FFA student needs YouTube hits
Crittenden County High School senior Colby Phillips needs a little help from Internet browsers.
The FFA student has produced a 55-second video that could earn himself and the local FFA chapter $3,000 apiece.
Phillips, who is secretary of the FFA chapter and a member of the high school’s Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP), was approached by FFA advisor Larry Duvall recently about a Kentucky Soybean Association competition.
Duvall knew that his chapter secretary was fairly handy with a video camera and computer software so he challenged Phillips to produce a video for the soybean association’s competition.
Phillips shot the footage in Providence and near his home which is close to the Webster County line. He wrote the script, edited the video and recorded the voice over himself.
“It took about eight hours counting video and production,” Phillips said. “I used a video camera and tripod from my STLP lab and the software was iDVD on a Mac laptop.”
The message behind the video is that farmers continue to keep commodity prices low in order to feed America during a time when production costs are sky-rocketing.
As part of the competition, Phillips posted his video on YouTube. His show has already been judged to be among the top 10 in the state. Now, it will be judged according to the views or hits it receives on YouTube. Phillips has received $100 for being in the top 10, but he has a chance for much bigger bucks. The most viewed video will earn $3,000, the second place video gets $2,000 and the third place gets $1,000. The FFA program also gets matching money.
Duvall said he’s working on a campaign at the school to beef up views. The competition runs about three more weeks. As of early this week, Phillips had almost 2,500 views on his video and a slight lead in the competition. A link to the video can be found at The Press Online, www.the-press.com.

Officials mull free WiFi across city
If the City of Marion follows through with its latest plans, the community will be known to outsiders for two things: Shunning technology and embracing it.
The county's Amish community is by far its most widely renowned asset. Its shunning of modern technology is one thing that makes the religious sect so attractive to tourists.
Now, city officials want to reach to the opposite end of the spectrum in order to put Marion on the cyber map.
“We want to provide wireless Internet throughout the city,” Mayor Mickey Alexander said. “It's something that would set us apart from the other small cities in the area. We have a full-blown welcome center and that's something no other small town around us has. So, why not have free Internet?”
The idea was broached during a recent public issues conference the mayor and City Administrator Mark Bryant attended recently with other local officials. There, they met with agencies that provide engineering and technical service to cities or communities that want to go totally wireless.
Anyone with a computer capable of picking up a wireless signal would be able to log onto the Internet, download email or send messages or files. All for free. The mayor envisions tourists and travelers using downtown as a sort of WiFi reststop. While they're idle, he hopes they spend some time in local shops and stores.
“It's a great marketing tool,” he said.
Alexander said Prestonsburg in eastern Kentucky recently installed wireless Internet in a two-mile swath through town for a cost of about $8,500. The mayor figures Marion could do something similar for about the same kind of money.
“We might be able to go from Liberty Fuels to Pamida,” the mayor said, drawing a figurative line from one end of town to the other. “That's only about a mile and half so we might be able to spread it out wider.”
Preliminary plans are to have two DSL Internet services then tie them together through a series of remote wireless devices or booster stations. The mayor isn't sure what type of download speeds citizens could expect, but he wants enough bandwidth to make the project worthwhile.
“That's what the engineers would do. They come in and lay out what you need. It's less expensive than what I expected,” Alexander said.
Plans are to start moving on the proposal immediately. The mayor said other city leaders will be briefed on the matter soon. He anticipates widespread support for the idea and hopes to have the city connected by early 2009.

Cable TV rates on rise again
Relaxing in front of the television to escape the woes of a struggling economy may not provide as much relief beginning next month.
Mediacom, Marion and Crittenden County’s only cable television provider, will be increasing rates once again in mid-November. Customers will be paying $57.95 for the Family Cable package, $4 more than the current rate. The increase reflects a dollar change in the Expanded Basic package and a $3 jump in the Broadcast Basic set of channels.
“...Our costs for programming, fuel and health care continue to escalate,” Randy Hollis, senior manager of government relations for Mediacom, said in an Oct. 8 letter to both the city and county officials.
Mediacom last raised rates in January of this year, increasing the popular Family Cable package by $3. Neither that nor next month’s rate adjustment will include additional channels.
A message left with Hollis was not returned at press time, but the notice to elected officials also cited a cost of millions of dollars to prepare for the nationwide digital transition in February.
The Middleton, N.Y.-based communications company offers cable, Internet and phone services in the area. No other company services Crittenden County with all of those products.

Police find stolen pickup burned on rural Tolu road
Local authorities on Monday found a truck stolen over the weekend from a Tolu-area residence burned on a remote farm access road at E-town Landing.
An area farmer, John Croft, located the remains of a burned 1999 Ford Ranger 4x4 early Monday afternoon while tending the fields. Police were able to identify the vehicle from the license plate as one reported stolen from Terry Powell on Tom Minner Road northwest of Sheridan.
Kentucky State Trooper Chris King began the investigation into the stolen truck on Sunday when Powell first reported the vehicle stolen from the driveway where he was staying. Just more than 24 hours later, Croft spotted the burned vehicle just a few miles from the residence.
The truck was burned beyond recognition and is a total loss.
While responding to Croft’s find, Crittenden County Deputy Sheriff Greg Rushing received a call about additional property stolen from the Tolu area. Before answering the call, area residents and Rushing discovered a trailer hidden in the woods off E-Town Ferry Road just up from where the burned truck was found.
The trailer, which was stoled from Brad Hamilton who lives near Powell, turned out to the be the missing property Rushing was called to investigate. The trailer, too was damaged in the theft.
“We don’t have any suspects yet,” Rushing said Tuesday.

Extra patrols planned for Halloween
Trick or treaters inside the City of Marion will have to put away their sweet tooth as darkness falls Friday, but rural spooks won’t be under the same restrictions.
Marion Police Chief Ray O’Neal said a citywide curfew for anyone under 18 will be enforced on Halloween aimed at curbing potential mischief. Children must be accompanied by a parent or be going to or coming from work if they are out past 6 p.m.
There is no excuse for youth to be out after dark on Halloween for any other reason, the police chief said.
Trick or Treat on Main, the tradition of downtown stores offering candy to trick-or-treaters, is set to end at 5 p.m., as are Halloween photos taken at The Crittenden Press. Those coming from Friday’s football game at Caldwell County, too, will be allowed on the streets, but only to return home.
There is no curfew outside of the city, but the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department will be on full alert Friday for Halloween.
Sheriff Wayne Agent said it's the first time in a while that Halloween has fallen on the weekend.
"We haven't had any trouble on Halloween the past few years," Agent said. "But we're taking extra precautionary measures this year because it's on Friday."
The sheriff and all three of the county deputies will be on patrol all night.
Halloween was once a time for rabble-rousing in the county. Often times, the pranks went too far and property was damaged and lives put in danger. Fires, egg throwing and other potentially harmful Halloween activities have been replaced with more traditional trick or treating in recent years.

Tolu haunt on hold
There will be no haunted house in Tolu this year, thanks to Hurricane Ike. In September, when the remnants of the cyclone tore across the county, a portion of the roof of the Tolu Community Center where the haunted house takes place each October was ripped off.
"Due to the damaged roof and possibility of repairs going on during the time the haunted house would be opened, they decided not to do it this year," said Carolyn Byford, a Tolu native with family still living there.