oddly enough

oddly enough

Iowa fish launcher ensures dramatic eagle photos

LECLAIRE, Iowa

The photographers who line up at a Mississippi River lock to snap images of eagles are getting help from a man with a giant slingshot that flings dead fish into the open water.

Ken Kester, who built the contraption, calls it a “fish launcher.”

Kester sets up the slingshot at Lock and Dam 14, in Le Claire, Iowa. He told the Quad-City Times it can toss fish far out into the channel where the water is calmer.

“You have to get the fish out there a couple hundred feet, into that comfort zone for the eagles,” Kester said.

Jeff Harrison, a conservation officer with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said flinging fish into the river is fine as long as the fish come from the local pool of water. Le Claire is 15 miles northeast of Davenport, on the Illinois border.

Photographers line the riverbank elbow-to-elbow on nice days to take images of the eagles, and the slingshot ensures more-dramatic pictures.

Even though it doesn’t hurt the eagles to serve up fish, Harrison wonders about the ethics for the photographers.

“I don’t know if I agree with it,” he said. “Some of these photographs show up in some pretty big magazines, and they are more or less staged.”

Magistrate who changed baby’s name is replaced

NEWPORT, Tenn.

An East Tennessee magistrate has been replaced months after ordering a baby’s name changed from Messiah to Martin because she believes Messiah is a title held only by Jesus Christ.

Lu Ann Ballew was a child-support magistrate, serving at the pleasure of the chief judge of Tennessee’s fourth judicial district. Judge Duane Slone terminated Ballew on Friday and appointed a new magistrate.

Slone did not immediately return a call, but another judge in the district, Rex Henry Ogle, said in a phone interview that it was a group decision by the local judges to replace Ballew. Ogle said Ballew’s decision to change Messiah’s names was a factor, but not the sole factor, in their decision.

Ballew, an attorney, still faces a March 3 hearing on accusations that her order to change Messiah’s name violated Tennessee’s Code of Judicial Conduct. Among other things, the code requires judges to perform all duties without bias or prejudice based on religion.

In a response to the Board of Judicial Conduct, Ballew has denied that her ruling was a violation.

The name change happened in August, when Jalessa Martin and Jawaan McCullough appeared before Ballew at a child-support hearing in Newport about their 7-month-old son, Messiah Martin. As part of the hearing, the father requested the baby’s last name be changed to McCullough.

Associated Press