The Arnold Call

After mentioning that the Editor from Arnold does not live in our community, I wondered about the Call's other writer, Burke Wasson. I guess he doesn't live here either. There's no record of paying any property taxes and no listed phone number. It appears neither writer lives in the community. Is that what you expect from a local newspaper?
While I was searching the web, I came across an article written earlier by Wasson that I thought I might share.
Southern Illinois U.: Military support for Bush declines.
(From University Wire) Byline: Burke Wasson President Bush's military campaign in Iraq could eventually cost him the Election Day support of the very soldiers he has sent to the country, as well as their families. Shayla Goldsmith, whose husband D.J. is back in Fort Campbell, Ky., after spending close to a year in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, said her initial support of Bush has steadily declined over the last few months. "We were behind President Bush in the beginning of the war, but the total solidarity has gone," Goldsmith said. "I think the country as a whole is maybe feeling the way I was feeling. We're kind of like, what are we still doing there? How much longer are we going to make our boys stay over there?" Polls of U.S. military personnel and their families suggest that Goldsmith is not alone. According to a bipartisan poll published by Business Week in December, 36 percent of soldiers, their families and veterans approve of Bush as President. War Times published a story in February that said nearly 50 percent of National Guard personnel and reservists reported low morale. According to a poll conducted in October by Stars and Stripes, nearly one in three of the 2,000 military personnel surveyed believed the war had "no value" or "little or no value." Goldsmith said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was the first signal to her the President could have made the wrong decision. "I don't even think our soldiers are for sure," Goldsmith said. "They were looking for the weapons of mass destruction, and now there aren't any. It's like making someone look for your wallet over and over when there never really even was one in the first place." D.J. Goldsmith, who is a specialist in the 101st airborne division, said before he came back to the United States on Feb. 1, he and other soldiers were ordered to continue looking for WMD. "[Bush] is my boss, and I have to obey him," he said. "But we've found no weapons of mass destruction. Not one." Shayla Goldsmith said she fears that D.J., who is expected to be sent back to Iraq in March 2005, will be away from her and their two children once again. "We still have 130,000 U.S. soldiers risking their lives, and I just don't want my husband to be another one of those next year." Other members of military families who are feeling opposition toward Bush have decided to organize and take matters into their own hands. Members of a group called Military Families Speak Out say more than 1,000 families have signed up online. According to the group, new members join daily. The group began before the invasion of Iraq. Shayla Goldsmith said despite her change in attitude toward the President, the most she can do is honor the integrity and bravery her husband has shown during his time in Iraq. "I'm very proud of him," she said. "He went over there and he saved people from a horrible dictator and he did it with such bravery. I'm really happy that he's home." ((Distributed via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com))

And here's one partly about him:
Woman who helped with hoax hires lawyer
Monique GarciaDaily Egyptian One day after SIU Police announced an investigation into what is now known as the "Kennings hoax," the woman who helped orchestrate the ruse said she has hired a lawyer. Approached by Daily Egyptian reporters while leaving the School of Law building Wednesday afternoon, Jaimie Reynolds said she now has a lawyer but declined further comment. Since a six-hour interview with the Daily Egyptian last week, when she admitted to recruiting friends and family members to unknowingly participate in the elaborate deception, Reynolds has not answered phone calls or answered the door at her home. SIUC Police Chief Todd Sigler did not return multiple phone messages seeking comment Wednesday, but University spokeswoman Sue Davis confirmed the department was investigating if Reynolds broke any laws while executing the hoax. Sigler told the Chicago Tribune that police have interviewed "some of the people involved" but declined to say who had been questioned. "It's a bit of a unique situation, so we're moving at a very deliberate, methodical pace," Sigler told the Tribune. "The devil will be in the details with this." Caitlin's father, Richard Hadley, said University police interviewed his daughter over the phone Wednesday afternoon and were primarily trying to determine a motive. "My focus is on assisting officials, police, whatever, in identifying the 'why,'" Hadley said. "This woman manipulated the feelings of an 8-year-old girl. And that's what I would ask her if she was in front of me: 'Why? What was going through your mind that would make you do this, to toy with an 8-year-old girl like this?'" For more than two years, Reynolds pretended to be Colleen Hastings, guardian of Kodee Kennings, an 8-year-old girl whose father, Dan Kennings, was serving in Iraq. After a May 2003 story told of Kodee's struggles at home without her father, the girl and Colleen Hastings befriended Daily Egyptian staff members. Kodee later wrote her own column, "Kenningsology" and her father visited the newsroom. There was no Dan Kennings, Kodee Kennings or Colleen Hastings. The story was a sham. At the center was 27-year-old Reynolds, who posed as Hastings. The girl who came to the newsroom and whose face appeared in print was Caitlin Hadley of Montpelier, Ind. Caitlin and her parents believed she was starring in a documentary film about the soldier and his daughter, which was being recorded with hidden cameras. The man who appeared in the newsroom as Dan Kennings was Patrick Trovillion of Vienna, who contends Reynolds paid him for his part. Reynolds said she did not act alone, and the hoax was actually masterminded by former Daily Egyptian editor Michael Brenner, who concocted the story to advance his journalism career. Reynolds said Brenner threatened her to go along with the ruse. Brenner vehemently denies the allegations but said he should have checked his facts while writing "Forced apart," the May 2003 article that first introduced Kodee to Southern Illinois. Since learning of the hoax, the Daily Egyptian has issued an apology and retracted all found stories, letters to the editor and columns regarding Kodee and Dan Kennings and Colleen Hastings. The newspaper has continued to report on its findings. Throughout the hoax, many of those who say they were duped received numerous e-mails, phone calls and drawings from Kodee, Colleen Hastings and Dan Kennings. Former Daily Egyptian editor Burke Wasson said he could remember times when Kodee or Colleen Hastings called him six or seven times a day. He also received dozens of e-mails from Kodee and Dan Kennings, as well as Kenny Tinsley and Jim Johnson, soldiers Dan Kennings supposedly served with in Iraq. Wasson also spoke to people posing as Tinsley and Johnson on the phone for the article "Mixed feelings of wartime," which has since been retracted. "I'll say that we were thinking too much with our hearts and not with our heads," Wasson said. "We saw this little girl who needed to be cared for and that was in a really bad situation. As journalists we failed big time, as human beings we did absolutely nothing wrong. I can live with that." Reynolds said she sent some of the e-mails under Brenner's direction, but she said others were sent by Brenner via Yahoo! accounts he would access on her computer. Brenner said he has never been to Colleen Hastings' or Reynolds' home and denies sending any e-mails. "I can't even think two moves ahead when I play chess," Brenner said during an interview Saturday. "How could I have come up with all this?" Since reporting on the deception, the Daily Egyptian has received at least one hoax e-mail. The writer claimed to be a University alumnus and former media ethics professor at the University of Tennessee. Checks with both institutions revealed no records of such a person.