Dave Shinall

Reporter

Dave is a retired Army tank platoon sergeant. During Desert Storm, he helped overrun a Republican Guard bunker complex in Iraq's Euphrates Valley. In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, he commanded a mountaintop UN Preventive Deployment Force observation post on the Macedonian frontier with Serbia. In Bavaria, he served as news director at the American Forces Network radio station in Wurzburg, on special duty assignment from December 1981 to March 1984. He's a 2003 magna cum laude graduate of Western Kentucky University. Dave's ridden his bicycle across Missouri three times on the magnificent Katy Trail State Park. Stretching 265 miles, from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Clinton, Mo., about 85 miles southeast of Kansas City, the Katy Trail is the nation's longest rail-trail. Dave has canoed Northern Bavaria's Wiesent River, Montana's Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Missouri's Current River, the Wabash and Ohio rivers, from Vincinnes, Ind., to Cave-in-Rock, Ill., the full length of Florida's Applachicola River, the Lower Cumberland River, the Lower Sabine River, the Lower Red River of the South, Southern Illinois' Cache River and Kentucky's Green River. He's also canoed atop the world's largest volcano at Yellowstone Lake. With his wife Tova, he's climbed a Mayan pyramid in Mexico, cave tubed in Belize, drunk a toast at the grave of Meriwether Lewis, and driven and camped the 444 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway. He plans further descents of Montana's Upper Missouri River and still more Katy Trail rides. He and Tova keep on traveling.

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Morning Cram
10:15 am
Wed August 15, 2012

The Morning Cram [Mummies, Retirement, Debate & Duck House Edition]

Credit NPR

From NPR: A couple of thousand years before the Egyptians preserved some of their dead, a much simpler society made the first known mummies.The desert area where they lived was so dry, dead people turned into mummies naturally.

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Politics
9:31 am
Wed August 15, 2012

Illinois’ 12th Congressional District Debate Tonight

Credit wikipedia.com

Voters in Southern Illinois’ 12th Congressional District will have their first chance to see the three candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives go toe to toe tonight in Carbondale.  The candidates' debate is scheduled for 7 p.m. and features Republican Jason Plummer, Democrat Bill Enyart and the Green Party's Paula Bradshaw. The event will be at WSIU-TV on the Southern Illinois University campus. Reporters from The Belleville News-Democrat, the Southern Illinoisan and WSIU will moderate.

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Government
9:22 am
Wed August 15, 2012

Fountain Avenue Commercial Construction Financial Assistance Program

Credit wikipedia.com

The Paducah City Commission last night introduced an ordinance creating a commercial construction financial assistance program aimed at improving the city’s Fountain Avenue Neighborhood. The program provides incentives to property owners spending a minimum of $100,000 constructing new commercial buildings. Property owners can receive a five-year, forgivable loan for as much as $20,000. However, the commission limits the program’s total budget to only $40,000.

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Government
9:20 am
Tue August 14, 2012

Tennessee National Guardsmen Return to Union City

Credit wikipedia.com

About 150  Guardsmen from Union City are among the more than 300 Tennessee Army National Guard members flying home this week after a year's deployment in the Middle East. Guard officials say they’re from the 913th Engineer Company. They’ll arrive Thursday after processing at Fort Bliss, Tex.

Government
9:12 am
Tue August 14, 2012

Kentucky Chief of Staff Memorial Planned

Credit wikipedia.com

A memorial service for Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear’s chief of staff Mike Haydon will be held tomorrow afternoon in the state Capitol Rotunda.  Haydon died Sunday at his Springfield home. The governor says it’s appropriate to hold the service in the rotunda. The governor calls the Capitol Haydon’s home away from home. Haydon’s funeral will be Friday morning at St. Dominic Church in Springfield.

Education
8:56 am
Tue August 14, 2012

Kentucky Teachers Beg, Borrow and Steal Resources

Kentucky teachers are being pushed to find more resources online as more and more textbooks become outdated and are not being replaced. The problem stems from a state budget that hasn’t allowed for full textbook funding in several years.  Todd County school superintendent Wayne Benningfield says teachers have no choice but to move away from textbooks. He says teachers are always searching for materials that they can, in his words, beg, steal or borrow.

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Politics
8:39 am
Tue August 14, 2012

Ritchie Farmer Child Support Hearing Today

Credit AP

Former Kentucky agriculture commissioner Richie Farmer will be in court this morning asking for a reduction to his child support payments.   Farmer says he's making the request because he no longer holds the top position at the state’s agriculture department and will be incapacitated for two months following surgery later this month. Farmer's lawyer has said the former U-K basketball star hasn't been employed since his term expired January First. Farmer and his wife divorced last month.

Government
10:45 am
Mon August 13, 2012

Tennessee Dove Season Land Lease

Credit wikipedia.com

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wants to lease fields for the upcoming mourning dove season. The standard leased field is one on which grain or millet has been harvested. TWRA pays $75 per acre, up to 40 acres, for a maximum of $3,000. Fields must be available for a minimum of three priority hunt dates in September. The fields will be leased by September 1.  Landowners interested in leasing fields for the hunts can find the regional numbers for TWRA at its website – tn.gov/twra. TWRA says about 40 thousand hunters bagged about 300-thousand mourning doves last year in Tennessee.

Morning Cram
10:38 am
Mon August 13, 2012

The Morning Cram [Bold Move, Week of Eagles, Wildfire Edition]

Credit NPR

From NPR: It was almost as if everyone dared Mitt Romney to make a bold move.utious and risk-averse Romney, made the bold move, selecting Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. It's a major gamble.

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