proclamation by Adams declaring April as Autism Awareness Month
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and April second as Autism Acceptance Day in the county,
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recognizing the importance of accepting people with autism. The next
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story is FEMA funds frozen while state faces more bad storms.
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Six weeks after widespread flooding and damaging storms hit Kentucky
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for the second time in less than three years, there's
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more rain in the forecast for the weekend, and this
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time the storm season is hitting. At the same time,
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the new federal government has frozen Federal Emergency Management Agency grants,
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and Homeland Security Secretary Christie Nomes said last week she
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plans to eliminate the agency entirely. Since FEMA was created
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by Congress, it's not clear how Nome would unilaterally eliminate
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the agency. Letcher County is just outside the area under
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a storm watch for now, but forecasters say the track
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of the storm could change before Saturday. While Letter County
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is expected to get one to three inches of rain
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by Monday, areas just to the west could get up
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to twelve inches of rain. So far, the freeze of
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FEMA funding hasn't hit direct aid to people, but it
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does have the potential to be damaging indirectly, as states
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and local governments may not get the aid they need
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for public services. Crystal Staley, spokesperson for Governor Andy Busheer,
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said the state has picked up the cost of many
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of the grants already awarded and is still waiting for
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FEMA to come through with money for reimbursements that were promised.
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FEMA owes the Commonwealth more than eight point one million
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dollars as reimbursement for funds spent to implement key federal
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programs in Kentucky related to national dam safety, homeland security,
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and others. Staley told The Mountain Eagle on Tuesday, the
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Commonwealth has spent these funds in advance and requested reimbursement
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from FEMA as required by federal statute and the terms
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and conditions of the Grand Agreements. To our knowledge, the
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Individual Assistance Program, which FEMA pays directly to victims of
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natural disasters, has not been impacted by any of the
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recent federal funding freezes. In addition to FEMA, the administration
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has cut one thousand employees from the National Oceanographic and
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Atmospheric Administration, which operates the National Weather Service, and plans
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to cut another one thousand. That's about a fifth of
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the agency's workforce. The next story is Whittaker named as
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new judge. Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Nick Whittaker will be the
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new Leger District judge. Governor Andy Bisheer appointed Whittaker on
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March twenty sixth from among three candidates recommended by a
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judicial nominating commission. The judge's position became open September nineteenth,
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twenty twenty four, when District Judge Kevin R. Mullins was
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shot to death in his office at the court House.
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Whittaker announced his appointment on social media last Wednesday. A
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native of Cromona, Whittaker was a member of the last
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graduating class of Fleming Neon High School and received a
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degree in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University. He completed
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his Jurist doctor at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia.
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Whittaker passed the bar exam in July twenty twenty two,
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but was not sworn in until that fall. He became
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an assistant Commonwealth Attorney in sip Timber of that year
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under a limited license granted because of the COVID nineteen pandemic.
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Until being sworn in as an attorney, Whittaker has not
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yet been sworn in as judge and won't be until
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he finishes transitioning out of his private law practice. Whittaker
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said that out of an abundance of caution, he asked
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for a judicial ethics opinion last Thursday because of his
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affiliation with Hatton and Watt's law office. Both attorneys Jamie
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Hatton and Michael Watts will be practicing in his court
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once he takes office whether the opinion is backed by
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the end of the week or not. He will attend
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judge's orientation on Friday. I'm doing that Friday morning, but
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I won't be sworn in until I get that opinion back.
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Whittaker said, where I was associated with Hatton and Watt's
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law office, and both of them are county attorneys, and
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that's fifty percent of my docket. Watts, in addition to
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private practice and being an assistant county attorney, is also
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an assistant Commonwealth Attorney and was among the three names
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submitted by the nominating Commission. The County Attorney's office prosecutes
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misdemeanors and the Commonwealth Attorney Office prosecutes felony cases. The
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district judge presides over misdemeanors and handles arraignment and preliminary
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hearings in felony cases. Whittaker is married to Sabrina Johnson
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Whittaker and they have two children, a son Tie and
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a daughter Anna. In the next headline, new Festival Here
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features birds wildlife. They say a bird in the hand
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is worth two in the bush, but a million birds
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in the skies over Pine Mountain could be worth a
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lot of money to the local economy. A new festival
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scheduled for later this month is seeking to find out
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just how much money birds of a feather and the
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bird watchers who flock together to see them are worth
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to Letcher County. The first hopefully annual Pine Mountain Warblers,
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Woodlands and Wildlife Weekend will be April twenty fourth through
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twenty seventh, primarily at Cowan Community Center. It's something avid
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birdwatcher and photographer Jennifer Honeycut has been advocating for years
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and is now helping. The biggest week in American birding
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is in Oregon, Ohio, and it's for two weeks, Honeycut said,
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compared to three and a half days here. It draws
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seventy five thousand to ninety thousand visitors a year and
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generates upwards of forty million dollars for the local economy.
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They bill themselves as the warbler capital of the world.
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But guess what, We see them first because they fly
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over us to get to them, Honeycut said, So what
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are warblers and why are birdwatchers so excited about them?
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Warblers are small, colorful birds with very complicated songs that
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migrate from North America to South America in the fall,
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and then fly north again in the spring. They're sometimes
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known as the Easter eggs of the birding world because
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they're hard to find unless you're in the migration path,
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which Letcher County is, but warblers alone do not a
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bird festival make. Scientists use weather radar to estimate the
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number of birds in the sky on any given night,
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and they gather crowdsourced sightings and known migration patterns to
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estimate what kinds of birds there are. On Friday night,
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March twenty eighth, bird Cast estimated three hundred ninety one thousand,
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five hundred birds flew across Letcher County, but it's still early.
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There were some nights last year we saw three million
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birds a night crossing Letcher County. Honeycut said there have
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been few Cerullian warblers or yellow rumped warblers so far
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this spring, but they're expected. Honeycut saw her first warbler
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of the season nearly two weeks ago, and last Friday
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Birdcast projected such species as the bluehead vireo, blue gray netcatcher,
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chipping sparrow, pied billed greebe, lesser scalp, and golden crowned kinglet,
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so you don't know what those are. The premier guest
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wrote the book on Birds. David Allan Sibley, who will
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speak April twenty sixth at Callen Community Center, is the
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author and illustrator of the series of successful books that
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bear his name, including the New York Times bestseller The
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Sibley Guide to Birds. He has contributed photos and articles
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to Smithsonian Science, the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Birding, bird Watching,
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and North American Birds, and wrote and illustrated a syndicated
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column for The New York Times. He is a recipient
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of the Roger Tory Peterson Award for Lifetime Achievement from
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the American Birding Association and the Linnaean Society of New
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York's Eisenmann Metal and if you only heard a bird
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and want to know what it was, there's an app
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for that, and binoculars and cameras. According to the US
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Fish and Wildlife Service, birders spent one hundred seven point
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six billion dollars on the hobby in twenty twenty two.
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Letcher County isn't relying on birds alone to draw people
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to the festival, as the name Pine Mountain Warblers Woodland
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and Wildlife Weekend suggests the festival will also offer visitors
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wildlife safaris to look for bear and elk, and hikes
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to Bad Branch Falls Kingdomcombe State Park, wetlands near the
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Little Shepherd Amphitheater at Jenkins, and a celebration of Lucy
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Brown's birthday featuring a one woman performance by Alice Jones
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of Richmond, as the late naturalist who coined the term
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mixed mesophyitic forest for the Central Appalachian woodlands. We hope
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this little festival will plant the seed for realizing the
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value of our wild life and natural areas in the
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county and region. Honeycut said, so many people are interested
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in viewing and photographing the kinds of wildlife we have here.
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They traveled to other towns to see what we have
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in our back yards. The next story is huge layoffs
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hit those tracking disease regulating food. Employees across the massive
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US Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of
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dismissal Tuesday, in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off
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up to ten thousand people. The notices came just days
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after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their
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collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government.
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The cuts include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff, and senior leaders,
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leaving the federal government without many of the key experts
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who have long guided u S decisions on medical research,
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drug approvals, and other issues. At the National Institutes of Health,
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the world's leading health and medical agency, the layoffs occurred
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as its new director, doctor J. Batacharya, began his first
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day of work. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior, announced
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a plan last week to remake the department, which, through
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its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks,
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conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of
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food and medicine, as well as for administering health insurance
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programs for nearly half the country. The plan would consolidate
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agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and
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community health centers under a new office called the Administration
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for a Healthy America. The layoffs are expected to shrink
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HHS to sixty two thousand positions, lopping off nearly a
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quarter of its staff, ten thousand jobs through layoffs and
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another ten thousand workers who took early retirement and voluntary
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separation offers. Many of the jobs are based in the
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Washington area, but also in Atlanta, where the US Centers
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for Disease Control and Prevention is based, and in smaller
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offices throughout the country. Two lines with hundreds of employees
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wrapped around the HHS headquarters building Tuesday morning. Workers waited
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in the chile spring weather to be individually scanned in
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for access to the building. Some said they were waiting
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to find out if they still had jobs. Others gathered
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at local coffee shops and lunch spots after being turned
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away finding out they had been eliminated after decades of service.
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One wondered aloud if it was a cruel April Fool's
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Day joke at the NIH. The cuts included at least
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four directors of the NIAS, which is twenty seven institutes
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and centers, who were put on administrative leave, and nearly
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entire communication staffs were terminated, according to an agency senior
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leader speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
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An email viewed by the Associated Press shows some senior
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level employees of the Bethesda, Maryland campus who were placed
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on leave or offered a possible transfer to the Indian
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Health Service in locations including Alaska, and given until the
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end of Wednesday to respond. At the Food and Drug Administration,
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dozens of staffers who regulate drugs, food, medical devices, and
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tobacco products received notices, including the entire office responsible for
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drafting new regulations for electronic cigarettes and other tobacco products.
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The notices came as the FDA's tobacca chief was removed
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from his position. Elsewhere at the agency, more than a
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dozen press officers and communications supervisors were notified that their
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jobs would be eliminated. The FDA as we've known it
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is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge
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and a deep understanding of product development and safety no
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longer employed, said former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in an
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online post. Califf stepped down at the end of the
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Biden administration. Democratic Senator Paddy Murray of Washington predicted the
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cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious
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diseases like the ongoing measles outbreak spread, they may as
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well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their
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plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy, Murray said Friday.
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The CDC has not provided a breakdown of cuts, but
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employees in different parts of the organization described to the
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AP extensive layoffs in programs that track asthma, air pollution, smoking,
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gun violence, reproductive health, health, climate change, and other health threats.
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The intent seems to be to create a much smaller
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infectious disease agency, but it is destroying a wide array
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of work and collaborations that have enabled local and national
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governments to be able to prevent deaths and respond to emergencies,
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says doctor George Benjamin, executive director of the American Public
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Health Association. Doctor Tom Frieden, the CDC's director during President
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Barack Obama's administration, said he is particularly concerned about cuts
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to the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health and the
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agency's Global Health Center. The next story is if your
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livestock needs protection from predators, This workshop is for you.
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A Predator Control and guard Animal management workshop for livestock
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owners needing to protect their livestock from predators will take
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place Saturday, April fifth, at the Leccher County Extension Office,
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four seventy five Extension Drive, Weisberg. Registration is from eight
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to nine a m. And the event will include a
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lunch at noon. Featured speakers will be Shad Baker, Stacey White,
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Brad Mullins, Lester Burscher, Patrick Angel, and experts in predator hunting,
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snaring and coyote bobcat trapping from United Trappers of Kentucky.
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Registration is required by calling the Letter County Extension Office
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at six O six six three three two three sixty two.
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The cost is ten dollars per family and the fee
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will include a one year membership to s e KSPA.
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The workshop qualifies for CAIP Education credits. The next headline
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is Postal Service seeks new home for Premium post office.
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The US Postal Service this week said it is trying
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to find a new location for the Premium post office,
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now located at thirty seven fifty two Highway one sixty.
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Postal officials said due to severe uncorrectable safety issues from
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flooding at the former location, the Postal Service is now
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looking for a new retail location within the four one
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eight four five zip code. They are looking for an
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existing building approximately five hundred square feet with dedicated parking
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or a vacant land site to lease approximately eight thousand,
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five hundred square feet in which the Postal Service can
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bring in a Postal owned modular building. Postal officials added
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the relocation project will consist of procuring a suitable substitute
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location as close as reasonably possible to the existing location.
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A postcard is being sent to each premium customer to
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allow them to comment on the proposal within forty five
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days from delivery of the postcard. In the next story,
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scholarship offered, the Elector County Extension Home Made is sponsoring
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a five hundred dollars college scholarship for a local student.
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Priorities will be given to those majoring in family and
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consumer sciences or related programs, agriculture or related programs, and
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those who are members of a k EHA organization. The
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scholarship recipient must be an Electric County resident, a twenty
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twenty five high school graduate or equivalent, and enrolled in
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or accepted by an accredited college or university or accredited apprenticeship.
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Also included in the application must be a letter requesting
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the scholarship, a recommendation from a teacher or guidance counselor,
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and a transcript of the student's high school grades. The
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application must be submitted by May eighth. Complete guidelines are
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available from the Electric County Extension Service at pobox seven
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eight to four, Wichberg, Kentucky four one eight five eight.
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The next story is five years after passage of Civil
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Rights Act, Jenkins athlete still was denied service at popular restaurant.
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Charles E. Reid just wanted a hamburger. He was eighteen
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years old and a standout athlete at Jenkins High School.
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It was a game night and it was too far
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to go home to McRoberts and make it back to
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the gymnasium in time for tip off of the basketball game. Instead,
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he stopped by the Cavalier drug Store, then owned by
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Joe and Mary Eversoul, looking forward to a hot meal
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before the game. I sat down and ordered, and the
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waitress said, Charles, I can't serve you. You know how
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it is in a small town. If you play sports,
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everybody knows you. He said. She said, I guess I
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could serve you, but you'd have to take it out
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the back door. The problem was, Charles Reid is black,
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and only white people were allowed to sit down and
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eat in that restaurant. They could order at the counter,
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but then they had to go to the back door
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and wait. But on that day in nineteen sixty nine,
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Reid was having none of it. He refused to wait
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at the back door like a stray dog begging for scraps.
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The waitress got one of the owners, who ordered him out.
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Reed left after the confrontation, went across the street to
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the hardware store and bought a placard on which he
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scrawled some kind of message that he no longer remembers,
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and marched up and down the street in front of
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the store all alone. Joe Eversoll called the police. The
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police came and got me and took me to jail.
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He said, I will point out that they didn't put
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me in a cell. The first thing they did was
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call my coach, Charles Dixon. Dixon, who was Reed's track
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and field coach at Jenkins, recalled being called to come
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to the police chief's office and talking with Reed. I said, Charles,
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what's going on? He told me, And I said, Charles,
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I don't blame you, but you put your life in danger.
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Joe Eversoll keeps a double barrel shotgun under the counter.
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Charles Dixon, who would later serve as mayor of Jenkins
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said while the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four
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prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin,
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insuring equal access to goods, services, and facilities in employment
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and public accommodations, the incident in Jenkins occurred in nineteen
24:17
sixty nine, five years after passage of the Act. Late
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last month, the language forbid notices for federal contracts came
24:25
out and it was missing a key statement that has
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been in federal contracts for decades, being added after passage
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of the Civil Rights Act. The removed section reads, the
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contractor agrees that it does not and will not maintain
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or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any
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of its establishments, and that it does not and will
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not permit its employees to perform their services at any
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location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained. While
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the omission doesn't change the provisions of the Civil Rights Act,
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it shows how some attitudes haven't changed in the fifty
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six years since Reid attempted to buy a hamburger in
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a white's only restaurant. Now semi retired and living in Plano, Texas,
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Reed is married to his high school's sweetheart, the Reverend
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doctor Clara Higgins Reed in twenty thirteen, the teenager who
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wasn't allowed to buy a hamburger because of the color
25:24
of his skin, sold his chain of seven Schlatsky's Bakery
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Cafe Delis in the Dallas Fort Worth area. A graduate
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of Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky, now known as the
25:36
University of the Cumberlands, Reed has been successful in business
25:40
but has continued to be cognizant of the understanding that
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you knew what your place was. There were very few
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people who knew these seven Shlatsky's restaurants were owned by
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a black man. It wasn't that I wasn't proud of
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my business. If someone asked me, I'd tell them, but
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Reed said, his voice trailing off. Even as a restaurant owner,
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he said he experienced incidents of customers who would enter
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his Texas restaurants and refused to take their food if
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they saw it was cooked by a black or Latino person.
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On more than one occasion, I came out and told
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those people that you do not dictate how your food
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is prepared. If you don't like who is preparing it,
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you have other options of places to eat, Reed said.
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While a student at Jenkins High School, Reid starred in basketball, football,
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and track, a sport in which he sent and still
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holes school records in long jump, triple jump, and the
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one eighty hurdles. Reed went on to become captain of
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Cumberland College's track team and in twenty twelve was inducted
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into the University of the Cumberlands Hall of Fame. After
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graduating from college, Reid worked five years for Bethlehem Steel
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Corporation in Western Pennsylvania. He later worked for Arco International
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Oil and Gas Corporation in Denver, Colorado, before acquiring the
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Shlotsky's Restaurants. And this concludes the reading of The Mountain Eagle.
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Your reader has been built an arsenal. Now please stay
27:12
tuned for continued programming on behalf of everyone here at
27:16
Radio I thank you for listening, and have a good day.