The Kirksville Socialite

Think the healthcare system sucks?  Join the club.

You can also join the Adair Citizens for Healthcare Reform for an evening of conversation about reforming America’s healthcare system this Thursday evening at the Kirksville Arts Association Building from 7-9pm.   The purpose of the evening is to get local conversation flowing about reforms and to gather opinions that can be relayed to our Senators and Representatives in the state and U.S. Capitols.

The event will take place the day after what is being billed as a “major announcement in the field of healthcare” will be made by V.P. Joe Biden, so if you’re planning on going pay attention to the news tomorrow, Socialites.  Speakers at the ACHR event include a physician, a healthcare administrator, a representative from a insurance company and State Representative Rebecca McClanahan, who is a former nursing professor at TSU and is quite knowledgable about all things healthcare.  I should point out that I was told in an email by a representative for ACHR that there will be “plenty of time for discussion,” so know that you won’t just be coming to listen to people talk at you.

On a related note, and primarily for those of you on Twitter, Rep. McClanahan has begun a Tweeting series called “100 Days of Tweeting Healthcare” in which she posts daily tweets about healthcare reform and Missouri.  You should check it out by visting her Twitter page or following her updates.

Cheers,

Casey

Video footage here.

Cheers,

Casey

Media Credit: NationalGeographic.com

This would explain why our usually disastrously precocious cat seems to have abandoned trying to find a way to jump onto the blades of the ceiling fan and has instead taken to cuddling on the bathroom tile.  Anyways, a heat advisory is in effect for our area through Wednesday.  Specifically, the weather gods are warning of heat indexes in between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit paired with 90%+ humidity.  Sounds like a recipe for an asthma attack.

In all seriousness, however, when it gets to be this hot and humid it can actually become dangerous to be in the heat.  If you’re without air conditioning and looking for a cool place to spend the hottest hours of the day I suggest stopping by Pickler Memorial Library with a good book for a few hours.  They’ve been working on reorganizing their media center on the second floor, so I’m not sure if you’re able to watch movies in there or if you’ll have to wait a while before it becomes available to the general public again.

Also, not to go all worst-case-scenario on you guys, but I think a refresher in Bear Grylls’ (of Man v. Wild awesomeness) tips on surviving desert heat, as well as precautions to take when traveling through the desert, is in order. One can never be too prepared.

Cheers, and keep cool,

Casey

ps.  If you want something that’s ridiculously addictive, reminds you of cooler climes and is just plain adorable, may I suggest a rousing game of Winterbells?

Edit: Ketterlinus is a design assistant in the Publications Office at TSU.

I simply don’t understand things like this.  Via the Kirksville Daily Express:

KIRKSVILLE — A Kirksville man is facing four charges of sex offenses stemming from incidents involving his 14-year-old step-daughter.

Glen Ketterlinus. Via his LinkedIn profile.

Glen Ketterlinus, 56, has been charged with two counts of felony sexual exploitation of a minor and two charges of possession of child pornography.

Ketterlinus was arrested Friday after the victim’s mother notified local law enforcement.

According to court documents, Ketterlinus admitted to taping and photographing the girl naked over the past four years since she was 10-years-old.

The victim knew of the photos and videotapes, but first notified her mother about the tapes Friday through a text message.

At the time of the message, the victim was traveling to Moberly, Mo., with Ketterlinus when she messaged her mother something was wrong.

Law enforcement officials, were waiting for their return to the residence later that evening.

Ketterlinus also admitted to possessing approximately 25 separate videos, but stated he did not share or sell the content.

He is currently being held at the Adair County Jail on a $150,000 cash-only bond.

Once again, no “cheers” on this post.

Casey

Good evening Socialites.  The K.D. Express and KTVO-3 have been reporting more details about the circumstances surrounding the charges filed against Nathaniel and Elisabeth Burns and Aaron Rodgerson:

“The allegations in that case are that the child at 10 months old only weighed 12 pounds, and City Councilman Rodgerson was giving some advice to these people regarding contact with the Kirksville Police Department and the family services,” Williams said.

The indictment alleges Rodgerson told the child’s parents not to cooperate with authorities and family services regarding the malnourished child.”

Specifically, that “practicing law without a license” charge stems from an incident described by Deputy Chief Tim King in the court documents as following:

“Once authorities responded to the call, the documents state Rodgerson told the mother and Deputy Chief Tim King that officers could not come into the mother’s home or inspect the child, as that would be a violation of her ‘6th Amendment rights’ and ‘that we (law enforcement) used the law to protect the child and violate the rights of the adult.’”

Rodgerson has made a brief statement about the nature of the charges, saying:

“‘All I’m willing to say at this time is that these charges are groundless,’ Rodgerson said by phone Saturday morning, ‘and we are cooperating and working with the local system of justice.’”  (Please click on the link to see additional, non-charge oriented comments made by Rodgerson.)

I’d like to acknowledge that I’m not a Rodgerson devotee, something which, I expect, doesn’t come as a shock to anyone.  One thing I do commend him for, however, is his desire to go beyond the role of citizen and to put himself in a position of accountability through which he tries to serve 17,000+ to the best of his capacities.  You do that in this town (in any town, really) and you don’t exactly sign yourself up for an adoring fan base or anonymity.  I also commend him for wanting to spend his life serving individuals in an additional capacity, and if the response of some of his parishoners to this mess is any indication of his pastoring style then I think they feel he probably does a pretty decent job for their church.

I’ve strongly disagreed with his inclination to use a religion to shape the law for a group of people who hold widely varying views, religious or otherwise, and I stand by that. Though I’ve found that some of the religiously-based decisions he’s made on City Council have led me to seriously question the quality of his judgment, and though I’m not particularly thrilled to hear that a City Councilman/Pastor stands accused of a charge that’s not tossed about lightly (more about that other, “practicing law without a license,” bit later) I can honestly say that it would make me incredibly happy to be able to report that the impetus for this entire situation was an unimaginably unfortunate series of misinterpreted circumstances.  I can’t think of anyone who would wish otherwise, particularly for the child’s sake but also for Rodgerson’s and the Burns’.

A common thread throughout the dialogue is the inclusion of more facts.  That’s fair, so let’s have at a few of the many discussions being had about this with as many facts as we can:

Argument:  Weighing 12 pounds at 10 months does/does not constitute malnourishment.

Facts: Every child is immeasurably unique, and it could very well be that this child simply has a very slow rate of weight gain.  Making the point that 10-monthers usually weigh a bit more than 12 pounds is also a valid argument.

A few people mentioned that WHO healthy baby standards rely on formula-fed babies for statistics, whose rates of growth are different from breastfed babies.  The WHO actually revised their charts in 2006 to reflect healthy breastfed babies (data for girls here and boys here; note that these measurements are in kilograms and that 1 kg is the equivalent to 2.2 pounds).  By way of comparison here’s the CDC’s most recent chart trends for breastfed babies, with pounds on the right.  I’m sure I don’t need to whip out my Methodology notes and wax on about sample data and outliers and how statistics don’t speak for everyone under the sun.

Also, a few people have made mention of medical records, which haven’t been released for public consumption.  I’ve fielded a few emails from people asking me about what information the records contain; the best I can do is say is that private medical records remain private unless they’re made public by the family or brought as evidence in a court case, neither of which has happened.

Argument: Kirksville/Missouri/DFS has overstepped its authority.

Facts: People abuse children.  Consequently, laws have been developed to react against those seen to be comprimising the welfare of their children, and various entities have been charged with carrying out the enforcement of these laws in one capacity or another. If you belong to one of these agencies and honestly believe that there is a 10 month-old being abused in some manner you’re probably going pursue and/or arrest the person you feel confident is abusing them.

You’re also probably going to slap whatever charges you possibly can on them to try to nail them on something, or at least make them plea bargain.  (Hence that “practicing law without a license” charge, methinks.  Kind of seems like it was tossed in to be a bargaining chip.)

Argument: This is proof that Rodgerson is not “Christ-like.”

Facts: No stigmata on this blogger, and likely none on the people using this line, either.

Argument: The parties arrested were targeted by the law because they were Christian, because they spoke out against homosexuality and/or alcoholism, or because there’s a plot against them for the aforementioned reasons.

Facts: The parties were targeted by the law because the legal entities that deal with abuse in this city/state felt that they had enough evidence to prove that the 10 month-old was being endangered by each one of them.  Are the individuals getting maligned for being hypocritical Christians?  Yes, (see the “Facts” response from the previous question for my response to this) but not by the KPD or MO DFS.  Speaking of those two entities, I’m not sure that either spoke out against Rodgerson’s Kirksville housing ordinance comments, or the Burns’ testamony about why the sale of alcohol in a public park would be a bad thing for families, or against all of them for loving Jesus.  If there exists evidence to the contrary I’d love to post it.

Alright, Socialites, until more new info about this is released I’m through posting on it.  Digress as you will.

Cheers,

Casey

City Councilman Aaron Rodgerson. From the Socialite Media Files.

Kirksville City Councilman Aaron Rodgerson has been arrested on charges stemming from child endangerment.  This evening Rodgerson was charged with child endagerment, practicing law without a license and (get ready to restrain your anger) failure to report child abuse.

The child in question is under a year old and belongs to members of his church (Southside Baptist Church).  As a pastor he is required by law to report known or reasonably suspected cases of child abuse.  Charges on child endangerment were also filed against the parents of the child; bail for them has been set at $25,000, while for Rodgerson it is $1,000.  When contacted the police would not elaborate on the situation from which the charges stem (standard procedure, I believe).

Rodgerson, as you may remember from previous postings on the Socialite, is the city councilman who many months ago stood behind statements expressing support for housing discrimination against members of the gay community.  He is also the person whom new councilmember Carolyn Chrisman nominated to be Mayor Pro Tem, so let’s be happy that motion wasn’t successful in light of tonight’s events.

More information as it becomes available, Socialites, and please keep the child involved in this situation in your thoughts.  No “cheers” signoff on this post.

Casey

UPDATE: Good morning everyone.  With the light of day I have more information about the charges filed.  Rodgerson has been charged with practicing law without a license failure to report child abuse and the parents of the child, Nathaniel and Elisabeth Burns, have been charged with endagering the welfare of a child in the first degree.  The Burns’ moved to Kirksville around two years ago with their children and have previously appeared at a City Council meeting to support Rodgerson’s opposition to alcohol sales in Rotary park:

Nathaniel Burns, who moved to Kirksville nearly a year ago, urged the Council to reject a proposal allowing the sale of alcohol in Rotary Park and the North Park ball complex.

Burns said advocacy work he did in Gary, Ind., familiarized him and his wife with the perils of excessive alcohol consumption.

“We saw first hand the effects of regular public intoxication and the effects it had on families and individuals,” he said. “I don’t want that for my family.”

Oh yeah, you read right.  Members of The Covert Cupboard’s email list got a pretty nifty email this morning informing them about some exciting new changes to Kirksville’s finest and tastiest organic bakery:

Hi Friends!

The online store is up!  We’ve partnered with Google Checkout to provide online payment, so now you can reserve your bread AND sleep in on Saturday morning!  Well, try to wake up before 11 a.m. at least. If you pay online, we’ll have your bread ready when you arrive, and it might even feel like you’re picking up free bread.  Also, we won’t take down the Google Checkout page until ALL the items are sold.  That means there’s no Thursday at noon cutoff like the old order form.  Go to the store now at www.covertcupboard.com/shop/googlecheckout.shtml What’s better than that?  I’ll tell you.

Being able to get granola bars delivered to your door anywhere in the continental U.S.  Yup.  We can ship granola bars now using USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes.  Basically, we can ship 18 granola bars for just $4.95.  We’re pretty excited.  So let your out of town family and friends know that they too can experience Kirksville’s only handmade Granola Bar.  We need your help to keep this project going!

Those who don’t wish to order online can still fill out the same order form from before, located at www.covertcupboard.com/shop/orderform.shtml.  Orders placed this way need to be in by Thursday at noon and will be held on Saturdays until 9 a.m.

Lest you forget The Covert Cupboard will be setting up shop inside the new Pickler’s Famous building when it opens up, so you’ll have ready access to their tasty breads, scones, power muffins and granola bars throughout the week.  When Pickler’s is set to open is a different question, one I’m trying to figure out at the moment, so hang tight and hopefully I’ll have some info for you before too long.

Cheers,

Casey

If you’re in the ‘Ville (or just read the blog) and want a simple but effective way to show your support for the Iranian protesters consider partiticipating in Green Friday, where individuals wear green (shirts, jewelry, hair, anything) to signify their support for the rights of the Iranian protesters to express themselves without being beaten, shot, censored, tear-gassed, or (especially) murdered, as several college students at Tehran U and Tebriz U were during these past couple of days.  Why green?  Green was the campaign color for the opposition candidate in this past weekend’s national elections, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.  Reports suggest that votes for Mousavi were either grossly deflated or just plain ignored, and his campaign color has since become the symbolic color of the movement against the hard-line leaders’ (President Ahmedinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei) violent repression.  So, if you’ve been looking for a way to show your support for turning the daily scene in Iran from the above image into the one below green it up on Friday, Socialites.

Cheers,

Casey

Edit: The G.A. ticket prices were originally listed as being $20; they are, in fact, $10.  In other news, accurate typing is awesome.

Ever heard of the Curtain Call Theatre Company?  They’ve been a busy bunch this past year, putting on performance after performance for Kirksvillains, Trumies and anyone else who’s looking for something different to do. This past school year’s performances have included Laundry & Bourbon & Lone Star, Rocky Horror and two one-piece comedic acts by James McClure.  Currently the CCTC is getting ready for next weekend’s performance of what is being dubbed their most ambitious project yet, a play-within-a-play entitled Noises Off.

Noises Off was written by playwright Michael Frayn, who got the idea for the story while standing backstage watching a performance of a comedic piece he had written.  ”It was funnier from behind than in front and I thought that one day I must write a farce from behind,” he later recalled.  Thus Noises Off was born.  Since its premier in 1982 the play has won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, has been nominated for several Tony awards and has won a Drama Desk Award (something I’m not familiar with but that’s apparently a big deal).

From the Noises Off Facebook Group Page.

Frayn has continually rewritten the script (the last edit being in 2000) to account for referential differences that accrue over time.  The core structure of the plot remains mostly the same as it was in its original form, however.  It’s built around the concept of a play within a play: the actual actors in the play pretend to be “5th rate actors” in another play, and perform snippets from that play throughout.  The play within Noises Off is called Nothing On, a dreadful British sex comedy set in a delightful 16th-century posset mill that has been converted to modern dwelling facilities in which young girls run around in their underwear, old men drop their trousers, and many doors continually open and shut (Just like the Playboy Mansion!).

From CCTG’s description of the performance:

Act One is dress rehearsal – but the actors can’t seem to get it together. From the actress who can’t remember her lines or cues; the aging actor who hits the bottle a little too much; the prima donna; a love triangle; the frustrated director and everything in between, the cast and crew is at each other’s throats.

For the second act, you – the audience – will go backstage with the bickering actors and watch in hilarity as they struggle in vain to keep the production from falling apart.

Act Three, as you can imagine, shows the cast at the end of their ropes and the play’s ten-week run, when things finally do fall apart.

I mentioned above that’s this is being called CCTC’s most ambitious project to date.  From the group page:

This is, without a doubt, our most ambitious project ever. Not only is the play fast-paced and physically demanding, but we’ve also constructed our first ever two-story, double sided set!

The performance is Directed by Phil McIntosh, and will be playing at the Baptist Student Union at 110 W. Normal June 25-27 at 7:00pm and June 28 at 2:00pm.  General Admission is $10 and Student/Senior admission is $7 (another reason I love being a student in this town–awesome discount prices).  Tickets are currently on sale at Edna Campbell Bookstore in the downtown district.

Cheers,

Casey