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THE TOP TEASER GOES HERE NAACP FREEDOM FUND , 4B

THE TOP TEASER GOES HERE 6B BOBCAT BAND STATEBOUND, FALL BACK

Daylight Savings Time Change Clocks fall back 1 hour Saturday night

Independent Appeal Making McNairy County headlines for more than 100 years

Volume 107, Number 24, Wednesday, November 2, 2011

FIRE KILLS 2 IN FINGER By Christen Coulon Editor

An early morning fire north of Finger last Saturday claimed the lives of two McNairy County residents including a young girl who was at the Masseyville McNairy Road residence for a sleepover. Smoke detectors woke residents of the home and Michael Steve Kennedy ushered his family from the burning structure. Officials have stated that once outside the home, Kennedy realized that family friend 11-year-old Cheyenne A. Henderson of Stantonville had not made it out and Kennedy went back inside the burning home to rescue the young girl shortly before emergency workers arrived on the scene at 3:51 a.m. Despite Kennedy’s heroic effort both he and Henderson succumbed to the smoke and perished from carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of the fire, said Robert Hitchborn, McNairy County Sheriff’s Department investigator. “(Kennedy) is a very brave person,” Hitchborn said. “He went back in and perished. It’s a very tragic, sad thing.” Staff Photo by Amanda Lowrance According to officials the cause of the fire is still undetermined, however Firefighters fight a deadly blaze last Saturday morning north of Finger. The fire claimed the lives of two McNairy County residents. foul play is not suspected. The family residence was equipped ing to officials, one of the deputies atGoodrum recommends that families campaign was started in her memory with an adequate number of smoke detectors, Hitchborn said. “They had tempted a rescue shortly after Kennedy make a plan for escape from their home asking residents to light a candle for one everything that was offered and yet entered the home and sustained minor with two exits to protect themselves in a hour in her honor. injuries. similar situation. He also said the plan Services for Kennedy were held last someone still perished,” “We don’t ever recommend go- should include a meeting point and a Tuesday. Regions Bank will be acceptDeputies from the Sheriff’s Dept. ing donations on behalf of Kennedy’s were the first emergency personnel on ing back into a fire,” said Chief Darrell head count to give to firefighters. Services for Henderson were held family. Please submit donations to the the scene. They were followed by fire- Goodrum. “All it takes is one breath of last Monday night and a social media bank in care of his wife Misty Kennedy. fighters from McNairy Station. Accord- smoke.”

Cards 3-Pete: AHS Band takes state title...again Faith Baptist member cited for disorderly conduct at rival chruch By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer

Submitted Photo

(Submitted Article) – The Adamsville Jr./Sr. High Band won their third consecutive and 7th total Division One State Championship at Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn. last Saturday. Competing against 27 other bands in preliminaries, AHS was the only band to receive Superior ratings in Band, Color Guard, Percussion and Field Commander. “Congratulations to all band and guard members on one of the best marching seasons ever, and thank you for representing your school, your city, and your entire community on such a high level,” said Frankie Congiardo, director of the AHS Band. Scoring 90.940, AHS placed 1st in band, 1st in percussion, 1st in color guard, 2nd in High Music, 2nd in High Visual, 5th in field commander, and Darby Congiardo was named Best Soloist. By scoring in the top 10, they qualified for the

finals competition held at 7 p.m. that evening. In finals, the percussion section won the coveted High Percussion drum trophy by scoring 95.0, which was a 6 point increase over their prelim score. The color guard won Best Color Guard with a 93.75, an increase of 8 points. Also taking the High Music award, the band scored 57.56 out of 60, and the High Visual Award scoring 37.68 out of 40. Senior Field Commander Kelsey Young won 2nd place and mellophone soloist Darby Congiardo was again named Best Soloist. Overall, the band scored a new record high score of 95.24 which eclipsed their 2010 record score of 93.70 by 1.54. Three senior members, Kelsey Young, Kayci Henline, and Jacob Kee completed their marching careers at AHS by winning four State Championships out of six years in competition at the Div. 1 Championship.

A member of Selmer’s Faith Baptist Church was cited by the Selmer Police Department for disorderly conduct on the premises of a rival church on Oct. 23. According to a report provided by the department, Sgt. Ron Pilkington responded to a disturbance call on Sunday morning at Safe Harbor Church. Upon arrival, he saw several people standing in the parking lot. Patsy Pauline Murry, the owner of the property and Safe Harbor member told Pilkington that Brent Michael Winter was there causing a disturbance. Sylvia Nicole Henley witnessed the incident and recorded everything on a video camera. She declined to comment or to provide the video. Pilkington then interviewed Winter who stated that a former Faith Baptist member, Justin W. Robertson had quit Faith Baptist and started attending services at Safe Harbor. Winter also said that Robertson was recruiting other young Faith Bap-

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Highways dedicated to local heroes: Mitchell, Tuberville By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer

Family members and local dignitaries gathered to honor two McNairy County heroes Saturday. Each was honored by naming a stretch of highway in their honor. A section of Highway 225 from the intersection of Highway 64 to the Chester County line was renamed for Pfc. Warren M. Mitchell. Across the county, on the same day, a stretch of Highway 22 between the Adamsville city limits and mile marker 4 was renamed for fallen firefighter Jimmy Tuberville. Family members and local dignitaries such as St. Rep. Vance Dennis, McNairy County Sheriff Guy Buck, Trustee and nephew of Pfc.

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Staff Photos by Jeff Whitten and Andy Alexander

(Left) Family members of Pfc. Warren M. Mitchell gather at Bethel Springs Saturday for the dedication of a stretch of highway for the World War II hero. (Right) The family of fallen Fire Chief Jimmy Tuberville gathered for the renaming of a section of Highway 22 in Milledgeville Saturday.

z Obituaries 6A z Opinion 7A z Lifestyles 8A z Community 9A z Events 10A z Courtroom 11A z Sports 1B z Campus 6B z Classifieds 7B Wed - 70/37 Sunny with Wind

Thu - 56/42 Showers

Fri - 61/38 Partly Cloudy

Sat - 69/48 Mostly Sunny

Sun - 69/48 Partly Cloudy

BOBCATS FINISH SEASON MCHS ends tough season, bids farewell to seniors PAGE 1A www.independentappeal.com 50¢

Selective law enforcement threatens free speech By Christen Coulon Editor The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began Sept. 17, has gained momentum in recent weeks and has even spread to Tennessee. The movement, which claims to represent the bottom 99% of Americans in terms of financial wealth, OPINION has targeted large corporations on Wall Street for what they claim is their unfair influence on the federal government. At the heart of their oft fractured ideology is a belief that this corporate influence is allowing the richest 1% of the population to amass wealth at the expense of everyone else. However, unlike other similar movements in the past, the occupy movement does not seem to have a solution to their problems. When pressed for the specifics of their message protesters have drifted away from this original message about corporate greed to include animal rights, housing and foreclosure issues, our foreign wars, racism, sexism, healthcare, privacy rights, and the apparent loss of civil rights. As a reader you may be wondering if I, as the writer of this piece, support the occupy message. As a journalist, I strive to maintain objectivity and remove my personal beliefs from any of the news articles that I publish. Even when writing opinion articles such as this, I generally feel it necessary to include the opposing points of view to balance my stories. With the occupy movement objectivity is easy because after listening to countless protests on the news, and reading various websites put up by the organization’s supporters I still haven’t the foggiest idea as to what exactly these people want or how they intend to accomplish it. What concerns me, as a member of the media, is not the protest message but the tactics that have been used by the government to quiet these protests. Several hundred Americans have been arrested in recent days at protests in dozens of cities across the nation. As a journalist it is always troubling to see someone arrested for exercising their freedom of speech. It became more troubling as these arrests happened closer to home. During the late night hours last Thursday and Friday nights, nearly 50 protesters were arrested at the Legislative Plaza in Nashville for trespassing. The arrests came after the governor issued a rule change regarding the plaza and its use by protesters (or anyone else for that matter) by placing a curfew on this public space. While these rules were placed on the space under the guise of public safety, what bothers me is that Gov. Bill Haslam obviously made these changes to curtail the free speech of people bringing redress against the government. These changes were made abruptly and specifically to end the Nashville protests without thought as to how closing a large chunk of the state capitol and southern tourist mecca everyday at 10 p.m. could or would be enforced. I wonder how this group was expected to petition for their right to gather on the same day the rule banning them was enacted. Even more disturbing to me was the

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