The Nashville News THURSDAY • September 19, 2013 • Issue 75 • 1 Sections • 14 Pages • In Howard County, Arkansas since 1878 • USPS 371-540 • 75 cents IN BRIEFt School looking Hoover to at purchase of perform at Elberta smartphone app Brady Hoover will CHARLES GOODIN appear live in not been satisfied by Editor concert Sat., the state department Sept. 21 at the of education’s online Elberta Arts NASHVILLE - The parent-teacher connec- Center for a school is considering tion, called the Home two-hour show purchasing access to a Access Center (HAC). beginning at new smartphone app HAC is provided by the 7 p.m. Admis- that officials say would Arkansas Department of sion is $5. allow them to more ef- Education at no cost to Hoover fectively communicate the district, but school wasn’t even a with parents. officials said it can be dif- teenager the COURTESY PHOTO Superintendent Doug first time he Presley Pennington, a Nashville High School graduate, ficult to use and doesn’t picked up the holds a picture of her brother, Creed, who was Graham told school provide much of the instrument that diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. board members Monday information the smart- would change that the district’s prin- phone app would. his life forever. cipals attended a webi- If approved, the app Today, the nar recently on the app, could be implemented Murfreesboro- Going which would send push district-wide in as little born singer- notifications regarding as a month. songwriter student grades, atten- Board members took has become a dance and upcoming no action on the subject skilled gui- events to their parents’ at Monday’s meeting. tarist whose smartphones. repertoire In other business, ranges from High School Principal Graham again warned Lynard Sky- Tate Gordan said the app the board about an im- nard to Leon- comes with an up front pending 48 percent in- ard Cohen and for a price tag of $6,000 and crease in teacher insur- everything in ald would cost the school ance set to take effect between. With $4,000 annually after January 1. a list of literal- B that. “This is gonna be a ly hundreds of Nashville Graham explained concern of us all,” Gra- covers along that the app is being ham said. “Obviously the with a healthy grad inspires considered because of- ones that are gonna get dose of his ficials and parents have trademark sorority sister See SCHOOL / Page 8 humor and wit, Brady’s to donate hair Cause shows offer something for ittle is more important to everyone. the stereotypical sorority City aldermen OK girl than her hair. South- Church to Lern Arkansas University’s Marissa Aranda is breaking sewer project bids hold open down that label by putting her long, brown hair on the chop- kitchen ping block for a good cause. CHARLES GOODIN money to complete the Aranda’s Phi Mu sister, Pres- Editor projects. Wickes ley Pennington, and the rest of Texarkana-based con- Pentecostal her sorority sisters have set a NASHVILLE - City tractor Heritage Con- Church of goal of raising more than $7,500 aldermen unanimously structors won bidding God, 7883 this September in honor of Child- approved a resolution on improvements to the Hwy 71 S, will Monday accepting $5.8 city’s waste water treat- have its open hood Cancer Awareness Month. million in bids on its ment plant last month kitchen Thurs., Pennington, a Nashville High Sept. 19 from School graduate, has seen first- upcoming sewer proj- with a bid of $5,794,696, 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. hand the hardships associated ects. while J&R Contractors, The free din- with childhood cancers. Her The move came dur- Inc., of Palestine, was the ner will be spa- brother, Creed, was diagnosed ing a special meeting apparent low bidder on ghetti, garlic with acute lymphoblastic leuke- of the council called to the proposed rehabilita- bread with a mia at the age of two. He is five lock in a lower interest tion of the city’s sewer dessert. and in remission, but has had rate that Public Works lines. to return recently to Arkansas Director Larry Dunaway The resolution states Children’s Hospital to fight an said will save the city that the city made ne- NES ranked infection in his bloodstream. between $600,000 and gotiated change orders among top The money raised will be $700,000 over the next with the firms, bringing donated to Children’s Miracle 40 years. A loan financed the cost of the plant COURTESY PHOTO by the United States De- improvements down to 25 schools Network and to the American Marissa Aranda has upped the stakes of the fund partment of Agriculture in US Childhood Cancer Organization raiser by vowing she will shave her head and donate $5,393,483 and the rehab See BALD / Page 3 her hair if the $7,500 mark is met. is providing the needed cost down to $498,150. Nashville Elementary School has been named to a list of the top 25 middle schools in the Local man among crew honored at museum United States according POOLER, GA - Jim Mike marily to Swamp Fire. Web- to building Tolleson (1921-1968) along master Richard Lewis for principal Latito with other ground crew, Swamp Fire reported that Williams. air combat crew, and crew “the 379th BG had the best Williams chief of the famed Swamp reputation in the entire 8th said Wednes- Fire B-17 were recently hon- USAAF, and Tolleson’s crew day in a press ored at the National Mu- was considered the best at release that seum of the Mighty Eighth Kimbolton.” the ranking is based on Air Force near Savannah in Swamp Fire was as im- benchmark Pooler, GA. portant to the European math achieve- Tolleson spent almost Theater as Enola Gay was ment data all of his life in Nashville, to the Pacific Theater. from tests except for his college and Swamp Fire was complet- taken during Air Force days. After gradu- ed by Boeing on January the Spring of ating from Nashville High 14, 1944, and then sent to 2013. School, Tolleson attended England on Valentine’s Day “These Southern State University 1944. Here are some of the awards are in Magnolia, Arkansas for milestones of Swamp Fire: given out by two years and then joined •฀Picked฀to฀be฀one฀of฀60฀ the Office for Education the United States Army crews out of 2300 available Policy at the Air Force that sent him to to fly the top secret “Grape- University of Perry Technical Institute fruit Mission” May 28, 1944; Arkansas,” in Yakima, Washington for •฀Winner฀of฀Grand฀Slam฀ Williams said. two years. The USAAF Award for April/May mis- “This is a then sent Tolleson to Africa sion statistics 1944; testament to briefly and then on to the •฀ Achieved฀ 100th฀ Mis- your hard work 379th BG at the Kimbolton sion Status on November COURTESY PHOTO | Marsha Rhodes and dedication Air Force Base near Bed- 1, 1944, and it was the First Jim Tolleson is pictured working on an aircraft in England during World War II. to excellence. ford, England. Heavy Bomber to do so You should be Tolleson started out as without an abort; ing her 117th Mission; Ground Crew Chief Domi- One particular mission very proud of this achieve- an assistant ground crew •฀Crashed฀on฀landing฀by฀ •฀Declared฀‘War฀Weary’฀ nick DeSalvo on December of Swamp Fire caught the ment.” chief and was assigned pri- rookie crew after complet- by the Commander and 12, 1944. See MAN / Page 8 2 EDITORIAL The Nashville News | Online at http://www.nashvillenews.org | Call: 1-888-845-6397 | Thursday, September 19, 2013 Minimum wage madness A survey of American economists found that 90 percent of them regarded minimum wage laws as increasing the rate of unemployment among low- skilled workers. Inexperience is often the problem. Only about 2 percent of Americans over the age of 24 earned the minimum wage. Advocates of minimum wage laws usually base their support of such laws on their estimate of how much a worker THOMAS "needs" in order to have "a living wage" — or on SOWELL some other criterion that Creators pays little or no atten- Syndicate tion to the worker's skill level, experience or gen- eral productivity. So it is hardly surprising that minimum wage laws set wages that price many a young worker out of a job. What is surprising is that, despite an accumulation of evidence over the years of the devastating effects of minimum wage laws on black teenage unemploy- ment rates, members of the Congressional Black Caucus continue to vote for such laws. Once, years ago, during a confidential discussion with a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I asked how they could possibly vote for minimum wage laws. The answer I got was that members of the Black Caucus were part of a political coalition and, as such, they were expected to vote for things that other mem- bers of that coalition wanted, such as minimum wage laws, in order that other members of the coalition would vote for things that the Black Caucus wanted. Lindsey’s plan for war with Iran When I asked what could the black members of Congress possibly get in return for supporting minimum wage laws that would be worth sacrificing This summer produced friends of Israel." appointed the most pro- whole generations of young blacks to huge rates of a triumph of American In July, Graham told a PAT American foreign minister unemployment, the discussion quickly ended.