August, 2008
By Jeff Noble
Voice Editor
Ask some of those who came to last Friday’s Fourth Annual “Breathitt County Day” in Frankfort why they showed up, and you’ll get quite a few answers.
Like the lure of the hilly soil, even for those who’ve lived in the “Capital City” for over 30 years, like Helen Johnson Taulbee. “We still have the family farm at Frozen,” said Helen, who lives in Frankfort with her husband Darrell and daughter Kelly, a recent graduate of Centre College in Danville. “Darrell grows a garden there.” 
By Jeff Noble
Voice Editor
A Saturday afternoon shooting in Sebastians Branch last Saturday afternoon landed a local man in the hospital, and another man behind bars.
Gary Herald of Sebastains Branch, who’s age was unknown, is recovering after surgery at the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington, the result of a shooting at 4615 Highway 315 in Sebastians Branch around 5:40 p.m. A preliminary investigation by Kentucky State Police indicates that an altercation between Herald and 35-year-old Marcus Gross of Sebastians Branch led to Gross shooting Herald.
By Jeff Noble
Voice Editor
The candidates running for local offices in the City of Jackson, the Breathitt County School Board and the Jackson Independent School Board will be fewer this November.
In fact, the total number of candidates filing before Tuesday afternoon’s deadline at the Breathitt County Court Clerk’s Office came to 14, which is down from the 23 that filed for the November election just two years ago.
Of the 14 running on Tuesday, November 4th, 11 are incumbents.
That includes present County School Boardmember Ina Southwood, who’ll defend her seat in District 5 against challenger Hargis Epperson. Both Epperson and Southwood filed on Tuesday before the 4 p.m. deadline.
By Jeff Noble
Voice Editor
On a delightful Saturday in August, Marilyn Self Bishop and Mike Edwards found themselves sitting on an aluminum bench, looking at a photo album.
The bench was part of a seating pattern in front of the McConnell Auditorium on the campus of Mount Carmel High School that formed a circle. Several bales of hay dotted the circular landscape, while a nearby flat-bed provided a place for announcements to be made and an auction to be held.
Marilyn and Mike came to Mt. Carmel last Saturday for the school’s 20th Annual Community Picnic and Homecoming, as did some 250 others. But the thought of eating fresh-fried fish and bidding for a special buy were the farthest thing on their minds that morning, as the contents of that album came first.
By Jeff Noble
Voice Editor
One popular online dictionary defines the word “synergy” as “The combination of two or more things working together, that creates an effect which is greater than the sum of both working separately.”
It’s a combination that Dr. Will Kayatin hopes to bring to the table during his fellowship with the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) in Frankfort.
Presently the Director of Morehead State University in Jackson, Dr. Kayatin will continue in that position, while doing the fellowship (internship). “I’ll be representating MSU at this endeavor, and much of the work I’ll be doing for the CPE can be done here at the center in Jackson. However, I’ll be traveling to Frankfort every other Friday, and have an office there.”
By Jeff Noble
Voice Editor
Sitting at a table with his friends, Frank Campbell spends his Tuesday morning at the Breathitt County Senior Citizens Center on Broadway.
There’s coffee and conversation going on, as Jean Lusk and Geraldine Rice pull up a chair and join the talkfest. A few feet away behind Frank, the occasional yell of victory goes up as a high-spirited game of cornhole takes place.
And there’s Frank’s best friend of them all - Mina Mae Patrick - sitting to his left.
Frank welcomes them, and welcomes the activity surrounding him.
Tester trial set for Monday
The trial of a man accused of shooting his estranged wife at a local restaurant earlier this year is set to start on Monday at 9 a.m. in Breathitt Circuit Court. 54-year-old Clarence Tester was indicted this spring on four counts, including First Degree Assault, two counts of Wanton Endangerment, and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. He’s charged with shooting Donna Tester on February 29th at Hardee’s on Route 15 in Jackson. He was arrested two days later in Wolfe County, after hiding in a house and negotiating with police. He pled not guilty of assault charges in March.
Every four years or so, we are treated to a spectacle of sorts. The nominees from each party that are running for president give the American people something to discuss, write about, and air on television. I speculate that every four years the same thing happens: Issues are debated that never really amount to anything and are only part-time issues that benefit the candidate at the time being. Remember George W. Bush and the Social Security debates four years ago? Nothing ever came about of that did it? But, one could argue that it helped him win the presidency. This year I’ve noticed something else.
Eighty one of us walked across the stage on May 7, 1953, to receive our diplomas from Superintendent Marie R. Turner. Sewell Landrum pronounced the invocation and Aceste Barbera led the Mixed Girls Chorus in “Some Enchanted Evening.” Charles R. Spain, President of Morehead State College, gave the Commencement Address. Principal Wendell Boxley presented the achievement awards under the emblazoned words, “All the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their entrances and their exits and one man in his time plays many parts.” We were young, idealistic and anxious to leave the nest and make our mark in the world. Now as we gathered for the reunion, our aches and pains caused us to move much more slowly as we compared the surgeries that had left a drawstring on our chests and long white scars on our knees.
If Barack Obama is elected president and can implement his ideas on raising taxes, it will be the greatest transfer of wealth from private sector to a government since the Bolshevik Revolution under V.I. Lenin in 1917 that transformed Russia to the first communistic type of government. Obama advocates raising the tax rate on the top income of Americans from 35 to 55 percent. He further proposes to increase the tax rate on all Americans who have an income of over $250,000 per year. Obama must surely know these are the people that supply virtually all of the jobs for Americans and that the top fifty percent of the taxpayers already pay better than 97% of all the taxes collected by the government.
