Eugene, by the way, was unharmed by those little pinchers…it was more attitude on the mudbug’s part than anything else. Eugene has now learned to respect the critter.

New baybeh!!

This is Alice Lily Wingard, Disclosure grandbaby number 3.

She was born in Evansville very early this morning without regard to the sleep of others as some babies are inclined to do (4:26 a.m.) but had the kind consideration to put Sarah through only about four hours of labor. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and was 20 inches long (all Wingard babies are usually chunky monkeys, and quite “tall”) and is reported to be a very happy baby.

She is greeted by an equally-gorgeous big sister, Disclosure grandbaby number 2, Madilynn Mae, almost 2, and of course daddy and mommy, Jess and Sarah, who, you will recall, used to work for us (in 2010-11) and helped us investigate and break the big story in Albion about the Edwards County Senior Center, which ultimately lead to the felony conviction of Dee Harper last year. And of course more aunts here in the household and a lil cousin, our own grand baby number 1, Evelynn Lillian (who, at age 3, is intrigued that they are sort of sharing a middle name).

We are happy to welcome the new granddaughter!!

From Aaron Rector’s Facebook page

Rector was with a group of men/boys who targeted auto owners over the weekend in the Raleigh/Eldorado area, much like what happened about a year ago (and in which Rector was involved), and took many vehicles on joyrides after allegedly breaking and entering them with intent, evidently, to steal them.

Aaron Rector, who has an extensive juvenile record, went to court yesterday morning at 10 a.m. and was charged with “being in the auto” when the others allegedly stole it (we’ll get the exact wording in the print version). He is currently on parole for the incident that occurred last year; as a result of this, it was determined that the boy would go on an ankle monitor and be sent home until further advisement of the court. He was NOT charged with stealing any of the vehicles; however, we’ll see who all does, if any, get charged with said crime.

Be checking for updates, and be sure to pick up the print version for the full story, or get an online membership and read it online at the e-Edition right here.

Shawneetown has been operating under chief Garry Jones, who has had some issues as of late, none of which should have been impacting his performance as chief…but apparently, the new mayor (David Barker) and new council thought Barker’s former challenger for the office, Bob Boon, would make a better chief, so Boon was appointed last week.

Boon ran against Barker in the April 2013 General Election for mayor, also facing Terry Williams for the mayoral seat, but Barker prevailed, 184 (Barker), 174 (Boon) 75 (Williams).

Boon, it’s been reported to Disclosure, has been in and out of law enforcement for years, also working as a prison guard at some point.

Shawneetown residents are said to be cautious about the appointment, as they’re afraid of how the authority might go to Boon’s head. We’ll see. In the meantime, a congrats to the new police chief.

Craig A. Fuller (also known as ‘Whitey’), 31, of rural Palestine was taken into custody 11:34 p.m. Thursday, May 16, leaving the scene his fellow firefighters had been called to.

When firefighters arrived they found a confinement hog operation near Trimble completely engulfed.

Crawford County Deputy Jason Langley, one of the first lawmen to arrive on scene, saw tire tracks leading away from the barn.

Deputy Gabe Lowrance saw a vehicle leaving the area and when he stopped it took Fuller into custody.

Sources told Disclosure early on in the investigation that Fuller was a prime suspect in at least two others fires, one near Heathsville and another near Flat Rock, as featured in a brief article in the current edition of Disclosure.

Firefighters were on scene until after 3:30 a.m. Friday morning.

Preliminary figures from fire officials put the estimated damage at more than $300,000.

Owner Scott Long said it could cost as much as $618,000 just to replace the structure.

Troubled past

Sources close to the family say that Fuller has had a troubled past including losing at least two jobs over alcohol-related issues, one at the Marathon Refinery in Robinson and another as a maintenance man at an area nursing home.

The family source indicted that Fuller was only married a few months in June of 2006 when he got drunk and beat his wife, Amanda who subsequently left him.

They later remarried and had two children and were divorced again in March of 2012.

Family sources claim that Fuller has often been suicidal and on at least one occasion threatened to kill his ex-wife.

Family reaction

“The family is just sick over this,” a source told Disclosure. “They know Whitney was having problems but had no idea thing had gotten this bad. They still love him but hate what he did.

“They are thankful that nobody was hurt.”

Another source say that Fuller family members went out and joined in the volunteer efforts to clean up after the fire and round-up roaming pigs that wondered off the night of the fire.

Another source close to the family said that relatives are glad he is behind bars and hope he gets the help he needs.

“They also so hope that none of his friends bond him out,” said one source. “They are afraid he will either jump bail or kill himself.”

Fuller is being held at the Crawford County Jail on $10,025 cash bond.

The Fuller family themselves are considered respectable farmers, some even raising pigs themselves.

Other unsolved fires include one at the Methodist Church in Robinson on Christmas Eve, two oilfield powerhouses with antique equipment in them, a weekend lake home, one unoccupied residence and several barns.

Someone starts em, we put em out. It’s quite simple, really…just time consuming.

This one centered around a supposed fight that happened between “two juveniles at the park in Louisville,” and the fight was so brutal that “one of them killed the other.” This purported “fight” was said to have occurred last night, Monday, May 20, 2013 some time before sundown.

We started hearing about it last night and all the way through to this morning, and it had some legs, I’m telling ya. So first thing today, we called up to Sheriff Jim Sulsburger’s office in Louisville. The sheriff wasn’t in, but their dispatcher, Pat, was gracious enough to look on the logs all the way back to yesterday, and advised us that there wasn’t even anything CLOSE to that having happened. No reports of juveniles, no reports of fights, no incidents in the park and particularly, no deaths whatsoever, by beating or otherwise.

Why all these rumors are emanating out of Clay is one of those mysteries of the ages, but apparently, someone is starting them deliberately and making sure they get to us. We received information on this particular story from no less than SIX people either emailing, messaging on Facebook, texting or calling since about 7 last night. But—

THERE’S NOTHING TO IT.

And we wouldn’t blame Ms. Pat if she’s getting tired of us calling to ask about the latest crazy thing that’s supposedly gone down in Clay. The shooting at The Ridge was the last REAL thing that happened. Everything else since then—including Robert Sherman going crazy and killing people—was complete fabrication. Maybe we’ll find out who’s fabricating. In the meantime, we’ll continue to track the stories down as they come in, which should show our haters that yes indeed, we DO “check things out” before posting/printing, and sometimes the public officials get things wrong when they relay info to us, but stuff of this nature, no, not usually. It takes a while to reach a PO sometimes, and even longer sometimes to get correct info back, so there may be time delays at times, while at other times, stuff gets to us right quick (as in the case of some POs whose cell phone numbers we have, and they can and do text). So you never know…that’s why you have to keep up with us here….click often…!

Moments ago authorities confirmed to Disclosure that a Carrier Mills man was indeed rushed to a nearby hospital after his throat was slashed earlier yesterday.

LeRoy Wallace

There is no subject in custody however, because sources indicate the man, identified as LeRoy Wallace, 47, was taken from 1115 North Main in Carrier Mills by Med Force Ambulance after 911 was called at approximately 4:30 a.m.

Wallace was transported to Harrisburg Medical Center then air lifted to Evansville for treatment of what is being described as a “self-inflicted” wound.

Wallace appears to be no stranger to the Saline County court system.

Court records indicate that he has a pending case in which he was arrested in August of 2012 and charged with one count each of Aggravated DUI/Fifth Offense and Improper Lane Usage.

He also has a pending case from February of this year in which he is charged with one count each of Aggravated DUI/Sixth Offense, Driving on Suspended License and Improper Lane Usage.

Keep checking back for additional details as they become available.

Payton was convicted February 28, 2013, of Second Degree Murder in the death of his mother, Kathie Payton, a chronic drunk/dope user, in June 2011, after she was attacking him and he fought back.

Terry Payton, being escorted off the elevator this morning.

Today’s motions were to have been to petition the court for an acquittal, or, short of that, a new trial, all based on reversible errors Payton’s attorney claims were incurred during the two-week jury trial in February.

Instead, both sides (Bob McIntire for the defense, Mark Isaf for the state) appeared today and agreed that there was more preparation that needed to be done before they could proceed. So the case was set over another month, to June 21. At that time, Judge Steven Garst told the attorneys, they needed to have any case citations already to him so he could review. It’s going to be a tricky situation; as we said in the post last night, a circuit judge rarely reverses himself on any decisions (such as whether there was cause for a mistrial, one of the points McIntire made in his motion) and even more rarely reverses a jury’s decision; that’s usually best left up to an appeals court. And it’s unclear whether or not Payton will be able to take it to an appeals court.

Jan Burno/Mills/whatever, of slash-lipstick fame

One thing we were told we missed out on today (because we had to get out of the courtroom quickly in order to obtain photos of Terry being escorted back over to the Edgar County Jail): the obstinate and repulsive Jan Burno/Mills/Payton/whatever, sister of Kathie Payton, came huffing and puffing into the courtroom a full 22 minutes after  court was set to start (11 a.m.; they did start on time, but it was over in about nine minutes and Terry was escorted from the courtroom immediately after it was over). Burno, who never had anything to do with her nephew Terry in the 16 years of his existence up until the death of her sister, suddenly was all over the situation as soon as her sister (whom she never had anything to do with prior to her death, either; read about the whole thing here in this article from the March/April 2013 issue) was dead. Burno was capitalizing upon her sister’s death, of course, and the ridiculous charge Isaf filed against Terry, which prompted much media coverage…and Burno apparently wanted her 15 minutes of fame. Since she’s done nothing but make a nuisance of herself in the two ensuing years, now she’s looking at taking her last stab at glory by delivering a “victim impact statement” at the sentencing. How she can claim to be a “victim,” since she wasn’t involved in the lives of either her sister nor nephew, is beyond most logically-thinking people, but of course, the key word here is “logically,” which is the one thing Jan is anything BUT.

There’s been no sentencing set because the probation office hasn’t concluded their presentencing investigation. It’s unclear why; however, often, PSIs involve talking to family when it involves juveniles, and since Terry literally has none (here in the states, anyway, and his family in England doesn’t really know him enough to contribute to a PSI), it’s probably been fairly difficult for a PSI to be done. It might also have proven to be somewhat traumatic as well as puzzling for whomever in probation is doing it, as it made no sense for Terry to ever have been charged, let alone convicted…or even left in the presence of the violent and vile Kathie Payton, who had another child removed from her a couple of years before Terry was born, since she was a useless and negligent drunk at that time as well.

We’ll keep you posted on what shakes out in Terry’s case…in the meantime, please feel free to send a donation, no matter how small, to his legal defense fund, located at First Bank of Paris, 101 South Central, Paris, Illinois, 61944. It’s account number 01-60070813  …we just contributed today; please do so if you can.

A line of strong thunderstorms was indicated on radar just to the west and south of the ferry crossing.

The ferry connects Kentucky highway 91 with Illinois Route 1 across the Ohio River between Crittenden Co., Ky., and Hardin County in Illinois. It normally operates from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. central, seven days a week, carrying about 500 vehicles across the Ohio in an average day.

Things are back up and running now…sorry for the delay in reporting.

Aftermath of May 20, 2013, Moore, Okla., tornado, as shot by Reuters and posted here via Fair Use Act.

MOORE, Okla.—A massive tornado that struck a suburb of Oklahoma City yesterday afternoon (3:01 p.m.) has reportedly now killed more than 90 people—many of them schoolchildren trapped in a building before school was out for the day—and has underscored the dangers of the Midwest in Spring when it comes to tornadic activity.

The situation was made all the more eerie by the fact that it was Moore, Oklahoma, the site of another deadly tornado in 1999; as well as the fact that it occurred on the eve of the anniversary of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado, which, on May 23, 2011, was one of the most deadly storms in modern record-keeping (since 1950; the Tri-State Tornado still holds the records for worst storm of all time but is considered ‘historic’, as weather record-keeping changed dramatically in the 50 years hence).

Crews working the scene of the 2013 Moore tornado continued to pull bodies from the rubble overnight, as told in this detailed piece from Reuters, one of the best news stories we’ve found online this morning; here’s a snip:

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled in Moore, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life. Many residents were left without power and water.

The Oklahoma medical examiner said 20 of the 91 expected to have been killed were children. The office had already confirmed 51 dead and had been told during the night by emergency services to expect 40 more bodies found in the debris, but had not yet received them.

At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, area hospitals said.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

Witnesses said Monday’s tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.

The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today’s dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

The Midwest faced a round of brutal storms overnight last night as well, many of those pounding the readership area for hours and dropping heavy rain here in southern Illinois. Radar maps showed a line of storms approaching last night which stretched from Arkadelphia, Ark., to Chicago shortly before midnight.

More storms are on tap for later today for our area of southern Illinois, and readers are urged to be on guard, as many could be severe. If tornadic activity threatens our area, we’ll keep you apprised of it here and at the Facebook page.