morning cram [quagmire edition]

“Top politicians have been kidnapped and killed. Massacres of more than a dozen people have become common. And last month, a car bomb exploded in Juarez.”

~NPR reports the violence has no end in sight (1/5).

KENTUCKY~ McCracken County school officials will pay a motivational speaker $16k to improve teachers’ classroom skills. Several area parks get state grant$. Kentucky Utility electricity bills go up by +$7. Another Fort Campbell hero dies abroad and the 101st applies lessons learned from May’s Cumberland River flooding to flooding in eastern Afghanistan. State Police destroy outdoor pot farms (+$1mil worth).

TENNESSEE~ Police: Fort Campbell soldier lied about his identity, then faked a seizure. Clarksville launches (www.clarksvillesmartgrowth.com) to track its development. FEMA report: seniors were hardest hit by flooding.

ILLINOIS~ A Metropolis-born filmmaker gets featured on a postage stamp.