1. TO GIVE THE NEWS IMPARTIALLY, WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVORSunday, July 21, 2013 Vol. 144, No. 219 • • •
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Homes. . . . . . . . G1
Life. . . . . . . . . . . E1
Metro . . . . . . . . . B1
Newsmakers . . . A2
Obituaries . . . . B6-8
Perspective . . . . .F1
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YELLOWCYANMAGENTABLACK
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© 2013 Chattanooga Publishing Co.
timesfreepress.com
VOTE ONLINE INDEX
Yesterday’s results
as of 9 p.m. Saturday
Q Are you ready
for school to start?
Yes: 55 percent No: 44 percent
Today’s poll
Q Is Mayor Andy
Berke doing a
good job so far?
ANDY BERKE’S FIRST 100 DAYS
By Joy Lukachick
Staff Writer
The forks stopped clanking and
people turned their chairs for a
better view as Chattanooga Mayor
Andy Berke stepped up to the podi-
um at the Chattanooga Convention
Center on Thursday.
The 45-year-old attorney and for-
mer Democratic state senator, who
is approaching his 100th day in the
mayor’s office this week, trotted out
a list of his accomplishments to busi-
ness and community builders at a
weekly Rotary Club meeting.
He said he’s revamped City Hall,
fired 18 department heads and elim-
inated four departments his prede-
cessor, Ron Littlefield, had created
in the previous eight years.
Berke pushed the building’s
owner to clean up the troubled
Patten Towers after a fire left the
building’s 241 elderly and disabled
residents without a place to live,
and promised the city’s Rotarians
that he would fight Chattanooga’s
gang problem by borrowing from
a successful North Carolina anti-
drug program.
“We are transforming the cul-
ture of government,” Berke told the
group.
But even as the freshman mayor
drew praise from some in the Sce-
nic City, other leaders say they are
anxious to see tangible results.
“We had a honeymoon period,”
said Everlena Holmes, Glenwood
block leader coordinator. “By Sep-
tember he needs to have a plan on
Mayortoutsearlysuccesses
See MAYOR, Page A9
IN METRO
■ DavidCook looksto the
mayor’snext1,000days,B1
Andy Berke
M
onths before he
left state prison
on burglary con-
victions in 1996,
Edward Lamar
Young told his grandmother he
was going to be a different man.
He would get work, get married
and have a family. The 26-year-
old wouldn’t steal to get what he
needed or wanted.
And soon after he left prison
bars behind he fulfilled that
promise.
He met and married a woman
named Stacy. The couple had
four children.
But in late September 2011,
he went off track. He stole tools,
tires and weightlifting equip-
ment from vehicles and a busi-
ness warehouse. He even had his
son with him on one trip, which
added a separate charge.
A video camera recorded the
burglaries.
Less than a week later police
knocked on the door of his Hix-
son home. He let them in.
They found the tools, but they
found something else too, small
items inside a drawer that would
escalate his punishment far
beyond burglary.
Young admits he’s done bad
things, but he says he’s never
carried a weapon, never shed
another person’s blood. But
because of what police found at
his house that day — seven shot-
gun shells — his 15-year prison
sentence now places him along-
side lifelong killers, movie-style
gangsters and drug kingpins.
“IDON’TTHINKIDESERVETOGROWUPWITHOUTMYFAMILY.
ANDIDON’TTHINKMYFAMILYDESERVESTOGROWUPWITHOUTME.”
EDWARDLAMARYOUNG
By Kate Harrison
Staff Writer
T.C. Thompson Children’s
Hospital at Erlanger long has
prided itself on its sophisticated
facilities and physician special-
ists it says are more likely to be
found in a city twice Chattanoo-
ga’s size.
But Erlanger Health System
CEO Kevin Spiegel said the
1970s-era facil-
ity is due for
a major face-
lift — or full
replacement.
He hopes to see
such a make-
over within the
coming decade.
“If it were to
happen, we’re
years away,”
Spiegel said. “But we want to
make people aware that this can
happen in this community. ...
We can build something where
patients would rather come here
than somewhere else. That’s
something we need to do in
Chattanooga.”
A new children’s hospital is
one of three expansions Spiegel
said he’d like to see during his
tenure. He also has his sights
on creating a world-class can-
cer center and a neuroscience
center.
But none of those dreams will
become reality with Erlanger
in its current financial state,
he acknowledges. The hospital
operated nearly $10 million in
the red in the most recent fiscal
year, and has had its bond rat-
ing downgraded over the past
two years.
“The first priority all of us
have at this point is regaining
the financial health of Erlanger,”
Spiegel emphasized. “That’s
what this year is about. But at
the same time we’ve got to be
looking at the future.”
T.C. Thompson Children’s
Hospital — which was founded
in 1929 — already has cornered
the market when it comes to
specialized pediatric care in the
NewCEO
hasbig
plansfor
hospital
■ KevinSpiegeleyesoverhaul
of Children’sHospital,acancer
centerandmore.
See ERLANGER, Page A9
Kevin
Spiegel
By Todd South
Staff Writer
Insomecases,oldmistakes
echoacrosstheyears.
Newsinscarrythecrushing
weightofanoldlife.
Insomecases,acriminalpast
isnotforgiven.
See SHELLS, Page A7
RALLIESCALL
FOR JUSTICE
Faith,family
andhumor
MissKaysharessecret
of“DuckDynasty”familysuccess
METRO,B1
By David Kocieniewski
New York Times News Service
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich.
— Hundreds of millions of times
a day, thirsty Americans open a
can of soda, beer or juice. And
every time they do it, they pay a
fraction of a penny more because
of a shrewd maneuver by Gold-
man Sachs and other financial
players that ultimately costs con-
sumers billions of dollars.
The story of how this works
begins in 27 industrial warehous-
es in the Detroit area where Gold-
man stores customers’ aluminum.
Each day, a fleet of trucks shuffles
1,500-pound bars of the metal
among the warehouses. Two or
three times a day, sometimes
more, the drivers make the same
circuits. They load in one ware-
house. They unload in another.
And then they do it again.
This industrial dance has been
choreographed by Goldman to
exploit pricing regulations set
up by an overseas commodi-
ties exchange, an investigation
Turning
sodacans
intogold
See WALL STREET, Page A10
Wall Street capitalizes
on loosened regulations
in commodities market
Staff Photo by Doug Strickland
Michael Kelly prays at a rally
Saturday in Chattanooga
to protest the verdict in the
George Zimmerman trial.
Rallies were held across the
country Saturday.
Stories are on A5 and B1.
TENNESSEE VALLEY
★ FASHION★ EXTRACURRICULARS
★ MAKING TRANSITIONS
★ SCHOOL CALENDARS
INSIDE >>
TENNESSEE
VALLEY
PARENTS
BACK TO SCHOOL
EDITION INSIDE
ROLLING ON? LINE LOSSES MAY NOT SLOW ALABAMA, SPORTS D1

2. There are homicide con-
victions that carry sentenc-
es half as long in Tennessee
state courts.
Laws designed for the
worst of the worst, but
written broadly enough to
ensnare the less dangerous,
subject Young to what even
his sentencing judge called a
Dickensian penalty.
There is a bill in Con-
gress that would give federal
judges discretion, untie their
hands to ensure punishments
fit the crimes.
But that bill is far from
passage and would have to
apply retroactively, a rarity in
many criminal laws, to help
Young.
■ ■ ■
Weeks, maybe months
before police came to his
home Young had helped a
neighbor, a woman named
Neva Mumpower. Her hus-
band had died and she want-
ed to sell some of their older
furniture.
She told Young if he
hauled it to the flea market
she’d split whatever it sold
for.
He did, but kept a chest of
drawers at his place. A short
time later he went through it
and found the shells. Young
didn’t think much of them.
He put them away so the
kids wouldn’t come upon
them and went on with his
day. He’d get them back to
Mumpower later or just
throw them away.
Except he didn’t.
Young confessed to the
burglaries and faced state
prison time, probably a few
years with the likelihood of
parole and probation. Not a
proud moment but recover-
able.
The 43-year-old man soon
discovered that the shotgun
shells carried a heavier bur-
den — a 15-year mandatory
federal prison sentence with
no possibility of parole.
■ ■ ■
Standing inside the wood-
paneled courtroom in the
downtown federal building
May 9, Stacy Young knew
what was coming but held
out a strand of hope. Mercy,
maybe.
She listened as the law-
yers droned on about legal
definitions, criminal histo-
ries and what was right, what
was fair.
Then the judge told her
husband he could speak.
“I just … I mean, it wasn’t
… it wasn’t my intent,” Ed
Young told the judge. “I did
find them in the box, and I
put them up until I could
give them back to her, so
my kids wouldn’t find them.
I don’t think I deserve to
grow up without my family,
and I don’t think my family
deserves to grow up without
me.”
The Youngs’ oldest son,
who is 16, ran out of the
courtroom in tears.
The crying family hud-
dled in the hallway after the
sentencing.
The youngest son is 6
years old. He’ll be 20 when
Ed Young leaves federal pris-
on, a 62-year-old man.
Earlier this month Stacy
drove her four children to
see their father in an Atlanta
prison. It was the first time
he could hold them in 14
months. All visits to the
local jail as he awaited sen-
tencing were over a video
monitor.
They almost didn’t get in
the prison. Only four visitors
are allowed at a time. There
were five, including her. But
a sympathetic guard cut them
a break.
■ ■ ■
Convicted felons are told
they no longer can possess
firearms. Having a gun, even
if the felony was a white-col-
lar crime such as wire fraud,
means prison time.
What some may know but
Young swears he did not, is
that possessing ammunition,
say seven shotgun shells, is
just as bad.
There’s nothing in Young’s
criminal record to show he’s
ever been accused of carry-
ing a weapon, even in the
20-year-old burglary con-
victions. But those burglar-
ies are counted as “violent
crimes.”
And language is impor-
tant.
Young’s criminal past clas-
sified him as an armed career
criminal under federal law.
That classification means
he faces severe penalties for
the rest of his life if he breaks
any of the rules.
Young’s attorney is flab-
bergasted.
“I don’t think there’s any-
thing like it at all,” said Chris
Varner. “Everything went
wrong here.”
As far as his legal research
shows, it is only under the
Armed Career Criminal Act
that Young’s distant convic-
tions can count against him,
Varner said. Other federal
sentencing guidelines would
not have considered the past
convictions because they
were so long ago.
Once the charges were
filed and the federal grand
jury indicted Young, nothing
could stop the machine that
is federal law.
Prosecutor Chris Poole
worked the case. He declined
to comment under U.S.
Attorney’s Office policy not
to speak about active cases.
Young’s case is on appeal to
the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of
Appeals.
But in court documents,
Poole explains to U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Curtis Collier that
by definition Young’s crimes
fit the career criminal law
and the minimum sentence
is 15 years. The maximum
was life.
■ ■ ■
During the May 9 hearing
Collier hinted at his thoughts
on the Draconian sentence.
“Mr. Young, I don’t know
if you read a lot, but there
was an author who has writ-
ten a lot of books, and has
some overtones here. His
name is Charles Dickens,”
Collier said.
The judge went on to
explain the situation and his
own lack of power.
“This is a case where
the Congress of the United
States has instructed federal
district judges like myself to
impose a sentence of at least
180 months, that is, 15 years,”
Collier said. “... This sentence
is not so much a punishment
for the present crime as it is a
punishment for your history
of crimes.”
The week after the fed-
eral sentencing, prosecutors
in state court dismissed the
burglary and related charg-
es.
Collier mentioned advo-
cacy group Families Against
Mandatory Minimums and
its work to eliminate such
laws at the state and federal
level.
FAMM wrote the Justice
Safety Valve Act of 2013,
which sparked editorials in
The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal and The
Huffington Post.
Mary Price, FAMM
vice president, declined to
criticize Young’s case spe-
cifically, but said in armed
career criminal cases pros-
ecutors must use discretion
to guarantee the punishment
is fair.
“A lot of people don’t
know things like this can
happen,” Price said. “If the
average person knew about
this, they would hit their
head with the palm of their
hand and say, ‘You’ve got to
be kidding me.’”
Ohio State law professor
Doug Berman, who blogs
about sentencing, has writ-
ten in support of the Justice
Safety Valve Act.
Congress wrote the man-
datory minimum sentencing
laws and the armed career
criminal portion to deal with
the perceived crack epidemic
in the 1980s. But the language
is so broad that seemingly
innocuous offenses are inter-
preted as “violent crimes”
and trigger stiff punish-
ments.
There have been cases
where failing to report to a
halfway house on time was
classified as a violent crime.
“Unlike what we think
happens too much — defen-
dants get off on a technicality
— the government is kind of
throwing the book at this guy
over a technicality,” Bergman
said.
■ ■ ■
Written arguments and
responses to a three-judge
panel at the U.S. 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals are due in
October. Judges often take
months or longer to decide.
There are other appeals
available if the first level
fails, all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court. But Price
and Bergman say many
similar appeals have gone
nowhere.
Stacy Young is now a sin-
gle working mother with a
house full of children. She’ll
haul them down to Atlanta
every other week. Two of
the children will visit the
first day, then they’ll stay
overnight for the other two
to see their father the sec-
ond day.
Ed Young writes letters
nearly every day and says
he’ll keep writing.
Varner, his attorney, sees
the sentence far outweighing
the crime and worries what
it says about justice.
“This is not who we are,
we do not do this as a nation,”
he said.
Stacy, devastated by the
outcome, living with the
consequences, sees it much
more personally.
“I don’t think he should
have 15 years for seven shot-
gun shells,” she said. “I think
it’s crazy.”
Contact staff writer Todd
South at tsouth@timesfree-
press.com or 423-757-6347.
Follow him on Twitter @
tsouthCTFP
YELLOWCYANMAGENTABLACK
....timesfreepress.com Breaking News: news@timesfreepress.com • • • Sunday, July 21, 2013 • A7
Edward Young
Staff Photo by John Rawlston
Stacy Young talks about her husband, Edward Young,
who is serving a federal prison sentence for possession
of seven shotgun shells.
• Continued from Page A1
Shells IOWA MAN
SENTENCED
TO PRISON FOR
SINGLE CARTRIDGE
Mary Price, vice
president of nonprofit
advocacy group Families
Against Mandatory
Minimums, referenced
another case that resulted
in an unforgiving prison
sentence.
In 1998, Dan Yirkovsky
was remodeling a home
in Iowa and found a .22-
caliber cartridge beneath
some carpet. He put the
tiny piece of ammunition
aside and continued his
work. Sometime later
someone reported that
Yirkovsky had stolen
items and kept them
at the home. Police
searched the residence,
found the bullet and
arrested Yirkovsky.
Yirkovsky’s previous
crimes had been petty
larceny and aggravated
burglary, similar to Ed
Young’s.
His appeals failed and
he served a 15-year
sentence.
A 2010 U.S. Sentencing
Commission report
showed 5,605 people
being held in federal
prisons under the Armed
Career Criminal Act. Price
said there isn’t clear data
on how many of those
incarcerated are held for
ammunition possession.
She said if people
are not swayed by the
emotional and human
cost to families such as
the Youngs, the economic
considerations are severe.
On average the federal
government spends
nearly $30,000 a year
per prisoner, which
would equal $450,000 for
Young’s full sentence.
Source: FAMM, U.S. Sentencing
Commission
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The Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas —
Investigators will try to deter-
mine if a woman who died
while riding a roller coaster at
a Six Flags amusement park in
North Texas fell from the ride
after some witnesses said she
wasn’t properly secured.
Theaccidenthappenedjust
after 6:30 p.m. Friday at Six
Flags Over Texas in Arling-
ton. Park spokeswoman Sha-
ron Parker confirmed that a
woman died while riding the
Texas Giant roller coaster —
dubbed the tallest steel-hybrid
coaster in the world — but did
notspecifyhowshewaskilled.
Witnesses told area media
outlets the woman fell.
“We are committed to
determining the cause of this
tragic accident and will uti-
lize every resource through-
out this process,” Parker said
in a statement Saturday.
Carmen Brown told The
Dallas Morning News that
she was waiting in line to get
on the ride when the accident
happened and witnessed the
woman being strapped in.
“She goes up like this. Then
when it drops to come down,
that’s when it [the safety bar]
released and she just tumbled,”
Brown, of Arlington, told the
newspaper.“Theydidn’tsecure
her right. One of the employ-
ees from the park — one of the
ladies — she asked her to click
her more than once, and they
were like, ‘As long you heard
it click, you’re OK.’ Everybody
else is like, ‘Click, click, click.’
“Hers only clicked once.
Hers was the only one that
went down once, and she
didn’t feel safe, but they let
her still get on the ride,”
Brown said.
Amusementpark
deathinvestigated
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