The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 4

4 AThe Jackson Sun STATELOCAL Saturday, February 12, 2005 pip (H Vi A Information to help you plan ahead (3--- fl jw4.ii. Slate briefs 4' jttd. jJl tiLsLL jll ri fcfawJ.t I- 1 i t-. -i 1 i Mark your calendar for Local FILM PRESENTATIONS: KING-MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS AND 'I HAVE A DREAM' SPEECH 7 p.m. in McWherter Center at Jackson State Community College.

Admission: free. Sponsored by JSCC Student Activities. 'THE PREVALENCE OF MRS. SEAL' Presented by the Hamilton Performing Arts Center of Lambuth. 8 p.m.

Thursday through Saturday at Lambuth in the Hamilton Performing Arts Center. The play was written by Otis Bigelow and was described as a witty and well-crafted horror spoof by The New York Post. Tickets: $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12, may be purchased in advance at 425-3235. COMEDIAN DENNIS SWANBERG 7 p.m. Friday at West Jackson Baptist Church, 580 Oil Well Road, Jackson.

Sponsored by Birth Choice Women's Resource Center. No admission, but a love offering will be taken. Call 664-8443. CHRISTINE TOWNSEND BOOK SIGNING Noon Feb. 19 at Davis-Kidd Booksellers and Cafe.

Townsend will sign and discuss her book 'Love on Robinsonville, Miss. BROOKS DUNN (left) 9 p.m. Feb. 24 at Horseshoe Casino Hotel, 1021 Casino Center Drive, Robinsonville, Miss. Tickets: $60.

Call (901) 525-1515 or (800) 303-7463. Pick it up Find entertainment news and movie times and see what's up from Jackson to Memphis, Nashville and all around the region in Get Out! magazine. The entertainment guide runs Thursdays in The Jackson Sun. More information is also available online at www. jacksonsun.com.

1. Knoxville: Ex-troopcr says lie as fired over politics" A former Tennessee Highway Patrol officer has filed a lawsuit challenging his dismissal by claiming he was fired for supporting the wrong gubernatorial candidate. The $25 million lawsuit by Charles Bryan Farmer, who was based in Knoxville, says he was subjected to harassment for not supporting Gov. Phil Bredesen in 2002 and then was fired in May 2004. The suit names the Tennessee Department of Safety, which oversees the troopers, 11 others in the department and Deputy Gov.

Dave Cooley. Governor's office spokeswoman Lydia Lenker referred calls seeking comment to the Safety Department. 1. Knoxville: No bond for man accused of raping Thai child A federal judge denied bond for a private school teacher accused of traveling to Thailand to have sex with a young teenager, saying the prior sex offender was a risk to flee. U.S.

Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley said Thursday that Gregory Alec Phillips was "clearly a risk of flight and nonappearance and a danger to the community and young children." Phillips, 35, was indicted in December after investigators said he had been living with the 13-year-old boy in Bangkok. Police have said he is charged with "engaging in illicit sexual contact in foreign places." 1. Knoxville: Ex-postal worker sentenced in four robberies An "extraordinary" employment history was not enough to keep a former postal worker out of prison after he pleaded guilty to robbing three banks and a credit union. John Douglas Duckett, 45, was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Tom Varlan.

Attorney Stephen Ross Johnson argued at the sentencing hearing that Duckett deserved a light sentence because his "employment history is extraordinary." Johnson also presented testimony from a psychiatrist to show Duckett suffered "reduced mental capacity" at the time of his crimes. Duckett was caught in October 2003 within minutes of robbing the United State Postal Service credit union. He later admitted robbing three other banks between July and October 2003. 2. Oak Ridge: Doctors to study nuclear plant employees Researchers are hoping a new study of 1't CHIPPENDALES DANCERS 7:30 p.m.

Thursday at Octane Dance Club. Tickets: General seating $20 and VIP seating $25, available at Octane. -I I I yf 1 xl. If THE REMAINS 9 p.m. Friday at Lola's.

-1 10 -A EDDIE MONEY (right) 9 p.m. Friday at Gold Strike Casino, 1010 Casino Center Drive, Tunica, Miss. Tickets: $25. Call (901) 525-1515 or visit ticketmaster.com. t- OJ Gatherings Records: Ford paid for wedding with campaign funds Lexington library notes local black leaders The Lexington-ttenaerson County Everett Horn Public Library, 702 West Church will have a display titled "Local African Americans of Achievement" this month.

This display will feature 19 people who were born in Henderson County: Sue Willis Askew, Dr. Archie Carver, Marshall Easley, Ora Seats Easley, the Rev. William W. Easley, Larry Fry, Dr. Patricia Bond Hutto, Connie Timberlake Jones, Dr.

Waymon Jones, Rhoda Beasley Malone, Ruby Watson Mclntyre, Verta Ree Mosley, Mary Williams Slack, Coleman Taylor, Jacqueline Hart Taylor, Dr. James E. Thompson, Gracie Parker Timberlake, Samuel B. Timberlake and Barbara Harmon Washington. Assistance will be offered in filling out federal income tax forms.

To make an Accepted Masons will have a called meeting Thursday for the purpose of conferring two Entered Apprentice degrees. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. Degree work begins at 7 p.m. All Entered Apprentices, Fel-lowcrafts and Master Masons are welcome to attend. Jackson Lodge No.

45 is located at 2911 U.S. 45 Bypass. Beer Commission to consider applications The Madison County Beer Commission will meet to consider applications to sell beer in Madison County. The meeting is at 5 p.m. Feb.

22 at the West Tennessee Center for Agricultural Research and Public Service, 605 Airways in Jackson. The applications follow: Timothy Lynn Crowder, 858 A Mount Pin-son Road, Jackson; Gazelle R. Baker, 3883 U.S. 45 Bypass, Jackson; M. Fazle Rabbi, 154 Law Road in Jackson; and M.

Fazle Rabbi, 2059 U.S. 70 E. in Jackson. appointment, call the library at 968-3239. Southwest policy team meets next week There will be a meeting of the Southwest Human Resource Agency Policy Council at 1 p.m.

Monday in the central office building, 1527 White in Henderson. For more information, call 989-5111. YMCA ready to honor Black History Month The Jackson Family YMCA will have a Black History Month program at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at 1515 Campbell St. in Jackson.

The Jackson State Community College Choir will be on hand. For more information, call 424-0912. Masonic lodge calls meeting next week The Jackson Masonic Lodge No. 45 Free and Y-12 nuclear weapons plant workers will reveal why some people are more vulnerable than others to the toxic metal Dr. Lisa Maier, a physician at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Colorado, said the study will look for genetic links to beryllium disease.

The results could help minimize workplace risks and advance medical treatments for beryllium sufferers. About 140 past or present Y-12 workers have developed an allergy-like sensitivity to beryllium or have been diagnosed with chronic beryllium diseases, she said. The research team wants to compare those people to a like number of Y-12 employees who have worked with beryllium but did not develop a reaction. 3. Memphis: rIvo suspects arrested in counterfeit probe Two Memphis men have been charged with manufacturing nearly $70,000 in counterfeit money.

Anthony Willis, 24, and Kendrick Watson, 25, were charged Thursday after being indicted on conspiracy and dealing in counterfeit charges. They are believed to be responsible for a flood of fake money in the Memphis area starting late last fall. "We feel they were responsible for a portion found in the Memphis area," said Derek Verdeyen, agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service office in Memphis. In the four weeks before Christmas, Memphis police and Shelby County deputies were called about 75 times, mainly to retail stores, where counterfeit bills had been passed.

The trend continued until mid-January. 4. Jonesborough: Police nab 205 gallons of mx)nshine Some 265 gallons of illegally distilled corn liquor were discovered in a storage unit in what authorities described as one of the area's largest moonshine busts in years. State agents, tipped off by the neighboring Unicoi County sheriffs office, confiscated the liquor Thursday and needed an Army truck to haul it away. The liquor had an estimated street value of almost $13,000.

No arrests were made, and authorities were searching for suspects. The Associated Press to the women who head those households and to a third woman challenging him on the child support. The Nashville TV station also reported that Ford used campaign money to pay for portions of his daughter's wedding, including the cake, video and a singer. Almost $11,000 from political contributors also was paid to Karen Michelle Snell, a former Ford assistant who was once involved in a brawl with his ex-wife. Ford has consistently declined to talk to reporters this week about the mounting allegations and the possibility of an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee.

"It's very clear about the personal use of campaign funds the law specifically says you cannot use campaign funds for personal benefit," said Drew Rawlins, executive director of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. The records show that in the last two years girlfriend Connie Matthews, mother of two of Ford's children, was paid $18,400 for "professional services." "It could be anything," Rawlins said of the payments. "It could be work done on his campaign. It could be that she worked in his district." Ex-wife Tamara Mitchell Ford, mother of three of Ford's children, received $2,450 in 2004, and $3,000 went to adult daughters Kemba and Autumn Ford in 2003-2004. And a Smith" of Raleigh, N.C., was paid $400 in 2003.

Ford pays child support to a Dana Smith in Raleigh. The Associated Press NASHVILLE Sen. John Ford has used campaign money to pay for a wedding and thousands of dollars in payments to the mothers of his children, filings show. The Memphis Democrat has been the focus of scrutiny recently over a child support fight that raised questions about whether he lives in the district he represents and whether he failed to disclose more than $200,000 of income from a TennCare subcontractor. Now that subcontractor, the governmental affairs company Managed Care Services Group and chief executive Ronald R.

Dobbins, have been fired. A Doral Dental spokesman said the firm fired Dobbins both "in light of some of the information that's been coming out" and specifically after learning Dobbins is not a registered lobbyist in Tennessee. Doral Dental landed an exclusive, $6.3 million contract to provide dental coverage to about 620,000 poor and uninsured children through the state's publicly funded TennCare program. Spokesman Michael A. Pflughoeft said Doral Dental had no independent knowledge of involvement by Ford in Managed Care Services Group.

An examination by WTVF-TV of Ford's campaign financial disclosures to the state shows thousands of.dollars in questionable spending. Ford, who has testified during a child support hearing that he maintains two different homes with two different families, has been making payments of out of campaign money In uniform units, by President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Tho Garner Local recruit marches in inaugural parade Christopher John Garner of Jackson, son of John and Sandra Garner, left for the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, N.J., on Dec. 14 for eight weeks of basic training. His parents and friends attended graduation on Feb.

4. Garner was selected as one of the recruits to march in the 55th inaugural parade. He had the honor of being reviewed, along with Cape May Coast Guard recruits, officers and other military Cheyenne Trace wants phones for soldiers Cheyenne Trace Assisted Living and Alzheimer's Community has joined the "Cell Phones for Soldiers" program as an official cell phone collection center. Any make or model cell phone with the attached battery may be donated. The phones will be forwarded to Massachusetts for recycling.

Calling cards are then purchased and sent to soldiers. For more information, including hours and days of collection at Cheyenne, call Lyn Wheeler at 343-2150. mas Collins. His next assignment will be a 12-week school for Boastswain Mate in York-town, Va. Garner is on leave before entering school Thursday to continue his six-year enlistment.

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