St. Louis Post-Dispatch du lieu suivant : St. Louis, Missouri • Page A004

A4 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 1 TUESDAY 07.12.2011 com From Political Fix, our blog on politics and government. STLtoday.compoliticalfix Carnahans keep 'em guessing While many candidates are planning their moves for next year, the siblings Carnahan find themselves on opposite ends of the campaign spectrum. U.S. Rep.

Russ Carnahan's seat won't exist in 2012, but he's still attempting to raise lots of money. His younger sister, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, has said she is running for re-election but has raised little for next year. That has prompted questions about whether Robin Carnahan really will be on the statewide ticket next year and where on the ballot her brother will land. Neither camp is revealing much publicly about its plans. But last month, Russ Carnahan's campaign blitzed supporters with donation requests, looking for an impressive quarterly number in reports due by Friday.

He did so without actually specifying the office he is seeking, employing vague references to "my 2012 reelection campaign." Carnahan, of course, won't be running again in the current 3rd Congressional District, which became a casualty of the state's redistricting process. He has contemplated running in a primary against fellow St. Louis Congressman William Lacy Clay, which would be a racially divisive contest that many Democrats would prefer to avoid. Carnahan also has mulled running to replace Todd Akin in the newly reshaped 2nd District, also unlikely because of the area's demographics (still reliably Republican) and his own geography (Carnahan doesn't live in the district). He has entertained the possibility of filing a lawsuit to spike the redistricting map passed in Jefferson City.

LAURIE SKRIVAN Dave Endres, of Kirkwood, whose company does maintenance work on the athletic fields for the now-evicted Barat Academy, said: "I am not surprised this happened. They still owe me money." Endres, who was on the campus Monday, said he has known about the financial instability at the school but thinks it will survive. "I believe in (school President) Debby Watson and hope this works out for the kids," Endres said. ACADEMY FROM Al Barat Academy's eviction over contract issues puts its leaders to the test Lisa Lineback, 38, of Chesterfield, saidher children already experienced the loss of a school with the closing of Gateway Academy in Chesterfield. Her daughter Diane expects to be a junior at Barat this year.

Lineback said she believes in the school's leadership. "If I didn't think it was a solid, stand-up, great place to get a Catholic education, I wouldn't have chosen that school," she said. Several parents interviewed Monday said they were inclined to stick with Barat, but they want to see what happens first. Nicole Davis, 49, of St. Charles County, said her daughter Jennifer will be a senior this year.

She said she supports Barat but is waiting before deciding whether her daughter will attend the school. "I pray that everything works out," she said. negotiate. After Premier's failure, the school stopped paying its $25,000 monthly rent. Watson has said that move was intended to get the FDIC 's attention.

She said the board has tried to buy back the property. "They would not negotiate," she said. "We still have a contract (to buy) submitted, and we have yet to hear a response. We had no idea it would come to this." Sawyer said the FDIC and Enterprise don't own the property and can'tnegotiate even though they own CP-SPE. She said Premier Bank's failure had nothing to do with the situation, and it should not surprise anyone.

"Barat Academy stopped making payments and defaulted on its lease to CP-SPE," she said. The property has been for sale for months listed at $17 million. In June, the school signed a consent judgment agreeing to pay $216,000 in back rent, interest and other charges. It also surrendered possession of the property, but the company agreed to wait until June 28. On June 30, its attorneys had a judge sign an order giving them the power to evict Barat.

Another company, Netelligent, also has sued Barat, alleging it is owed $17,151 plus interest, attorneys' fees and costs for services it provided. Meanwhile, parents and students are rallying around the school. A prayer vigil has been scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. A rally is planned on July 21.

Previously parents pledged a total of nearly $2 million of their own stock, real estate and other assets to help the school secure a line of credit. The school has operated in the red since it opened, but McKee has said he expects that to end within less than 18 months as larger classes arrive. Tuition at the school is $12,650. Rand Morris, 15, who will be a sophomore, said Monday that he intends to attend Barat regardless of where it's located. "That's where I want to be," he said.

"It's not about the building." He said Barat brought him closer to God and made his attitude toward school more positive. Deep drought and high temperatures wither crops, make grocery bills grow BY KIM SEVERSON AND KIRK JOHNSON New York Times Give Thick, Ugly Toenails the Boot Embarrassed about showing your toenails? Do your toenails hurt? Do they cause your shoes to Do you need heavy-duty equipment to trim them? If you do, you're not alone. An estimated 40 million men and women in the U.S. report problem toenails. But now there's Dr.

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With drought, a shattered wheat or corn crop is a loss to one farmer, and it has a specific price tag. But all those individual losses punch a hole in the food supply and drive prices up. That means grocery shoppers will feel the effects of the drought at the dinner table, where the cost of staples such as meat and bread will probably rise, said Michael J. Roberts, an associate professor of agricultural and resource economics at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. "The biggest losers are consumers," he said.

Climatologists say the great drought of 2011 is starting to look a lot like the one that hit the nation in the early to mid-1950s. That, too, dried a broad part of the southern tier of states into leather and remains a record breaker. The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement.

Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days. "It's horrible so far," said Mike Newberry, a Georgia farmer who is trying grow cotton, corn and peanuts on 1,000 acres. "There is no description for what we've been through since we started planting corn in March." The pain has spread across 14 states, from Florida to Arizona, with southern Missouri dealing with dry conditions but not drought. In Texas, where the drought is the worst, virtually no part of the state has been untouched. More than 30 percent of the state's wheat fields may be lost, adding pressure to a crop in short supply globally.

The question, of course, becomes why. From a meteorological standpoint, the answer is fairly simple. "A strong La Nina shut off the southern pipeline of moisture," said David Miskus, who monitors drought for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The weather pattern called La Nina is an abnormal cooling of Pacific waters. It usually follows El Nino, which is an abnormal warming of those same waters.

Although a newly released forecast from the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center suggests this dangerous weather pattern could revive in the fall, many in the parched regions find themselves in the unlikely position of hoping for a season of heavy tropical storms in the Southeast and drenching monsoons in the Southwest. The United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency has already provided more than $75 million in assistance to ranchers nationwide, with most of it going to Florida, New Mexico and Texas. An additional $62 million in crop insur FOSTER CARE FROM Al llllinois ending Catholic role in foster care over noncompliance with civil unions law GEL. L-Lu L- rl ror Avm, Healthy Nails! 'J BEFORE 1 1 AFTER cy's decision Monday. "I signed (civil unions) into law.

We're not going back," Quinn said in a Chicago news conference "Any or -ganization that decides that because of the civil union law, they won't participate voluntarily in that (foster care) program, that's their choice." The two other diocese regions in Illinois, in Chicago and Rockford, don't provide foster care services. The Chicago Diocese stopped providing foster care services in 2007 because of insurance issues. The Rockford Diocese stopped providing services as of the June 1 effective date of the civil union law. In a statement in late May posted on its website, the Rockford Diocese said the state refused to allow a compromise under which the diocese would have referred same -sex or unmarried foster couples to other agencies "so as not to violate the teachings of the Catholic faith." The diocese argues that same -sex couples who want to be foster parents can do it through other agencies that already contract with the state. "Catholic Social Services believes that it does not harm anyone for an unmarried couple to be served by an agency other than CSS, but that our witness is harmed when we do not hold to the beliefs of the Catholic Church," says Beck's statement.

The statement also says that "many of the 80 or more employees working in foster care" through its program will lose their jobs if the contracts are terminated. The civil union law that took effect June 1 provides same-sex couples with the same legal rights as married couples in virtually all areas, a factor that the DCFS and others say gives those couples the right to act as foster parents. The church-affiliated programs have policies that don't sanction foster services by same-sex or un married cohabitating couples. "The bottom line is that we cannot enter into a contract for services with anyone who has affirmatively stated they will not follow the law in providing those services," said DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe. The dioceses in Springfield, Peoria and Joliet will file for an injunction today in Springfield to stop the decision to pull the contracts.

The Belleville Diocese isn't part of that suit, according to a spokesman for the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to protect the "conscientious fulfillment of the historic and ministerial role of the Roman Catholic Church in providing compassionate, competent and professional social services by means and methods that are faithful to the integral and essential tenets of the Roman Catholic religious faith." Gov. Pat Quinn, who championed the new law, stood by the state agen For more information, visit: www.piggypaste.com facebook.compiggypaste These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. DPPP-0022-0711 2011 DR. PAUL'S PIGGYPASTE.

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