Jan. 7, 2012 e-edition

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Officials warn of diet scams BY JEFF YORK For the Daily Corinthian

With the start of the new year, the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance’s Consumer Affairs division is kicking off “Don’t Get Scammed in 2012.� Through the campaign, the department hopes to prevent consumers from falling prey to schemes. The 2012 “Don’t Get Scammed� calendar and similarly themed brochure are filled with information on a variety of scams. One of the scams consumers should be aware of this month are diet scams. During the New Year’s holiday, you probably saw ads that claimed you could lose 30 pounds in 30 days, block the absorption of fat and carbs by taking a pill or melt away pounds by wearing a patch. If those ads sound too good to be true, they just might be. “I urge consumers to use caution and to do their research before responding to any of these ads,� Consumer Affairs Director Gary Cordell said. “When it comes to weight loss, there are no shortcuts or quick fixes. Don’t fall for any ad that promises results that are too good to be true.� These types of ads seem tempting because one of the most common New Year’s resolutions remains to lose weight, the quicker the better. However, scores of consumers have found many miracle weight loss products’ promises to be empty. Weight loss is a result of exercising regularly, cutting calories and eating nutritional foods, not a result of just taking a pill or wearing a patch. Even when miracle diet scams don’t prove to be dangerous, choosing to rely on pills, patches, creams and other gadgets to lose weight prevents millions of people from seeking weight loss programs that could really help them lose weight. Some of the top miracle diet scams include: ■Metabolism-boosting pills based on herbal ingredients. ■Fat- and carb-blocking pills. ■Herbal weight loss teas. ■Diet patches, jewelry or other products worn on the body. ■Body wraps or “slim suits.�

On the Internet: ■2012 “Don’t Get Scammed� calendar — http://1.usa.gov/AhoK3P ■Brochure — http://1.usa.gov/u5UCUY

Saturday, January 7, 2012

WHITFIELD: ‘There’s nothing wrong with running,’ storm chase says CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“We ended up catching the Cullman storm,� said Whitfield. “It was a halfmile wide wedge, multivortex EF-4 tornado. It came 200 yards across the road in front of us. We were a little closer than I realized till after I went back and saw the video. That was a little close.� Three fatalities resulted from that twister. She has also observed a couple of long-lived tornadoes in the Great Plains and, in May 2010, captured one in Campo, Colo., that is the subject of a number of shots in the photo exhibit. While they had an excellent view of the storm, they didn’t have time to get in the ideal position beforehand and found the storm was chasing them. “We had to turn around and run,� said Whitfield. “There’s nothing wrong with running. We had to bounce back through that cattle country to avoid it.� Whether in painting or photography, she has always been drawn to the sky as subject matter. “The atmosphere is a living organism,� said Whitfield. “This is just the dark side of it, but there’s a lot of beauty on a dayto-day basis that people just don’t see.� An art and theater graduate of the University of Montevallo near Birmingham, Ala., and a nurse at Whitfield Nursing Home, she was drawn to the darker side of the skies after becoming a trained storm spotter for the National Weather Service. Whitfield prefers to do

Staff photo by Jebb Johnston

Lynda Whitfield shows a photo she took of a storm-chasing convoy in Kansas. Her group happened to cross paths with Sean Casey, who is in the heavily fortified vehicle and made the IMAX film “Tornado Alley.� her chasing in the plains region, away from the hills and trees that make it challenging in the MidSouth. She gave it a try in Memphis last May and found it difficult. Those storm-chasing shows on television often leave out one part of the story — the sometimes lengthy down time as the storms fire up and the chasers get into position. She said it’s best to have something to read or do during the wait, and it’s not

unusual to see no tornado. “You’re lucky if you see one,� said Whitfield. She’ll be heading to this year’s national storm chasers convention in Denver and is looking to get into lightning photography while continuing her pursuit of the next great funnel cloud photo. “I’ll be doing it as long as I can,� she said. Whitfield recalled a conversation with another weather enthusiast about that certain something

that makes them pursue a dangerous subject. “There’s a spirituality to it when you get out on the plains and you’re watching those big storms roll through,� she said. “You’re out there and there’s just nothing but the sky and you.� The exhibit runs through Jan. 31. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 507 Cruise St. Call 665-0520 for gallery information.

CARPENTER: Resolution honors Evetts’ long life, good citizenship and commitment to church and family looking forward to working on some good legislation this session. He was voted vice president of Mississippi’s Conservative Coalition, a bipartisan group that meets every Tuesday to talk about the week’s legislation. Carpenter discussed a few of the coalition’s top 10 legislative goals for the year. The first project Carpenter cited regards prayer at high school activities. Superintendents across the state received letters in November, he explained, saying the superintendents were in jeopardy of being sued individually

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The resolution honors Evetts’ long life, good citizenship and commitment to church and family. On Sunday the legislators will present leather-bound copies of the resolution to Evetts and his daughter, Vera Ruiz, 78, of Rienzi, along with a flag that flew over the state Capitol. “It’s just a privilege we have to take care of people in the community and honor people who’ve done good things,� Carpenter said. The recently re-elected House member said he is

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and collectively for allowing prayer at high school football games and other school functions. “I’m writing a bill that’s going to fly through with flying colors,� Carpenter said. “We’re going to provide immunity to those folks from being sued. The bill will say that superintendents and school board members are immune to lawsuits by any individual if somebody like a school’s student wanted to lead a prayer.� The second issue Carpenter discussed stemmed from a recommendation from the Na-

tional Rifle Association. “I authored a bill stating that Mississippians have the right to hunt and fish. That right should not be taken away from us,� he explained. “There’s a move right now with PETA and the Sierra Club about hunting and fishing, and we just want to let people know we’re doing a constitutional amendment that Mississippians have the right to go out to the woods and lakes to fish and hunt.� Carpenter pointed to the economic impact of fishing and hunting in areas around Pickwick Lake,

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Honoring Lt. Governor-Elect

and the “financial boon� provided by fishing licenses, gasoline revenues, and ammunition sales. “It’s going to be a constitutional amendment, so it will take a three-fifths vote, but I don’t see it getting any kind of negativity unless some kind of liberal wants to vote against it,� Carpenter said. Another project is phasing out the inventory tax used by towns to raise revenue in a way that will not cause cities and municipalities to raise property taxes. Carpenter said he supports the gradual elimination of inventory tax as a measure of support for small businesses. “We’re looking after the small business owners. They get taxed to death,� he said. “We want to eventually look at phasing that out.� The final issue he cited as part of the Conservative Coalition’s agenda is sales taxes on Internet purchases. Federal legislation enacted in the 1990s was designed to kick-start fledgling Internet retailers, but now that Internet shopping has become a multi-billion dollar business, states like Mississippi are losing out on tax revenue. Last year Mississippi lost $300 million in taxes to Internet sales, he said. “I’d never propose a new tax. We’re going to

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collect a tax on Internet sales but refuse income tax on payrolls,� Carpenter said. “It’s basically a tax swap. You would get a reduction on your payroll taxes, but you would pay taxes on something you bought on the Internet.� The district 1 representative is optimistically looking ahead to the first session of the newly Republican-controlled state government while promising to work with the minority state Democrats. “All in all I feel like it’s going to be a new environment. We’re going to work as a team,� Carpenter said. “Everybody says we’re going to be mean to Democrats. No — we’re going to work as a team.� Carpenter is especially optimistic about the economic prospects for his native North Mississippi. He pointed to the TAP Alliance’s development of a local industrial site; the Burnsville railroad spur to the industrial park; the expansion of a steel industry in Iuka; and the fifty jobs created by the recent opening of a local McDonalds restaurant. “This thing is going to slowly rise up,� he predicted. “We had $19 million more in December sales tax collected than we anticipated. We’re slow to get out of this recession but I’m optimistic — especially for North Mississippi.�

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