Thursday, July 7, 2011

A Good Story On Sleeper Agent From Bowling Green, Ky.



Here's the latest story on "Sleeper Agent," an alternative rock band from Bowling Green, Ky. http://www.spinner.com/2011/07/07/sleeper-agent-celabrasion/

More Tour Dates For "Sleeper Agent" From Bowling Green, Ky.





My son Galen Jr. "Tony-Tutone" Smith and his band, "Sleeper Agent," from our hometown of Bowling Green, Ky., and their record label "Mom & Pop Music" from New York City have announced more tour dates. http://pennsylvania.broadwayworld.com/article/Sleeper-Agent-Announce-More-Tour-Dates-20110707 They are killin' it! Way to go Sleeper Agent! Look for their debut album due out, Aug. 16, 2011.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Poor Ole Sad Sam Will Be Even Sadder If Fireworks Become Legal in Bowling Green, Ky.

Bam! Boom!



The City of Bowling Green, Ky., will take a second vote on the issue of fireworks tonight on whether to make them legal in Kentucky's third largest town. However, I am a little confused. I thought that they were already legal here. At least the kind that are not bottle rockets, firecrackers, M-80's or rockets and etc., I suppose. I guess as long as it is anything that will not explode or shoot up in the air, it's okay to sell currently. In other words, they have to basically be fireworks for kiddie such as sparklers, smoke bombs and spinning fireworks-these are the only kind that you can buy in Bowling Green these days, I think.



However, if the new law passes (which I feel it will because I am already seeing vendors renting buildings in the city to sell the the good kind of fireworks), thousands of citizens will no longer have to flock over to the Tennessee state line to that famous mega fireworks seller-Sad Sam. Sad Sam is a gigantic fireworks and gift/grocery store which sells tons of fireworks every Fourth of July and they also sells bottle and can beer year around on Sundays. You can't get that in Bowling Green on Sundays either so many beer drinkers drive down there for that reason too.



Don't get me wrong. I love Sad Sam. It's been tradition for years for our family to make that drive down there and back to get our firework fix. But I think it's a great idea to see the "good kind of fireworks" to become legal in the City of Bowling Green. Not only will it generate revenue for the city through sales tax and vendors fees (I read in our local newspaper that they have to pay a $1,000 for a vendor fee to get set up) and they also have to rent buildings. I think they are still debating on tent sales for these type of fireworks. Also, it will save us, the consumers of those happy and fun-filled explosive products from having to spend more money on gas to make that drive down to the Tennessee state-line and back which is about a 75 mile round trip.




So if it passes tonight, poor ole Sad Sam will be even sadder and the citizens of Bowling Green will be even more happier.

Friday, May 13, 2011

A Symbol of Memphis, Tenn.,-"The Mid-South Coliseum"









"The Mid-South Coliseum is a symbol of Memphis, Tenn., just like The Pyramid, Mud-Island or Graceland. So why in the world, would anyone want to tear it down?"-Galen A. Smith Sr.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Evil Does Exist: The Gruesome Details Are Out On The Jamie Stice Murder In Bowling Green, Ky.

I would dare say that most Southcentral Kentuckians were stunned and shocked when they first heard about the recent murder and fetal abduction of 21 year-old Jamie Stice of Bowling Green, Ky., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XliBdscCSQk&t=27s last month, April 13, 2011.
The now indicted murderer who sits in the Warren County Regional Jail in Bowling Green, is 33 year-old Kathy Coy of Morgantown, Ky., a small town about 25 miles north of Bowling Green off the William Natcher Parkway. There was talk around town for about a week about the gruesome details of Coy's horrendous act that had leaked out to the public but had not "officially" been released to the press about what had exactly had happened. People who were talking, were people who knew someone who worked at The Medical Center at Bowling Green and so on. Or someone was friends with someone who was friends with Jamie Stice or one of her family members, that were talking. Bowling Green is a growing town indeed. However, Bowling Green is still a small enough city where a large portion of the population still know each other. Especially those were born and raised here or who have lived here for 20 years or more such as myself and my family, know a lot of people through work, church or community/civic activities. The terrible sad news is that Jamie Stice is deceased and is already buried. The good news is that the baby survived the ordeal when Jamie was almost eight months pregnant with him.

First of all, I commend the Kentucky State Police on how they handled the murder and were quickly able to get to the bottom of this horrible and gruesome murder and abduction of the baby. Originally, the KSP officially released very few details to the press and the public in order to probably protect the building of the murder case and the family. They were also waiting for the autopsy report from the Kentucky State Medical Examiner's office in Louisville. Also, I applaud Warren County Coroner, Kevin Kirby for also being reserved with the gruesome details of Jamie's murder. Kirby who's family has been in the funeral home business in Bowling Green and Warren County for years, sincerely knows how to deal with loved ones emotions and feelings especially in these types of delicate situations.

Ever since the gruesome details of the murder have been published in our local newspaper, the Bowling Green Daily News and broadcasted on our local television station, WBKO, http://www.bgdailynews.com/special_reports/shocking-fetal-abduction-homicide-case/collection_33048878-d304-11e4-a3ef-dbb637ea208e.htmlI have found this story to be very disturbing and haunting. According to previous Bowling Green Daily News news stories, Coy befriended Stice three weeks on Facebook prior to the murder. She knew that Stice was pregnant and lead Stice and her mother to believe that she was going to help them buy some baby clothes and etc. Coy was also telling her family, friends and other people that she was also pregnant. On the day of the murder, Coy had driven Stice mother to a place so she could sign up for disability. Then she went back and picked up Stice under the guise that she was going to buy her baby clothes. Instead, she drove her out in the county, bound her wrists, used a stun gun on her and then slit her throat with a drywall knife. Then Coy disemboweled Stice as her baby boy had been cut from her body with the umbilical cord, uterus and two ovaries attached to him. Coy then showed up at friend's house in Butler County, where Morgantown is located, with the baby in this condition as she told the friend that she had just given birth to the baby.

In a Bowling Green News front page article titled "Fetal Abductions 'Eerily Similar'" published today, May 1, 2011, it says that Coy wasn't wearing any pants when she arrived at her friend's house.

"Coy wasn't wearing pants when she arrived at Shelly Lindsey's driveway, April 13, according to police court testimony. She was sitting on the placenta and other female organs inside her car while the baby in her arms. Coy was honking the horn, Lindsey came out and called for an ambulance when Coy announced she had just given birth. Coy got out of the car holding the baby boy. His mother's reproductive organs where still attached."

The article goes on to report that, "Coy asked her friend to snap a picture of the baby and send it to her "husband" Shannon Coy, who was working out of town. He received the text message with the picture, according to court testimonies." However, Coy and Shannon Coy were no longer married and was trying to make a go at the former relationship by stating that she was pregnant. Coy had also even asked her 13 year-old daughter and 14 year-old son to help commit the murder but they had refused.

The Bowling Green Daily News had also reported in earlier news articles that Coy showed up at The Medical Center at Bowling Green around 7 p.m. April 13 with the baby, uterus, placenta and ovaries in a bucket. At the time it wasn't clear if she arrived in an ambulance. It was also revealed that medical staff at the hospital reported a suspicious birth to the Kentucky State Police. Coy was then taken to the KSP headquarters where she originally told them that she purchased the baby after she realized that she had been caught. Apparently, after an all nighter of interrogations, Stice's body was found outside of Bowling Green off U.S. 68-Ky. 80 highway in some woods near Oakland, Ky., around 4 a.m. the next morning.

Regardless of whatever the motivation for this senseless, tragic murder of a young mother to be, this was an act of "pure evil" to the highest degree. And regardless if Coy is mentally ill, crazy and insane, I still find this murder haunting and repulsive. And I do believe no matter how gruesome the details of this murder is, the press has a right to do their job of investigating the facts and report them to the public. On the other hand, I do respect the privacy of the Stice family as they have a right to grieve quietly and not be bothered. And again, I give kudos on how the case handled very thorough and delicately by the KSP and the the Warren County Coroner. Now it will be up to a judge and jury on how do deal with this evil that does exits in our part of the state.

A Life In Motion: Looking Back From 64

When I look back now, at 64 years old, widowed and living in Bowling Green, Kentucky with my Australian Shepherd dog Mr. Jude, it doesn’t fe...