Plan to dig up President Polk’s body stirs trouble

Plan to dig up President Polk’s body stirs trouble

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

President James K. Polk did big things for America, dramatically expanding its borders by annexing Texas and seizing California and the Southwest in a war with Mexico. Achieving undisturbed eternal rest has proved more difficult.

In a proposal that has riled some folks in Tennessee, including a very distant relative of the nation’s 11th president, some state lawmakers want to move Polk’s body to what would be its fourth resting place in the nearly 170 years since he died of cholera.

The plan is to exhume Polk’s remains and those of his wife, Sarah, from their white-columned tomb on the grounds of the state Capitol in Nashville and take them about 50 miles to his father’s home, now known as the James K. Polk Home and Museum, in Columbia. A vote on the resolution could come as early as Monday.

Teresa Elam, who says she is a seventh-generation great-niece of the childless Polk, called the whole idea “mortifying.”

Canada pulls vehicle license plate deemed offensive

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia

A Canadian provincial government has withdrawn a man’s eponymous personalized vehicle license plate, saying Lorne Grabher’s surname is offensive to women when viewed on his car bumper.

Grabher said Friday that he put his last name on the license plate decades ago as a gift for his late father’s birthday, and says the province’s refusal to renew the plate late last year is unfair.

Grabher says the Nova Scotia government is discriminating against his name.

Transport Department spokesman Brian Taylor says while the department understands Grabher is a surname with German roots, this context isn’t available to the general public who view it.

Kentucky lawyer pleads guilty in disability scheme

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

A Kentucky lawyer accused of conspiring to defraud the government of nearly $600 million in federal disability payments has entered a guilty plea.

Eric C. Conn pleaded guilty Friday to stealing from the Social Security Administration and bribing a federal judge. The flamboyant lawyer billed himself as “Mr. Social Security” while building one of the nation’s most lucrative disability firms in eastern Kentucky.

Federal prosecutors claimed Conn raked in millions of dollars by paying a doctor and a judge to rubber-stamp false disability claims using phony medical evidence. Conn pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government money and one count of payment of gratuities. His sentencing was set for July 14.

Pennsylvania glass museum closing; donating items

MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa.

A nonprofit museum dedicated to western Pennsylvania’s glass manufacturing history has closed.

The board of directors of the Mount Pleasant Glass Museum announced the decision Thursday.

The museum was founded in 2013 and focused on three glass factories in Mount Pleasant during the 20th Century: Bryce Bothers, L.E. Smith, and Lenox. Glass from all of those plants was on display.

Board president Sandy Spence says the group hopes to show its collection in other nonprofit museums.

The museum had been closed for the winter and reopened this month.

Associated Press