REMEMBERING CHEYENNE, 4A
CARDINALS SOAR IN TOURNAMENT, 1B
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Volume 107, Number 27, Wednesday, November 23, 2011
DRUG RAID AT CITGO, BP Officers seize thousands worth of synthetic marijuana in Selmer, Adamsville By Jeff Whitten and Christen Coulon
Count your blessings for Thanksgiving by Amber Price Staff Writer
IA Staff Report
The Selmer Citgo and Adamsville BP gas stations were raided by agents of the McNairy County Drug Task Force for selling synthetic marijuana last Monday. At the Selmer location alone, more than 185 containers, packaged for individual sale, were seized with an estimated street value at more than $3,000. These drugs, which have gained national media attention were made illegal last year in Tennessee and have been declared a “drug of concern” by the DEA, but remain legal in many states. According to research, the substance being sold is likely a benign plant material coated with a synthetic cannabinoid compound designed to mimic the effects of marijuana. These synthetic cannabinoids are chemically similar to the chemical THC found in marijuana. While hard scientific evidence relating to the use of these newly banned substances is in short supply, strong anecdotal evidence from first hand accounts of medical and law enforcement personnel suggests that these chemicals may be more harmful than the real thing.
See DRUG BUST, 2A
Appeal
Photos by Christen Coulon
The Selmer Citgo and Adamsville BP gas stations were raided by agents of the McNairy County Drug Task Force for selling synthetic marijuana last Monday. (Inside) Task force officers at the Selmer Citgo confiscate more than 185 containers of the substance packaged for individual sale with an estimated street value at more than $3,000.
Cheap broadband may be coming to McNairy County By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer
Some McNairy families will be able to purchase broadband for $9.95 a month, starting next summer. The Federal Communications Commission has put together a consortium of cable companies will offer this inexpensive broadband to families that are eligible for school lunches. All major cable companies, including local cable
provider Charter Communications, are participating. The $9.95 price will not include taxes, but companies are pledging not to charge anything for installation or modem rental. The minimum download speed will be 1 megabit per second, less than one-tenth of average cable speeds, but individual cable companies will decide what speeds they will provide. This price will be good for two years. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association estimates that about 5.5 million homes that
don’t have broadband will be eligible for the offer. The offer will cover 15-25 million Americans, including 10-15 million students. The offer service area covers 86 percent of the population and reaches all 50 states. The offer is available for a three-year signup window. Redemtech, a technology refurbishment company, has committed to offer a refurbished laptop or a desktop with a LCD monitor for $150 plus tax. This offer in-
See BROADBAND, 3A
Cut the cable for good...kind of
Free TV for Christmas?
By Christen Coulon Editor
6 Cost Effective Alternatives to Cable Television in McNairy County Free HD TV
For those of you, especially in the northern end of the county with a decent antenna, free HD television out of Jackson, Tenn. may be a great option. ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS channels broadcast out of Jackson and are available for free.
DVD Rentals
The Selmer Walmart offers two Redbox Kiosks. With a valid credit card shoppers can choose from various new release movies for about $1.09 (tax included) per day. For a bit more than Redbox, Selmer’s Blockbuster Video offers a wide selection of new release movies on DVD.
Borrow DVDs and VHS Tapes for Free
The Jack McConnico Memorial Library in Selmer and the Irving Meek, Jr. Public Library in Adamsville offer a selection of videos for patrons with a valid library card.
Free Online Television from Network Websites
ABC.com, CBS.com, FOX.com USA.com and many other broadcast and cable television networks offer free content online for those who visit their sites. If you are looking for a particular show online, the network sites may be your best bet. For sports fans, ESPN.com and CBSsports.com offer free live sporting events nearly everyday.
Free Online Television (Hulu.com)
Hulu.com offers thousands of ad sponsored on-demand television shows and movies free to online visitors. For those new to online viewing Hulu.com should be your first stop. Once you have watched everything worth watching on Hulu, the site offers premium content for a small monthly fee.
DVD by Mail (Netflix.com and Blockbuster.com)
Similar to Hulu, these sites offer premium on-demand content such as new release movies and a plethora of television shows from the classic era up to today. Both sites also offer DVD by mail service, however, recent statements about rate increases from many of the large Hollywood studios indicate that the days of blossoming DVD by mail industry may be numbered.
If you are like me, you are probably sick of paying your cable or satellite provider nearly $100 per month for a bunch of channels you don’t want and only a few that you do. If only there was some way to watch the shows that you liked without having to pay for the shows that you don’t. Well, there is. In 2005, after years of broken promises, over-charges, poor service and little or no local customer service options, I finally did it. I cut the cable for good. Using my high-speed internet connection, I have switched my home away from the cable box and have watched all of my television online. Now I watch all of the shows I want online and on-demand. While this may sound like a difficult proposition, especially for someone who is unfamiliar with computers, it can be easier than installing a satellite system. If you already have high-speed internet it is as easy as plugging your existing computer into your television. In most cases, new HD televisions can be plugged directly into the back of your computer like a giant monitor. That is all you need to do. By simply switching one cord you have now successfully circumvented the multi-billion dollar cable television industry and potentially saved yourself more than $1,000 per year. Once this is complete, the next step is as simple as finding what you want to watch and watching it. Today, nearly every network and cable channel website offers free on-demand content for their online visitors. For example, if I want to watch “The Simpsons”, I open Google, then type “simpsons” into the search engine. Then I click on the first link available. This brings me to the show’s official site where there are currently five episodes available to watch free online. I tested the method for this article and it took approximately 2 minutes to find the show, click on it and begin watching. (It took one minute to navigate to the site and begin the show and another for the pre-show commercial to air.) If you add this time to the three 30-second commercial breaks during the
See CABLE, 3A
z Opinion 6A z Events 6A z Community 6A z Obituaries 7A z Courtroom 8A z Lifestyles 8A z Sports 1B z Campus 6B z Classifieds 7B Wed - 57/39 Partly Cloudy
Thanksgiving - 66/42 Sunny
Fri - 66/49 Cloudy
Sat - 61/37 T-Storms
Sun - 47/29 Rain/Snow Showers
Counting blessings is not only a Thanksgiving tradition, but it is also something that can help families through difficult times. Remembering to be grateful for even the most basic things in life such as food, clothing, and shelter can put life into perspective when things get tough. However, there are many families in McNairy County that lack these things, and they must struggle each day just to survive. Poverty in rural areas does not show itself as obviously as it does in the cities. Homelessness occurs, not so much on city streets and park benches, but in cars or abandoned buildings. Most often, more than one family will occupy a single home, which can easily become an unsustainable living situation. According to Jimmy Whittington, executive director of Jesus Cares, poverty in McNairy County is currently on the rise. “We could identify over 400 [homeless people] about a year and a half ago,” he said. “We managed to get 135 out of the homeless state and into stable housing situations, and I would say that the homelessness is up probably ten to 15 percent even after we served those that we could.” At that time, Jesus Cares was working with a federal grant that allowed them to assist families that were in need of housing. Unfortunately, the grant ended on October 1 of this year. Whittington estimates that the current number of homeless people in the county could be as high as 500. Escalating the problem is a decrease in funds available to help such families in need. “We would expect that individuals, institutions, and non-profits are taking in less, consequently they are going to have to cut funds and who they give grants to,” he said. According to Executive Director of West Tennessee Legal Services, Steven Xanthopoulos, there has been an increase in the number of people that are on the brink of foreclosure and in need of help. “So many people need our services that we can’t serve them all,” said Xanthopoulos. Recent funding cuts make it even more difficult for the program to meet the growing needs of the area. Difficult economic times often have long lasting and far-reaching consequences, especially for rural areas with little influx of business. The people at Jesus Cares know this especially well. “For a program that’s been in existence for three years in a small, rural county, we’re seeing way too many new people, indicating to us that the recession is going deeper and deeper into the population,” said Whittington. “We can think of five organizations that are kind of like Jesus Cares in other counties that have either closed, or are on the threshold of closing, or maybe are open one week or ten days out of the month,” said Whittington. “So far, the support in McNairy County has kept us from getting into those situations.”
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