Ugandan Children Perform at Smithville First Baptist Church

January 24, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The Sozo Children’s Choir brings its vibrant and joyful voices to Smithville First Baptist Church on February 6. Twenty-two Ugandan children and six adults will sing traditional African songs, children’s church songs and the contemporary music from worship bands like Chris Tomlin, Hillsong United, and Elevation Worship. The community is invited to the performance starting at 6:30 p.m. at Smithville F.B.C., 101 West Church Street.Seeing a need to rescue the children immediately from their suffering, abuse, and neglect, Sozo Children was formed in 2010.
“The Sozo Children are raised by born-again Christian Ugandans to become future leaders and carriers of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their country,” says Jon Brennan, Pastor of Spiritual Development and Sozo Choir Director. “Christ is our foundation, and education is a priority.”
Sozo now has 121 children. 81 live in four homes, and the others still live with their families while the ministry provides school fees and/or medical needs.
14-year-old Dennis Nabireeba, who has been with Sozo since its beginning, is one of the choir’s best singers, dancers, and performers. The 6th grader enjoys playing soccer and riding bikes.
“Dennis is all boy!” Brennan says. “He’s a trickster and you have to watch him,” he adds with a smile.
“He has a mother and father, but as is very common in Uganda, the father never married his mom, and he has rarely seen him. His mom is unable to care for him, and she placed him in a children’s home many years ago, which is where Sozo found him suffering and neglected without school fees or food. This children’s home was eventually closed by the government of Uganda.”
“Occasionally Dennis goes to visit his mother for “home visits” but there is not a strong relationship. We try to keep them connected to their families, but often the parents are not interested.”
The choir director says working with the ministry fills him with mixed emotions.
“Uganda, as much of Africa, is extremely heartbreaking because of poverty but extravagantly joyful. We, as Americans, have a lot to learn about the hospitality, immediate friendship and joy that Africans, particularly Ugandans, share with us. It is very rewarding. I get the blessing rather than them.”
Link to website performance: http://www.sozochildren.org/choir

January 23, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The most interest shown in any county wide race so far seems to be for County Mayor, at least as far as potential candidates are concerned.

Randy Paris picked up a petition Tuesday to run for County Mayor as an Independent in the August 2 DeKalb County General Election.

Already Incumbent Tim Stribling and 3rd District County Commissioner Bradley Hendrix have filed petitions to run for County Mayor in the May 1 DeKalb County Democratic Primary and former County Mayor Mike Foster, who recently obtained a petition, is also expected to officially join the primary race.

No Republican has yet emerged but if Paris files his petition and becomes a qualified candidate, the August General Election for County Mayor will be contested at least between Paris and the Democratic nominee.

Meanwhile, Lloyd Emmons has picked up a petition to run for the county commission in the 5th district in the May 1 DeKalb County Democratic Primary.

Two commissioners will be elected from each of the seven county commission districts in August.

Incumbent 5th district commissioner Anita Puckett has already picked up her petition for the May Democratic Primary and Incumbent Republican 5th district commissioner Jerry Adcock will be seeking the DeKalb GOP nomination on February 11 to run in August.

The qualifying deadline for all candidates for county offices and the county commission is February 15.

January 23, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway of the Thirteenth Judicial District, who represents DeKalb County, has joined four other DA’s in suing a group of opioid producers and others, alleging a “fraudulent campaign” to flood their communities with addictive pills.

The district attorney generals of Tennessee’s Thirteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-Second and Thirty-First Judicial Districts jointly filed the lawsuit Wednesday, January 10 in the Cumberland County Circuit Court.

Crossville was chosen for the filing location because the Cumberland Plateau communities are the hardest hit by opioid abuse in Tennessee which has the second highest statewide opioid prescription rate in the nation, according to a press release from the district attorneys.

“Tennessee doctors wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions in 2015,” DA Dunaway, said in the press release. “That’s more prescriptions than Tennessee has residents — men, women and children combined.”

Counties could chose to bring their own suits but DeKalb County attorney, Hilton Conger told the county commission Monday night, that he thought it best to let the District Attorney Generals pursue the legal battle.

“We’ve been approached by at least two law firms asking us to employ them to do the same thing (file lawsuit) but we knew this was coming. General Dunaway told us they (DA’s) were putting this together (lawsuit) so in my opinion we’re better off just letting them (DAs) fight this battle for us than private counsel,” said Conger.
“What we (county) hope to gain out of it is reimbursement for all the services including jails, hospitals, ambulance, emergency services and that sort of thing that can be tied into and attributed to opioid abuse ,” added Conger.

Unintentional overdose deaths now account for more early deaths in Tennessee than automobile accidents, suicides or homicides, and the vast majority of the state’s overdose deaths involve opioids — nearly 72 percent, as recorded in 2015, the press release says. Among the 19 counties named, more than 1 million opioid prescriptions were filled in 2016. The same region recorded 550 opioid-related overdose deaths from 2012 to 2016.

The defendants include prescription opioid producer Purdue Pharma L.P. and its related companies, along with Mallinckrodt LLC, Endo Health Solutions Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. Additional defendants are alleged “pill mills” Montclair Health & Wellness LLC d/b/a Specialty Associates and North Alabama Pain Services LLC, plus David Florence, Mark Murphy and Nathan Paul Haskins, who are alleged to have diverted and illegally sold opioids throughout the state, the lawsuit says.

The latest suit alleges Florence, aka “DocStar” of a former reality TV show of the same name, owned and operated “pill mills” that prescribed opioids “without any legitimate medical purpose.” Florence ‘knowingly, and unlawfully,’ facilitated the distribution of the powerful and highly-addictive prescription drugs into the illicit market.”

The Perdue companies’ annual sales of OxyContin are between $2.47 billion to $2.99 billion a year, or 30 percent of the entire market for analgesic (painkiller) drugs, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit demands judgment against the defendants for damages resulting from breaches of statutory and common law, according to the press release. The suit also seeks punitive damages against the defendants for their alleged roles in flooding Tennessee with illegal opioids, seeks to award restitution to the plaintiffs, and requests an injunction to stop the flood of opioids to the region.

The suit is the third such complaint filed in Tennessee in recent months. The first was filed in June 2017 in Sullivan County Circuit Court in Kingsport, and the second was filed in September 2017 in Campbell County Circuit Court in Jacksboro. Collectively, the three complaints represent 14 district attorneys general and 47 counties in Tennessee.

According to the lawsuit, the manufacturers misled doctors and the public about the need for and the addictive nature of opioids. They turned a “blind eye” to the problems caused by addiction “and collected millions of dollars in ill-gotten profits.”

The drug manufacturers’ marketing campaign created a market for street heroin for addicts who could no longer obtain prescription opioids or afford diverted opioids, the press release says. All defendants knew of the volume of prescriptions being written and took no action to stop illegal prescriptions or diversions.

Science shows opioids are inappropriate to treat chronic pain and are dangerous and highly addictive, the lawsuit claims, citing several studies.

The lawsuit also makes a connection between opioid use by pregnant mothers and a condition called Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). Tennessee and border states Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi have the highest rates of NAS in the nation, in the range of 15-20 percent per 1,000 hospital births. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services reports 42.3 percent of the pregnant women it serves for addictions report opioids as the primary substance of abuse.